Planning support systems: A new perspective on computer-aided planning

This article examines the changing views of planning and computer-based information that provide the foundations for a new perspective on computer-assisted planning. It begins by tracing the evolving view of planning as applied science in the 1960s, as politics in the 1970s, and then as communication in the 1980s. It then reviews the evolving concern of the information sciences with data in the 1960s, information in the 1970s, and knowledge in the 1980s. It concludes by suggesting that the increasingly popular topic of planning support systems (PSS) can be seen as continuing these trends to a include broader concern with intelligence and collective design.