Sue Starr's query brought to mind Stafford Beer's work on PLATFORM
FOR CHANGE, his account of the Allende Chilean government, which used
technology to support indigenous peoples' social decision making, enabling
them to run their economy and make the major decisions. Of course
computers were much more expensive then, and graphical interface is much
more broadly available. As well, computers using pictures can help those
who are illiterate still access information and input their views; today
computers can talk as well as display, even small desktop systems -
Macintosh & IBM clones, tho Macs are likely easier to use. The PLATO
program was put together by MIT people for use in disadvantaged school
districts in the Boston area, I believe. And I think Control Data had
some foundation money available, some time back. Certainly a chat with the
MIT medialab folks might be worth your time and inquiry.
Yet Sue's question about learning organizations carries a lot more
than a query for a "technological fix," and indeed without some sense of
comraderie and mutual support, the technology itself might be
intimidating. It seems to me that true learning comes from creating an
atmosphere in which it is OK and safe to "not know," to experiment to find
out (and possibly to fail). I'd also consider finding out how ElderNet got
set up in San Francisco: there, too, a supposedly computer-shy group of
"slow learners" (HAH!), the elderly, were given a computer link to the
Internet for mutual support and information access. I'm a believer that
"Knowledge is power," and that if your local communities could link up,
they'd be able to make a giant leap in sophistication by pooling their
understandings, questions and insights. Perhaps linking up through
Internet with "sister cities" elsewhere - North Dakota, New Mexico,
Australian outback - and the issues and concerns of comparable populations
would also be helpful.
In my mind, the resonance of these ideas with the initial inquiry
has to do with finding ways to open access to the kind of support and
discussion this list provides for us. It's not clear to me our brand of
discussion is necessarily what Sue's populations would want, but it is
clear that they are not the only ones who have difficulties of
restructuring their own governance, or creating environments for learning
about suddenly handling their own affairs. Especially if multiple ages and
degrees of traditional wisdom can be incorporated - getting a couple of
the elder wise persons into the net, for example - those voices will be
perhaps more readily heard than in a meeting where the content is more
likely filtered by the age, dress and socioeconomic condition of the
speaker than on the net, where ideas come with fewer trappings.
Sue has a very interesting problem!
Sam
MXJELI@MAIL.WM.EDU
Mariann Jelinek
Richard C. Kraemer Professor of Business
Graduate School of Business,
College of William and Mary,
Williamsburg, VA 23185
Tel. (804) 221-2882 FAX: (804) 229-6135
************************************************************************
The only enduring strategic advantage is the ability
to change the rules of the game.
--mxjeli@mail.wm.edu (Mariann Jelinek)
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>