Visions of Information Society Jakob Svensson 19/9 2013

Visions of Information Society How we imagine Information society influences the ways we frame questions and our points of departure studying it Think about how you do imagine the internet and Information society? Do we envision collective intelligence, participatory culture, empowerment – or a surveillance society, a panoptic web?

Visions of Information Society Mansells point is that social imaginaries are produced, accepted and then taken for granted as people seek consistency in their experience of their reality in a world of rapidly changing technologies. It enables people to make sense of developments in our information society – our digital late modern age. It influences the way we use technologies and the ways they permeate and mediate peoples life

Visions of Information Society One imaginary is from Gibsons Neuromancer – coining the term Cyber Space – to outline a belief that there were some kind of space behind the screen, some place you cant see but you know is there

Visions of Information Society The creative collaborative culture participation in online social media sites is another important social imaginary – consistent with values of cooperation, democracy and inclusion

Visions of Information Society According to Mansell the contemporary vision of the Information Society is of a society in which innovative ICTs, designed by scientists and engineers, encouraged by corporate (and state) investors, and benefiting from the labor of collaborating networked communities, provide easy access to the wealth of human knowledge and to communication capabilities.

Visions of Information Society One problem here- how are we to imagine the role of the market here? Does create it incentives for technological innovation and for wealth creation?

Visions of Information Society For wealth to be created – depend on scarcity, or control of information But information society is giving rise to abundant digital information that is costless to produce (or rather reproduce – initial technologies are costly) Instead of market constraints – information should be shared freely to maximize diversity = paradox of information scarcity

Visions of Information Society The abundance of information is taken as evidence that the evolution of a system in the public interest Is access to information always good? Isn't wisdom lost in abundance of knowledge?

Visions of Information Society The technologies of communication are complex – come to rely on designers and programmers The convergence of ICTs, the ever more complicated components of technology makes it unstable = paradox of complexity

Visions of Information Society Dominant vision of Information Society = Market led hands off stance – that the internet will regulate it self - the less state intervention better (recently this vision has been contested with regards to global economy) but the dangers of intervention has had a firm grip on the imaginations of many policy makers. This is also informed by an imaginary that the complexity of the system will defeat any efforts to guide it - the system is self organizing

Visions of Information Society Alternative vision = favoring information commons (collaborative production and consumption of information outside the conventions of the market) clearly based in an vision of collective intelligence (see Pierre Levy) the Memex (Vannevar Bush) in other words an imaginary of superhuman intelligence this is a vision in which humans really have no control over the machines This vision – lead to a diffusions of innovation approach of technology in developing regions – dumping tech on the poor- will the information be relevant? – do they have the knowledge to use it?

Visions of Information Society Visions of dumping tech on the poor does not make a distinction between information and knowledge. Connected to market visions of “long tail” - “BoP” that you could capitalize on poorer segments of the population. As well as providing platforms for people's own businesses et cetera. What are the risks of this diffusion of tech? Cyber war -Surveillance – the Spread of capitalist identities Hence prevailing imaginaries encourages technological innovation with a promise for the benefit of all while simultaneously facilitates a social order that is complicit in perpetuating social and economic inequality. underlying such imaginary is also the modernist discourse of progress