Information Panopticon & The Development and Convergence of ICTs in The Organization of Work

Abstract:
              I argue in this blog about Information Panopticon & the development and convergence of information and communication technologies(ICT),how its use in the organization of work as an example, is creating a global network of surveillance capabilities which affect the traveller. These surveillance capabilities are reminiscent of 18th century philosopher Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon, and as such the emerging global surveillance network has been referred to as the ‘travel panopticon’.

History of Information Panopticon – Some Important Aspects:           
            Jeremy Bentham was a philosopher and political radical who influenced the development of liberalism. Bentham was a significant figure in 19th century Anglo-American philosophy, but he is perhaps best known as an early advocate of utilitarianism. Indeed, his secretary and collaborator was James Mill, the father of John Stuart Mill—with whom utilitarianism is synonymous.
              Among Bentham’s insights and ideas was a plan for a multi-purpose disciplinary facility where the need for supervision was paramount. The primary function of the facility was as a prison or penitentiary, but Bentham thought the design equally applicable to schools, hospitals, ‘‘mad houses’’, and factories. In fact it was his brother Samuel’s efficient factory design which formed the basis for Bentham’s idea.

              The physical details of the panopticon are perhaps best given by paraphrasing Bentham himself: “The building is circular. The prisoners’ cells occupy the circumference, and are divided from each other to prevent all communication. The room for the inspector, or chief warden, occupies the centre of the building. Light is provided by a window in each cell, but the inspector’s room is designed in such a way that no direct light penetrates it from the perspective of the prisoners"
             This last point is crucial, as it enables the power of seeing without being seen—one of the essential ‘‘qualities’’ of the panopticon. As Bentham noted, this has the effect of creating the idea of surveillance in the prisoners’ minds and has the benefit that the inspector need not be in the central inspection room at all times. Such a quality of apparent omnipresent surveillance also has the consequence of creating a ‘‘chilling effect’’, where not only are the prisoners’ behaviours modified by the very course of incarceration, but that the prisoners also participate in their own self-modification. Michel Foucault wrote further on this in his work ‘Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison’, where he argued that invisible power gazes relentlessly upon society’s citizens, and puts them under such intense scrutiny that they become persuaded to participate in their own subjection.

ICTs - an Introduction:
              Information & Communication Technology usually called ICT, is often used as an extended synonym for information technology (IT) but is usually a more general term that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications  (telephone lines and wireless signals), intelligent building management systems and audio-visual systems in modern information technology.

Use of ICTs -  The Organization of Work & The Global Network of Surveillance:
              Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are reshaping many industries, often by reshaping how information is shared. Information-intensive industries, by their nature, show the greatest impacts due to ICTs that enable information sharing and the bypassing of traditional information intermediaries. However, while the effects and uses of ICT are often associated with organizations (and industries), their use occurs at the individual level. In other words, it is changes to individual work related to the use of ICTs that reshape both organization and industry structures, and viceversa.

              The now well established ICT paradigm is one based on developments in digital computing technologies combined  with advances in telecommunications capabilities. On top of this paradigm is emerging a whole range of new technological developments and applications—technologies which are enabling unprecedented convergence of hitherto disparate fields of human endeavour.  In particular, the convergence of these technologies is  having a profound effect on the policies and practices which nation states use for border control. This effect is transforming previously largely passive, incompatible, and primitive systems of border control into coordinated, sophisticated, and active systems of people tracking.This transformation has accelerated subsequent to the events in  the United States of September 11, 2001, and is resulting in the emergence of a seamless, ubiquitous, and continuous  form of travel surveillance.
              The travelling public are generally unaware of the scale, depth, or sophistication of this travel surveillance. They are also often unaware that they are under surveillance at all, let alone by whom they are being surveilled. Such surveillance characteristics are reminiscent of 18th century Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon, and as such the phenomenon of systematic global mass travel surveillance has been referred to as the travel panopticon.
              Bentham’s panopticon was an architectural plan intended (primarily) for a prison building where the prison’s guard could observe all prisoners, but where the prisoners could not see the guard. The travel panopticon has much of this same functionality, albeit in a more complex and multifaceted form. Its overall effect is one of ICT enabled surveillance of people movement on a massive and global scale as well as at increasingly fine levels of segmentation. The emergence of the travel panopticon raises profound ethical, political, and societal questions,—namely what effect is this emergence having on personal autonomy which is an essential part of any canonical account of moral philosophy, and it is also one of the most important elements in the political tradition of liberalism.
              On the other hand, these Trusted traveller’ or ‘fast track’ schemes such as Passenger data sharing agreements, Radio frequency identification (RFID- sensor and scanner technologies that use radio waves to identify people or objects automatically) etc., encourage the uptake in the use of biometrics and RFIDs with the promise of faster queuing times and reduced ‘hassle’ at airports.

Conclusion:
               In this post, I tried to argue of technology enabling the understanding and conveying of information expands in speed, efficiency and boundary-spanning daily. This, in turn, may throw entire industries into turmoil, some roles becoming redundant while completely new ones emerge. New approaches to work, knowledge, information, ICT and organization structure are essential prerequisites to survive in this new environment.  
              Common to all the ‘trusted traveller’ schemes mentioned above is their two level method of operation. Their ‘public face’ is the potential to reduce waiting times at airports and other border areas and to reduce the ‘hassle factor’ in negotiating the often long lines of people and myriad of forms necessary to enter or exit a country. These technological and informational practices have in turn been complimented by laws and international agreements diluting important aspects of human rights and human rights conventions. All of these initiatives have the potential in and of themselves to reduce personal autonomy, but it is in their combined application that the true surveillance capability of the travel panopticon is realised and the real consequences for personal autonomy and human dignity emerge.

References:
(i)  Wikipedia  - for getting some of the definitions of terms.
(ii)  Semple, J. (1993). ‘Bentham’s prison: A study of the panopticon penitentiary’. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
(iii) ‘Personal autonomy in the travel panopticon’ an article by Eamon Daly Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009.
(iv) ‘Dilemmas of Transformation in the Age of the Smart Machine’ by Shoshana ZuboJJ.

                                                                                                                                   Submitted by: Syed Ashruf,
                                                                                                                                                               AE09B025.