Dynamic semantic systems - an information systems' impact model

This paper presents a descriptive framework comprised of a high level model of the manner in which information systems impact on social systems - in particular the dynamic semantic systems which determine how information is interpreted and used. The framework draws on existing theoretical components: Wittgenstein's language-games, and the concepts of bifurcation, resilience and stability in social systems qua complex systems far from thermodynamic equilibrium. It is suggested that the framework is valuable in three respects. First, it provides a model of the impact which information systems and information technologies have on the human systems within which they find meaning and application. This furnishes us with a basis for predicting the kind and extent of the disruption likely to be caused to a dynamic semantic system through the introduction of or changes to an information system. It also provides a basis for designing intervention strategies to exert control over such disruption and the rely results thereof. Second, it is built upon an appreciation of and hence provides a conceptual 'handle' on the constant, dynamic and temporally distributed relationship between human systems and information systems. Third, through appeal to 'indirect steering' and the concept of structural coupling between a system and its environment, it offers a novel approach to the problem of steering and controlling highly complex equilibrium far systems.