Societal Dimensions of Engineering, Science, and Technology - SDEST: Conference on Patterns for Shaping the Network Society (Seattle, Washington; May 2002)

Computer Professionals For Social Responsibility, Palo Alto CA

Investigators

Abstract

"Patterns for Shaping the Network Society" is an ambitious, somewhat experimental program, which uses web-based technology, and in-person venues in order to develop a web- and print-based "pattern language." The aim of this pattern language is to reflect the composite knowledge of a large, evolving, worldwide, highly distributed "community practice," namely those people pursuing the democratization and civic society uses of information and communication technology. The "pattern language" will be incrementally developed over the next year using a fundamentally open process. A four-day conference will be convened in Seattle in May 2002, as an integral part of the process (http://www.cpsr.org/conferences/diacO2). This program is intend to address the acute demand for a coherent, shared research and action agenda for the development and maintenance of democratic communication and information systems worldwide. It builds on the increasing ubiquity of the web and the increasing importance and presence of civil society throughout the world. Our approach attempts to achieve the correct balance between technological and social mediation in a large collaborative project. To that end we are developing the web-based applications that leverage the technological capabilities and social processes that promote timely collaboration and human judgement and creativity. The challenge is to develop a complex information structure using an open and participatory process that effectively balances the conflicting demands of inclusiveness, high quality, coherence, and timeliness. The process, in other words, is as important as the product. In spite of this non-trivial challenge we feel that this program addresses important goals and is built upon reasonable assumptions and approaches: even if this program falls short of its ultimate objectives, important products such as the conference, proceedings, submitted patterns, and analysis will be created. This ambitious and unprecedented project is currently underway. As of this writing, the pattern input and editing portion of the online support system is operational and over 50 pattern proposals have been submitted. The proposals, so far, originate in Ghana, India, UK, US, Mexico, Australia, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Nigeria, South Africa, Malaysia, France, and Brazil and, hence, reflect the wide-ranging community that we intend to continue to engage as this project goes forward. Throughout the process a large number of important questions come to the fore: how do ideas evolve, what roles to people assume in collaborative processes, what legal and other considerations are raised how is intellectual ownership handled, how do aynchronous (electronic) collaborative approaches reinforce with or detract from synchronous (face-to-face) collaborative approaches and vice versa is the "pattern" structure amenable to collective knowledge building, is this approach portable to other disciplines how many patterns "belong" in a pattern language, how much of the work can be done with the technology and how much should be accomplished with people, how much of the work can be done in a totally inclusive, open group and how much should be done with an "executive committee," etc., etc.