Proceedings of 8th European Assembly on telework (Telework2001)

38According to Kauppinen, the industrialised society has three great workers: 1) Henry Noll, hero<strong>of</strong> capitalism, 2) Alexei Stakhanov, hero <strong>of</strong> socialism and 3) Rosabeth Moss Kanter, hero <strong>of</strong> theknowledge society. As the knowledge society is gathering momentum, the image <strong>of</strong> the typicalworker will also undergo changes. The industrial worker will transform first to a transaction citizenand finally to a knowledge citizen.The driving forces for the transition from industrial society towards knowledge society and theimpacts <strong>of</strong> change on the citizens come through living conditions, working conditions and industrialrelations. Knowledge society is not yet a clearly defined concept and Kauppinen put forward threehypotheses featuring it: 1) A knowledge company knows how to do. 2) The knowledge societyknows how to do. 3) The knowledge society works with knowledge by using data and informationas raw material for producing new knowledge in order to know how to do. Kauppinen also listedsome characteristics <strong>of</strong> the knowledge society: 1) The knowledge society is sustained throughnetworks, not single organisations. 2) It supports distributed rather than centralised intelligence. 3)It requires multiple skills and continuous learning. 4) It emphasises sustainability, not subsidization.5) It emphasises the value <strong>of</strong> every human mind. 6) It is enabled by interactive ICTs while it issimultaneously driving the development <strong>of</strong> new ICTs.Kauppinen defined foresight as a family <strong>of</strong> processes intended to capture the dynamics <strong>of</strong>transformation by placing today’s reality within the context <strong>of</strong> tomorrow’s possibilities. It isinherently proactive, reflecting the belief that the future is influenced by today’s decisions andactions. It emphasises the human abilities <strong>of</strong> forethought, creativity and system thinking aboveand beyond the usual analysis and judgement. The major foresight methodologies are: 1) bottomup/ social dialogue/group work, 2) survey technique/Delphi, 3) scenario technique with multiplemethods, 4) concept analysis and 5) top-down/state-driven/commission-driven approaches.The objective <strong>of</strong> the <strong>European</strong> Knowledge Society Foresight project (EKSF) is to produceforesights on the driving forces and impacts <strong>of</strong> the knowledge society in order to identifyand support paths to positive transformation while avoiding paths leading to unsatisfactorydevelopment.The topic <strong>of</strong> Jouni Backman, Member <strong>of</strong> the Finnish Parliament, was the summary <strong>of</strong> the meeting<strong>of</strong> <strong>European</strong> parliamentarians (EPRI), which was held in Helsinki and Tallinn just before theTelework conference. Backman pointed out that up to now, the development <strong>of</strong> the informationsociety has been based too much on technology, and he called it processor-led. According toBackman, it is necessary to change our ways <strong>of</strong> thinking to make it process-led. The old operatingmodels <strong>of</strong> the industrial society must be revised to respond to the new needs and opportunities.The change is already under way, primarily in the private sector. The hierarchic and bureaucraticapproach, which mainly works from the top down, is giving way to a networking model basedon interaction. The political decision-making and public administration still mainly operate on thebasis <strong>of</strong> the old models.Backman stressed that the information society should also be a genuine civil society. Newtechnology provides great opportunities to increase the quality and accountability <strong>of</strong> policies, aswell as freedom <strong>of</strong> speech and participation. National parliaments play a key role in this work.Through legislation and the use <strong>of</strong> budget funds, they should create the preconditions for the equaldevelopment <strong>of</strong> the information society. At the same time, they should develop their own activitiesto a more open and modern direction.