"Netcentric" Organization

There is an inherent contradiction between the basic building block of most nonmarket productive relationships—hierarchy—and the netcentric vision inspired by the architecture of modern information technology, especially the World Wide Web. This contradiction is explored by David Alberts and Richard Hayes in their book Power to the Edge: Command … Control … in the Information Age. The question has not yet been resolved.     

Reinventing the Democratic Governance Project through Information Technology? A Growing Agenda for Debate

Postindustrial societies have arrived at a moment of immense democratic and entrepreneurial opportunities that has been made possible by information technology. At the same time, however, these opportunities pose potential threats if they are not debated and planned for in consensually–legitimate ways. This article examines the current problems of representative democracy and the impact of information technology on the current and future quality of democratic governance. Four generic models of "electronic democracy" that are made possible by interactive information Technologies—electronic bureaucracy, information management, populist, and civil society—are analyzed in terms of their applicability and impact. Information technology's impact on the roles, responsibilities, and accountability of citizens, elected representatives, the media, and corporations is also examined. This article proposes strategies for reinventing democratic governance, including recognizing community values, accommodating critical debate, and providing access for citizen participation in policy analysis.     

The future of the intelligence analysis task

Abstract

Information technology will have a significant impact on the intelligence analysis workflow, skills, and organization in the next couple of decades. In future, instead of ingesting information themselves, analysts will use a range of information tools to add value to data. Future analysts will need less knowledge of subject matter, and more general reasoning skills. The future task will involve more creativity, and less focus on detail, than today.     

Learning Organizations in the Public Sector? A Study of Police Agencies Employing Information and Technology to Advance Knowledge

In an attempt to reap the purported benefits that "knowledge workers" bring to organizations, many police departments have shifted to a community problem–oriented policing philosophy. Rather than focusing on enforcement and incarceration, this philosophy is based on the dissemination of information to promote a proactive, preventative approach to reduce crime and disorder. In keeping with much of the contemporary literature on the "learning organization" (sometimes called the "knowledge organization"), police departments hope to deter crime through the knowledge benefits that derive from information and its associated technologies. With goals to stimulate productivity, performance, and effectiveness, police departments across the country are employing information technology to turn police officers into problem solvers and to leverage their intellectual capital to preempt crime and neighborhood deterioration.
Many public and private organizations are striving to change their operations toward this same concept of the knowledge worker. Information technology is often touted as a vehicle for capturing, tracking, sorting, and providing information to advance knowledge, thus leading to improvements in service–delivery efforts. Based on an extensive study of police departments that have attempted to implement a knowledge–worker paradigm (supported by information technology initiatives), this research explores the feasibility, effectiveness, and limitations of information and technology in promoting the learning organization in the public sector.     

Introducing administrative reform through the application of computer-based information systems: A case study in India

Administrative reform in a number of developing countries has recently been directed at achieving decentralization through the diffusion of information technology to local areas. However, despite these efforts, the main objective of improving the effectiveness of development planning and monitoring systems remains unfulfilled because of poor integration between the process of technology adoption and the context within which the technology is implemented. There is a paucity of literature that aims to make explicit the nature of this integration. This paper aims to offer a contribution in this direction by describing the case of the computerized rural information systems project (CRISP) in India. The results show that during the first few years of implementation information technology served to reinforce existing inefficiencies within the bureaucracy. Information technology was later used as a vehicle for promoting change within the administration as local administrators acquired the flexibility to direct the technology towards their own requirements.     

THE INFORMATION AGE: IMPLICATIONS FOR U.S. AGRICULTURE

The U.S. agricultural system is on the verge of a technological revolution that will involve biotechnology and computer-based information technology. As the U.S. economy is being transformed through the growing computerelectronics industry, agricultural applications of computer technology, which include the microcomputer and videotex information retrieval networks, are becoming established agricultural inputs. The emergence of agriculture into the Information Age promises to have significant impacts on the economic and social welfare of the farmer as well as rural banking and postal systems, and agrimarketing and agriinput firms. A development which will shape the impact of information technology is the growing trend toward privatizing information which could result in agricultural information being transformed into a purchased agricultural input. This promises to undermine many public agricultural service activities. The penetration of information technology in agriculture along with the privatization of agricultural information has the potential of accelerating the forces which are consolidating farms and changing the face of agriculture.     

Spies and Policymakers: Intelligence in the Information Age

Massive changes and continuous developments in the uses and applications of technology and communications have changed the way we see the world. The Information Revolution has had an impact upon intelligence collection, processing, analysis, and dissemination, and upon the way policymakers can access reliable information, in a timely manner, and upon the sources they are most likely to rely on when a specific piece of information is needed to support a decision. This study attempts to describe, analyze and explain the nature of the ongoing Information Revolution, to present its main impacts on the intelligence and policy communities, to discuss the relationship between the Intelligence Community and policymakers, and to propose what the IC should do to meet the high expectations of decision-makers.     

Assumptions within Policy: A Case Study of Information Communications and Technology Policy

The deeply embedded nature of dominant assumptions creates an accepted language and way of thinking about ICT, leaving little space for alternative perspectives and ideologies. Policy directions link information technology, the information economy, innovation, competition and global markets. Innovation and information and communications technology constructs a particular application of innovation and directs funding accordingly. Given that policy is about how we categorise, about naming and naming shapes action, the question is what lenses do policy makers use to make choices in their synthesis of social, political and economic life? Using the Australian Information Communications and Technology (ICT) policy as a case study, this article will argue that policy reflects the economic, social and political ideologies of the decision makers. Despite opportunities for input into policy multiple perspectives are limited. Specifically the article looks at claims around consultation, the assumption that the information economy will benefit all Australians, the development of framework conditions for the information economy and the role of government.     

Saints,demons, wizards and systems: why information technology reforms fail or underperform in public bureaucracies in Africa

Building computerized information systems in weak African bureaucracies is a formidable task. Information systems often succumb to organizational constraints and either fail or underperform. This article examines why and provides a model of how they can succeed. The thesis is that African bureaucracy and, surprisingly, information systems development are contingent structures and processes. Given the right combination of government reformers (saints) and appropriate technical assistance specialists (wizards), the personal and contingent nature of African bureaucracies can facilitate the rapid introduction of information technology reform. The difficult task is to sustain the reform in a context where government staff are apathetic or even hostile to the reform (demons). An information system is sustained when it is insulated—its output is revered and tampering is feared. In African bureaucracies, information systems fail or underperform more often than they succeed, because the saints are few, the demons are many, the wizards are inappropriate, the systems are complex and the organizations are weak. The article concludes by reviewing five conundra of systems development in African bureaucracies: building systems without saints, managing demons, compartmentalizing systems, integrating system compartments and insulating systems. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Question,ethos, event: Foucault on Kant and Enlightenment

The use of labour values as a basis for economic calculation in a socialist economy is defended. A resource allocation mechanism is outlined that uses a combination of labour value calculation with market clearing prices for consumer goods. Conditions for full employment are specified. A type theoretic analysis of economic calculation is presented. Information theory is used to estimate the information content of real price vectors. It is demonstrated that both price calculations and value calculations are type theory equivalent and that both involve information loss. It is shown that modern computer technology is capable of computing up to date labour values with comparative ease.     

Security Implications of Japan's Information Gathering Satellite (IGS) System

Countries which previously limited their space activity to civilian purposes have increasingly come to employ dual-use technology as a first step into the world of military space. Japan's Information Gathering Satellite (IGS) system, intended to support disaster relief situations, and provide information for diplomatic and defense policy decision-making, is exemplary of this trend. Not coincidentally, the program was approved shortly after the 31 August 1998 North Korean launch of a Taepo Dong missile that sailed over Japan. While the program had been unsuccessfully proposed previously, Japanese politicians, surprised by the launch, became amenable to the point of perhaps rushing their decision. This article suggests that what capabilities these satellites render appear to Japanese policy makers to be a secondary concern to the initiation of an autonomous intelligence capability.     

The Postcapitalist Transition: Policy Implications for the Left

The postcapitalism thesis asserts that open source and collaborative non-profit organisations represent a new, non-market sector in which the profit motive and monetary exchange no longer drive economic activity; in Marxist political economy terms, they are a new means for suppressing the law of value . Information technology has produced four systemic dysfunctions, limiting capitalism’s ability to function as a complex adaptive system: the zero marginal cost effect, the tendency to delink work from wages, positive network effects, and information asymmetries. In response, in addition to the traditional remedies of social democracy for a stagnant neoliberal economic model, left parties must adopt a programme of transition: aggressively breaking up technological monopolies; promoting universal basic income and basic service solutions; outlawing rent-seeking business models; and promoting data democracy.     

Handling and communicating intelligence information: a conceptual,historical and information design analysis

Effective communication of information is essential to intelligence work. This paper identifies the main obstacles to good communication: policy-related challenges; cognitive impediments; resource limitations; cultural and structural issues within intelligence communities; and technical information. To illustrate, it examines four cases when poor communication contributed to intelligence shortcomings. Via questionnaire and document survey, the study identifies the current state of practice in UK intelligence communities. The survey of visualization documents currently in use revealed errors against established principles of Information Design. Thus, to ensure better handling and dissemination of intelligence, there is a distinct need to apply Information Design principles.     

A Great and Revolutionary Law? The First Four Years of India’s Right to Information Act

India’s 2005 Right to Information Act (RTIA) is among dozens of national laws recently adopted similar to the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. Drawing on several large studies examining the act’s implementation, the author finds that Indian citizens filed about 2 million requests for information under the RTIA during its first two and half years. However, use of the law was constrained by uneven public awareness, poor public planning, and bureaucratic indifference or outright hostility. Requirements for proactive disclosure of information are often ignored. The necessary mechanisms for enforcing the new law are also strained by a growing number of complaints and appeals. Nonetheless, RTIA advocates demonstrate its transformative potential and continue to press energetically for more effective implementation. Public authorities and civil society organizations have developed a number of practical innovations that may be useful for other developing countries to adopt when considering similar laws.     

Information technology and economic recovery in Western Europe

This article sets out to analyse the response of West European governments and of the European Community to the challenge of information technology (IT). European countries have joined the race among industrial nations to restructure their economies around the industries of the future (micro-electronics, computers and advanced telecommunications). The race is currently led by Japan and the United States with Western Europe following a poor third. In order to catch up, West European governments have for some time pursued national strategies and are now attempting to develop a common approach with the assistance of the European Commission. This attempt has been bedevilled, however, not only by national chauvinism, but by conflict between the ambitions of governments and the goals of private sector strategies. Eureka - Europe's response to America's Strategic Defence Initiative - marks a step towards resolving such differences. But as this article suggests, it will not resolve the deeper tensions between the major aims of current policies: the concentration of research and production resources while also creating an open and fully competitive market for IT in Western Europe.This article is part of a wider project on new technology policies in Western Europe, funded by the Leverhulme Trust and directed by Professor J.J. Richardson. The main findings will be published in Information Technology and the State, Oxford University Press, forthcoming.     

后信息时代图书馆员信息超载与信息焦虑问题研究

后信息时代是一个信息超载的时代,由信息超载带来的信息焦虑是日渐严重的心理疾病,图书馆馆员作为职业的信息使用者,是其易感人群。本文就这一人群的信息超载的起因和信息焦虑的表现进行了分析和研究,并给出了解决方案。     

When Is Science Used in Science Policy? Examining the Importance of Scientific and Technical Information in National Research Council Reports

A frequent lament among researchers is that public policy makers should pay more attention to scientific and technical information (STI). If there is any single area where one might expect STI to be used in public policy making and agenda setting it is in science and technology policy. Many of the policy makers in science and technology policy are themselves scientists or researchers and presumably would prove especially receptive to STI. However, STI is only one of many types of information used in policy making and policy actors often differ in the extent to which they view STI as credible, particularly compared to other types of potentially policy‐relevant information. Research on credibility (the believability of information, information types, and media) has shown variance and policy makers’ “credibility maps.” Thus, some policy makers have preference for formal information generally and STI specifically, but others privilege raw data, personal experience, authority, history and anecdote, analogical reasoning, or conformance to ideology, to name just a few of the information choices. Here, we build on the current researchers’ previous bibliometrics‐based work and use data from 41 semi‐structured elite interviews with National Research Council (NRC) executives and staff and NRC committee members concerning the use of STI in reports issued by the NRC. Findings show that the use of STI in NRC reports varies according to the nature of the inquiry and the sponsor. Information used in the reports is based on not only the assessed credibility of information but also its perceived direct relevance and the availability of STI as compared to other types of information. In general, the amount of STI in the NRC reports tends to have modest effects on the likelihood that reports will be used in policy making or by the mass media. More important factors include the timing of the report with respect to political agendas, the party requesting the report, and the enacted roles of NRC staff members and committee chairs.     

Information, market government, and health policy: a study of health data organizations in the states.

Information is essential to the success of market-oriented policies. Information on health care costs and quality is collected and distributed by state governments through health data organizations (HDOs) to enhance competition and lower costs in the medical industry and to improve consumer choice among medical alternatives. This article examines the information collected, produced, and distributed by state health data organizations in Colorado and Pennsylvania. Findings reveal that information was not the objective determinant of choice and competition as market-oriented policy designers had hoped. Nor did market-oriented bureaucracies produce and distribute data readily accessible for public choice. Instead, information produced and distributed by these HDOs was the result of political and bureaucratic exercises that conform much more to classic interest group policymaking and captured bureaucracies than to contemporary market-oriented government ideals. The findings underscore the extraordinary difficulties facing federal-level policy designers as they contemplate introducing market-oriented health care policies on the national level.     

行政处罚信息公开与隐私权保护

行政执法信息是否公开在目前的《政府信息公开条例》中没有明确的答案,学术界和实务界也众说纷纭",隐私"一词由于在我国公法领域不包含个人身份基本信息,故个人身份基本信息不属于不予公开的范畴,但是由于其特殊性,应该区分情况进行公开。首先,应对行政处罚信息作区分处理,违法行为信息应该主动公开,个人身份信息应该由利害关系人依申请公开,媒体在特殊情况下可以申请公开行政处罚相对人的身份信息,一般情况下,应有所限制。     

The Importance of Political Context for Understanding Civic Engagement: A Longitudinal Analysis

We contend that political context is important to consider when analyzing social capital and that context has an important but neglected impact on understanding the consequences of civic activity. Our focus is on the influence of rural, local leadership in two Minnesota communities and policies that these elites have developed to bring Internet connectivity to their citizens. One city developed a community electronic network and the other opted for an individualistic, entrepreneurial approach to information technology. Using a quasi-experimental research design and four-wave panel data, we find that elite policy approaches interact with civic activity to predict technology use among citizens, even long after the policies’ initial implementation. In the city with a community network, residents who are integrated into civic life are able to harness these political resources to become more technologically sophisticated.