Social Informatics
Raw DNA
Genes in naturally occurring sate Non-Patentable
What is disciplinary architecture?
An object or system (through the design of code) that directly regulates or controls behavior or human action.
Trademark
A law that protects a communicative symbol for producers and consumers
What is analytic?
A lens through which we can make sense of observations
What is an invention?
A novel thing or idea
Culture
Behaviours attitudes and beliefs characteristics of a particular social ethic or age group Ways of living built by human beings and transmitted through generation process of reality construction that allows people to see and understand particualr events actions objects
Self Fufilling prophecies
Belief in future success leads investors and producers to put resources into development
2 Essential Human Traits
Ability to imagine and ability to materialize canvas to communicate
Proprietary Systems
About the Political and Economic organization of society as well as realizing that property is about ordering of space
unearned advantage
An advantage that a person has based on a characteristic they were born into (i.e. the color of their skin) and not through their own personal merit based on their actions taken. • Unearned advantages are things that should be available for all.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Belief in future success of technology leads investors and producers to put resources into its development
Examples (SCOT)
Betamax vs VHS Safety Bicycle Net Neutrality
Critiques
David Nye ...
Platforms
Development boards for programming chips
Example of Power vs. Authority
Edward Snowden had the power to tell people about the NSA invading people's privacy but, did not of the authority to say so.
Piracy 2
Elements blended to produce new art EX: Creative work
What is a scheme or schemata?
In cognitive psychology, a schema is an organized structure of thought that puts information into categories. • Schemata (plural of schema) also contain information in the way in which they are associated with each other.
Technological Imagination
In thinking about future technological developments, we are also thinking about future cultural developments.
Virtuous Circle
Just because a technology won does not mean it was the best technology
What are mechanical questions?
Mechanical questions ask about how a system works technically, which actors perform which tasks, or what happens within a system.
Isolated DNA
Naturally occurring but isolated from body unclear
Intellectual Property
Non-excludable, non-diminishing, Characteristics of public good, according to the constitution it should be a balance of developing a knowledge commons, motivation of individual genius and not a recognition of social contract right
What is an innovation?
Related to but different from an invention... "The creation of unique arrangements that provides the basis for reorganizing the way things will be in the future; innovations rearrange culture" (P. 3).
Boehm's law
Relative Cost of software is increasing
Tech Culture First Idea
Technogical artifacts are significant to our shared cultural experience and knowledge
Sawyers Second Finding
Technology sometimes benefits one group over another
Real world
When the virtual and physical worlds collide
Langdon Winner
machines, structures and systems of modern material culture can be judged not only on efficiency/productivity and good/bad consequences but also the ways in which they embody power and authority
Actors of SCOT
people -> Technology Inventors Investors Competitors Government Users adopt and lead trends Companies set prices
Public Domain
"the realm embracing property rights that belong to the community at large, are unprotected by copyright or patent, and are subject to appropriation by anyone." (Webster)
How intellectual property rights encourage and discourage creativity and innovation?
-Legal fiction •Gives creators a limited interest •Motivates R&D •Dominated by American and European law (romantic authorship applied globally)
Consequences of Choices
...
4 Questions in Mutual Shaping
1. Why it occurred 2. How it came about 3. What impact it had 4. What new world was generated
How do we get out of TD perspective?
Be critical ask questions
Digital Millennial Copyright Act (1998)
•Prohibits the distribution or use of tools to circumvent technological copyright protection systems (DRM technologies) .•Creates a "safe harbor" for websites that post infringing content as long as they take the content down when notified.
"Safe Harbor" Provision
•Title II of the DMCA or 17 U.S. Code §512(c) •Take down notices form part of DMCA "safe habor" provision that protects websites for being liable for posted content. This encourages expression (why?). •Copyright holder can file complaint with website, website can't be liable if they promptly issue a take down notice. •This allows overly broad take downs that do not consider fair use.
How ideas of romantic authorship produce multiple and paradoxical effects?
•Western ideas of "romantic authorship" are not natural. •There are other models for the production and distribution of creative knowledge that are read out of intellectual property regimes (e.g. collaboration instead of authorship, tradition instead of new invention, gradual evolution instead of transformation, etc.) •Introducing Western ideas of authorship in other parts of the world creates and reinforces power relationships. •The material presented in this lecture is about property rights over information, but it is also intimately tied to changes in technology. How? •The concept of authorship found in U.S. and international intellectual property law promotes and reinforces particular relations of power and authority.
5 Rights of a Regulated innovation
1. Balancing rights of individual with the interests of society 2. Freedom of Speech (Political speech and creative self-expression) 3. Intellectual property (Economic participation and reward for labors) 4. Social interest in scientific and technological advance 5. Access to basic health care
What are the properties of infrastructure?
1. Embeddedness 2.Transparency 3.Reach or scope 4.Learned as part of membership 5.Becomes visible upon breakdown 6.Links with conventions of practice 7.Builds on an installed base 8.Embodiment of standards 9.Is fixed in modular increments
4 Main Industries of Application
1. Health care 2. Agricultural Innovation 3. Plant-based non-agricultural innovation 4. Enviromental uses
4 Types of Sharing
1. Sharing so person doesn't have to buy 2. Sharing so a buyer can sample before purchase 3. Sharing because the content is no longer available 4. Sharing because the creator wants to give the content away
Technological Affordance
A behavior or action of someone that is allowed or provoked by a technology because of the design of that technology
Technological Limitation
A behavior or action of someone that is prohibited or prevented by a technology because of the design of that technology
black box
A black box is a device which is viewed solely in terms of its input and output, without any knowledge of its internal workings. input --> [black box] --> output
Class
A classification system that groups people with similar life chances, shared historical narratives, living circumstances, and/or who occupy a similar position in the economic system.
Gender
A classification system that people use to create assumptions about physical and behavioral characteristics related to the prescription of social roles and expectations. Strategies for reproducing and enforcing categories have included the creation of laws, enactments of violence, performance of social traditions, and formation of social institutions. Dominant schemata include the gender binary, men and women, two-spirit, and hijra.
Race
A classification system that people use to create assumptions about physical and behavioral characteristics related to the prescription of social roles and expectations. Strategies for reproducing and enforcing categories have included the creation of laws, enactments of violence, performance of social traditions, and formation of social institutions. Dominant schemata vary significantly from region to region and change over time.
Patent
A law that protects an invention for the inventor and gives them the right to use, sell, or reproduce that product
Copyright
A law that protects creative work for the author and gives them the right to print, publish, preform, film, record, or produce copies of their product
Invention
A product or process that is created with transformative labor
Mutual Shaping
A relationship between society and technology that changes over time, it has a temporal death.
Harm
A subjective experience that can be (but is not limited to being) physical, material, psychological, or political, often resulting in injury or damage.
Microaggression
A subtle intentional or unintentional 'othering' comment or action that expresses a prejudiced attitude to a person or persons based upon their marginalized group membership.
What is an information system?
A system that collects, processes, and / or distributes information for primarily communicative and organizational purposes
The Romantic Author
A view of authorship that emphasizes the transformation of raw materials and individual originality as the basis of intellectual and artistic production, and thus a form of property."It is the originality of the author, the novelty by which he or she adds to the raw materials provided by culture and the common pool, which "justifies" the property right." -James Boyle, "Shamans, Software, and Spleens" (scientists benefited more due to the idea or Romantic Authorship)
Symbol
A word, phrase, image, or the like that has associated meanings and is perceived as having inherent value separate from that which is symbolized,
Sociotechnical
An adjective that describes something as simultaneously technological and social. This means that technical and social things shouldn't be thought about as in opposition to each other, but rather interlinked . In fact, they are so interwoven that sometimes separating them not only doesn't make sense, but is actively detrimental to understanding a context.
First Sale
An exception to U.S. copyright law that allows you to resell a used version of a copyrighted work (e.g. books, dvds, etc.) Policy vacuum:What happens to unregulated use when every use of a copyrighted work requires you to make a copy? This is often the case with the internet and other digital technologies. Examples: e-books, mp3s, software.
Fair Use
An exception to U.S. copyright law that may allow people to reproduce a copyrighted work depending on: •The purpose and character of use (e.g. academic, commercial) •The nature of the copyrighted work •The amount of the portion used in relation to the work as a whole •The effect of the use on the value of the work or its potential market
What are the criteria for determining fair use?
An exception to U.S. copyright law that may allow people to reproduce a copyrighted work depending on: •The purpose and character of use (e.g. academic, commercial) •The nature of the copyrighted work •The amount of the portion used in relation to the work as a whole •The effect of the use on the value of the work or its potential market
The four criteria for fair use?
An exception to U.S. copyright law that may allow people to reproduce a copyrighted work depending on: •The purpose and character of use (e.g. academic, commercial) •The nature of the copyrighted work, •The amount of the portion used in relation to the work as a whole •The effect of the use on the value of the work or its potential market
Traditional Knowledge
An umbrella term that includes recognition for a number of forms of traditional and indigenous cultural production, including folklore, music, dance, and oral history; plant-based and ethno-botanical knowledge; environmental knowledge; and, in some cases, genetic resources. This is a commonly used term. However, it has been criticized for being misleading. Traditional knowledge should not be viewed as ancient, static, and natural, but rather as dynamic, living, and inventive.
Presentism?
Assumes that what looks "inevitable" today means that that technology was ALWAYS inevitible
What it means to open the black box of invention? Could you use class examples to tell a more complex story (e.g. Diesel, Bell)?
Black boxing is the way that scientific and technical work is made invisible by its own success. When a machine runs efficiently, when a scientific fact is settled, one need only focus on its inputs and outputs and not on its internal complexity. When opening the black box, we are more interested in the internal complexity and EVERYONE involved in the development of its technology and inner workings and not just the lone, well-known inventor/developer itself. Diesel or Bell Example --->
Algorithmic Authorship (should works produced by algorithms receive copyright protection?)
Can algorithms be authors? (think monkey selfie case)What about "work for hire"? (where the employee does the work for their employer and the employer gets the copyright. Does algorithmic authorship promote creative production? (Does it promote the progress of science and the useful arts) Three criteria: •must be a fixed medium •must be original •must have an author Algorithmic authorship could be handled under copyright law in any number of ways. A software programmer could be deemed the author and thus the owner of the program's output. Or the user of the computer could be the author; the programmer and user could be joint authors; or, neither could be the author and the work could go un-owned. Who gets to be called the work's author, and who gets to benefit from copyright's incentives, is a matter less of technological details of AI than of how we theorize authorship and ownership in the U.S. copyright system.
Hurricane Katrina n probs
Case Study Should non residents of regions protected by technologies as levees be included in design How should we plan for the protection of all residents How do we facilitate the reconstruction of a city for all? Lower 9th ward
Myriad vs Association of Molecular Pathologists
Case that looked into the question, Can Isolated DNA be an invention? Court ruled that Isolated DNA is not an invention because it is naturally occurring.
Alive vs CLS bank
Case that searched if there was a significant improvement or functional implementation of an already known financial business process
How has copyright law changed over the past 100 years?
Copyright Timeline 1790-U.S. Congress enacted the first copyright law. Copyrighted works protected for 14 years with one time extension. 1831-Duration of copyright extended to 28 years. 1909-The renewal term also extended to 28 years. 1976-Renewal term eliminated, all copyrighted works automatically protected for the maximum term: life of the author + fifty years (75 years for corporations). 1998-Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act increased copyright protection to life + 75 years for individuals or 95 years for corporations.
Copyright
Copyright is a form of protection provided to the authors of "original works of authorship" including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works, both published and unpublished. It prohibits the making of unauthorized copies or derivative works. Facts, ideas, concepts, processes and methods are not copyright-able. Three criteria: •must be a fixed medium •must be original •must have an author
The difference between copyright and patent?
Copyright is a form of protection provided to the authors of "original works of authorship" including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works, both published and unpublished. It prohibits the making of unauthorized copies or derivative works. Facts, ideas, concepts, processes and methods are not copyrightable. Three criteria: •must be a fixed medium •must be original •must have an author A patent is a form of intellectual property. A patent gives its owner the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, and importing an invention for a limited period of time, usually twenty years. The patent rights are granted in exchange for an enabling public disclosure of the invention.
Bridgeport Vs. Dimension Films
Court case of NWA releasing the track 100 Miles and running with a sample from George Clinton and the Funkadelics without their permission, Lawsuit filed in Tennessee, NWA's creative work was minimized and the court ruled in favor of Bridgeport because, they own the creative content and the profits go to them
Burrow-Giles Lithographic Company vs. Sarony
Court found Sarony was the author of the photograph because he gave his mental conception on lighting, poses, and wardrobe of the photograph and received a copyright.
Synthetic DNA
Created in lab from proteins and chemicals using mRNA as a blueprint Patentable
Copyleft
Creator gives content away and retains desired rights from "bundle" it is attribution, non-commercial use
What are critical questions?
Critical questions intend to analyze a system from multiple perspectives beyond the mechanics of how the system works. They tend to inquire about meaning, motivation, relationships, effects, context, and so on.
Tech Culture Key Concepts
Culture Meaning Social Practices Identity Semiotic Networks (Communication through Symbols) Soundscapes
Computerization
Digitizing something.
Piracy 1
Direct Copy EX: Book seller on the streets of Bangalore
Implications
Do we adopt a particular technology If yes what kinds of concerns should we have beyond cost.
What is infrastructure?
Elements of a built environment that make human civilization possible A system of substrates, often invisible until made visible via problems, workarounds, or other forms of human activity
Traditional Knowledge Examples
Examples: •Chinese farming techniques that are 1,200 years old •The traditional songs and dances of indigenous peoples •Medicinal knowledge of plants •Crop selection that has taken place over generations •Folklore that has been passed down orally.. Ideas of romantic authorship do not easily align with innovations •that are collectively produced •that communities have preserved for generations •that have resulted from incremental change
Oppression
Exertion or experience of power in a manner that creates prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or control of people with less power historically and politically. Composed of: exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, violence, and benevolent prejudice.
Makerspaces
Expensive tools, Work space purchased and managed collectively, it is also a group of like minded people who foster a common orientation to technology or it could be an incubator for new applications of technology EX: Mutual Support, Collaborative projects, Education Centers, Start Ups
Henry Wagner
Father of PET who was a medical doctor, thought PET was a response to a problem in medicine, told a story of innovation as functional (addressing a practical need)
Michael Phelps
Father of PET who was a physician and scientist, was mostly interested in techniques, thought PET was a technology that enabled the new, Told a story of competition and politics winning over others
Michael Ter-Pogossian
Father of PET who was a scientist and thought that PET is a scientific observation, claimed that it was slowly building and a part of progressive science
Some of the ways intellectual property rights have changed over time?
Fifth Amendment Clause- No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8 of U.S. Constitution: Congress has the power to promote the Progress of Science and the useful Arts, by securing for Limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.
Copyright Criteria
Fixed medium, original or creative, has an author EX: Owner of the Oscar Group Selfie
Patent Basics
For "inventive works" must have an iventor, must be a specialized skill or technology or craft, filing is required and after 20 years a renewal is possible
Purpose of Intellectual Property
Gives creators a limited interest and motivates R&D, Develops a knowledge common, Key to progress/success of new democracy
Lower 9th Ward
Historic - Primarily of Color Homes owned for generations Insurance companies undervalued homes Permit for rebuilding were delayed even for those with money
Power Struggle in Techno-Scientific Innovation
Hitler vowed to make Germany great again and started using the German Army to invade other countries making the United States want to research the Atomic bomb
Framework: Social Construction of Technology (SCOT)Society
Humanity, by holding beliefs, values and existing within culture, shapes technological development and trajectories of technological progress. We determine what technologies are
Context Dependency
ICTs are always situated in a particular context. In order to talk about the use of an ICT you must talk about the context of use
Soundscapes
If music and reading can transport us what else can? What is the role of tech and the role of culture Can Video games do the same?
Weaknesses? (TD)
Implies suspension of ethical judgement or social control People may be treated as an end Shown to be inaccurate in serious historical study
Rorugwe Lullaby case (traditional knowledge)
In 1992, the Norwegian group Deep Forest sampled the recording and added electronic dance beats. They sold millions of copies. Their song "Sweet Lullaby" has been used as background music for commercials by Neutrogena, Coca-Cola, Porsche, Sony, and the Body Shop. They did not provide compensation to the person who recorded the sample (Zempe) or the woman who sang the original lullaby (Afunakwa).Deep Forest refers to the sampling of "native melodies" as the use of "raw material, an opportunity to cross and blend." Of their relation to these "native melodies" on their first recording, their liner notes say: "Deep Forest is the respect of this tradition which humanity should cherish as a treasure which marries world harmony, a harmony often compromised today."
Technological affordances
In the context of human interaction used to refer to just those actions possibilities are readily perceivable by an actor Dependent not only on the physical capabilities of actors but also on sociocultural factors, goals, values, beliefs
Privilege
In this context, the term refers to a combination of unearned advantages and conferred dominance that gives people power based on particular characteristics or social positions derived from classification schemata such as race or gender.
Machenzies question of "best"?
In what other ways could technology have been developed? Best for Whom? How do we measure best?
The difference between an innovation-centered and a maintenance-centered way of thinking?
Innovation: By focusing on innovation, we often overlook maintenance. As such we have a partial and biased view of technology and work. INNOVATION 1.The introduction of something new 2.A new idea, method or device 3.The process of translating an idea or invention into a good or service that creates value or for which customers will pay. In business, innovation often results when ideas are applied by the company in order to further satisfy the needs and expectations of the customers Maintenance-Centered View: A maintenance- centered view of technology focuses on the local, recognizes that most technologies are older technologies than need repair, attends to infrastructure, and values mundane form of work that make our lives possible
Mutual Shaping
Instead of a linear relationship, ongoing dialogue between social and technical The social and technical shape each other coproduction, co shaping, coconstruction
What does Boyle mean by an intellectual land grab and how does he connect this idea to a colonial land grab?
Intellectual Property Economy Raw materials Human originality (transformation) Something new that is financially valuable Colonial Economy Raw materials (from the colonies) Transformed to finished products (by colonizers) Sold back to the colonies at much higher prices An intellectual property system centered on the ideal of the trans formative and original creator compounds these tendencies. It does so because the traditional competitive advantage of the developing countries has been in the supplying raw materials and an authorial regime values the raw materials for the production of intellectual property at zero.
How intellectual property is different from physical property (and provide examples)?
Intellectual property is: Non-excludable: Cannot easily exclude others from use, once it is released you can't take it back. Non-rival/non-diminishing: My enjoyment of the property does not diminish your enjoyment, nor does it diminish the quality of the resource.These are the characteristics of public goods such as clean air, public parks, fireworks displays, etc. Intellectual property should be a balance between a knowledge commons and the motivation for individual genius. It is not a recognition of an individual citizen's right to property.
Social Informatics
Interdisciplinary study of the relationship between in information technology and society problem oriented Critical Context Dependent Rigorous empirical work
Bell and the invention of the telephone (simultaneous invention; law defines inventor and invention)
Interpreting the Telephone Story Argument:1) The inventionof the telephone is a contested story, not a black box. 2) That the black boxingof Bell as the inventor has more to do with law, in particular patent law, then with an act of technological creation. Patent for new technology: stating that transmitting voices over wire using certain frequencies allowed him to be the sole controller of said technology
The diagram I used to explain a typical invention origin story (see lecture #1)?
Invention --> Development --> Innovation (Look at Lecture one)
Why the Maker Movement?
It causes Experimentation, Customization, Innovation/Creation, and Education
The case of John Moore's spleen (raw materials)
John Moore's Spleen (Moore v. The Regents of the Univ. of California) •Does Moore own his bodily tissues and should he be able to control their use? •Does Moore own his genetic code? (Is he its "author") •Does the court's decision "offend common sense"? John Moore's Spleen"...the patented cell line and the products derived from it -cannot be Moore's property. This is because the patented cell line is both factually and legally distinct from the cell's taken from Moore's body. Federal law permits the patenting of organisms that represent the product of "human ingenuity," but not naturally occurring organisms. . . It is this inventive effort that patent law rewards, not the discover of naturally occurring raw materials."--Moore v. The Regents of the University of California
How has the idea of the "romantic author" allowed us to patent spleens?
John Moore's Spleen"...the patented cell line and the products derived from it -cannot be Moore's property. This is because the patented cell line is both factually and legally distinct from the cell's taken from Moore's body. Federal law permits the patenting of organisms that represent the product of "human ingenuity," but not naturally occurring organisms. . . It is this inventive effort that patent law rewards, not the discover of naturally occurring raw materials."--Moore v. The Regents of the University of California
Why is it popular? (TD)
Looks scientific because it offers a single cause with a single effect Predictive Tech progress is unstoppable
What is an example of tech work that is made invisible by an innovation-centered perspective?
Maintenance is often overlooked, so the technology and invention of simple technologies, such as a bicycle, or telephone wires/electrical wires, may be overlooked.
The features of a maintenance-centered perspective?
Maintenance-Centered View: A maintenance- centered view of technology focuses on the local, recognizes that most technologies are older technologies than need repair, attends to infrastructure, and values mundane form of work that make our lives possible
Name one factor that challenges Bell's claim as the sole inventor of the telephone.
Many other people were involved in different aspects of the creation and/or development as the telephone as a whole. For instances, the Hubbards, mentioned in class, were both involved as well as Elisha Gray and Antonio Meucci. Bell had control of the patent, so there was not much that could be done and is a major reason that he is often names the sole inventor. When you open the black box of the telephone, that is clearly not the case.
Disciplinary Architectures
Moses and bridges Boulevards of Paris Levees of New Orleans
Patent Requirements
Must have a subject matter, novel, must be non-obvious, and is industrially applicable or useful
Framework
Narratives Theories Ways of thinking and talking about things Ways of Understanding
What is Social Informatics not?
Not the "social Impact of Technology Not a field that tells if technology is good or bad It is not punditry (opinion) or futurism (based on research)
What is reductionist thinking?
Oversimplification of human beings and social phenomena to easily quantified data points that makes computational modeling possible Social Informatics tries to avoid this
From Physical to Virtual
Participants in Second Life gathering around a Campfire
Info/Tech Law and Policy in a complex world
Patents (economic interests) Health (Human rights) Scientific Progress (Social Interest) All 3 important for healthy democratic society
Role of Patents in Biotech Industry
Patents give investors assurance and cement the relationship between investor and company
Bleed Through
Physical world norms brought into virtual worlds
Technologies and Uses of PET
Produced through large techno-scientific, it is interdisciplinary, used by a large number of scientists, only has a few "fathers"
What is articulation work?
Real-time effort made to bring together disjointed components into working wholes For example: educators use laptops as tools, but must bring together many other systems as well as labor and make them work together in order to help students learn
Is social informatics grounded in research or opinion?
Research
Hardin's Tragedy of the Commons
Resource any community member can access, Access is unchecked and is in self-interest to overuse, leads to resource depletion EX: BYOB but no one wants to contribute
Authority
Right to use power
TD Exampes
Robots are taking Jobs Typewriter brought women into the work place Social Media makes us Narcissitic
The Diesel Engine example (see the Latour reading; is it Diesel's engine?)
Rudolf Diesel: Main Inventor?? NO Example: "Diesel engine"1887 Idea for an engine where ignition could occur without an increase in temperature. Based on Carnot's principles. Diesel files patent and publishes book. Some support the idea, including Lord Kelvin. 1890s Diesel works with a number of firms to get one engine working. This requires manufacturing expertise as well as the original idea. The "engine" drifts from the original idea Diesel proposed. 1897 The "diesel engine" is presented to the public. It "works" but it is unreliable. Those who buy the engine eventually return it. 1897-1908 The manufacturing firm MAN continues to tinker and improve the engine.1908 Diesel's patent runs out. MAN offers a functioning engine rooted in Diesel's design. Diesel claims it is his ow
Sawyers Two Claims
Social Informatics will become even more important as computerization continues to engage our society Computerization is quintessentially sociotechnical
What is Social Informatics ?
Social informatics is the interdisciplinary study of the relationship between information technology and society.
Power of Image (PET)
Socio-cultural assumptions and who controls the translation of an image
Tech Culture Second Idea
Some Technologies give us spaces to interact and culture is produced through those interactions
Theories and Stories of Techno-Scientific Innovation
Splitting the Uranium Atom creates atomic power and is viewed as rational scientific progress
Stakeholders
Stakeholders are people (or other entities) who have something to gain or lose, or are somehow affected by a situation (in our case the design, use, or implementation of an ICT)
Problems with technological determinism
TD oversimplifies outcomes.• What is the context of technological development? • TD suggests that we innovate in a vacuum. We don't.• Why do technologies get adopted? • TD assumes that technologies are just there
3 SI Frameworks
Technological Determinism (TD) Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) Mutual Shaping
Technological Determinism
Technological Development follows a natural logic, which is beyond cutural or political influence. These developments impact societies and force them to adapt Technologies conceptualize as an external agent that acts upon and changes society
Interpretive Flexibility
Technological artifacts are culturally constructed and interpreted • Users adapt technologies to their needs and environments • Example: Facebook as news archive vs Facebook as messenger service
Ways in which technologies have politics?
Technologies can be inherently political or require specific ways of working/being that can lead to unintended consequences Authoritarian or democratic affinities conscious design unintended consequences Bias
Sawyers First Finding
Technology sometimes has a paradoxical effect (Phones)
What are social actors?
Term that describes those who "do things," "cause things," or have agency.• Social actors are usually human • But in SI, they are often not human! • Institutions and "things"can also have agency and be "social actors."
Social Actors
Term that describes who can do things Social actors are often human but do not have to be Institutions and things can also have agency and be social actors
Social Construction of Technology
That society affect Technology
Social construction terms
The "Virtuous Circle" Self-fulfilling Prophecy Interpretive flexibility
Power
The ability to control something or someone
At least one of the ways that changes in technology have challenged the idea of "romantic authorship"?
The advancement and quick evolution/development of technology. We talked about several different examples that occurred within the last 20-30 years, as the internet and sharing of music/movies etc was more readily available. Also, more advanced software available to more people as personal computers began to boom. Of course, this has also challenged copyrighting and all the associated litigation that has not been able to keep up with the evolution of technology.
Functionalist Approach in Techno-Scientific Innovation
The atomic bomb was a necessary step to end WWII. The Hiroshima bomb ended the war and introduced atomic bombs into warfare. The Bomb changed everything and the world wasn't the same as it was before.
What is agency?
The capacity to take actions and make choices.
Sawyers Fourth Finding
The design and implementation of ICTs have reciprocal relationships with the larger social context
Sawyers Third Finding
The different effects of the design and implementations of ICTs have moral and ethical consequences (Drones)
The "Virtuous Circle"
The idea that "...technologies may be best because they have triumphed rather than triumphing because they are best "• In other words, positive outcomes for certain technologies lead us to believe that there will be more of those outcomes.
Technoculture
The idea that technology and culture shouldn't be thought about as in opposition to each other, but rather interlinked
Pre-Modern Roots of Intellectual Property
The issues with the printing press were really about censorship and the right or responsibility of the printer
The myth of a genius lone inventor and why it is a myth?
The myth of a genius lone inventor consists of one person single-handedly inventing and developing a new technology. For instance, we often think of Alexander Graham Bell as the creator of the telephone, when, in reality, several people were involved in the development of this technology. -Lone inventors are more likely to have "useless inventions" (as judged by patent citations). -Isolated inventors are less effective than social inventors at culling out the bad ideas. Diversity in the collaboration helps the elimination process. -Extended networks are important and can increase the chance of having breakthrough ideas.
Sawyers Fifth Finding
The phenomenon of interest will vary by the level of analysis Individual, Organizational, Industrial
Power
The situational, structural, and systemic capacity to exert influence over others.
Mutual Shaping
The social and the technical shape each other• Also known as co-production, co-shaping, or co-construction • Posits that humanity has agency, while technology has affordances and limitations • Social Informatics tends to take this perspective
Black Boxing
The way that scientific and technical work is made invisible by its own success. When a machine runs efficiently, when a scientific fact is settled, one need only focus on its inputs and outputs and not on its internal complexity. Thus, the more science and technology succeed, the more opaque and obscure they become.
Social and Technological Change Gap
There is the world we experience and the world we can imagine, the gap in-between is the space of innovation
What is persuasive architecture?
Things that are designed to sway people towards certain types of behavior.
The Dancing Baby Case (overly broad take down notices and fair use)
This case consisted of a mother recording her children dancing and Prince's song "Let's go crazy" playing in the background. Youtube informed her that she needed to take it down due to copyright infringement for playing the queen song. The woman hired a lawyer and they sued upon her behalf, pushing for the concept of fair use being considered in this case. They ended up winning in 2015, if I remember correctly. Her use of the song falls under the criteria of fair use and the defendants wanted the useless censorship of free speech and fair used to be considered.--> Good fair belief This case is about the ways that technology has changed our ability to use, remix, and share forms of creative production (music, movies, etc.).
What are the three criteria for awarding copyright protection?
Three criteria: •must be a fixed medium •must be original •must have an author
What kinds of knowledge production are not protected by a romantic idea of authorship?
Traditional Knowledge: An umbrella term that includes recognition for a number of forms of traditional and indigenous cultural production, including folklore, music, dance, and oral history; plant-based and ethnobotanical knowledge; environmental knowledge; and, in some cases, genetic resources. (Examples--> Chinese farming techniques, Folklore that has been passed down orally.) Ideas of romantic authorship do not easily align with innovations •that are collectively produced •that communities have preserved for generations •that have resulted from incremental change
From Virtual to Physical
Virtual money showing up in physical world markets EX: Bitcoins
Tech Culture Third Idea
We develop cultural understandings of new and old technologies
Technological Limitations
What can technology not do (short wave vs cell)
Sociotechnical
a heterogenous system composed of both social and technological elements.
Social Order
refers to a particular set or system of linked social structures, institutions, relations, customs, values and practices, which conserve, maintain and enforce certain patterns of relating and behaving" an agglomeration of the social infrastructure that creates our social world
The purpose of intellectual property?
•Incentive for people to share their inventions or their creative work so the public benefits from the ideas. •Mechanism for inventors and authors to receive payment for their work. •Continuation of public domain.
