Discussion Paper: POLICY AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATIONS IN APPLED SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY.

This article presents a paper on the policy and informal communications in applied science and technology. To promote progress in science and technology, efficiency of information transfer should be improved, costs of information should be reduced and the timeliness of information available to scientist and technologist should be improved. Many policy makers have developed doubts about fostering informal communication, for reasons which illuminate the requirements of a sound informal communication policy. A theme which has increasingly characterized research on scientific communication is that science is a social process involving communities of similarly-interested people.