Summaries of articles

Some First Thoughts on This Collective Enterprise: Short history of a loose-knit, sprawling, kitchen-table Initiative by Eric Britton Opens with the observation that "Telecommunications, like many other technological advances, appears to be accompanied by a lot of hype, an optimistic overselling of its potential", and from thence sets out to explain how this special edition is attempting to sort through the hype and the knowledge gaps in an attempt to arrive at some useful simple truths about the links between the new technologies and operating systems that are coming on line and the broader challenges of sustainable development. The author points out that we are only at the very outset of this process, and that it is in everyone's interest to develop a mature understandnng of what is going on and and what is possible, without losing undue time. What does telework really do to us? by Jack M. Niles Presents the results of extensive surveys of about 400 telecommuters in the USA, including transportation impacts, and whether telecommuting is actually related to any net reduction in travel in general and in car use in particular. Gives findings from trip logs completed by driving age household members for an entire week. Concludes also that teleworking also has no severe negative socio-psychological effects on either tele-workers or telemanagers, at least short term and provided all parties are properly selected and trained and do not telework full-time. Touches on the differences between teleworkers in the USA and elsewhere. The Information highway: just because we're on it doesn't mean we know where we're going by Patricia L. Mokhtarian Looks beyond the hype surrounding telecommunications and suggests that the physical aspects of the in-formation highway are currently short of the ideal and further, that when eventually in place, it may not be ideal. Examines some commonly held beliefs about the transportation, geographic and economic impacts of telecommunications. Suggests numerous further research and policy issues. Concludes by reminding us that telecom technology is inherently neutral. It can facilitate travel reductions and geographic decentralisation and economic development, but not alone - we, as policy makers and consumers must have some control over the outcome; the compact city made obsolete and settlements dispersed throughout the countryside should only happen if people decide that is what they want to happen. The social implications of telework: the UK experience by Horace Mitchell Gives findings of extensive research into the key social implications of teleworking, carried out over the last five years in the UK. Gives examples of telework parameters at both micro and macro levels for employers to consider when making strategic decisions about siting work locations; to which part of the world he/she will contract out; or subcontract significant operations. Feels we should not concentrate on protecting existing paid workers against the perils of working at home rather than in an office, thereby failing to assess and re-spond to the implications of the "flight of work" from higher cost, lower skilled to lower cost, higher skilled environments. Equally we must not overprotect those in conventional employment against the "risk" that they may have to move into a newer work style. What about the workers? Teleworking and the trade union movement by Andrew Bibby Offers some observations on the attitudes of the established trade union movement in Europe to the devel-opment of teleworking. Home based teleworking may be solitary activity, but teleworkers are, like the rest of us, collective animals with a need to come together; to network, to exchange information and ideas and to defend their interests. Gives some possible solutions as to how teleworkers' needs may be met, including trade union involvement, although on first consideration their participation may seem unlikely. Gives details of formal, satisfactorily negotiated teleworking agreements, between trade unions and employers, from across Europe, including the UK. Suggests unions could rise tot the challenge of new forms of working, by providing services sought by self-employed members, and that the old concept of solidarity could apply be-tween teleworkers working at home and for their own businesses. The city in 2050: how sustainable? by Andy Lake Looks at the evolution of new ways of working and the development of the information society, to see how these might affect the development of cities, and whether these developments based on the new information and communications technologies (ICTs) will make cities more or less "sustainable". Rather than making speculative predictions, however, the focus is on the variety of factors that have influenced, and will con-tinue to influence, the development of cities. Its approach is somewhat heretical, or at least politically incor-rect, arguing that trends to greening the city will be only one among many competing influences, some of which may be profoundly ecologically unsound. Urban transport, information technology and sustainable development by Mattias Hoejer Discusses how four principles of sustainable development could be implemented by the use of information technologies in the areas of urban road transport, namely, car pooling; dynamic route choice; extended pub-lic transport and a dual-mode system. Says it is important to open up a broad public debate on the options and risks that come with IT, as in a democratic society it is the voters' preferences that create the framework for politics and It development is ultimately a political issue. Oxtail: a true story by Noel Hodson Describes the tribulations that befell a university city's Traffic Engineer throughout his career, ranging ini-tially from the conflict between the many cyclists/pedestrians/motor cars, to the polluted traffic-choked city centre that quickly evolved, aggravated by a motorway system that added thousands more heavy trucks an hour on to the ring road. Reveals how advice was always sought from a most unlikely source, and with hindsight shows that the advice given was not always good. Perhaps a cautionary tale? Sustainability in an information society: view from the European Commission by Robert Pestel & Peter Johnston Refers to the European Commission's support to an expert "working circle" charged with the task of clarify-ing the potential contribution of advanced communications to sustainability. There is growing public and po-litical awareness that our economic prosperity and growth is unsustainable. The new constraints are envi-ronmental, associated with material use and transfers. Rematerialisation, in the sense of reducing the amount of material extracted from, synthesised and dispersed into, the environment per unit of GDP is therefore now the key to long-term sustainability. Warns that sustainability will not be achieved by government-led legislative action alone, nor by European-level action alone; a much broader commitment to a common pur-pose is necessary - perhaps co-operation for a global information society? Who said we wanted an information superhighway? by Robert Theobald Looks at the possible directions in which the information superhighway could take us, considering both the benefits of increased knowledge and subsequent increased participation and also the dangers such as the ex-cess of raw information. Suggests that this information needs to be structured and packaged if it is to have a positive effect. Considers these points in a global sense in terms of humanity as a whole. Conclusions and Recommendations: The Information Society/Sustainable Development Symphony Orchestra by Eric Britton Attempts to summarize the broad lines of information and agreement concerning three questions that the author believes are critical for policy makers in this technology and policy area which is only now just getting underway: What is it that we have learned thus far about our topic that should be kept to the fore as we try to determine what if anything should be done next? What is it that we need to know more about before setting out on specific remedial projects and actions? Knowing what we know (and what we don't know), what should we be doing next? Authors' Bio Notes (as per 1996) Andrew Bibby is a British writer and journalist, who has made a particular study of the issues associated with teleworking. His book, Home is Where the Office is'(published Hodder, London 1991), was the first practical telework handbook in the UK. His latest book, 'Teleworking: Thirteen Journeys to the Future of Work', was published in November 1995 by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, London. He is currently researching trade union responses to telework for the international white-collar union federation FIET. "My interest in telework began some years ago from direct experience since, like many writers, I work from an office in my home. In a global information society, my PC could be - almost - anywhere: it happens to be in one of the northern English valleys where the first Industrial Revolution got under way two hundred or more years ago." Andrew can be reached via andrew.bibby@mcr1.poptel.org.uk, or the URL: http://www.eclipse.co.uk/pens/bibby/telework. Eric Britton founded EcoPlan in 1966 while laboring on what proved to be an in-tractable Ph.D. dissertation as a Visiting Scholar at the University of Rome under the Fulbright Program. His intention was to create a lively and effective forum of international collaboration and independent counsel on issues involving the management of technology as it affects people in their daily lives. The basic idea, which holds to this day, is that these issues lend themselves to cooperative problem-solving networks that can bring together and integrate the efforts of think-ers, researchers, concerned citizens, and practitioners from diverse disciplines, countries and points of view. Eric's interest in matters of transportation, telecoms, and the environment trace to a first major international survey on the subject in 1969 and an unremitting sequence of pro-jects and assignments since. He sees himself primarily as someone who organizes problem-solving processes -- in an attempt to provide more responsible and deeply founded policy counsel for decision makers in both the public and private sectors. This special edition is an example of that approach. You can reach Eric at 100336,2154@compuserve.com or via http://www.the-commons.org Noel Hodson has teleworked since 1979 and was an entrepreneur, launching and managing an accountancy practice, a science park company, a vehicle prototype company, and in 1983 the UK's first teleworked business consultancy - now with 54 offices covering the UK. Since 1988 he has specialised in telework studies, producing the The Economics of Teleworking, Teleworking & Employment in Europe and The Case for Teleworking, and co-authoring and co-editing Teleworking Explained in 1993. He is the UK coordinator for the EC Telematics Forum and leads the EC project "Experts Unlimited", whicih is delivering professional advice over the networks. Noel recently (1996) completed work on Telework Auditstm, a costs/benefits software package for businesses. He is heavily involved in interactive distance learning and the SOLOMON project for telephone voting and wired democracy. He still visits major employers to calculate the economics of their teleworking programs and speaks at international conferences. He can be reached at 100143.2571@compuserve.com Mattias Hojer is a PhD-student at the Department of Infrastructure and Planning, Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. His project, reported on here and financed by the Swedish Communications and Research Board is concerned with sustainable development, information technology and urban road transport. He has spent the last three years working part time at the Institute. The other part of his time he has spent with his two kids. In order to combine these two occupations he has become a teleworker, one day a week and a couple of months each summer (Stockholm is good at summer, but there are even better places to be). At thirty, he is engaged in a quite desparate attempt to sustain his physical health (instead of developing his physical mass) and does this by taking his bicycle for the 15 kilometers trip to work on those days when he "goes to the office" (but only if there is less than wheel-high snow). You can contact Mattias at hojer@ce.kth.se or 100617.1702@compuserve.com. Peter Johnston has worked with the Commission of European Communities since 1988. As the head of programme preparation, he is responsible for the strategic planning of European telecommunications research, and for economic and social assessments of telecommunications developments in the European Community. He also has responsibility for EC actions in the area of telework stimulation, with a view to diversification of employment opportunities and increasing the flexibility and competitiveness of European industry, and for liaison with the Information Society Forum on Sustainable Development. Dr Johnston read physics at Oxford University, and was involved in solid-state and nuclear physics research, as a Fulbright-Hays scholar in Carnegie Mellon University, and at Oxford University until 1976. He can be contacted via pdg@postman.dg13.cec.be Andy Lake works for the Home Office Partnership in Cambridge (UK), a consultancy which researches new ways of working and implements programmes of corporate change. He is also the editor of Flexibility: Business Innovation and Human Resources Management, a monthly newsletter acting as a forum for issues connected with new ways of working. As a consultant his particular expertise is in working with local government, advising on the implications of the new information and communication technologies for how they organise their work processes and deliver their services. He is also an elected Councillor for Cambridge City, and has responsibilities in strategic and land use planning. Andy's experience in local government inclines him to believe false starts will outnumber achievements, and the propensity to talk rather than do will outweigh both. He is anxious to move the debates about Sustainability and the Information Society on from theory to practice, and believes smaller scale, democratically supported projects on the whole have a better chance of success than centrally driven mega visions. He advocates an integrated approach, as organizational development, economic development and service delivery innovations will be the drivers for transport substitution, as much as actual transport planning. He can be contacted via 100325,743@compuserve.com. Educated as a physicist, Jack Nilles headed the preliminary design of several space vehicles and communications systems for the U.S. Air Force and NASA and was a consultant to President Kennedy's and Johnson's Science Advisory Council, the National Science Foundation and other federal departments. He joined the University of Southern California as Director for Interdisciplinary Research and began his empirical research on telecommuting and teleworking, terms he coined, in 1973. He has led a number of studies of present and future impacts of information technology and created the standards by which major telecommuting projects are judged. He has developed and/or evaluated telecommuting projects for Fortune 100 companies, state governments, the city of Los Angeles, and companies and government agencies internationally. He is author of The Telecommunications-Transportation Tradeoff. His newest book, Making Telecommuting Happen, is a manual for telework program development and management. He is currently involved in developing a series of long range forecasts of the global impacts of telework, and can be contacted via jala@ix.netcom.com. Patricia Mokhtarian is an assistant professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Davis. Following completion of her Ph.D. in Operations Research from Northwestern University in 1981, she came to Los Angeles to work for the Southern California Association of Governments. That metropolitan planning organization asked her to explore the potential of telecommunications applications to reduce congestion and improve air quality for the region. She became intrigued with the capabilities of telecommunications technologies, and with their impacts on transportation in particular and society in general, and has been studying those issues ever since. From an initial position of naive optimism about the potential of telecom to reduce travel, she has reached a more critical (but not negative) position. Issues she would like to see studied further include: long-term impacts of telecom on location decisions and urban form; telecommunications as a tool for economic development; short-term travel and communication impacts of on-line consumer-oriented information/transaction services and community networks; and travel and communication patterns of mobile workers. She can be contacted at plmokhtarian@poppy.engr.ucdavis.edu. Horace Mitchell has a long background working at the intersection of technology, the economy and society. With IBM in the 1970s he specialised in early uses of the computer in support of managers and organisations, later working on the application of expert systems technology to problems as diverse as matching people to jobs and helping engineers to cope with unexpected behaviour patterns in nuclear processing plants. In the mid 1980s he became an independent consultant, and now leads Management Technology Associates, a "virtual company" that works with governments, organisations and individuals to understand and apply the "open electronic networking" opportunities. Having "opted out of corporate employment before it became fashionable", he believes the most profound change accompanying development of an Information Society is the shift from a culture of "jobs" determined by "employers" to "work opportunities" that offer and require individual rather than collective responses. He wants to see society accept and welcome this change and place much more emphasis on preparing and helping people to survive and benefit from it, rather than of putting (as he sees it) rather too much effort into defending the past against the future. He's also keen to see authors "sign" their work with an email address to encourage personal networking - his is 100136.2412@compuserve.com Robert Theobald is a widely read author, community activist, speaker, and consultant based in the United States and Scotland. He trained as an economist, turned into a socio-economist, then a futurist, and now despises all labels. He has held numerous academic posts, and has been named the 1996 Massey lecturer, a prestigious Canadian Broadcasting Corporation opportunity. He intends to use this set of five lectures to change the debate about success criteria and reward systems. His two latest books are Turning the Century and The Rapids of Change. He can be reached at 509 Conti Street, New Orleans, La 70130 or 504-524-5374 or rtheobald@igc.apc.org. He is always interested in feedback and aims to respond. John Whitelegg is a geographer. For twenty-five years he has worked as a geographer and a practitioner of geography. This has included spells as an economic development officer in the Outer Hebrides off the far north west coast of Scotland, a researcher and policy analyst for the Ministry of Transport of the State of North Rhine Westphalia in Germany, and an academic at Lancaster University in the north of England. John's interests are far too broad and encompass health, environment, sustainability, social change, human welfare and the design of communities and neighborhoods in ways that reflect the full expression of local democracy. A social activist as well as academic and consultant, his book Transport for a Sustainable Future appeared in 1993 published by Wiley and in the summer of 1996 Pluto Press in London will publish Critical Mass: Transport, Environment and Society in the 21st Century. You can reach John at J.Whitelegg@lancaster.ac.uk Back to top @WTPP @Forum Send E-mail © 1994-2000. ecopl@n, Paris, France.® Updated 29 August 1996