Isictometrics: toward an alternative vision and process

Abstract

Measurement of intangible goods and phenomena is fraught with material and much more conceptual difficulties. As information and ICT pervades most aspects of society, the availability of meaningful indicators becomes an ever more vexing problem. Early attempts in the information economy school tried to adjust existing socio-economic measures to the “new” reality by separating primary and secondary information industries and activities from those related to tangible goods. Others tried to actually measure information flows. Many assembled a mix of socio-economic indicators deemed to point to key aspects of the transformations taking place or the supposed characteristics of an “information society”. In the past few years attention has been focused on the spread of ICT, and of the Internet in particular, giving birth to a variety of indicators or “models”. They all are geared in first place to the state and evolutionary trends of the infrastructure, with a more or less comprehensive definition of the latter, e.g. including or not human resources and information stocks. In second place many are also considering information use, possibly including the circumstances of use. Because we see their focus in the ICT themselves, we call these efforts “ICTometrics”. They might rather be called “TachICTometrics” so much they are concerned with the relative speed of diffusion of ICT at the expense of other aspects. The evolution human societies are undergoing is however much more complex and far reaching than the simple availability and use of a set of technologies. We contend that ICTometric indicators need to be selected and Enc. Bibli: R. Bibliotecon. Ci. Inf., Florianópolis, n.12, dez. 2001 14 adapted in consideration of the social relevance of the phenomena they point to. Social relevance itself cannot be left to preconceptions of the elite or dominant actors. A participatory mechanism should be put in place with a view to link development priorities of the communities with the eventual contribution of ICT to their achievement and devise the corresponding indicators. The same mechanism should allow for an ongoing application of the indicators and their confrontation with realities and perceived changes so that they can be fine tuned, or discarded. An important feature here is the appropriation of the indicators by those who are experiencing the transformations under way, as opposed to the common imposition of indicators by intellectual or social authorities. We call this effort “IsICTometrics” for Impact on Society of ICT. Whether or not ICT are revolutionizing societies, actors and especially the people supposed to enjoy its unprecedented benefits should be able to have their say in the process of policy formulation. To that end they need to have instruments and methods that allow them to judge what is occurring. This is the purpose of the methodological component of the Olistica project (http://funredes.org/olistica).