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ICS 131: Social Analysis of Computerization

ICS 131: Social Analysis of Computerization. Lecture 2: Identifying and analyzing social issues. Key Ideas. Technical content operates in a non-technical context. Social context is central to technology. Identify Social Issues. Goals of Project Assumptions Stakeholders Impacts.

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ICS 131: Social Analysis of Computerization

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  1. ICS 131: Social Analysis of Computerization Lecture 2: Identifying and analyzing social issues

  2. Key Ideas • Technical content operates in a non-technical context. • Social context is central to technology.

  3. Identify Social Issues • Goals of Project • Assumptions • Stakeholders • Impacts

  4. Goals of Project • Why do it? • Who’s deciding?

  5. Example: Blog software • Goals • Online journal • Rapid sharing of information • Easy to start up and use • Others • Who’s deciding? • Coders

  6. Assumptions • Something that must be true in order for the rest of the discussion to be relevant. • Implicit -> explicit • Pre-conditions (make it possible) vs. post-conditions (make it relevant) • Degree of importance/relevance (e.g., the Earth isn’t going to stop spinning)

  7. Example: Blog software • Assumptions • Pre-conditions • Common technology. • Networked computers. • Freedom of speech. • Technically feasible. • Post-conditions • Someone uses it. • Interested readers. • Others…

  8. Stakeholders • Designer • Client • Society • Others…

  9. Example: Blog software • Stakeholders: • Software Designers • Bloggers and potential bloggers • Readers • Society as a whole • Politicians • Businesses

  10. Stakeholders • What do we know about them? • Backgrounds • Goals/Motivations • Preferences/Needs

  11. Example: Blog software • Stakeholder - Readers: • Background: • Technically competent • Interested in topic • Goals/Motivations: • Keep up with events • Keep up with friends • Preferences/Needs: • Seeking information • Ease of use

  12. Impacts • Intended - What does it do for the client when it operates correctly? • Side effects - What else does it do? • Externalities - Side effect to someone other than the intended client.

  13. Example: Blog software • Impacts: Intended • Lets a blogger tell his/her friends what their cat ate for dinner, or who they’re going to vote for and why. • Lets a reader find out about their friends and see what other people think.

  14. Example: Blog software • Impacts: Side Effects • Makes bloggers famous • Gets the word “blog” in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary

  15. Example: Blog software • Impacts: Externalities • Changes to political landscape. • Howard Dean • Campaign greatly helped by grassroots blogging. • Until that fateful scream. • Others?

  16. Reading • Herbert Simon • Economics, computer science, psychology, design • Definition of design • “Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones.” (1969)

  17. Software Design • Understand existing situations • Conceive of preferred ones • Preferred by whom?

  18. A Note on Readings • You may need a dictionary. • Terms I looked up the first time I read this: • Club of Rome - global think tank • Externalities - defined earlier • Bounded rationality • Rational - “acts in pursuit of its goals” • Bounded - “experience limits in formulating and solving complex problems and in processing (receiving, storing, retrieving, transmitting) information” (Simon) • Desideratum - “something desired as essential”

  19. Discussion • Process • Questions • Talk about them with neighbors • Eight people called up to the front to answer them and discuss.

  20. Topic for Discussion • Imagine that someone invents a small, self-contained, wireless, web camera, and asks you to write software to allow anyone on the net to see what that camera sees in real time. • Questions: • What are the goals? • What are the assumptions? • Who are the stakeholders? • What are the impacts? • Discuss with neighbors - 5 minutes.

  21. And our lucky contestants are... • Kang, Ho-fan • Chen, Victor • Hasegawa, David Kiyoshi • Asuncion, Arthur Uy Jr. • Kan, Long Ting • Touch, Sika • Phimmasone, Navin • Bobba, Paul Vincent …come on down front!

  22. Next class • Monday - Guest Lecture • Trends in Library Research • Julia Gelfand • Reading: SPARC Open Access Newsletter • URL on syllabus, web site

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