Interlock diagram

An interlock diagram is a real or imagined diagram that plots the actual interactions, physical, political, social, environmental between all entities within human societies. Each node is a specific activity such as a power station, or a policy such as controlled rent. Ideally each node should be owned by a practitioner with relevant experience and knowledge both tacit knowledge and explicit.

The diagram can be started by one or more such experts and can grow to plot all interactions, and stimulate discussions about the various knock on effects and their amelioration.

By having an expert at each node, these can feed policy insight directly into government or other management machinery, to keep the organisation on track and to achieve its goals.

Lateral communication occurs between these experts, largely mapping the interactions, which facilitates the transfer of relevant information and tacit knowledge. This defeats the Relevance Paradox.

To a very large extent, Wikipedia is a gigantic self assembling interlock diagram, and the participants are carrying out interlock research.

References

Many of the references listed below are on: http://lateralaccessnetworks.wikispaces.com/ Lateral access]

*Andrews, D. (1986) "Information routing groups – Towards the global superbrain: or how to find out what you need to know rather than what you think you need to know", "Journal of Information Technology", 1, 1, Feb, 22-35. details of lateral referral, diffusion*Andrews, David; "The IRG Solution - Hierarchical Incompetence and how to overcome it". Souvenir Press, London, 1984. Pages 200 - 220. ISBN 0-285-62662-0. Detailed description of the proposal.
*Charnock, Anne (1980) "Taking Bilharziasis out of the irrigation equation". "New Civil Engineer", 7 August Bilharzia caused by poor civil engineering design.
*Energy Research Group, Open University. "Communication Within the Agriculture, Water, Waste and Energy Industries". Discussed examples of how the industries mentioned can be integrated to a greater or lesser degree, leading to lower pollution and energy use. Discussed the need for IRGs and how they might be organized. Emphasizes problem is lack of co-ordination and lateral communication between organisations. Describes interlock research in detail, the relevance paradox and the Bilharzia/schistosomiasis issue, central media, lateral diffusion, tacit knowledge, and Lateral Access Networks, later renamed Information Routing Groups, development of private languages as a barrier to inter communication, also describes how computers can be used to speed up lateral communication, and lateral referral . DC Andrews. ERG 033. Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, England 1980.
*Energy Research Group, Open University . "Information Routing Groups". DC Andrews. ERG 037. Generalisation of ERG 033, advocated development of software and automatic phone answering modem to link up private PCs effectively creating an Internet. Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, England 1980. David Andrews
*"The Importance of Knowing the Right People" (Article based on ERG 033 on Lateral Access Networks - the forerunner of Information Routing Groups). Printed in the "Guardian Newspaper", London March 20 1980. Discussed Bilharzia / schistosomiasis relevance paradox.
* [http://www.taylorgraham.com/books/hidmancon.html Graham, Taylor; "The Hidden Manager, Communication technology and information networks in business organizations". Cambridge / Los Angeles,1986. David Andrews and John Kent. Much tighter description of IRG concept and its application to business management. ISBN 0-947568-15-8, 198 6]
*Library Association Record to a seminar run jointly by IEE and the LA on 'Biblionic man', held at the IEE on 26 November 1980. Covered same ground as ERG 033 and ERG 037.
* [http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/95metro.html Martin, Brian; "Beyond Mass Media", "Science, Technology and Society", University of Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia. General discussion of the IRG concept]
* [http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2006/03/20/the_power_of_open_participatory.htm Martin, Brian; "The Power Of Open Participatory Media And Why Mass Media Must Be Abandoned". March 20, 2006. General discussion of the IRG concept]
*Niss, Mogens; FA, "Om folkeskolelaereruddanelsen i det vigtige fag matematik" in Peter Bollerslev (ed.): "Den ny matematik i Danmark - en essaysamling", Denmark, Copenhagen, Gyldendal, 1979, pp107-122. The relevance paradox is defined on p. 111.
*Niss, M. (1994) "Mathematics in Society". In Biehler, R., Scholz, R. W., Straesser, R., Winkelmann, B. Eds. (1994) "The Didactics of Mathematics as a Scientific Discipline". Dordrecht: Kluwer, 367-378. Relevance paradox
* [http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2006/10/02/social_networks_meet_news_aggregation.htm "Social Networks Meet News Aggregation And Filtering: Information Routing Groups"]
* [http://www.insna.org/Connections-Web/Volume09/connections1986_IX-2-3.pdf Yewlett, J . L . Town Planning, Wales Institute of Science & Technology. "Networks : Developments in theory & practice"] .The paper reviews developments in the U .S .A. & U .K . in recent years, progressing beyond network analysis to explore the structure & use of networks. The paper seeks to address questions of how to construct multi-actor policy structures, & build networks for particular purposes. Contributory concepts explored included the 'Reticulist', the 'Leader/Co- ordinator', the 'Segmented Polycephalous Network' & the 'Information Routing Group'in "CONNECTIONS", Sunbelt Social Network Conference, World Congress of Sociology, "American Sociological Association", Volume IX, Nos. 2-3, Winter, 1986

ee also

*Information Routing Group