In 1980, the Office of Continuing Education and Public Service at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign acquired a W. K. Kellogg Foundation grant to establish a 4-year model Community Information and Education Service (CIES). Working with the university's Cooperative Extension Service and five community colleges, CIES initially focused on five major issues: land resource utilization, water quality and availability, local government and administration, rural transportation and road maintenance, and rural crime. CIES also intended to help individuals and communities master the demands of the emerging technical society and in that context sponsored a 1-day symposium in October 1983 focusing on the issues and implications for Central Illinois of changing technology in the workplace. Despite statistics, discussions, and personal experience, most attendees were uncertain whether current socioeconomic phenomena and attitudes represented a transient period or a sustained era of adaptation. In the future, CIES will continue to help promote the ability to deal with emerging social patterns by concentrating more efforts on continuing education of target groups such as lay board members and civic officials, adding an applied research and development component, and attempting to build temporary coalitions to deal with emergent conditions. The symposium schedule is included. (SB)