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With the progression of time as with most things in life, major changes take place in certain fields. When this occurs on a rapid speed more often than not confusion sets in when people are presumed to handle everyday tasks in a manner alien to what they had been used to in the past. Time is essential to enable people to slowly learn these new approaches so that they can handle them with comfort, understanding and ease and therefore to be able to comprehend the reason behind the change. When comprehension is lacking mistakes are made, confusion sets in and some cases we are faced with an uproar. An example of such crisis can be seen in the case of the implementation of railway and telegraph networks of the 1th century where by, due to the studies of James Beniger we can see that he argues this point in his research analysis on control revolution.
According to Beniger (17), railway and telegraph networks at the nineteenth century are perceived to be ‘information' technologies. Technology is considered to be a determinant of what the society, in general, can accomplish since it endures the process of matter, energy and information. Via the use of railway and telegraph systems information could be transmitted and distributed to and from people around the globe since they were viewed as transportation means which permitted two way communication and thus, interactions between humans. The co-evolution of these networks progressively bounded the entire globe and therefore became the main means of control. Beniger studied the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth century. However he placed emphasis on the nineteenth century since he perceived it to be the most crucial era in the development of man kind. It was thepoque in which many technological innovations took place and thus made it clear to humans that in order to achieve control, it was a necessity to implement information technology, in its many forms since with ought a correct flow of information and thus communication control is unattainable.
However, during the 1th century a number of revolutions occurred, which had a major impact on human lives. One of such was the industrial revolution. During the period of industrialization many significant technological and economic innovations occurred. An important innovation was the development of steam power and new materials in the 180s and 180s which were applied to railroads and factory production accordingly. This increased the capabilities of industrial production and thus, led industries to develop and expand globally. However, people did not obtain enough knowledge and experience in order to handle the vast processing since they were used to handling simple production methods and tasks. Therefore, control could not be achieved and the emerge of crisis was the outcome (Beniger 17; chapter 5).
Crisis of control appeared in four areas, all of which railway and telegraph networks played a significant role. Problems emerged in the transportation area, in the distribution, in production and consumption.
Control crisis in transportation arised from problems which were caused by the use of railroads since it was the first technology that used steam power excessively in order to achieve speed and thus transportation. However due to the harsh transition of transportation means people lacked the appropriate information systems which would enable communication between the individuals which operated the train and consequently control over the whole operation. The result was to witness a number of accidents which created the notion that railroads were not safety means of transportation.
Control crisis in production was caused by the application of steam power which enabled railroads to transfer raw materials and finished goods in a dramatic speed which created problems for manufacturing companies since they could not keep up with the vast transportation. However, producers attempted to increase their capacity in machinery and labour in order to decrease their costs and thus, increase their profits, but what they missed to acknowledge was that an increase in speed and volume of flows through the factorys, needed a great deal of control which could not be achieved since control technologies did not exist and thus, crisis emerged. The use of rail transportation and telegraphic control increased the speed of which products could be delivered, therefore a crisis in distribution came to surface due to problems faced in coordinating and controlling the movements of materials to producers in different regions of the world. Due to the application of new process technologies many industries rapidly developed and became capital-intensive. However, this led the industries to predict consumers demand in order to achieve stability. As a result, local industries had relied on the market as a control system. This caused the 1th century crisis in control of consumption (Beniger 17; chapter 6)
In order to resolve the control crisis a series of technological and social solutions were put into practice which constituted the control revolution. According to Beniger, bureaucracy was one of the technological solutions which was carried out in order to achieve control. Among the observes of the control revolution was Max Weber who developed bureaucracy and viewed it as the ‘critical new machinery'. Bureaucracy is a form of organizational structure in which a formal set of rules, procedures, hierarchy in authority, division and thus specialization of labor is emended. By the use of bureaucracy co-ordination can be achieved in any collective activity and this greater control. Another form of control which was viewed as a complement to bureaucratization is rationalization. Through rationalization control can be increased by reducing the quantity of information that is being processed and by increasing the capability to process information. Therefore, large-scale, complex social systems can be managed and preserved since they would not be governed by excessive information.
However, in the middle and late 1th century rationalization and bureaucracy developed in such a rapid rate which led to the introduction and hence development of new information-processing and communication technologies. These innovations assisted to the overcome of the control crisis in industries and in particular the activities of production, distribution and consumption. Control of production was achieved by organizing, preprocessing the industrial operations, by an introduction of new information processing devises, the close-loop feedback and the preprogrammed open-loop controllers. Control of machinery was achieved and hence greater control on production it's self. However, due to the excessive production of goods, a new method in order to control distribution had to be implemented.
The so called postal system which was accompanied by the postage stamp in 1847, aimed the distribution of mail across nations. Also via the use of telecommunications distribution methods were reorganized and thus national and world markets gradually were controlled. In order to achieve optimum control on mass production and distribution, information must be communicated to and from national consumers in order to trigger or reinforce demand and to receive information regarding the consumers preferences and their behavior in general. Two-way communication was achieved by the development and implementation of power-driver, multiple-rotary printing and mass mailing by rail. Throughout the late 1th century and early 0th century inventors strived to convince the population to enter new technologies, such as radio, telephone, television and so on in their households. These technologies were mostly used to influence consumption through advertising. However, the mass media which communicated information to the consumers were not enough to achieve complete control of the markets. It was vital for producers to receive information from consumers; therefore, mass feedback technologies were implemented in order to monitor consumers behavior (i.e. market research).
However, the control revolution assisted to the formation of an information society. ‘Information society developed as a result of the crisis of control created by railroads and other steam-powered transportation in the early 1840'. (Beniger, 17) We can view the impact these technologies had in the creation of an information society by observing the transformation of labor force from the agriculture field progressing to the industrial field leading to the information sector. By observing several researches that had been conducted over the years we can also gain insights of the impact the information sector had and till this day has in the economy since it is continuously expanding and thus gaining grounds not only in the industrial field but also in financial and business services.
In conclusion, railway and telegraph networks of the 1th century although contributed to vast transportation of information which, in result permitted communication between people globally, it also constituted to the creation of a rapid development in many fields which were enable to respond in the most efficient manner due to lack of control and thus, crisis emerged. The chaos that crisis brought, in turn, triggered the introduction of new control technology methods in order to achieve stability and balance within the work force. The outcome of these new methods of control which constituted the control revolution resulted to an increase in use of information society which continuous to grow today and will continue to grow in the future.
Barras, R (14). ‘Interactive Innovation in Financial and Business Services'
in Rhodes, E & Wield, D. Implementing New Technologies,
Oxford, Blackwell, Chapter .
Beniger, J. (17) The Control Revolution, Cambridge MA
Harvard University Press
Buchaman, D. and Huczynski, A (001) Organizational Behavior,
Prentice Hall, London p.g 487-500
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