Technology Transfer as Social Process -A Sociological Perspective

Technology transfer is the process by which important scientific and technological advance is translated into sociallydefined benefits. Seen in this perspective, technology transfer may be regarded as the way the United States invests in the future, its own and that of other nations. With the President\u27s current scientific priority list heavily studded with space-derived items, and the White House Fact Sheet on Space Policy\u27s strong emphasis on application, the mandate is unmistakable. How it can best be implemented is not so certain. Even viewed in retrospect, most known innovations travel a tortuous road. In prospect, the path is almost completely unpredictable. What is clear is that there must be explicit recognition that technology transfer is in essence a social process, that it does not take place by itself, and that it occurs in a social environment, in which success, however defined, depends on a complicated web of synergistic factors only tangentially related to the technology itself. The notion of technology transfer is at least as old as fire and certainly as commonplace as the adoption of the wheel. This familiarity with the concept has probably contributed to the tendency toward underestimating its complexity. NASA\u27s considerable experience with technological innovation and the dynamics of transferring space-derived knowledge and knowhow into terrestrial and perhaps more pedestrian channels serves as the basis for this paper. With Landsat the primary, but not the only, example, we analyze from the sociological perspective the factors implementing and impeding technology transfer

Information Systems and Public Planning

Persuaded that management information systems will help them achieve efficiency of operation and attain organizational goals, public planners, like those in the private sector, are eagerly embarking on ambitious feasibility studies and contracting for elaborate hardware and software systems. Since this effort is being undertaken in the service of the public, it is important to assess the social costs and benefits. The research focus of the work on which this paper is based is on information systems as entities in themselves and as components of a larger systems design. After analyzing the three discretely defined but operationally joined concepts, information, system, and the information system, we examine the four assumptions underlying the general acceptance of the information system as a management tool: (1) that more information leads to better plans or decisions; (2) that more and faster-moving information necessarily enhances "efficiency" of operation; (3) that greater "efficiency" is identical with better public service; and (4) that information systems are best conceived, designed, and controlled by "information experts," whose talents are movable and ubiquitous. Information systems in public welfare, criminal justice, and land use are reviewed as cases in point, and the conclusion drawn that while there is no gainsaying the fact that in each area a body of organized information is essential to systematic analysis and planning, there exists considerable confusion between quantity and quality, between the necessary and the busy. So far, there is a lack of clarification not only as to the proper constitution of the information system but also about the qualifications of the "experts" designing them. Unfortunate as these matters are in raising the costs and lowering the benefits (economic and social, as well), they have ominous implications when viewed in the light of the many-fronted encroachments by computerized information systems on individuals' right to privacy. The data bank and the dossier may be rationalized as means to efficiency, but they cannot be reconciled with democratic process and freedom from cradle-to-grave surveillance.

The study of the future : an agenda for research

325 pages, figures, tableaux, 33 pages de bibliographieThis volume is concerned with forecasting. In particular, it is concerned with the various beliefs, methods, practices, and results associated with a kind of forecasting that has come to be referred to in the last JO to 15 years as "futures research." Most earlier works on these subjects-and there are many-have been philosophical or procedural, descriptive or exhortatory. They have tried to help us understand why we should study the future; how and to what extent this is possible; what the consequences may be if we fail to forecast responsibly or if we fail to use the best available forecasts; who is or should be involved in preparing and evaluating forecasts; where errors have been made; how forecasting can be made to complement planning and to strengthen decisionmaking; what subjects have been or should be addressed; how forecasting articulates with the larger needs and interests of society; and the like. But even the very best of these works has given us only slight guidance on the crucial question of what can and ought to be done to overcome current constraints on forecasting, constraints that prevent forecasting from making the kinds of contributions that could otherwise reasonably be expected of it. Suggestions abound, of course. Lacking, however, has been an attempt to view and review such suggestions in context with each other or against a common backdrop of actual experience in forecasting. Also missing from earlier discussions has been a careful and systematic effort to single out those difficulties that can be dealt with only through research, as opposed to, say, political action, institutional change, or education. Finally, even where questions that best lend themselves to research have been identified, few authors indeed have tried to evaluate priorities among the candidates. In short, while most authors agree that forecasting is still one of the primitive arts and that research can make a difference in many instances, the field is without a research agenda. The specific concern and aim of this book is to describe the elements of such an agenda and then to organize and evaluate these elements