Societal Dimensions of Engineering, Science, and Technology - SDEST: Conference on Patterns for Shaping the Network Society (Seattle, Washington; May 2002)

“塑造网络社会的模式”是一个雄心勃勃的，有点实验性的项目，它使用基于网络的技术和面对面的场所来开发一种基于网络和印刷的“模式语言”。这种模式语言的目的是反映一个大的、不断发展的、世界范围的、高度分布的“社区实践”的综合知识，即那些追求民主化和公民社会使用信息和通信技术的人。“模式语言”将在明年使用一个基本开放的过程进行增量开发。一个为期四天的会议将于2002年5月在西雅图召开，作为该进程的一个组成部分（http://www.cpsr.org/conferences/diacO2）.This方案的目的是解决为发展和维护世界范围内的民主通讯和信息系统而制定一致的、共同的研究和行动议程的迫切需求。它建立在网络日益普及和公民社会在世界各地日益重要和存在的基础上。我们的方法试图在一个大型合作项目中实现技术和社会调解之间的正确平衡。为此，我们正在开发基于网络的应用程序，利用技术能力和社会过程，促进及时的协作、人类的判断和创造力。我们面临的挑战是，利用开放和参与性的过程建立一个复杂的信息结构，有效地平衡包容性、高质量、一致性和及时性等相互冲突的需求。换句话说，过程和产品一样重要。尽管有这些不平凡的挑战，但我们认为这个计划解决了重要的目标，并建立在合理的假设和方法之上：即使这个计划没有达到其最终目标，重要的产品，如会议、会议记录、提交的模式和分析将被创建。这个雄心勃勃、前所未有的项目目前正在进行中。在撰写本文时，在线支持系统的模式输入和编辑部分正在运行，已经提交了50多个模式建议。到目前为止，这些提案来自加纳、印度、英国、美国、墨西哥、澳大利亚、德国、瑞典、瑞士、尼日利亚、南非、马来西亚、法国和巴西，因此，它们反映了我们打算在项目推进过程中继续参与的广泛社区。在整个过程中，大量重要问题浮出水面：思想是如何演变的，人们在协作过程中扮演什么角色，提出了哪些法律和其他考虑因素，如何处理知识所有权，异步（电子）协作方法如何加强或削弱同步（面对面）协作方法，反之亦然，“模式”结构是否适合集体知识构建，这种方法是否可移植到其他学科中，有多少模式“属于”一种模式语言，有多少工作可以通过技术来完成，有多少工作应该由人来完成，有多少工作可以在一个完全包容、开放的团队中完成，有多少工作应该由“执行委员会”来完成，等等，等等。

"Patterns for Shaping the Network Society" is an ambitious, somewhat experimental program, which uses web-based technology, and in-person venues in order to develop a web- and print-based "pattern language." The aim of this pattern language is to reflect the composite knowledge of a large, evolving, worldwide, highly distributed "community practice," namely those people pursuing the democratization and civic society uses of information and communication technology. The "pattern language" will be incrementally developed over the next year using a fundamentally open process. A four-day conference will be convened in Seattle in May 2002, as an integral part of the process (http://www.cpsr.org/conferences/diacO2).This program is intend to address the acute demand for a coherent, shared research and action agenda for the development and maintenance of democratic communication and information systems worldwide. It builds on the increasing ubiquity of the web and the increasing importance and presence of civil society throughout the world. Our approach attempts to achieve the correct balance between technological and social mediation in a large collaborative project. To that end we are developing the web-based applications that leverage the technological capabilities and social processes that promote timely collaboration and human judgement and creativity. The challenge is to develop a complex information structure using an open and participatory process that effectively balances the conflicting demands of inclusiveness, high quality, coherence, and timeliness. The process, in other words, is as important as the product. In spite of this non-trivial challenge we feel that this program addresses important goals and is built upon reasonable assumptions and approaches: even if this program falls short of its ultimate objectives, important products such as the conference, proceedings, submitted patterns, and analysis will be created.This ambitious and unprecedented project is currently underway. As of this writing, the pattern input and editing portion of the online support system is operational and over 50 pattern proposals have been submitted. The proposals, so far, originate in Ghana, India, UK, US, Mexico, Australia, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Nigeria, South Africa, Malaysia, France, and Brazil and, hence, reflect the wide-ranging community that we intend to continue to engage as this project goes forward.Throughout the process a large number of important questions come to the fore: how do ideas evolve, what roles to people assume in collaborative processes, what legal and other considerations are raised how is intellectual ownership handled, how do aynchronous (electronic) collaborative approaches reinforce with or detract from synchronous (face-to-face) collaborative approaches and vice versa is the "pattern" structure amenable to collective knowledge building, is this approach portable to other disciplines how many patterns "belong" in a pattern language, how much of the work can be done with the technology and how much should be accomplished with people, how much of the work can be done in a totally inclusive, open group and how much should be done with an "executive committee," etc., etc.