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The history of cybernetics holds important lessons for how we approach present-day problems in such areas as algorithmic regulation and big data. The purpose of this paper is to position Project Cybersyn as a historical form of algorithmic regulation and use this historical case study as a thought experiment for thinking about ways to improve discussions of algorithmic regulation and big data today.

The paper draws from the author’s extensive research on Cybersyn’s history to build an argument for how cybernetic history can enrich current discussions on algorithmic regulation and the use of big data for governance.

The paper identifies five lessons from the Cybersyn history that point to current data challenges and suggests a way forward. These lessons are: first, the state matters; second, older technologies have value; third, privacy protection prevents abuse and preserves human freedom; fourth, algorithmic transparency is important; and finally, thinking in terms of socio-technical systems instead of technology fixes results in better uses of technology.

Project Cybersyn was a computer network built by the socialist government of Salvador Allende under the supervision of the British cybernetician Stafford Beer. It formed part of the government’s program for economic nationalization. Work on the project ended when a military coup brought the Allende government to an early end on September 11, 1973. Since we do not know how the system would have functioned in the long term, parts of the argument are necessarily speculative.

The paper uses Cybersyn’s history to suggest ways that the Chilean experience with cybernetic thinking might enhance, improve, and highlight shortcomings in current discussions of algorithmic regulation.

The paper provides an original argument that connects one of the most ambitious cybernetic projects in history to present day technological challenges in the area of algorithmic regulation.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the legacy of Stafford Beer and the continuing implications of his work on Cybersyn and the models and tools he used and explored during the project and in his later work.

Description of Stafford Beer’s work on Cybersyn and examples of its present day applicability.

The values and tools associated with the Cybersyn work in Chile continue to be relevant for the challenges of the present and an example of an approach to management structure and practice that serves both efficiency and humanity.

The value of this work is to contribute to the history and future possibilities of the ideas and tools pioneered in the Cybersyn project by Stafford Beer and others and their broader context in organizational cybernetics.

The purpose of this paper is to review sources of information on cloud computing. They include reference to an unexpected application to social care and to work that demonstrates vulnerability of cloud systems to cyber‐attack. Online discussion of Stafford Beer's Cybersyn project in Chile is also reviewed, the discussion initiated by the appearance of a new book (Medina, 2011). A note is added about developments in Colombia.

The aim is to review developments on the internet, especially those of general cybernetic interest.

Cloud computing is undoubtedly valuable, though the susceptibility to cyber‐attack is a serious drawback. The discussion of Cybersyn focuses mainly on the overall interplay of political and scientific considerations rather than on the potential practical value of the project, though naturally that is also a significant aspect.

Cloud computing is a valuable tool, especially where services are subject to uneven loading. Vulnerability to cyber‐attack is a serious problem that needs attention. The recently‐published book has aroused fresh interest in the Cybersyn project and the associated Viable System Model, even if their evaluation was a side issue.

It is hoped this is a valuable periodic review.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify both regulatory processes in enterprises and the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in their improvement.

The approach of the paper is conceptual development and case study.

It appears that ICTs will permit increasingly to measure the complexity of organisational processes.

The paper illustrates the nature of complexity based accounting systems for enterprises.

This paper offers an original approach to relate organisational processes, ICTs and performance.

The purpose of this paper is to review the state of the art and practice of two strands of thinking encapsulated in the two disciplines of cybernetics (CN) and system dynamics (SD). These possess many similarities in terms of their fundamental philosophies but which have diverged significantly in terms of their audience and practical application. A brief theoretical review of both CN and SD is given which is then followed by a partial review of the literature and the description of a number of practical applications of both disciplines in the public policy arena. Findings from this theoretical and practical examination of both disciplines are drawn out.

This paper has two main threads: it compares and contrasts SD and CN and it carries out a survey of published works relevant to public policy in these two areas to facilitate comparison.

The paper concludes with a review of the contribution made by each discipline in the public policy field. It draws the conclusion that both disciplines have had and continue to make a significant contribution to a deeper non‐linear understanding of the complexity of developing public policy which is seen as an inherently complex and “messy” area.

From the analysis presented, it may be possible to draw out a means of combining both CN and SD methodologies in a synergistic fashion.

No direct comparative evaluation of this type has previously been uncovered. The value of this paper lies in its practical implications as mentioned above.

This paper explores the history of Stafford Beer's work in management cybernetics, from his early conception and simulation of an adaptive automatic factory and associated experimentation in biological computing, through the development of the Viable System Model and the Team Syntegrity technique for discussion and planning. It also pursues Beer into the fields of micro‐ and macropolitics and spirituality. The aim is to show that all of Beer's projects can be understood as specific instantiations and workings out of a cybernetic ontology of unknowability and becoming: a stance that recognises that the world can always surprise us and that we can never dominate it through knowledge. The thrust of Beer's work was, thus, to construct systems that could adapt performatively to environments they could not fully control.

This paper aims to draw on current research in public policy, and more specifically about a collaborative design process for a poor suburban community in São Paulo, Brazil and its relation to social cybernetics as the “science of effective organization.” The research project in public policy, online‐communities, has been financed by the state‐sponsored agency FAPESP since 2003, and involves four research groups from the Architecture and Computer Science Departments at the University of São Paulo, and various public and non‐governmental organizations under the coordination of Nomads.usp Research Center (Center for Studies on Interactive Living, www.eesc.usp.br/nomads).

The design methodology includes three premises: an organization of the team which considers multidisciplinary and multicultural aspects; the involvement of potential users as creators of the virtual community and of its concrete space; and the concern that the process will be organized so that autonomy and evolution take place.

Special interest in the comparison of architectural methods and cybernetics is to understand how information and communication are dealt with using a design process to promote active exchange of knowledge and competences, and to improve interaction and conversation in a local context of large social differences, affected by lack of opportunities and regulating structures.

Owing to its constant questioning of viability, adaptability and recursion, cybernetics should be able to make the designer team constantly revise the proposal to change conditions during its process of implementation and later autonomy.

The paper discusses the actual relevance of the use of the cybernetic theory as a way to improve information and communication between designers and the population in poor communities.