(1978). On Facilitating Networks for Social Change ... - INSNA

- 9 -be entered into or retrieved from the computer at different times, thus making rapidcommunication within a network possible at the convenience of each individual . We are aware ofseveral groups of scientists, social scientists, and others interested in social change who areexploring some means of bringing together geographically dispersed people into networks toshare ideas, make friendships, and work together . We are helping several of these groups findappropriate state-of-the-art communications systems to support their networking activities . Atpresent, full computerized conferencing systems are not widely available to most networks, butthey will be in the future . We feel that the potential for computerized communications systemsto link people in dynamic, ever-changing, decentralized networks is virtually unlimited .In a few more years, people at home will be able to have computer terminals hooked up totheir family TV sets for a few hundred dollars . Already, experiments are being conducted withsystems in England that will deliver textual information to subscribers' TV screens [27] . InColumbus, Ohio 100,000 homes are now wired for two-way cable TV, which began programming inDecember, 1977 [28] . Such communications systems begin to support the variety in society, butthey also need to be structured so that the variety is regulated, rather than expanded intochaos .NEXT : DECENTRALIZED COMPUTER NETWORKSMost of the current experiments in social network facilitation using computers have beenlimited to using a central computer to store the directory for the network, to analyze thestructure of a network, and to support computerized conferencing . Even though a single,central computer may be accessed through geographically distributed computer terminals, thecurrent state-of-the-art involves centralizing the data in one place . This centralization hasthe same shortcoming we mentioned before : it tends to limit variety .Recently, computer scientists have begun experimenting with "distributed processingnetworks ." Such a network is made up of many computers, themselves geographically distributed .The major advantages of such networks are that local processing can be done by a localcomputer, sensitive data can be kept in a local computer and thus protected, other computerscan "help" in a problem when needed, and the activity of the entire network can be dynamicallyallocated to the current set of problems . Such a decentralized network has no central database . The data is kept in bits and pieces in the distributed computers . A distributedprocessing network is the logical hardware counterpart to the social networks discussed above .Loving Grace Cybernetics is currently developing a distributed processing network that willserve as a "community memory" in the San Francisco area, containing information about communityneeds, services, resources, and so on [29] .SUMMARYGiven the increasing variety in our society, it is necessary to find new mechanisms forcoping with it and with rapid change . Either the regulatory systems need to be amplified, orthe variety needs to be reduced . Networks of people coming together out of common interest andconcern may serve as an adjunct to current regulatory systems to match the exploding variety .Such networks need to be organized and facilitated at various levels of recursion, beginning atthe local level . Information about people's interests, mental models, abilities, concerns,values, and so forth needs to be shared within and among networks . Information about thenetwork's structure can also be used to facilitate the development of new relationships withinthe network . Geographically dispersed networks of people can be facilitated through newcommunications technologies, including computerized conferencing . In the future, decentralizedcomputer networks will also play a part . These trends suggest new governance and educationalstructures that may help us preserve our freedoms, while bringing more individualresponsibility to bear on new problems .REFERENCES AND ACCESS INFORMATION[1] W . Ross Ashby, Introduction to Cybernetics (London : Chapman & Hall, 4th imp . 1961), chap .11 .[2] David Morris and Karl Hess, Neighborhood Power : The New Localism (Boston : Beacon Press,1975) . David Morris, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, 1717 18th St ., N .W ., Washington, D .C .20009 .