Inventing for a Better Global Environment: A Comparative Analysis of Two Networks

本项目将基于计算机的网络技术应用于设计过程的两个案例研究，以检查道德承诺和其他突发事件如何影响“环境智能织物”和太阳能热水系统这两种产品的开发。每一件产品都是以不同的方式发明的，织物是通过合作发明的，热水器是通过个人努力发明的。但两者都以对环境价值的原则承诺为指导，都面临着技术和经济上的限制，这些限制限制了所生产的产品的种类。这些价值、影响和制约因素最好由网络来体现，本项目将整合相互竞争的框架来描述这些影响，同时使用最近开发的基于计算机的技术来描述参与者、影响和结果。

This project applies computer-based networking techniques to two cases studies of the design process to examine how ethical commitments and other contingencies shape the development of two products, an `environmentally intelligent fabric` and a solar water heating system. Each product was invented in a different way, the fabric through collaboration, the water heater through individual effort. But both were guided by principled commitments to environmental values, and both confronted technical and economic constraints that conditioned the sort of product that would be produced. Such values, influences and constraints are best represented by networks, and this project will integrate competing frameworks for depicting such influences while using recently-developed, computer-based techniques for depicting actors, influences, and outcomes.