Diffusion of Information and Knowledge: How Information Becomes Meaningful - Evolving Global Information Infrastructure and Information Transfer - page 102

• The late majority adopts a new idea because of strong peer pressure. They

are cautious and only adopt a new idea when the majority has done so.

• Laggards have a localized outlook, are wedded to the past, and are fearful

of the innovation. They look for certainty that the new idea will not fail.

As noted earlier, time is linked to the rate of adoption. It is measured by the
number of members of the social system that adopt the innovation.

Social System

The last element in the diffusion of new ideas is the social system. Rogers
defines a social system as a set of interrelated units that are engaged in joint
problem-solving to accomplish a common goal (Rogers 2003, 3). Social systems
are composed of individuals, informal groups, organizations, and subsystems. So-
cial systems define how widely innovation diffuses.
Successful diffusion systems have many common elements:

• Understand user characteristics (information needs analysis)

• Use a level of language understood by potential users

• Are accessible, available, and adaptable

• Are timely and comprehensive

• Use accepted and validated knowledge

• Use relevant materials that meet users' needs

• Use all forms of communication—print, electronic, visual, audio, person-to-

person

• Use ongoing feedback and feedforward

• Are integrated with evaluated and validated research

• Use formal and informal networks

• Provide mentoring, training, technical assistance, and continuous interac-

tion to users

Diffusion Models

Three innovation diffusion models—the interactive model, the linked-chain
model, and the emergent model—describe the knowledge each model produces.