The Information Society

    What is the information society? In the work of the roundtable, the information society was defined not as equivalent to information technology, but rather as the product of an interplay of social and technological dynamics including:

    The "information society" that results is experienced as more richly interconnected and complex (everything seems connected to everything else). It is characterized by a vast increase in information availability (along with greater overload, filtering and denial), a compression of both time and space, and growing turbulence and unpredictability. Some of the most important effects of the information society, relevant to the process of governance, include:

• Globalization: including not only economic globalization, but also the pervasive influence of globalized science and technology, the growing role of the media (CNN-World), emerging global networks of civil society organizations, the beginnings of a global popular culture, and the growth of supranational forums, networks and organizations;

• Atomization, democratization, and fragmentation: reflected in the increasing power of sub-national governments, in growing regionalism and the fragmentation of multinational states, and in the proliferation of "multiple voices," that is, the increase in the number and influence of groups organizing to assert a role in the process of governance;

• A breakdown of the bureaucratic / industrial model of organizing: both public and private sectors are downsizing, stripping away middle management, contracting out work (and, in the public sector, privatizing functions), and relying more on networks and task forces and other more flexible, decentralized "client-centered" ways of organizing;

• The growing importance of human resources in both the public and private sectors, as well-qualified staff (with their ability to manage large amounts of information, establish effective working relationships within and outside the organization, make judgments and innovate) become a key asset;

• A loss of boundaries and a fundamental restructuring: the breakdown of the historical distinctions between industries, between the public and private sectors and even between states, accompanied by a search for new relationships and alliances between those entities, and the need to rethink some basic conceptual distinctions; and

• The decreasing possibility of secrecy, and the implications of that for governing systems that rely on a certain degree of confidentiality.

Some Initial Findings of the Roundtable:

    In the more richly interconnected and rapidly changing environment of the information society, older ways of organizing and governing, which are premised on a more restricted flow of information and more limited interconnections (including public and corporate bureaucracies and even representative democracy and the nation state) seem to be overwhelmed. To deal effectively with that more rapidly changing environment we need to develop more learning-based approaches to how we organize and govern ourselves.

    Leadership, in this context, means taking the lead in establishing a shared framework of goals, interpretations and values (a shared mental map), and then encouraging a wide range of players, both within government and across society, to innovate and learn better ways to achieve those objectives.

    Creating and renewing those shared frameworks, those shared mental maps, will involve an ongoing learning process both within government and across society. The roundtable began to explore ways to create those shared frameworks. Among the approaches examined:

• constructing scenarios (shared mental maps) both within government and beyond. Scenario construction creates alternative maps we can use to broaden our perception, to try out different perspectives, and to provide a shared context and language for decision making and for more effective dialogue. The roundtable constructed a set of scenarios exploring the question of how the emergence of a global information society may reshape the environment for governance in Canada over the coming decade. One result of this work is that scenario methodology has begun to be used more widely within the government;

• developing public servants as knowledge workers, and the public service as a learning organization, skilled in the process by which data and information are translated into knowledge, and by which shared frameworks of interpretation are created;

• sharing knowledge as the key to effective leadership (recognizing that, in the information society, it is increasingly self-defeating to try to control what information is released or available, and that the real challenge is to provide leadership to the process by which people interpret and make sense of that information), including:

1. more proactive approaches to the media, engaging the media more actively in dialogue, and being more open about the context and framework within which government decisions are being made;
2. using information/communications (interactive) technologies to foster societal learning, for example using interactive technologies to enable citizens to work with simple simulations or games designed around major issues, such as balancing the budget. Using such technologies citizens could ask "what if" questions, try out different possible solutions, and thereby develop a more broadly shared understanding of the context within which decisions are being made, and of the implications of various possible choices. The views and conclusions expressed by citizens in that process also could provide a valuable input to government decision making;
3. developing learning-based alternatives to regulation, including the use of publicity, both positive and negative, as an alternative means to encourage compliance;
4. alternative dispute resolution, which itself involves creating new frameworks within which mutually satisfactory solutions may be found;
5. stakeholder summits, bringing together leaders from various sectors of society to develop shared frameworks within which they mutually can coordinate their actions; and
6. a variety of market-based approaches, constructing frameworks within which the dynamics of the marketplace then can be relied upon to produce the outcomes desired.

    The project has published three books outlining its findings and recommendations: Governing in an Information Society (IRPP, 1992); Changing Maps: Governing in a World of Rapid Change (Carleton University Press, 1995), and Renewing Governance: Governing by Learning in the Information Age (Oxford University Press, 1999).