Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!ucla-cs!zen!ucbvax!hplabs!hplabsz!taylor From: denning@src.dec.com (Dorothy Denning) Newsgroups: comp.society Subject: Re: Information and Empowerment Message-ID: <1241@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM> Date: 18 Dec 87 02:22:00 GMT Sender: taylor@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM Lines: 31 Approved: taylor@hplabs Edith Bevan requested information on research into information and empowerment. I recently took a course where power was defined as the rate at which intentions are turned into results. I like this definition, because it takes the focus off of "control" and "roles" and places it in the realm of accomplishment, of achieving what is important to us in our lives. After all, it really doesn't matter who is in charge and what our role is if we get the results we want. The work of Martin Luther King is a good example. He empowered all of us, including blacks, by helping us reach a common goal of a better world for people of different races and nationalities. He empowered us, though few of us were in direct control over the specific actions that came out of his work. The definition is also useful because it is measurable. When one shifts the focus from control to results, the role of communication becomes vital because it is at the heart of action, of getting things done. Thus, I really like Edith's emphasis on ommunication systems. Communications systems not only can provide access to knowledge that is useful for getting things done, but can provide stuctures for action. Terry Winograd & Fernando Flores have done some work on designing mail systems that provide structures for action as well as simple exchange of knowledge. A good starting reference is Winograd, "A Language/Action Perspective on the Design of Cooperative Work", Stanford Report No. STAN-CS-87-1158, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA 94305. The paper describes communication patterns for groups as well as a PC-based product called the Coordinator that implements the ideas. Dorothy Denning