Informing the Good Society (InGSoc): New Directions in Information Policy
Lead Research Organisation:
Edinburgh Napier University
Department Name: Arts and Creative Industries
Abstract
Information policy has become a field of great national and international importance. We live in the Information Age, and our culture is being transformed in numerous ways by high technology and the explosive growth of communications. Good decisions need to be made about the role of information in society and that is what the information policy specialism addresses. InGSoc, short for Informing the Good Society: New Directions in Information Policy, aims to make information policy ready to face the challenges of this century.
InGSoc has been designed as a three-part programme of research. The first component is a population census project, to be conducted by a PhD student. The widespread practice of regular national population surveys may have interested statisticians and social scientists but it has been neglected by the arts and humanities. InGSoc intends to shed a new type of light on this key information institution, asking about its origins, rationale, ethics, interface, and future. It will be particularly interested in what the migration (already partially implemented in the 2011 UK census) from print formats to online might mean for public policy. This represents a bold new direction for information policy research.
The second part is an 'epunditry' project. Everything seems to be going 'e', from electronic publishing to egovernment, and political commentary and punditry are no exception. This project, to be carried out on a part-time basis by an experienced researcher, will examine the emergence of bloggers and other online experts, or would-be experts, against the backdrop of rapidly declining newspaper circulations. Are they up to the job of replacing the 'fourth estate'? Do we even need pundits in this age of access? These important yet still unanswered questions are ultimately about how to secure a healthy flow of information in society.
The third InGSoc project will dig down into the theoretical foundations of information policy. It will revisit some of the great British thinkers of the past, people like T. H. Green, Edward Caird and John Stuart Mill, and ask what their social philosophies imply for key information issues facing the world today. Those issues include freedom of information, the digital divide, the defence of personal privacy, intellectual property, and internet regulation and governance. This foundational study, which will be covered by the principal investigator for one day a week alongside oversight of the programme a whole, will make sure that InGSoc research is both 'deep and wide'.
InGSoc will be based at the Centre for Social Informatics, Edinburgh Napier University's leading research centre according to the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. Its goal is to produce a substantial body of new and important work, including a book, a dissertation and a series of major research articles, singly- and jointly-authored. The team will also disseminate their findings through national and international conference presentations, aiming not just at information policy specialists but at the wider academic community. Experts from a range of disciplines, and journalists and others from outside the academy, will give guest talks at the University. The 36-month programme will conclude on a high note with a multidisciplinary symposium. All this should help to ensure that the information policy field gains the recognition that it deserves.
InGSoc's key findings will be also be aggressively promoted to policy-makers and the public through a dynamic website, newspaper articles, and, when available, public debates and radio and television appearances. In these practical ways, InGSoc can be relied upon to result in a wider appreciation of the value of information policy in the development of what the famous American columnist-cum-social philosopher Walter Lippmann called 'the good society' (An Inquiry into the Principles of the Good Society, Little, Brown & Co., 1937).
InGSoc has been designed as a three-part programme of research. The first component is a population census project, to be conducted by a PhD student. The widespread practice of regular national population surveys may have interested statisticians and social scientists but it has been neglected by the arts and humanities. InGSoc intends to shed a new type of light on this key information institution, asking about its origins, rationale, ethics, interface, and future. It will be particularly interested in what the migration (already partially implemented in the 2011 UK census) from print formats to online might mean for public policy. This represents a bold new direction for information policy research.
The second part is an 'epunditry' project. Everything seems to be going 'e', from electronic publishing to egovernment, and political commentary and punditry are no exception. This project, to be carried out on a part-time basis by an experienced researcher, will examine the emergence of bloggers and other online experts, or would-be experts, against the backdrop of rapidly declining newspaper circulations. Are they up to the job of replacing the 'fourth estate'? Do we even need pundits in this age of access? These important yet still unanswered questions are ultimately about how to secure a healthy flow of information in society.
The third InGSoc project will dig down into the theoretical foundations of information policy. It will revisit some of the great British thinkers of the past, people like T. H. Green, Edward Caird and John Stuart Mill, and ask what their social philosophies imply for key information issues facing the world today. Those issues include freedom of information, the digital divide, the defence of personal privacy, intellectual property, and internet regulation and governance. This foundational study, which will be covered by the principal investigator for one day a week alongside oversight of the programme a whole, will make sure that InGSoc research is both 'deep and wide'.
InGSoc will be based at the Centre for Social Informatics, Edinburgh Napier University's leading research centre according to the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. Its goal is to produce a substantial body of new and important work, including a book, a dissertation and a series of major research articles, singly- and jointly-authored. The team will also disseminate their findings through national and international conference presentations, aiming not just at information policy specialists but at the wider academic community. Experts from a range of disciplines, and journalists and others from outside the academy, will give guest talks at the University. The 36-month programme will conclude on a high note with a multidisciplinary symposium. All this should help to ensure that the information policy field gains the recognition that it deserves.
InGSoc's key findings will be also be aggressively promoted to policy-makers and the public through a dynamic website, newspaper articles, and, when available, public debates and radio and television appearances. In these practical ways, InGSoc can be relied upon to result in a wider appreciation of the value of information policy in the development of what the famous American columnist-cum-social philosopher Walter Lippmann called 'the good society' (An Inquiry into the Principles of the Good Society, Little, Brown & Co., 1937).
Planned Impact
Informing the Good Society (InGSoc): New Directions in Information Policy is driven by the conviction that the field of information policy is of vital importance far beyond the walls of the academy. Information is the new 'Kapital', the real source of a nation's wealth and power, and InGSoc's aim is to make a palpable impact on some of the great policy issues confronting this Information Age.
Policy-makers, especially politicians, legislators and their advisors, are therefore viewed as key stakeholders in the InGSoc programme. In the medium and long terms, policy thinking at local, national and international level will be enhanced by the availability of a new peer-reviewed published corpus of relevant knowledge. A precedent is the inclusion of Dr Alistair Duff's Information Society Studies (Routledge, 2000) in the official UN reading list for the World Summit on the Information Society. Yet short term, direct impacts will also be energetically pursued through the tested media of political influence and agenda-building. Recent experience in mass-media appearances, including national television and radio interviews on the 2011 population census and a feature article in The Independent about Britain's leading political columnists, constitutes a sound basis for InGSoc's claim that the policy world will feel the effects of the proposed research well within the three-year project frame.
Other vital agencies within the public sector also stand to gain from this research, for example the General Register Office, responsible for the future of the population census, and the Scottish Information Commissioner and his opposite numbers in the rest of the UK and abroad. Responses to formal consultations as well as interactions in the media will ensure that InGSoc's innovative, humanities-based, messages are heard.
Knowledge transfer to a multiplicity of civil society organisations can also be expected. InGSoc research will interest policy 'think tanks' such as the Institute for Public Policy Research and the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center. InGSoc will also reach pressure groups active in information policy issues, such as the Edinburgh-based EthicalCensus. It will do this directly through press releases.
InGSoc findings will also inform professional and industry bodies. The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals and the Association for Journalism Education are among the many organisations which stand to gain from new thinking in information policy, broadly conceived. By means of meetings, media communications and an interactive web-site, the InGSoc programme should make tangible contributions to the calibre of their policy positions.
However, the single most important potential impact is that it will brighten the coinage of public opinion on key contemporary dilemmas. InGSoc will not be lost in vague abstractions and will pursue lucid, accessible expression even of its most erudite advances. Two of its components, the population census project and the 'epunditry' (electronic commentary) project, should be of immediate interest to every thinking person. The social philosophy project, by strengthening the theoretical foundations of information policy, will ensure that InGSoc's contribution to public knowledge will be deep as well as wide.
By media discussions, open seminars, letters to newspapers, and other methods detailed in the accompanying Pathways to Impact, the InGSoc programme will endeavour to engage the public itself in the building of a better information society.
Policy-makers, especially politicians, legislators and their advisors, are therefore viewed as key stakeholders in the InGSoc programme. In the medium and long terms, policy thinking at local, national and international level will be enhanced by the availability of a new peer-reviewed published corpus of relevant knowledge. A precedent is the inclusion of Dr Alistair Duff's Information Society Studies (Routledge, 2000) in the official UN reading list for the World Summit on the Information Society. Yet short term, direct impacts will also be energetically pursued through the tested media of political influence and agenda-building. Recent experience in mass-media appearances, including national television and radio interviews on the 2011 population census and a feature article in The Independent about Britain's leading political columnists, constitutes a sound basis for InGSoc's claim that the policy world will feel the effects of the proposed research well within the three-year project frame.
Other vital agencies within the public sector also stand to gain from this research, for example the General Register Office, responsible for the future of the population census, and the Scottish Information Commissioner and his opposite numbers in the rest of the UK and abroad. Responses to formal consultations as well as interactions in the media will ensure that InGSoc's innovative, humanities-based, messages are heard.
Knowledge transfer to a multiplicity of civil society organisations can also be expected. InGSoc research will interest policy 'think tanks' such as the Institute for Public Policy Research and the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center. InGSoc will also reach pressure groups active in information policy issues, such as the Edinburgh-based EthicalCensus. It will do this directly through press releases.
InGSoc findings will also inform professional and industry bodies. The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals and the Association for Journalism Education are among the many organisations which stand to gain from new thinking in information policy, broadly conceived. By means of meetings, media communications and an interactive web-site, the InGSoc programme should make tangible contributions to the calibre of their policy positions.
However, the single most important potential impact is that it will brighten the coinage of public opinion on key contemporary dilemmas. InGSoc will not be lost in vague abstractions and will pursue lucid, accessible expression even of its most erudite advances. Two of its components, the population census project and the 'epunditry' (electronic commentary) project, should be of immediate interest to every thinking person. The social philosophy project, by strengthening the theoretical foundations of information policy, will ensure that InGSoc's contribution to public knowledge will be deep as well as wide.
By media discussions, open seminars, letters to newspapers, and other methods detailed in the accompanying Pathways to Impact, the InGSoc programme will endeavour to engage the public itself in the building of a better information society.
People |
ORCID iD |
Alistair Duff (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Alistair Duff
(2014)
Information (encyclopaedia entry)
Duff A S
(2015)
Key principles of the good information society
Duff A
(2015)
Cyber-Green: idealism in the information age
in Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society
Forrest E
(2016)
The ecology of the ePundit: Surveying the new opinion-making landscape
in First Monday
Killick L
(2016)
The census as an information source in public policy-making
in Journal of Information Science
Killick L
(2016)
Power to the population? The population census under review
Duff A S
(2016)
Inspecting the bad society? Bentham's panopticon revisited
Duff A
(2017)
The Fellowship of the Net
in International Journal of Public Theology
Alistair S. Duff
(2017)
Contra Bentham: Information Policy in the PanopticEon
in Journal of Information Ethics
Duff A
(2017)
On Political Epunditry
in Journalism Studies
Forrest, Eve
(2017)
Ethical ePunditry? The Role of Expertise in Online Opinion-making
in Journal of Information Ethics
Description | It was discovered that information policy is not well understood and not not conducted very ethically, a worrying finding for citizens of information societies like the United Kingdom. First, population census information is not used properly by policymakers, in fact it is largely neglected. Moreover, the authorities plough ahead subcontracting key parts of the census to foreign intel corporations with questionable human rights records. Second, ePunditry has emerged as a major competitor to the traditonal punditry of newspaper columnists. The digital ePundits have livened up the democratic debate in many countries across the world, sometimes doing good, sometimes doing harm. Thirdly and finally, the project team discovered through archival research and applied analysis that many of the great Victorian thinkers, notably T. H. Green, Jeremy Bentham and the Christian Socialists, can still 'speak' many ethical truths to our much advanced technical world. |
Exploitation Route | Further work could be done in all the areas covered by the project, namely, population census, ePunditry and ninetheenth century intellectual foundations of information policy. |
Sectors | Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Government, Democracy and Justice |
URL | http://www.informingthegoodsociety.com |
Description | The 7 international journal articles published out of the project have begun to be cited across a broad range of domains. There have also been numerous mass media outputs, including a YouTube video, opinion and feature articles in newspapers, and invited interviews on Newsnight, The Atlantic.com and Radio Sputnik. Duff has given several keynote speeches, including one at euro.ia, a major European conference of information architecture professionals. There have also been numerous conference papers to diverse audiences, in the UK, Europe and Japan, as well as the hosting at Edinburgh Napier University of a successful series of public seminars. In addition, the Project website (www.informingthegoodsociety.com) recorded 103,068 page views. Policy impact has been pursued through FoI, privacy and population census contexts. |
First Year Of Impact | 2013 |
Sector | Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Government, Democracy and Justice |
Impact Types | Cultural,Societal,Policy & public services |
Description | Collaboration with privacy pressure group NO2ID |
Organisation | NO2ID |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | Duff was invited to speak of the July 2019 AGM of the Edinburgh branch of privacy pressure group NO2ID. He is now a member of this active branch, for example formulating its response to government consultations (e.g. the August 2019 consultation on a bill for a Scottish facial recognition commissioner) and regular participation it its Princes Street Saturday stall. |
Collaborator Contribution | This organisation has been active for many years, since the attempt to bring in identity cards in the 1990s. It provides human, infrastructure and limited financial resources. |
Impact | Response to government bill; numerous conversations with multinational public in Edinburgh. |
Start Year | 2019 |
Description | Featured Letter in Guardian Newspaper |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | 6 April 2015, 'Mere Brotherhood': the Relevance of the Christian Socialists of 1848, Letter by Alistair Duff in The Guardian (featured letter) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | http://www.informingthegoodsociety.com |
Description | Interview (The Ferret) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | The population census strand of the InGSoc project came into public play with a 15 February letter to the registrar general for Scotland from the principal investigator. Citing Killick et al.'s conference paper that found a majority of respondents opposed to the outsourcing of census operations to private companies, the letter urged the registrar not to award contracts to CACI Ltd. This company, used despite protests in the 2011 census, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of controversial US corporation CACI International. The registrar's 15 March reply, and the subsquent furore, can be followed at investigative online platform, The Ferret. The front-page article by Rob Edwards, Scotland's census criticised for links to firm accused of torture, was first published on 21 March 2018. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://theferret.scot/scotlands-census-firm-accused-torture/ |
Description | Newsnight Interview |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Newsnight Scotland is the second part of Newsnight, the leading current affairs BBC program me. I was interviewed in my ENU office about the future of newspapers, a topic that falls within my AHRC Informing the Good Society remit, specifically with respect to the work of my post-doc and myself on ePunditry (i.e. online rivals to newspaper columnists). 26 February 2014, Newsnight Scotland interview with Alistair Duff, on future of the press Positive feedback from journalists, including InGSoc external advisory panel member, Rob Edwards of the Sunday Herald. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
URL | http://www.informingthegoodsociety.com |
Description | Opinion Column in AllMediaScotland |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | 22 February 2014, 'Is electronic punditry the future and should we welcome it?, Commissioned Op-ed by Alistair Duff in AllMediaScotland (media website) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
URL | http://www.informingthegoodsociety.com |
Description | Opinion Column in The Scotsman |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Column in The Scotsman newspaper, arguing for right of privacy in the information age. Published the day after my inaugural lecture as professor of information policy, the lecture and article drew substantially on my AHRC work. 28 March 2014, 'Time to Close Curtains on Big Brother': opinion column by Alistair Duff in The Scotsman Positive oral feedback. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
URL | http://www.informingthegoodsociety.com |
Description | Opinion column on iPhone controversy |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | 'Apple is wrong in its refusal to unlock terrorist's iPhone' was a response to the tech corporation's position on the San Bernadino massacre. It was published in The Scotsman on 27 March, 2016, as well as in the online version, and generated some discussion. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjkv-WqxPH... |
Description | Panel member at official annual freedom of information conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Alistair Duff, professor of information policy, was invited onto the afternoon panel at the annual Freedom of Information Conference run by Holyrood events, 6 December 2017. The other panellists were Alastair Brian, Fact Checker, Ferret Fact Service, Doreen Grove, Head of Open Government, Scottish Government and Sarah Hutchison, Head of Policy & Information, Scottish Information Commissioner. The conference was keynoted by Joe FitzPatrick MSP, Minister for Parliamentary Business, The Scottish Government, and Daren Fitzhenry, Scottish Information Commissioner. Over 100 public sector staff, journalists and campaigners attended. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://foi.holyrood.com/about |
Description | Population Census Issue |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | The PI sent an official letter to the registrar general for Scotland, responsible for the next census in 2021. It cited InGSoc research by Killick, Duff et al. that found that a majority of respondents were against the outsourcing of census operations to private-sector companies, particularly foreign-owned ones. It also cited negative media stories over the use of CACI Lrd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of US-based CACI International, which has been accused of torture and sexual violence at Abu Ghrain prison. The letter dated 15 February was replied to on 15 March. The registrar had already signed two contracts with CACI Ltd. His letter was released by the PI to investigative platform The Ferret, where, including comment by Duff and others, it became the headline story. It is hoped that this story, and the research underpinning, it, will lead to a change of policy or at least further safeguards in the 2021 census. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://theferret.scot/scotlands-census-firm-accused-torture/ |
Description | Privacy Street Forum |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | On June 16, 2017, Alistair Duff with a hand-picked student team set up a poster in the middle of the Royal Mile, one of Edinburgh's most iconic and international streets, and engaged directly with the passing public on privacy issues. Over 100 conversations took place and approximately 200 handbills were distributed. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Public Lecture on Privacy |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | 'Privacy: an endangered species?' was delivered as a public lecture as part of numerous activities of the Edinburgh Napier University School of Arts and Creative Industries degree show. The 40-minute lecture, on the afternoon of May 24, was followed by 20 minutes of discussion. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | https://youtu.be/-g-PkkKd_os |
Description | Radio Sputnik Live Interview |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Radio Sputnik [formerly Radio Moscow] World Service interviewed Alistair Duff on July 13, 2017, on the topic of internet extremism. A shortened version of this 20-minute interview, conducted live by Justin White from the Moscow headquarters, is available from Radio Sputnik World Service, Moscow (http://sputniknews.com) or via Soundcloud: see 'The internet is just another crowded theatre' at https://soundcloud.com/radiosputnik. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://soundcloud.com/radiosputnik |
Description | Rotary Club Speech |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
Results and Impact | 'Privacy: an endangered species?' was the theme of Alistair Duff's invited dinner speech at the Rotary Club of Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, 22 March 2017. This half-hour talk was followed by a half hour of questions and comments by a lively and accomplished audience; according to the vote of thanks, it was one of the 'most provocative' in the club's recent history. The charitable organisation's secretary later emailed to say 'I am told everyone enjoyed your talk'. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | TV Studio Debate, Limits of Free Speech Online |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Scotland Tonight hosted a debate on the limits of free speech online between Alistair Duff and a sociologist from Abertay University. Presented and chaired by John MacKay. Live studio event at STV's Glasgow headquarters, 6 minutes in length. Topic of the 'Nazi' dog, the conviction of a Coatbridge man under communications law, for posting a video of his pug doing a Nazi salute. Scotland Tonight audience: 70,930. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS_rNijfVgY |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS_rNijfVgY |
Description | The Atlantic.com interview |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | I was approached by an associate editor of The Atlantic, a leading US monthly magazine, for an interview about my work on the information society and information policy. This interview, published on the magazine's online face, The Atlantic.com, as The Information Revolution's Dark Turn, was one of the 10 most-read stories of the edition. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | http://www.theatlantic.com/world/ |
Description | YouTube Video |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | 12 February 2014, 'New Study to Chart Rise of ePundits', ENU Press Release on YouTube |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
URL | http://www.informingthegoodsociety.com |