Information Panopticon

Jermey Bentham an English philosopher in 1791, proposed an architecture designed for a safe, humane prison called the panopticon. The design consists of a centralized tower surrounded by a circular building divided into prison cells. The idea was to provide complete observational power to the observer in the tower over the prisoners and at the same time not being watched at by the prisoners. Hence establishing a control through isolation and constant surveillance.

The new information and communication technology (ICT) promote interconnectivity that require a centralized control centre. From the very beginning of communication technology like the telephone, it was always through a centralized control the information is passed. Increased centralization used in these communication technologies gives a power of unprecedented monitoring and observation creating a so called an 'Information Panopticon' . Like a prisoner on Bentham's Panopticon the user of the 'space' is observed , held in darkness and prevented from observing their observers, establishing a hierarchy with respect to position and access. An information Panopticon is everywhere and as anything , it can be traffic monitoring systems, or data monitoring of credit card and insurance agencies.

With the introduction of these ICTs into workplaces, managers and employees are discovering the hierarchical risks within information technologies. Certain information about the worker is accessible to manager but not the vice versa . The access to information in a workplace enables managers to establish new methods of monitoring work and workers. These technologies are used as a power that displays itself automatically and continuously.

In Foucault's words, panopticon is "a machine for creating and sustaining a power relation independent of the person who exercises it; in short, that the inmates should be caught up in a power situation of which they are themselves the bearers" . The difference in right to access information made the very design of ICTs 'panoptic'.

Though of ICTs being very similar to the original Bentham's panopticon the mode of control is different from that of the original panopticon. The technology used in monitoring is not as apparent as in Bentham's prison. The employees do not even know how the panoptic superiority is being enforced. Generally the administrative action in a workplace tend to be pragmatic and paranoid. Every node is observable by the person hierarchically above him. It created a systematic oppression rooted to the highest authority of the organization. Charles Babbage thought that by introducing machine into the factory system would help in keeping the factory workers in check. Similarly introducing an information control in modern day workplace they are able to keeps the workers in check.

ICTs in workspace are just the small section of a panoptic design of the modern day technology. With mobile technologies, GPS technologies and various other monitoring technologies one can monitor and observe every single movement and action of a person. This panoptic design has given the developers and owners an ability to penetrate into the society's behaviour enforcing social discipline. Panoptic design is everywhere now and we are already prisoners of these panopticon.

-G Sujan Kumar