A Contextual Primer on the Socio-technical aspects of ICT in War and Peace Support

1. A Contextual Primer on the Socio-technical aspects of ICT in War and Peace Support Ben du Toit Defence Analyst Defence Institute Armscor Business Presented at the IFIP Workshop at the CSIR on 24 July 2008

2. CENTRAL ARGUMENT OF PAPER SUBMITTED: CONTEXT IS IMPORTANT IN ICT A text without a context is a pretext! (Photo credit: Die Burger FCD Cape Town 61111/A)

3. SCOPE AND LINE OF ARGUMENT Contents of paper submitted: Dualistic nature of military decision-making Content versus context: the real digital divide is cultural IT acceptance and cultural differences Why a socio-technical systems approach to complex decision-making Implications/applications of ICT in conflict resolution Enter social informatics Conclusions from the literature Own conclusions Presentation broadly corresponds – however open-ended research

4. CONCEPTS BOUNDARIES Primer = “…an introductory text, that covers the basic elements of a subject” Certain generalizations followed in argument…. Data = raw data, from sensors Information = data in context Knowledge = actionable information Information Used interchangeably as those mentifacts giving guidance Culture Context Sense-making Viewpoint/”Weltanschaaung” Culture is the “collective programming of the mind that distinguishes members of one group or category of people from another” (Hofstede. 2001).

5. THE DUALISM OF MILITARY DECISION-MAKING

6. THE DUALISM OF MILITARY DECISION-MAKING “TRADITIONAL” WARFARE PSO/LIC/COMPLEX EMERGENCIES Inter-state Intra-state Soldier as “Machine Commander” Content-rich dataflow and processing Soldier as “Social Scientist” Context-rich communication OPEN SYSTEM CLOSE SYSTEM Symmetric Force-on Force Asymmetric ICT “Network Centric” “Architecting” Rebel, belligerent, Non-linear VUCA Platform versus platform MECHANISTIC HUMAN CENTERED Sensor-decider-shooter loop Kinetic effects Aiming for “shooting solution” Understanding- sense-making-deciding acting for preferably non-kinetic effects Non-military coalition partners

7. THE CULTURAL SMARTIE BOX

8. POWER OF INFORMATION Power of information is contextual. Derives from usefulness (or uselessness) for sense-making/decision-making. User must trust ICT as supporting him/her. Context/culture/making-sense dictate acceptance of ICT. ( K A Taipale, 2006)

9. Skit on German Coastguard as illustration….

10. Donning a blue helmet does not automatically imply an egalitarian culture or interoperability CONTEXTUAL/CULTURAL FILTERING UP TO COMMANDER Commander Command and control for kinetic effects Interaction/ICT4Peace Contextual filter for collaborative sense-making Units NGOs CIMIC Protection of ICT assets/security Sharing of ICT Contextual filter for collaborative sense-making Civilians Sub-units Contextual filter for collaborative sense-making Sensors & Weapon systems mix Individuals data –information-data-information-data-information “Three-block-war” Warfighting PSO

11. INFORMATION INFORMATION GRID CONTROL I N T E G R A T E D B M S SENSOR Command And control CONTROL SENSOR GRID SHOOTER INFORMATION ENGAGEMENT GRID UN, AU, Coalition partners, NGOs, PVOs, Media, Civilians, Host nation, etc Parallel effects-based operations Adapted from Fred Stein - DODCCRP

12. THE ROLE OF ICT IN EFFECTS-BASED OPERATIONS PEACE SUPPORT OPERATIONS DESIRED EFFECTS

13. SYSTEM DEVELOPERS BEAR IN MIND… It can be argued that a uniform ICT protocol, as instructed by the UN, may alleviate cultural differences in ICT usage. Common ICT use however, does not imply cultural understanding per se. Cf.“The big two”. It is a myth to think that technology is neutral regarding the system of values that it represents. Society shapes ICT development rather than merely adapting to autonomous technology. The COTS dilemma. Only when ICT that is developed externally is accepted by a community of interest as a value-adding artifact, can the maximum benefit be obtained from it. Ethnocomputing?

14. ISSUES AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS WHICH ARISE FROM C2 SCENARIOS IN US C2 ENVIRONMENT “How can we develop an understanding of the effect of culture on co-operation, coalition operations and interoperability of personnel (the human agents) and the IT infrastructure that they share? How can we model this within a command and control system? How can we develop a guide for the (American military) to incorporate cross-cultural perspectives within ICT development?” (As quoted by Jill Slay in ICCRTS 2002 – A cultural Framework for the Interoperability of C2 systems)

15. Content versus context: the real digital divide is cultural

16. HIGH-CONTENT LOW-CONTEXT ICT Edward Hall’s typology–high-content, low–context cultures or vice versa. High content information more mechanistic in nature, can lead to contextual errors. ( USS Vincennes incident where high volume of content rich data, viewed within wrong “scenario-fulfillment context” led to shooting down of Iranian civilian airliner.) Most modern Western countries – preference for textual, high content but low context information transfer. Spreadsheets and processes. Many developing nations, some Arabic cultures, indigenous people in Africa and many Asian countries prefer more direct modes of communication, with premium on non-verbal cues and engagement of feelings in a communication relationship. Even screen-displays can send unintentional non-verbal cues. Sources: Hall (1976 and Ess(2006)

17. HOFSTEDE’S CULTURAL DIMENSIONS Four value dimensions Power distance: High - power distance quotient accept hierarchy and distance. Low - quotient considers that all people are equal, the ultimate democracy. Would rebel against unrestrained authority. Uncertainty Avoidance: High - create formal rules and guide behaviours, seek structure. Want more supporting data/information for decisions. Low -avoidance accept more risk and change.

18. HOFSTEDE MODEL (continued) Individualism versus collectivism: Individualistic - Believe one is personally responsible for own well-being. Meritocratic. Express individual viewpoint independently. Collectivism - Family communal, clan and tribal underpinnings. Masculinity – Femininity dimension: Masculinity -Competitive, aggressive, men dominant position over women. They are the decision-makers. Femininity - Roles of men and women equal.

19. HOFSTEDE’S FOUR VALUE DIMENSIONS APPLIED TO CANADIAN INVOLVEMENT INAFGHANISTAN HOW WILL THIS AFFECT THE USE OF ICT IN JOINT C2, IN INFORMATION OPERATIONS AND IN ACCEPTANCE OF ICT USAGE? Source: Spencer, 2007 – Canadian Forces Leadership Institute, Canadian Defence Academy

20. Why a socio-technical approach?

21. ENTER MORE INITIATIVES BASED ON SAMEAPPROACH “Social Informatics” ( late Bob Kling, circa 2000): “Social Informatics refers to the interdisciplinary study of the design, uses and consequences of ICTs that takes into account their interaction with institutional and cultural contexts” “ICT4Peace initiative “( 2004 and ongoing) Follow participatory design principles; i.e. the socio-technical design. Efforts must be based on user needs, with active involvement of workplace practitioners in design, especially where local staff will be users. “Context-aware Computing” Emphasize the user’s environment , where they are, who they are with and what they are doing, as important. “Social Navigation” “The process of using cues from other people to help you find information and potentially to more fully understand what it is that you have found”

22. ALL THE INITIATIVES IMPLY A SOCIO-TECHNICAL APROACH TO COMPLEX DECISION-MAKING • A socio-technical system consists of: • Hardware Mainframes, Workstations, peripherals, networks; • Software Operating systems, utilities, application programs; • Physical surroundings • Buildings can influence and embody social rules; • People Individuals, roles, individual sense-making (of importance in military environments); • People Groups, roles, culture, group sense-making; • Procedures Official, management models, reporting relationships (of importance in coalition type of operations, joint, integrated, inter-agency and multi-national); • Laws and regulations • Read military protocols and rules of engagement into this category; • Data and data structures • What and how much data, formats.

23. Conclusions…

24. WHY ARE SO MANY MODERN RESEARCH INITIATIVES OPEN-ENDED? Because two days after submitting a paper on a topic that you think you are making inroads into and a contribution to the community of interest, you discover the following……

28. CONCLUSIONS FROM THE LITERATURE Internationally a strong movement that propagates an increased awareness of the contextual implications of new ICTs can be discerned. Common denominator is that the user’s culture ( professional, organizational or national level) will determine how ICT must be developed and applied, for maximum effect. This has ramifications for C2, information exchange and interoperability. Question for the “systems architects”: “Is there a social scientist on your IPT?”

29. MY CONCLUSIONS DERIVED FOR THE SOUTH AFRICAN SITUATION African conflict patterns are predominantly human-centric. They are characterized as “open systems” with numerous interactions between the political, social, economic and environmental sub-systems. The joint, inter-agency and multi-national concept of operations in itself is an attempt to address issues such as decision-making holistically. Developers of C2 systems in and for the African theatres of operation, must a priori take cognizance of the importance of contextual issues. Benchmarking research on social informatics may provide a guiding roadmap. A community of interest, vested in the envisaged Defence Evaluation and Research Institute (DERI) may help to ensure a multi-and interdisciplinary approach in the development of ICT architecture.

30. Questions? or even better…. Comments? A list of sourced documents and references is contained in the paper or can be obtained from the presenter Bendt@sadi.co.za Disclaimer: The views expressed in this presentation are those of the compiler and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Armscor, the Department of Defence or any of their Services or Divisions.