Technology alone is not enough

Many have traced the evolution of information transfer from drawings on the walls of caves to inscriptions on stone tablets, to scribes writing on papyrus or other early forms of paper, to "Gutenberg technology." By now it has become trite to mention that computer and electronic communications together represent another revolution in the transfer and utilization of knowledge. Yet I mention it because we have only scratched the surface in understanding and using these mechanisms for supporting human learning and for facilitating human decision-making. We are rapidly approaching the point at which the mechanical and inherent cost impediments of media and mechanisms for information transfer and knowledge production will disappear as limitations to reaching the full potential of information systems. With these impediments out of the way, what is left to inhibit knowledge creation and dissemination are the arrangements necessary to derive the revenue for supporting the information processing, distribution and use mechanisms, and, most of all, the limitations of human intelligence to deal with complex situations.published or submitted for publicatio