517 



(10) Analysis of data for interpretation and conclusions; 



(11) Report on alternative possible resolutions of the technical 

 issue, and the comparative cost/effectiveness of each, suitably 

 documented from the information received ; 



(12) Preparation of objective documentation of cost/effective- 

 ness of the preferred alternative resolution of the issue ; and 



(13) Securing of external policy review to filter out inad- 

 vertent staff bias. 



Classes of Witnesses 



Witnesses have traditionally been categorized with reference to 

 their assumed bias or motivation. Traditional classification of witnesses 

 has distinguished those favoring one or another political part;^, Gov- 

 ernment versus nongovernmental, the industrial (profit motive or- 

 iented) versus the academic (disinterested in profit), those with tech- 

 nical qualifications versus those with liberal arts backgrounds, and 

 so on. In a highly technical and mobile society, it is suggested, the 

 traditional ways of classifying witnesses are inexact, inappropriate, 

 and misleading. Partisan affiliations are irrelevant to most technical 

 issues. Consulting activities of many academicians tend to remove the 

 distinction between academic and business affiliation. The frequent 

 movement of persons from employment in Government to business to 

 academic to Government again, plus the widespread identification of 

 mutual interests on the part of those sponsoring programs and those 

 performing them, tends to render meaningless any categorization of 

 witnesses as "Government, business, or academic." Nor is there an 

 important distinction between "technical"' and "nontechnical." The 

 post-sputnik emphasis on technical aspects in the curriculums of public 

 education, plus military service, work experience, and indoctrination 

 courses, tends to blur the distinction. It is suggested that a suitable 

 set of categories for present-day witnesses is not available. It is possible 

 that a more useful classification might take such a form as — 



Mission oriented versus discipline oriented ; 



Short-range objective oriented versus long-range objective or- 

 iented ; 



Task oriented versus system oriented ; 



Economic emphasis versus ecological emphasis ; 



Technocratic versus antiscience ; and 



Specialist versus generalist. 

 In the absence of a useful, current classification system of witnesses, 

 perhaps the best that can be done is to recognize {a) that each techni- 

 cal task relates to a set of scientific or technological disciplines, and 

 that some witnesses are needed to express the views and contribute the 

 knowledge relevant in each; (&) that some mput is needed from other, 

 unrelated disciplines for purposes of cross-fertilization and stimulus 

 of fresh ideas; (c) that some integrating information is needed from 

 scientific generalists familiar with the broad spectrum of science and 

 technology, and the relation of both to politias; and {d) that the inter- 

 action of man and the machine implies the need for witnesses represent- 

 ing the social sciences to provide information about the politics of 

 human factors, and the impact of technology on political man. 



