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For any of you who happen to be in the Berkeley area on Friday. ...
Debbie Lords
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Date: Wed, 6 Apr 1994 01:18:02 -0700
From: Rob Kling <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: NII talk at UCBerkeley in Library School Friday noon lecture series
To: Multiple recipients of list ASIS-L <[log in to unmask]>
Public Lecture -- Series Sponsored by Grad School of Library Sci -- UCB
Organized by Howard Besser
Friday April 8
145 Dwinelle Hall -- UC Berkeley
+ also to be given as a live mbone conference on April 19 at 5:30PM
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Who's Gonna Get It?:
The Meanings and Conditions of Universal Access
to Computer Networks Within the
National Information Infrastructures.
Rob Kling
Department of Information & Computer Science
University of California -- Irvine
Irvine, CA 92717, USA
[log in to unmask] || 714-856-5955
"The NII" is an exciting buzzword for a complex amalgam of
telecommunications networks which provide telephone, cable
TV, and computerized-data networks. The Clinton/Gore
conception of NII assumes the convergence of media since
their "Agendas for Action" seamlessly blend services which are
now distinct because of their technological characteristics,
their regulatory environments, key stakeholders, market
structures, and their social properties (including usage by the
public). Computer nets add the sizzle to telecommunications
infrastructures that would otherwise be composed of telephone
and cable TV. Vice President Al Gore has argued that "the
Internet," with its diverse service mix and bilateral
communications, will serve as a model for a new integrated
NII. In addition, the Clinton/Gore administration and
numerous public interest groups have argued that "universal
service" will be a key feature of the NII. Unfortunately, the
meanings of "universal service," and the social and economic
conditions for supporting universal service have not received
effective attention in the public NII policy discussions.
Universal access has been a longstanding policy value for
telephone access and use in the U.S. In practice, the cost of
stringing phone lines to a city or town, and from there to
homes and workplaces were a substantial fraction of telephone
infrastructure costs. The cost of telephone equipment, and the
skills to use it, have been relatively affordable when a phone
line was brought to a building's wall. In contrast, computer-
based networks require substantially more expensive
"complementary equipment resources," skills, and service fees
for people to use them effectively. The effective use of digital
libraries can depend upon ready access to large local
computer memories and fast high-quality printers, as well as
to good software for searching and organizing documents.
There has been a significant shift from expert-mediated
service to self-service to some aspects of computer use. But
the effective use of the interesting digital libraries and two
ways communications rests on high levels of literacy,
moderate technical skills, and ready help for resolving
problems. An important body of empirical research shows that
organizations gain value from computing investments through
a social infrastructure which is often "hidden behind the
terminal." Those organizations which have failed to develop
good social infrastructures for continuous skill building
(training, consulting), system repairs and an inevitable stream
of continuous upgrades have often had significant problems
in effectively using computerized systems.
Assuring "universal access" to the computer nets within the
NII requires that many people and groups are able to afford
relatively expensive equipment and to possess complex skills.
Without effective social and technical support, visions of
wiring up classrooms, libraries, and homes to an NII can be
an expensive policy sham. This talk will examine the social
and technological preconditions for effective access to
computer-based networks within the NII.
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Rob Kling is Professor of Information and Computer Science
at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). Dr. Kling also
holds professorial appointments in the Center for Research on
Information Technology and Organizations and the Graduate
School of Management at UCI. Since the early 1970s he has
studied the social opportunities and dilemmas of
computerization for managers, professionals, workers, and the
public.
Dr. Kling's research focuses on the social and organizational
dimensions of computer technologies. He has conducted
studies in numerous kinds of organizations, including local
governments, insurance companies, pharmaceutical firms, and
hi-tech manufacturing firms. He has written about the value
conflicts implicit in and social consequences of
computerization which directly effects the public.
Dr. Kling is co-author of Computers and Politics: High
Technology in American Local Governments published by the
Columbia University Press which examined how
computerization reinforces the power of already powerful
groups. He is co-editor of two recent books. PostSuburban
California: The Transformation of Postwar Orange County
(University of California Press, 1990) examines the way that
Orange County California is organized in a new social form
beyond the traditional city and suburb, one that is spatially
decentralized, functionally specialized, and mixes a rich array
of residences, commerce, industry, services, government and
the arts. Computerization and Controversy: Value Conflict &
Social Choices (Academic Press, 1991) examines the social
controversies about computerization in organizations and
social life, regarding productivity, worklife, personal privacy,
risks of computer systems, and computer ethics. In addition,
he has published over 75 theoretical and empirical articles
about the social aspects of computerization.
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