Introduction
The brainchild of 18th century English philosopher Jeremy Bentham, panopticon was an architectural innovation designed to lead to safe, humane prisons. The human tendency to think that, "every thing you do is right, until you get caught!" is what Bentham sought to curb using panopticon. The panopticon was engineered in such a way that, from a central tower, every prisoner in any cell could be observed., without the possibility of being observed by the prisoner.
The central goal of panopticon was to achieve control through isolation and possibility of constant surveillance. The very thought of "somebody is watching us", in many cases, is sufficient to keep the behavior under control, regardless of the fact that at the moment, nobody might be observing. Surprisingly, this idea was far more generic and was a good one for even schools, hospitals etc.
The information panopticon
Realizing that in the modern, information centric world, control no longer requires physical domination over body, but can be achieved through isolation and constant possibility of observation, Michel Foucalt applied the idea of panopticon as a metaphor for the oppressive use of information in the modern disciplinary society.
To gain control, all that is needed is complete knowledge and observation. In the information panopticon, we are seen without seeing the observers. The information is available without the knowledge of the subject. With the presence of such a panopticon, people need to regulate their own behavior to escape the constant threat of detection.
The information panopticon is both literal and metaphorical. It manifests itself through public CCTV cameras, electronic monitoring of workers, face recognition and many more.
Information panopticon in use
Soon after it was conceptualized, the idea was put into use. With ever increasing mechanization and automation, factory setting was a perfect place for a panopticon. Its modest roots can be traced back to the days when workers needed to swap their "punch cards" through a slot in order to notify their arrival and departure. This simple setting, automatically did the job of keeping track of number of workers, their arrival and departure times automatically. This is good example of passive information collection.
With the advent of internet, teh world has become a global village, and information sharehouse. But simultaneously, it became a source of distraction, unproductive wastage of time and money, if not used with control. The idea of information panopticon is central to organization of work in any modern corporation/organization/company whose employees work on computers. In this case, the panopticon is even more powerful by rendering itself invisible. With the use of advanced software, all the employees are being monitored in real time for their online activities. Websites which are found to distract the employees and waste a lot of productive time are being banned based on the collection by the panopticon.
Conclusion
The notion of information panopticon has a great role to play in the moders information centric society. But this brings forth the question of integrity of those who are in power, the "observers" of the panopticon. The question "how much is too much?" must be addressed as the internet is being overpowered with services like google and facebook who are the bare essentials, information panopticons with vested, commercial interests.
Limits are already being crossed. Facebook now decides whos is my best friend and who I must interact iwth. Google knows everything about me from how I plan my travel to what kind of information content is "relevant" to me.
I conclude with an open question "who will observe the observers?"
Reference
The brainchild of 18th century English philosopher Jeremy Bentham, panopticon was an architectural innovation designed to lead to safe, humane prisons. The human tendency to think that, "every thing you do is right, until you get caught!" is what Bentham sought to curb using panopticon. The panopticon was engineered in such a way that, from a central tower, every prisoner in any cell could be observed., without the possibility of being observed by the prisoner.
The central goal of panopticon was to achieve control through isolation and possibility of constant surveillance. The very thought of "somebody is watching us", in many cases, is sufficient to keep the behavior under control, regardless of the fact that at the moment, nobody might be observing. Surprisingly, this idea was far more generic and was a good one for even schools, hospitals etc.
The information panopticon
Realizing that in the modern, information centric world, control no longer requires physical domination over body, but can be achieved through isolation and constant possibility of observation, Michel Foucalt applied the idea of panopticon as a metaphor for the oppressive use of information in the modern disciplinary society.
To gain control, all that is needed is complete knowledge and observation. In the information panopticon, we are seen without seeing the observers. The information is available without the knowledge of the subject. With the presence of such a panopticon, people need to regulate their own behavior to escape the constant threat of detection.
The information panopticon is both literal and metaphorical. It manifests itself through public CCTV cameras, electronic monitoring of workers, face recognition and many more.
Information panopticon in use
Soon after it was conceptualized, the idea was put into use. With ever increasing mechanization and automation, factory setting was a perfect place for a panopticon. Its modest roots can be traced back to the days when workers needed to swap their "punch cards" through a slot in order to notify their arrival and departure. This simple setting, automatically did the job of keeping track of number of workers, their arrival and departure times automatically. This is good example of passive information collection.
With the advent of internet, teh world has become a global village, and information sharehouse. But simultaneously, it became a source of distraction, unproductive wastage of time and money, if not used with control. The idea of information panopticon is central to organization of work in any modern corporation/organization/company whose employees work on computers. In this case, the panopticon is even more powerful by rendering itself invisible. With the use of advanced software, all the employees are being monitored in real time for their online activities. Websites which are found to distract the employees and waste a lot of productive time are being banned based on the collection by the panopticon.
Conclusion
The notion of information panopticon has a great role to play in the moders information centric society. But this brings forth the question of integrity of those who are in power, the "observers" of the panopticon. The question "how much is too much?" must be addressed as the internet is being overpowered with services like google and facebook who are the bare essentials, information panopticons with vested, commercial interests.
Limits are already being crossed. Facebook now decides whos is my best friend and who I must interact iwth. Google knows everything about me from how I plan my travel to what kind of information content is "relevant" to me.
I conclude with an open question "who will observe the observers?"
Reference
- The virtual panopticon - David Engberg
- Surveillance 2.0 : The "information panopticon" and education - Larry Kuhen
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