This course was designed by: Daniel Chandler and Ewan Sutherland.
Full details of the lecture programme and a comprehensive reading list are available at the first lecture on Monday 17th January 1996.
1 Introduction
To set the scene for the module it is necessary to establish the frameworks against which the material will be considered and which will help you in understanding and in assimilating the material. A variety of frameworks are necessary to understand the issues: historical, sociological, spatial and temporal. Indications of the pace of change, the forces driving invention and those influencing adoption.
2 Technological trends and social change
An understanding of change requires an analysis of the forces which have in the past and which are currently influencing the world. Equally important are the sources of resistance and inertia. The results of the changes can be seen in individual events and in patterns of the distribution of events through time and over space. However, it is also important to look at other changes, to see how significant are IT and related changes.
3 Second industrial revolution
The existence and significance of the second industrial revolution is even more contentious than the first. It was a continuation of the industrial and social changes, though the locus shifts from the UK to the USA and to Germany. The appearance of new industries (e.g., automobiles, chemicals and electricity) and new organisational forms (e.g., multi-divisional, multi-national). For the first time there was truly ‘big’ business and following from that anti-trust issues.
4 The information revolution
The most recent industrial revolution and one still underway. The rise of industries based on information. A shift from meeting needs to wants. The contribution of Daniel Bell to the idea of the post-industrial society. Possible definitions of information revolution, information economy, information industry and infosphere.
5 Managing the changing computer
The changes in computer technology and the consequences for its applications in organisations. From the mainframe computer to the workstation of today. From impersonal and remote to the desk-top or palm-top. The immense advances in telecommunications. The challenges of management information systems. Nolan’s model of crises in the management of information systems. Can information be managed? What is a chief information officer or an IT director and do they perform any useful rôles?
6 Jobs and technology
One of the key arguments put forward by Marx was that capital was used to substitute for labour, a view which reached its ascendancy in so-called Fordism and Taylorism. The result was dramatic changes in the workforce, in the skills required and in career opportunities. An international division of labour emerged, with manual work transferred from North America and Europe to the third world. Recently, flexible manufacturing created new ideas about the factory of the future, including some repatriation of work from the third world. Mass employment which was once required by industry is now declining.
7 Offices and organisations
Recently, it has become possible to replace human labour in offices, an area where the definition of work and efficiency have proved much more difficult. What do people do in offices? The rise and fall of the typist. Finally, the oft predicted demise of the middle manager. The current trends for down-sizing, restructuring and business process redesign.
8 Teleworking
For decades the vast majority of white collar work has required attendance at an office, usually located in a city centre. Much of that work has now been automated and as a consequence of the technology can be undertaken at alternative locations, including suburban work centres or the home of the worker. Beside the dreams of electronic cottages stands the reality of social and organisational inertia and a continued huddling together in city centres.
9 Educational computing
Microcomputers were introduced into British schools in the early 1980s and have spread widely since then. How do educational uses differ from non-educational uses? Computer Aided Instruction or Computer Assisted Learning?
A hand-out was provided at the lecture.
10 National policies towards computers and the information society
The development of European national computer industries in the 1950s and 1960s was
followed by the slow recognition of failure. Later there was the search for inward
investment from the USA and more recently from Japan and South Korea. Programmes for
national and international research and development were conjured up, with a significant
rôle for the European Union in pre-competitive R&D. The rapid growth of Malaysia.
A significant part in this is played by educational policies, creating the information
workers and the information handling skills. The Bangemann Report for the European
Union indicates the importance attached to building the Infobahn in Europe.
11 Management of change
The introduction of new technology requires change at personal, organisational, economic
and social levels. For the introduction to succeed, it is essential that the processes
be ‘managed’, through programmes for those involved. Resistance and inertia can be
reduced or overcome by education, training and re-training. Process consultancy is a
particularly valuable approach. Intelligent job design also helps.
12 Technology in the home
The enormous growth of the consumer electronics industry has been achieved by a flood
of electronic goods into the home, from chips controlling kitchen appliances to systems
for entertainment and education. One consequence is that the external world is seen
through electronic eyes, images acquired from television and games. A second consequence
is that control over the distribution of information is increasingly difficult.
13 Watching television
Surveys indicate that the source of information on which adults rely most heavily
is television, moreover it is heavily trusted. Children watch even more television
than adults, providing an alternative curriculum to school. How do people make sense
of television?
14 Ethics and morality
In recent years there has been a rise in interest in business or organisational ethics.
Companies have formulated codes of practice and chairs in business ethics have been
founded at Harvard and London Business Schools. The use of IT raises many ethical issues
for organisations and for individuals.
15 Writing and word processing
The choice of tools for writing includes pens, typewriters and computers, each tool is
best suited to particular uses. Some writers seem to need the informality of handwriting
at the early stages. Some people like to scribble all over draft printouts, others feel
this reflects their inadequacy. Some critics reject the word processor feeling ‘used’
by it.
16 Privacy and hacking
In many countries privacy is defined by laws and enshrined in constitutions. Judges and
politicians have been forced to come to terms with changes brought about by the adoption
of new technology. Ease of handling information has created whole new areas where rights
and crimes have never existed. The potential to combine information from different sources
makes it increasingly difficult to hide from governments and from marketers. Most
developed countries now have legislation to control the use of data or at least to register
users. The approaches taken have been quite different and the effectiveness is open to
question. The proliferation of computer networks made it clear at an early stage that
international legislation would be necessary. There is another side to this, in that the
technology makes it possible to open up government to much greater scrutiny.
Rather than give slides in Postscript, I am linking this page to a presentation
I gave at the University of Birmingham on a similar subject.
17 Fictive futures
Members of the ‘Artificial Intelligentsia’ lack the breadth of imagination and sensitivity
to map out the future of computing and robotics, it is better left to literary writers. The
best science fiction writers tell us something about the issues facing us. For example, the
Frankenstein complex, a deep-seated fear of creating something too autonomous. How have
computers and automata been portrayed and what can we learn from these creative insights?
18 The telecommunications industry
In the not so distant past telecommunications was a rather staid and dull, if profitable,
industry, buried away in the Post Office and its foreign equivalents. Today it is a dynamic
industry, the subject of massive investment and technological advances. Globalisation has
replaced national operations, while attention to the needs of customers has become paramount.
Technological bureaucracies have undergone restructuring and massive changes in organisational
culture. The future of the industry is very challenging as it collides with computing and
entertainment.
19 The humanness of being human
Radical critics of the dominant metaphors of our age have argued that we deny our humanness
when we focus on information, rather than on meaning, when we treat information as something
which is stored in computer and retrieved from computers rather than as an active process of
interpretation. Is this merely semantics?
20 The computer industry
A new industry has appeared since the 1950s, characterised by dynamism, growth, change,
uncertainty and cannibalism. Companies have risen to great heights only to fall back into
oblivion. Despite its recent troubles, IBM remains the biggest name and is again reviving.
The Japanese and South Koreans continue to grow, seemingly inexorably. Computing converges
with communications and entertainment.
21 Business strategy and information technology
Applications of information systems in organisations have moved from the operational to
take an increasingly strategic rôle, this can be seen in sectors such as newspapers,
airlines, retailing and many more.
22 Conclusion and overview
To draw together the diverse strands of the module, it is necessary to look at current
levels of change against the historical patterns. The processes of change are beyond
easy control and are, perhaps, unstoppable. It seem clear that many countries are locked
out of the information society and that only conscious action by those in it will cause
them to be admitted. Equally many individuals are locked out, with no better prospect
than a job as a personal fitness instructor or a burger-bar operative.
Copyright © Ewan Sutherland, 1995.
Speeches by Al Gore, US Vice-President
Transcript of a talk by Kavner on the data superhighway. 
A hand-out was provided at the lecture. A hand-out was provided at the lecture.
2001 theme HAL HAL being disconnected
A hand-out was provided at the lecture.
List of emotocions