ABSTRACT
The 60 year legacy of sociotechnical systems theory reflects back a paradigm shift which the Network Enabled Capability (NEC) community is starting to become aware of: 'You have your social networks and technological networks. You need to have both’. NEC relies on open systems characteristics. Information becomes a commodity and there is constant import and export of it. NEC increases the opportunities for this adaptation as well as the speed with which this adaptation creates new co-evolutionary requirements. As such, design for adaptability and change. Users set NEC on the road to coevolution, the perceptive designer will see that the design of future capabilities is already underway. If NEC needs both the social and technical networks, if the object of study is the 'psycho-social whole', then it will be within the field of human factors that answers to these problems will be sought.
