Only Connect: Shaping Networks and Knowledge for the New Millennium

Citation

Keary, M. (2000), "Only Connect: Shaping Networks and Knowledge for the New Millennium", The Electronic Library, Vol. 18 No. 6, pp. 448-469. https://doi.org/10.1108/el.2000.18.6.448.17

This book is about seemingly unrelated elements to create new kinds of empathy, connectivity, synergy and commerce. It is also about the tools we use to connect and communicate with each other in daily life. In particular, it explores the forces at work in the way we connect to share information and knowledge. Haywood begins by reminding us of some of the movements and issues that concern us in our increasingly connected world. He skips from great geopolitical forces to abstract movements and the legacies of war, to show that our world is one of growing dependency on unforeseen forces. This causes the range of connections we make to become more complicated, as our networks of interdependence multiply.

The author draws our attention to a major issue, the moral and aesthetic climate of present day society, calling it a “sensate society”. He describes its immersion in consumerism, how it reconstructs social policies around an “idealist” framework, and defines community needs as wants. Meanwhile, it applies technologies that facilitate and encourage individual detachment, whilst celebrating connectivity. He suggests that selective meritocracy is replacing the democratic ambition of education, with consequences to our values of social justice. Thus, we live in a deregulated, flexible world where the only foundation is that everyone has a right to individual liberty. Freedom is the overriding priority, but there is fear about the impact of the culture of consumerism, as it promises something it cannot deliver, viz. universality of happiness.

Haywood describes how electronic networking enables faster communication over great distances, and is responsible for the debate about information and communication technologies (ICTs) – the “revolution” that is changing society. He points out that access to information and knowledge has always been important, but there is an increasing emphasis on instruments, which handle delivery rather than the quality or value of content, and there is optimism as well as pessimism about ICTs.

He opines that TV exposes us to powerful moments and is perhaps one of the twentieth century’s most ubiquitous connecting technologies, but it encourages bad habits of global voyeurism. It is a great informer but only an occasional motivator, and forms part of the electronic network age, where information and knowledge are increasingly transferred by an invisible global nervous system of connections that links individuals. For example, the Internet provides an infinity of information, but offers poor specificity and overwhelming serendipity. To resolve the problem we rely on new forms of dependency, as we expect computer chips to process information faster, and modems to send and receive it quicker. Speed is of the essence, creating a new range of pleasures and disappointments.

This increasing speed characterizes the way in which we measure the success of all communication technologies. We expect instant connectivity with every call that we make and every button we press. In this, the Internet can be frustratingly tedious when measured against hours, as we clock up time scoring false hits or following hot links. The drama of evolving communication technology continues to stimulate and enrich us, as we take for granted the shear volume of information at our disposal. In the process, it generates great dysfunctions, including the paradox of human isolation. The author goes on to say that a characteristic of human technological enterprise is how it mixes the comfort of continuity with seemingly radical change. We are required to work constantly with the old and the new, so that all forms of communication continue to live together, such as: postal services, telephony, civil aviation, fax, e‐mail, the motor car and railways. Some like the postal services are still major players, as they are harnessing new communication technologies to compete with fax, telephony and e‐mail.

Haywood reminds us how connecting with each other begins, such as the spaces we occupy in families, homes, villages, towns, cities and nations, which allow us to engage in rich exchanges of information and knowledge. They offer different kinds of opportunities for connecting, but demand different responses, and levels of involvement. These early connections give us confidence and furnish us with patterns and examples, which help us to cope with new circumstances.

Telecommunications are going through considerable change, and we are now witnessing the growth of the giants. Tracing this development from 1876 to date, the author presents a saga of consolidation and mergers among the world’s fixed‐line telecommunication operators. He describes how technological advances such as the Internet are tearing up the rules of traditional telephony, whilst the forces of technology, competition and standardisation change the landscape. He forecasts that the mobile phone is still in its infancy, but miniaturization of the microchip is set to create a revolution in portable communications, which looks set to become the battleground for the next round of corporate wars. The Internet will continue to inspire new forms of enterprises, such as: e‐commerce, e‐lancing and particle marketing, but the drawback is its economics. A model for the future is for regional telecommunications companies, Internet service providers, portal companies and Internet retailers to join forces and share marketing expenses for greater commercialization.

This book is a fascinating read of how we connect with and share past experiences. The author uses some short essays to illustrate how story‐telling is still a potent way to share information and knowledge, but he feels that our acceptance of IT is too uncritical. He challenges us to apply more thought on how we invest our connecting activities to improve the quality of our experiences. Finally, he concludes that electronic networks provide us with exciting opportunities to exact more information, but the great loss is faith in ourselves and being able to connect more humanely with our fellow man.