Communication Technology: A Societal Perspective

Historically the communications industry has been dominated by technology. Concepts such as efficiency, size, and fidelity have been the controlling factors affecting product and system design. Now, however, a wide variety of devices and systems can be provided to the consumer of communication services, assuming limited development of the relevant technologies. This requires that choices be made about what is worthwhile pursuing. Since these decisions will shape communication systems for years to come, inputs to the choice process ought to reflect considerations other than just short-run economics and technological feasibility. In particular, these choices ought to reflect societal needs. To assist in evaluating the impact of alternative communication systems on society, we propose three dimensions along which “social” values might be measured. These are: 1) ease of access to stored information, 2) scope of the interaction space common to the communicants, 3) the extent to which provisions exist to take feedback into consideration. The meaning and measurement of each dimension is explored, and a suggestion is made on how they might be applied. An example of a proposed communication system is presented that would appear to have high values along each of the three dimensions.