Policy Decisions and EDP Systems in the Federal Government

Abstract

The concept of or organism is not new. However, the electronic computer provides the means of designing or organism intelligence systems which makes feasible a new level of total system control. The model simulation capability of the computer makes possible significant machine aids to decision making among alternatives, taking into account total system data. Study of the weapons system concept in the Department of Defense, the fundamental changes taking place in planning, organizing, budgeting, and other administrative processes gives evidence of the growing impact of the systems concept. These changes depend in large measure on the availability of automatic data processing capabilities. R. L. Wegner is responsible for a pilot project in designing a metropolitan area intelligence system. It is based on the concept of the metropolitan area as a single system even though some of the constituent political units may be reluctant to concede this. He describes a program of action which has the possibility of charting a new and promising approach to metropolitan area integration. The Hearle paper is the summary of a twoyear study by RAND Corporation. It was an open approach to state and local government data processing and an attempt to design an approach which would incorporate computer technology into a rational, effective information system in a complex society. Their mission is to raise the sights of administrators so their actions today may be set in terms of optimum goals for the future. The 1950's were years of emergence for the electronic computer, automatic data processing, and automation. The outline for the future becomes clearer in the '6o's. We now know that the electronic computer's superiority over the desk calculator or the abacus is of minor significance. The real significance is already apparent in the adoption by administrators of the biological and engineering concepts of system, reorganization of the function and methods of data processing; a new look at decision making and the possibility of precise programming for decision making; and new sensitivity to technological change and its present and prospective effects on organization and administration.