SGER - Research Methods for Contemporary History of Computing

SGER - 当代计算史研究方法

• 批准号: 0747445
• 负责人: Thomas Misa
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-09-15 至 2009-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0747445&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SGER; Research; Methods; Contemporary; History

This is a proposal to develop and test new methods for conducting research in the history of contemporary computing. These are exploratory in nature, and are proposed in an effort to overcome the "top down" bias inherent in existing research methods that collect information preponderantly (or even exclusively) from pioneering or leading figures in the field. These proposed research methods will, in several distinct but complementary ways, provide insight, information, and documentation on a much wider and more diverse set of participants in the evolution of computing.Consideration of these new research methods was prompted when planning for a wide-ranging historical study of NSF's FastLane system as an early model of scholarly cyberinfrastructure. Doing traditional oral histories with the eight to ten "core" NSF designers of FastLane was easy to envision. But research tools were simply not available to make a feasible study of the large and diverse set of FastLane users (e.g., NSF legacy staff, staff of sponsored projects administrations, and principal investigators). Doing traditional time-intensive oral histories with hundreds of users would require an unrealistically oversize research team. Moreover, there is a pressing question whether NSF succeeded in designing a system that could encourage - rather than frustrate - proposal submissions by PI's from universities that did not possess top-notch computing resources (especially PI's at HBCU and EPSCoR-state universities). Collecting a large and diverse set of data, from numerous PI's and SPA staff, is necessary to address this latter issue. These new research questions demanded new research tools and methods.Broader ImpactThe research tools proposed in this project have significant potential to transform existing research methods and practices in the history of computing, as well as in the closely related field of contemporary history of science, technology, engineering and medicine (STEM). The two tools - a web-based interview platform and a complementary 'wiki' site set up to elicit and record participants' varied perspectives - are promising attempts to develop potentially transformative research methods. Scholars studying the STEM domain have become increasingly aware that a proper understanding of advances in science and technology requires investigating the dynamics of institutions and organizations, including research on the achievements, attitudes, and perspectives of rank-and-file members, and not merely study of a small number of leading figures. By making possible the collection of larger and more diverse sets of qualitative data, these novel research tools and methods could even transform the broader public understanding of science and engineering.

这是一项建议，旨在开发和测试在当代计算机史上进行研究的新方法。这些都是探索性的，是为了克服现有研究方法中固有的“自上而下”的偏见，这些方法主要(甚至完全)从该领域的先驱或领军人物那里收集信息。这些拟议的研究方法将以几种截然不同但互为补充的方式，提供关于计算发展中更广泛、更多样化的参与者的洞察、信息和文档。在计划对NSF的FastLane系统进行广泛的历史研究作为学术网络基础设施的早期模型时，促使人们考虑这些新的研究方法。与FastLane的八到十名NSF核心设计师一起做传统的口述历史很容易想象。但是，根本没有研究工具来对FastLane的大量和多样化的用户(例如，NSF遗留工作人员、赞助项目管理部门的工作人员和主要调查人员)进行可行性研究。与数百名用户一起进行传统的时间密集型口述历史将需要一个不切实际的超大研究团队。此外，有一个紧迫的问题是，NSF是否成功地设计了一个系统，可以鼓励--而不是阻止--来自不拥有一流计算资源的大学(特别是HBCU和EPSCoR州立大学的PI)的PI提交的提案。为了解决后一个问题，有必要从众多的PI和SPA工作人员那里收集大量不同的数据。这些新的研究问题需要新的研究工具和方法。本项目中提出的研究工具具有巨大的潜力，可以改变计算史以及与之密切相关的当代科学、技术、工程和医学史(STEM)的现有研究方法和实践。这两个工具--一个基于网络的采访平台和一个互为补充的维基网站--旨在引发和记录参与者的不同观点--是开发潜在变革性研究方法的有希望的尝试。研究STEM领域的学者越来越意识到，要正确理解科学技术的进步，需要调查机构和组织的动态，包括对普通成员的成就、态度和观点的研究，而不仅仅是对少数领军人物的研究。通过收集更大、更多样的定性数据，这些新颖的研究工具和方法甚至可以改变公众对科学和工程的更广泛的理解。