Information about information

Well as they begin to discuss the settlement of this strike it is interesting how they use information to control the process. Information, and the power it triggers, continues to be our focus in this power dynamic.

Yes they are using the mechanism of information to help find mutually acceptable solutions. But they are using it in a new way.

Last week it was about sharing and witholding information. It was about framing and characterizing information. It was about true information and false information.

Now we have a news blackout. No one is allowed to know what is going on and what they are saying.

Last week we did our laundry in public because last week public opinion was what we were about. If the public sided with Faculty then the Management knew they had to compromise. If the public sided with Management then the Faculty had to rethink their position. If the public put pressure on the Ontario Government and the Premier then it was going to be the government that had to kick in some more moeney to solve this thing.

Last week we needed the public to show what they felt and thought so we provoked them with information that was shared and partially inaccurate. Inaccurate in the sense that it was biased and incomplete. It was one sided.

We used the public's need for information to impact their choice of who they would side with. To do it we used the sharing of biased information. Partial truth. Partial untruth. Some of it and not all of it.

This week, having accomplished our goal for last week - the management got the government to make the first move - we now want the public to stay out of it so we might accomplish this weeks goal - settlement.

So this week there is no information going on. None. We wait silently. We want to know. We check the news and the web but find out nothing other than they are talking. This is, in itself, good news. But it is not much news. We want more.

This week they use the withholding of the truth.

There are two axis to this Information Power Mechanism Matrix. Information that is shared or withheld. Information that is true or false. Of course there are numerous degrees in between. But those are the two critical dimensions of information as a power mechanism - Veracity and Publication.

Are you learning about the power in information? Are you seeing the depth and breadth of your need for information? Are you seeing how the need coupled with the ability to manipulate the two dimensions creates power and controls the choices you make?

They say that law and sausage are the same. You don't want to see how they are made. I suppose it is the same for strike settlement.

The use of information got us here. But we do not want to know what they are saying now. It will only make us mad to find out how easy it will be to settle this. And when we are mad that's when we know we had power used on us.

They do not want you to know that.