Information technology Public debate in the Netherlands

Information technology

Public debate in the Netherlands

Hans van der Loo and Paul Slaa

This article looks at the impact of information technology on society in the Nstherlands. A brief descrip- tion is given of the applications of technology (telecommunications Infrastructure, videotex, EFT), an analysis of the public debate taking place in the Ne~mlands, and an ~ i s a l of ~ im41,~f

Innovation, microelectronics, and Information technology. The authors conclude that the govern- merit must play a more active role in raising public awareness of the issues. Future studies should place more emphasis on the social consequences of Information technology.

Keywords Informabon technology, Publ¢ policy, The Netherlands

The authors are at the I ~ e of Sociology, State Umversay, Vakgroep Planning en Beleld, He~lelberglaan 2, Utrecht 3508TC/, the Netherlands (Tel 030-534505)

An earlier, unedlted versmn of this arbcle was presented at an EEC conference on Informabon Technology Impact on Repre- sentabon and Shanng of Power, Copenhagen 9-11 November 1981, organ~.ed by FAST

tA Toffler, The Thtrd Wave, Bantam, New York, 1981 2The European Pubhc's Attaude to Sctenbflc and Techntcal Development, CommL~an of the European Corr~xm~s, Brussels, 1979

Much of the influence of mformatmn technology on society, and especmlly Rs mapact on representanon and shanng of power, wdl only become mamfest m the future Such an observaUon m~ght lead to the conclusion that current developments are of minor unportance and that we would be better mvesugatmg the posslbdmes and consequences of the future Neglecting present developments however cannot be jusnfied the information sooety ~s casting shadows ahead of Rself At th~s stage the various actors are trying to occupy strategm poslUons to be certmn of a strong enough power base when the real breakthroughs take place

This arUcle looks at how socmty and government m the Netherlands ~s reacting to the introduction of mformanon technology There are three aspects to this.

• The technological developments under discussion • The actors taking part in the socml debate and the mare topics

discussed • Governmental pohcy related to mformat~on technology and Rs

apphcanons

Before starting our descnptmn, we will briefly state our own posmon w~th respect to the social chomes prescribed by reformation technology This technology, the product of the integration of mlcroelectromcs, computer technology and telecommumcatlon technology, will undoubtedly have an important impact on society In this respect, Alvin Toffler speaks of a 'Third Wave' that is breaking over sooety, t This pmture corresponds wRh the point of vmw of authors hke Schelsky, Bell and others at the end of the 1960s, who speak of the 'End of ideology', m whmh experts let technological posmblhtms determine social developments However, scepuosm about this 'can lmphes ought'-lmperatwe seems to be growing m many countries 2

Modern reformation technology, by Its very nature, ought to give more room for social chome, this should mean that the pace as well as the dlrecUon of the developments are more open to pubhc debate and pohtlcal choice than often is stated. Whether tMs is indeed the case can only be determined by studying the debate taking place and the pohcms being formulated

100 0308-5961/82/020100-11503 oo © 1982 Butterworth & Co (Publkshers) Ltd

Informanon technology

Information technology in the Netherlands

This section surveys the most tmportant developments m the field of reformation technology in Holland. the telecommunication infrastructure, vldeotex and electronic funds transfer systems The position of the Netherlands in reformation technology is strong On the hardware side it has a good starting point with Pinhps as one of the world's biggest cinp producers With regard to software, the Dutch market is expected to grow faster than any other country m Europe (16 3% yearly till 1983) a

The growth m data communication ~s faster than in other European countries, currently Holland is m stxth place 4 These favourable prospects are due to the modern and dense communication mfra- structure, a pubhc datanet, videotex and pubhc fascumle facdmes The number of people workmg m the mformaUon sector is estunated at between 160000 and 170000 s

aQuantum Scmnces Corporabon, The Computer Serwces Industry in the Netherlands, The Hague, 1980 4According to a report made by Logca Ltd for Eurodata, Financt~le Dagblad, 2 December 1980 5Accord)ng to government's answer to questmns =n Parhament, 23 January 1981

Telecommumcatton infrastructure We dlstmgmsh three components of the telecommumcat~ons infrastructure cable systems and satelhtes for broadcasting, the telephone network, and, the pubhc datanet

Very shortly, 60% of Dutch households will be connected to the cable network Cable television gives access to the two Dutch TV stations and also to a number of foreign stations The cable systems are exploited by private firms but the F I T supulates the technical condmons the networks have to fulfil and furmshes hcenses The F I T is also responsible for the national network winch supplies the local systems

Cable networks make possible new services such as pay-TV subscnbers can select their favounte programmes from those offered by the cable owner for a fee This service is not yet available m the Netherlands, but a few organizations have recently proposed pdot schemes However, the problem is that the existing cable systems are non-selectwe distnbu- t~on networks w~thout a return channel One solution is to code the programmes and to supply the subscriber with a special programmed decoder Another solution is to use the telephone network as the return channel

As yet there are no plans for launching a Dutch telewsion satellite, but, m pnnclple, programmes from foreign satelhtes can be received in Holland Cable television, pay-TV and satelhte television have far reaching consequences for the Dutch broadcastmg system These are discussed later in the article

The Dutch telephone network is one of the most dense and modern telephone networks m Europe In 1979, 83% of households had a connection Current developments include the replacement of the old electromechamcal telephone exchanges by computer controlled electronic ones and the digltallzatlon of the trunk lines, although the latter does not have a very high priority because of the poss, bdity of replacement by fibre opUcs Glass fibre makes it possible to integrate all kinds of services hke vlewdata, telephone and cable television

The average degree of utfllzauon of the telephone network ~s rather low a percentage of 3% is mentioned for trunk hnes This is one reason why the PTT is encouraging the development of new services that make use of public telephones

At tins moment the F I T pays much attention to the establishment of a public packet switching datanet, called DN-1 This network became

T E L E C O M M U N I C A T I O N S POLICY June 1982 101


6NOS, Whatts Teletekst9 HiIversum, 1980, p14 7p Ruaen, Vmwdata In opmars, Alphen aid Rain, 1980, p 96

operational m March 1982 It Is governed by mternauonal protocol X25 and uses wrtual connectmns DN-1 can be used for managing the &stnbutmn of goods, electromc funds transfer, and collecting measurements, eg the use of electnc~ty, gas and water m the household. The need for such a pubhc datanet is derived from the expected growth m the data traffic on the one hand, and is also due to the hrn~tatmns of the existing telephone network on the other

Vtdeotex

Expenments are currently being carried out m the Netherlands w~th both teletext and vlewdata On the 1st Apnl 1980, NOS (a neutral coordinating broadcasting organization) began an experiment called Teletekst Originally the experiment was projected to last one year, but ~t will now continue untd April 1983 By then the debate m the Dutch Parhament on mformatmn and media pohcy is expected to have taken place The Dutch system is based on the Bntlsh Ceefax/Oracle system In January 1982 it contmned 200 pages of text

NOS gave three reasons for expertmentmg with Teletekst 6

• In Apnl 1980 the problems with mternatmnal standard~zatmn seemed to be largely resolved

• NOS did not want to fall behind developments elsewhere m FR Germany it was announced that a teletext experiment would be starting two months later (60% of Dutch television viewers can recleve German programmes), the Dutch PTI" would soon be starting vlewdata experiments

• For the benefit of deaf people

The cost of Teletekst has been relatwely low Eqmpment costs have been about $80000, while tmplementatlon costs are low compared with normal TV programmes Teletetekst is free for the consumer, ~t ~s only necessary to buy a decoder or an adapted TV set.

In August 1980 the Dutch F I T began a one year experiment w~th a Prestel-based wewdata system called V~&tel. To overcome the problem that occurred when Prestel was introduced m the UK, ~e not enough subscnbers, instead of paying the subscnptmn fee, every mformauon prowder had to bnng m one subscriber per 50 hired pages 7 Dunng the expenment , Vl&tel has been admm~stratwely and technically managed by the F I T The status of V~&tel after the expertment has to be dec~ded by the government This questmn has led to much pubhc debate

V~&tel has been much more expenswe than Teletekst. The mvestment of the PTT when Vl&tel continues successfully (the PTI" expectes 100000 subscnbers and 500 mformauon prowders m 1985) ~s estLmated at $56 mflhon for the next five years Vldltel ~s also expenswe for the lnforma- tmn provider and the subscriber Therefore ~t ~s expected that V~&tel will be mainly used by businesses and professmnal people Nevertheless the expenment was also &rected to the general consumer There was an extensive pubhclty cumpmgn, which does not seem to have been very successful

To get an Idea of the problems related to vlewdata and of the acceptance of partlcapants and the general pubhc, the expertment ws graded by a steenng group whose task ~t was to adwse both the F I T and the government about the way m which Vl&tel should develop Besides this a market survey and accompanymg research was set up among mformatmn providers, subscribers and a sample of non-partletpants. A prelmamary

102 TELECOMMUNICATIONS POLICY June 1982

Information technology exammaUon had shown that the potential user of Viditel has a higher than average education, welfare and interest in technological innovation Therefore, to make the research representative, the PTI' offered 300 working class families free facihties and subscription to Vldltel

To prevent an early withdrawal of information providers and an alarming loss of investment, the PTT was quick to announce the continuation of Vidltel after August 1981 s In the immediate future, most attention will be paid to reallzang the gateway function of Viditel, that ~s the connection of external databanks with the Viditel computer This is considered to be essential for the success of Viditel 9

Electromc funds transfer Since 1975 a study has been carried out by banks, the F I T and government into the possibility of establishing an electronic funds transfer system in the Netherlands Originally the problem was to integrate the three existing glro systems, but through the influence of technologmal developments the problem shifted to the design of a complete infrastructure in which new devices like point-of-sale terminals, automatic teller machines and intelligent terminals for distributed data- processing could be integrated The public datanet DN-1 offers enormous opportunities m this respect The savings of a complete EFT- system based on DN-1 are estimated at between $32--62 million, but it is only the four biggest banks and the telecommunications parts of the F I T which would benefit directly from EFT 10 Postal giro (also part of PTF) and all other banks would probably lose out The introduction of EFT has been delayed mainly because of this unbalanced division of assets and liabilities, but also because the social acceptance of electronic money handling might be a problem

The public debate Having outlmed the main apphcations of information technology in the Netherlands we now turn our attention to the debate this has prompted We will mention the mare topics, but first, we briefly state the position of the most important interest groups

sVidlpress, Apn11981, p 3 9Vidlpress, July 1981, p 18 toOnderzoek Voorontwerp Nat~onaal BetahngsQrcult met gebrudo'nalong van het Openbare Datanet DN-1, Amsterdam, 1980

Interest groups The F I T has a central role in all mentioned fields of information technology because of its monopoly position with respect to the infra- structures telecommunication, post and postal giro This means that the P I T can influence the rate and the direction in which new information channels are introduced (Incidentally the PTI" is not a monolith, because different departments sometimes have opposing interests, as is the case with electronic funds transfer the telecom department wants EFT because the public datanet will be used more efficiently, the postal glro department fears a loss of customers)

The main charactenstlcs of the Dutch broadcasting system are the following there is a strong legislation by public authorities, it is highly centralized (there is no local television), there are su( ideologically different broadcasting orgamzatlons and one neutral coordinating organization (NOS), there is in general a strong aversion to commercial influence With respect to teletext and viewdata, NOS has new functions as manager of Teletekst and as information provider for Viditel

Newspapers and pubhshers are well aware of new developments The

TELECOMMUNICATIONS POLICY June 1982 103

Informanon technology newspapers estabhshed a specaal foundation, Krantel, to gain expenence with Vld~tel and to mvesugate the consequences for advemsmg The pubhshers did the same with the founding of Modern Media Neither newspaper nor pubhshers see Teletekst as a threat, partly because advertising via Teletekst Is forbidden Vldltel, however, m~ght m the long run replace some spectfic magazanes and journals Therefore, pubhshers want ~t to be considered as another form of pubhshmg.

The posmon of the pubhc ~s that of passive recap~ent The existing consumer orgamzataons have not really revolved themselves m recent developments. A d~fficulty ~s that one cannot speak of the general interests of the pubhc DLfferent groups have d~fferent opinions Of course the pubhc can influence by accepting or refusing the new serwces However, an actwe part~capat~on ~s needed ff socaety wants to influence the developments to achieve socially acceptable services

There are many other interest groups revolved, eg eqmpment manu- facturers, mformat~on supphers, cable owners, trade umons, banks, the film industry and journahsts. When the consequences of new developments are not fully known, the interests of all these groups cannot be completely clear As a result, the &scuss~on so far on mformatmon technology has taken a rather capncaous course

Mare ~sues

When we look at the d~fferent social ~ssues concerning mformanon technology, compare the statements on each ~ssue made by concerned groups and the number of times the various ~ssues are mentioned m the pubhc debate, we can distinguish three k~sues that emerge as tmportant: broadcasting, the role of the P T r and pnvacy.

The existing strong leg~slauon of the broadcasting system was ongmally justified because of the scarcaty m bandwidth Now that the technological developments have abohshed tins scarcaty the fundamental question is who ought to occupy or dwlde all the avadable channels The most extenswe debate is centred around the cable systems. There are two problems:

• Who decades which foreign TV programmes the cable owners may relay to the pubhc? When m 1979 a pnvate cable owner wanted to relay the commercial Luxemburg stauon RTL, ~t was forbidden by the government A change of law was needed to allow ~t This measure led to anunated disucssions about whether tlus was un- permitted censorship or legitimate protection of Dutch culture The panic of the government and broadcastmg orgamzataons is striking because ~t could have been foreseen years before. Recently the discussion flared up again when the F I T announced a plan to prowde the supply of fourteen foreign staUons

• Who controls the 'TV pnates'? The underlying problem here ~s the status of a cable system Can it be considered as an extension of a television set, hke the antenna, or ~s ~t a d~stnbut~on system connected to the radio installation. In the first case the cable owner ~s responsible for removing pirates, m the second case the PTr The film industry ~s particularly interested m removing the p~rates, who are very popular with the general pubhc

The F I T is cnUzed for its monopoly posmon from d~fferent sides Industry as a whole states that, because the profits of P IT Telecom are creamed off by the government there ts not enough money left for the


t lD Nelkm and M Pollak, 'The polmcs of parbctpabon and the nuclear debate =n Sweden, the Netherlands and Austna', Pubhc Pohcy, Vol 25 No 3, 1977, pp 333- 57

lnformatton technology

necessary investments m developmg the telecommumcat~ons infrastructure The planning of the F I T Is also said to be too short term As stated before, the PTT is accused of monopolmng the supply of foreign stations on cable telews~on Pubhshers accuse the PTI" of playing pubhsher with Vldltel wlthout gavlng them the opportumty to partlcapate The reformation eqmpment industry cnt~cazes the F I T for lmposmg restnctwe regulations on penpheral apparatus hke telephones, printers and terminals A commission has recently been set up by the government to investigate these accusations

The &scusslon on privacy is taking place on two levels The pubhc is increasingly showing its disapproval of the gathermg of personal data Because of this the populaUon census planned for 1981 had to be cancelled. More specifically there is growing criticism of the fact that the privacy act, announced In 1976, was only presented to Parliament in December 1981 It is reahzed that this could also have consequences for the economy many countries have forbidden international data traffic with countnes with a less stnngent pnvacy law Furthermore, the proposals only give procedures for registration of personnel and institu- tional databanks, whereas the reasons for data gathenng are not taken Into account

Charactertsncs of the dtscusston We have three observations to make about the character of the public discussion on mformatlon technology First, the public debate ~s lumted to a few mare themes- broadcasting, the F I T and pnvacy Other developments which might also have a great mapact on society, hke EFT and Vl&tel, are hardly &scussed outside the group ~mmedmtely concerned This observation is m hne w~th Nelkm's statement that technological developments become an important soctal issue only when they are clearly visible and perceptible m dady hfe tl Compared to nuclear energy, which can be locahzed, informaUon technology has an all pervasive and rather abstract character Th~s means that, to stunulate a pubhc debate, much mformat~on has to be provided and the main problems have to be stated clearly

Second, the discussion is rather erratic As stated above, this might be due to the fact that the technology ~s new, that the consequences are not clear and that the concerned groups do not yet know what their interests are In this s~tuatlon the best strategy might be to do a few lumted experiments with various forms of information technology (for example a limited cable system, small scale vldeotex, etc) This would provide an opportunity to mvesUgate, evaluate and change Developments in the Netherlands have followed this line m some cases, especially w~th Vldltel But if, dunng such an experiment, It IS dec~ded that the project cannot be scrapped because of the high investments already made, this strategy is undermined In other cases no room for expenmentatlon was left at all the cable systems were there before anyone had an ~dea of how to use them Cable systems and Vldltel are two cases m which the social choice is limited more than necessary by one-sided interests or by too rapid incor- poration of a technological innovation

Third, most discussions have started within the part~cipatmg restitu- tions and are dominated by experts In the case of cable systems, Vldltel and EFT, it is the contrasting interests of the various lnst~tutions concerned that lead to a discussion and determine the direction of it These &scusslons are rather closed for the general public The only issues

T E L E C O M M U N I C A T I O N S POLICY June 1982 105

lnformanon technology

aZNota Selectmve Groet, The Hague, 1976

Figure 1. tnformabon pol~/ and fls broader pohcy context.

that have raised pubhc concern are pnvacy and the TV pirates. Tins also holds for the Parhament and the government. It ~s true that the state is involved m most of the developments by means of the state-owned FIT, but tins mst~tut~on behaves m many respects like a pnvate firm The government's only actave role is that it takes decisions on problems raised; it does not steer the chscusslon ~tself Thus, the selectaon of the problems to be discussed and the way this d~scuss~on takes place IS largely determmed by the msmutlons chrectly revolved

Public policy InformaUon pohcy has its own specific character. It ~s not only part of a broader pohcy context (socaoeconomic and mnovauon pohcy), but zs also complementary to already pursued pohcy m related areas, le mlcroelectromcs pohcy (see Figure 1) Tins section outhnes Dutch socioeconomic and mnovat~on pohcy and then proceeds to mscroelectromcs pohcy and information pohcy.

Soctoeconomtc and mnovauon pohcy Since the mld-1970s socloeconom~c pohcy has been attempting to take non-economic factors into account. This led in 1976 to the governmental 'Memorandum concerning selective growth' 12 In sttmulatmg economic development, the government wanted to take account of factors such as enwronmental protection, energy conservation, etc. Recent developments, however, show an emphas~s on the needed restructuring of Dutch industry This has led to a firmer industry policy that might well be in conflict with the goals of selective growth.

Attempts to strengthen the mnovattve capacity of trade and mdustry must be seen m relation to d~mimshing exports and increasing unemployment According to the 'innovation memorandum' of 1979, the main pnontles are. to estabhsh a closer relationship between research m umversmes, research institutes and industry, to make better use of existing and new knowledge; to raise the mnovatwe awareness m small and medium sized firms, by lmprowng channels for advice, and, to estabhsh innovation-onented procurement policies

Mtcroelectrontcs pohcy The ongm of m~croelectromcs policy hes m the lnsmut~on m December 1978 of the Advisory Committee for the Societal Consequences of Micro- Electronics This committee was meant to raise awareness m microelectronics, especially of the industry, and to advise the government

~ / / J Socioeconomic policy Poh CY_ Innovation policy

i Information policy j~ ~1 MicroelectronIcs policy -1 Media policy pnvacy,etc

B _~_.Rphcohons [Informohon apphcotmnsJ ~ J Appl,cot,ons ,n products processes J

j Cor.pute l technology J J CornmunlcahonsJ [ technology J t t

Technoloqy_ J Basic technology mlcroelectronlcs I


Table 1. ~ qlendblg on micro QIKtXOntCS In 'lllte ~ (11181)

$(milllon) Work and emp4oyment 18 Educabon "~ Direct support for m c k ~ S 1 Mcroelectrzx.cs centres 6 Technology assessment 0 S Total 32 7

,Source 'l~l___m,~tal)p~l~e gevolgen van mlcro- electronca', Regenngsstandpunt, p 11

~3Regenngdstandpunt inzake Micro- Electronca, 16 September 1980 t K ) v ~ op bet terr~n van de InformatJe, een ~ l e n d e Verken- nmg, 16 September 1980

lnformanon technology

about the best possible pohcy optzons Separate attention to mmcroelectromcs as such was justified by the fact that m~croelectromcs was conszdered to be a baszc technology that could be an renovating force m a dwerslty of other areas and could therefore have a specaal strategic value. 13

Another ~mportant factor that led to th~s commRtee being set up was the feehng that the Netherlands was falhng behind other countnes France, the UK and FR Germany had already estabhshed sttmulatlon programmes

The committee's report appeared in November 1979. It had a broad approach, and contained an estmaat~on of the economic consequences of mlcroelectromcs It also paid much attention to the sooocultural consequences of mlcroelectromcs The commRee proposed a flexable pohcy and constant momtonng of socmtal consequences of m~cro- electronics by means of technology assessment The report d~d much to stmaulate pubhc dzscuss~on on rmcroelectromcs

It ~s tmportant to note that the government's pohcy proposals m September 1980 were strongly directed to the sttmulaUon of mmcroelectromcs for economic purposes, whde m the soclocultural and momtonng area no definmve proposals were made The government planned to

• Sttmulate improvement of workplaces and trmmng and retraining of employers,

• Stn'nulate the apphcat~on of m~croelectromcs m industry by means of subsidies, loans and adwce;

• Set up a mmcroelectromcs centre for advice and consultation mmd of small and medmm sized finns; and,

• To make further technology assessment studies

Investment in these areas m 1981 is shown m Table 1

Informauon pohcy After pressure from all sides, the Mmtster for Science Pohey produced a memorandum on reformation pohcy in September 1980 Informataon policy was described as 'a coordinating concept which includes all pohcy actwmes m the areas of productmn, storage, transport, d~stnbutmon and use of mformat~on'

A decision was made against a strong centralLzed approach m favour of a pohcy of coordmauon and rodefinmon of the dmfferent existing pohcy areas that are revolved The responsibdlty for the execuUon of the measures remains wRh the dzfferent departments Th~s chomce ms contrary to the posmon m France for example, where a central authonty ms responsible for mformaUon pohcy

The development of an reformation pohcy ms based on: the maintenance of the fundamental pnncaples of the constRutmonal state and the democracy and the maintenance and mmprovement of the plurahty of society, protectmn of privacy, the stimulation of mformatton technology as a key factor of econommc development making mt possmble for industry to take full advantage of mt A pohcy committee was set up to work out proposals for estabhshmg mformauon pohey Untd now only one speofic area, the private sector, has been mvesUgated The delay is attributed to the formaUon of the cabinet In fact, m the new government the post of the Minister of Science Pohcy has been eliminated, which might cause further delay

TELECOMMUNICATIONS POLICY June 1982 107


tST Huppes, Maatschappehlke C-evolgen van de 'Chlp'-technologle, Stenfert Kroese, Leiden, 1980, Ch#p Technology and ~e Labour Market, Metra Consulang Group Ltd, Mm=stry of So~al Affairs, The Hague, 1980

As stated above, mformat~on technology integrates exastmg and newly- formed pohcy. Two areas of existing pohcy are Lmportant m tlus respect: medm and pnvacy pohcy Existing media pohcy has to a large extent been overtaken by the new mformat~on technologies like cable, satelhte and wdeotex. Although the state-owned F I T plays an innovative role m th~s respect, the government has been taken by surprise by the new developments There now exasts a bottleneck m pohcy making because, while the government ms wmtmg for adwce on medm pohcy from the Soent~fic Councd for Government Pohcy (expected m spnng 1982), some of the emerging problems (TV pirates, etc) are being fought out m court

With respect to privacy, Dutch legislation lags behind most other countnes There ~s no pnvacy leg~slaUon yet, although extenswe proposals were made by an adwsory commasslon In 1976

Evaluating government pohcy In the process of pohcy making we dlstmgmsh three mare stages"

• The gathenng of knowledge and insight about the opportunmes and consequences of new developments,

• The making of judgements about the desu'ablhty of these developments; and,

• The taking of measures to achieve the desired and avert the unwanted.

Let us look now whether these three stages can be dzstlngmshed m the actual pohcy making process WRh regard to knowledge and insight it can be stated that the government has tried to gain a broad wew on the problems related to reformation technology w~th some success In particular, the actwRles of the former Department of Science Pohcy contributed to a higher awareness wRhm the deparments revolved as well as m industry and society The scope of the topics stud~ed has been broad Besides the already mentioned report of the Advisory Committee, specml studzes were earned out on the soczocultural aspects of mlcroelectronlcs, as well as on the tmphcat~ons for labour is The fact that the mst~tuuonahzat~on of technology assessment studies has not yet taken place seems to conflict with this, but ms~ders declare that this has been because of orgamzat~onal reasons

With regard to the judgements made about mformaUon technology and its ~mpact, two remarks can be made F~rst, the atUtude of the Dutch government can be characterized as moderately stLmulat~ve One reahzes that developments take place wRh sometames far-reaching consequences, but government w~shes neither to force nor to prevent them. The result Is a collectmn of isolated measures rather than the grand design that m~ght be expected One of the roam reasons that ~s put forward to defend this rather restrained atmude ~s that the Netherlands has an open economy and as to a hagh degree dependent on developments abroad leawng httle domestic room for manoeuvre Second, economic problems largely determine the polmcal agenda Innovation for the benefit of economic restoraUon seems to be a goal m Rself The 'selectw~ty of economic development' can hardly be recogntzed anymore Fundamental questions hke whether mnovataons wall indeed lead to desired results or potentml s~de effects hardly come up for poht~cal discussion The conclusion mzght be that m the phase of politacal judgement the problems concernmg the mformat~on society are defined far more narrowly than m the phase of gathenng knowledge and mslght


lnformatton technology

With regard to the measures taken by the government, let us look at the already established microelectronIcs pohcy (see Figure 2) It is clear that the government emphasizes the stnnulation of mmcroelectromcs apph- catmns on the mdustnal level (arrow 1) and the fight agmnst the most urgent consequences, ie unemployment (arrow 2) Hardly any measures have been taken e~ther to prevent undesirable soc~ocultural consequences (arrow 3), or to momtor these effects dunng the ~mplementatmn of mtcroelectronics in society One must conclude that the proposed policy of the government has ~ts source in the fear of a backward economy wlth respect to other countnes, and that it is technology which dictates the choices that can be made about mIcroelectromcs

The lethargzc approach of the government might be explamed by the following factors

• The strong posmon of the chnstIan party in the government, a party which does not favour strong state mtervention in the economy

• The short tradmon m the field of sicence and technology pohcy Only smce 1973 has there been a Science Pohcy Munster, and smce September 1981 the functmn has disappeared

• Other factors concerning pubhc policy For example the stauc character of bureaucracy, the connections between some departments and interest groups, and the general &sposmon towards technical problems mstead of socml problems

16p Hail, Great Planning Disasters, We)denfeld and N¢olson, London, 1980

Figure 2. Schemat¢ representatmn of [ mcroelectroncs polcy [

Government's active role

The pohtlcal action described above is in accordance with Ferguson, the Scottish morahst, who said that, 'society is the result of human actmn, not of human design' Generally speakmg this is correct, but we would add, paraphrasing Orwell, that 'some people design more than others' In the case of information technology, we see a small group of experts trying to impose their design for an reformation society upon a relatively ignorant and apathetic society

It may seem comfortable to let ourselves be earned away by such ready-made designs, but we run the risk that many apphctlons of the reformation technology will turn out to be what Peter Hall called 'planning disasters' 16 In analysing a number of these disasters (including the French-British Concorde project) he suggests the followmg as causes of their occurrence

• Declsmns of other mStltutmns were not sufficiently taken into account

• Normauve changes m society itself were not sufficiently taken into account

Hall states that, m their euphony with respect to new technological possibilities, experts base their expectaUons most of the tune on 'mechanical exercises m statisucal trend-extrapolation' instead of on

Sc)ence, industry $ocloculturol technology = --

Socioeconomic

'141 111 131 ~IZ)

G o v e r n m e n t

TELECOMMUNICATIONS POUCY June 1982 109

Informanon technology

~lbtd, p268

'~mprovements m the knowledge of how people will judge the results of deaslons ' 17

It occurs to us that, especmlly on this last point, the government must play an acUve role instead of taking the hne that 'govermng ~s wmtmg' In this context prionty must be gwen to raising public awareness concemmg posslblhtles and problems of informauon technology and stimulating socml discussion on these topics. Furthermore, future expernnents must place more emphas~s on the social consequences of mformauon technology.

110 TELECOMMUNICATIONS POUCY June 1982

Information technology Public debate in the Netherlands

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