Also, are people aware of Stafford Beer's book Platform for Change? It's a collection of pieces about using cybernetics/information theory to "drive decision making down the hierarchy" so that planning does not neccessarily entail centralization of power nor delay. The culmination of the book is Beer's work as a consultant for the Allende government in Chile in '72-'73. It's fascinating (and tragic -- another experiment in democracy strangled by US imperialism). Anyway, he talks about getting information to the Economics Ministry in near-real time and giving the workers tools to make planning decisions in the plant. -bob naiman
