Limited horizons, limited influence: information technology experts and the crisis of the London Ambulance Service

The failure of a safety-critical system in November 1992 gave the opportunity for IT experts to become involved in a wide-ranging public discussion. Their response largely focused on the process of systems development and the methods used in it. Partial solutions were marketed as the technological fix which would solve all problems. Few considered the technology in a wider social and political context. This can be traced to the dominance of the functionalist paradigm in computing and the use of engineering as a model for information systems development. IT experts had little influence on the course of events except where they were working inside the organisation or were given roles in formal arenas such as public inquiries. This suggests that the power that IT specialists have within the technology development process does not carry over into the broader public arena unless more powerful social groups can be convinced of its relevance. As these groups normally see the technology as a black box they do not share the concerns of the experts about the inner workings of systems and their development. The failure of the system only changed this temporarily.