Data Entry, Labor Identity, and Inequality in Computer Automation

这个技术历史研究项目侧重于计算机自动化，旨在为人工智能和机器人技术的当代发展提供历史教训，这些技术有望彻底打破人类和机器劳动之间的平衡。当现代化的公司第一次开始安装数字电子计算机时，很明显，在自动处理大量信息之前，必须将它们从纸张转换成计算机可读的形式。因此，计算机自动化产生了对数据输入的迅速膨胀的需求，其中大部分是手工完成的。这个项目的成果将通过解决一些相关的问题，例如：计算机自动化是如何改变工作流程的？谁承担了新出现的常规数据输入工作，在什么条件下，为什么？除了资助学术研究和出版物外，该项目还为本科生提供公共历史方面的培训机会，并创建一个虚拟展览，吸引更广泛的观众参与有关今天工作流程和技术变革的数据输入历史提出的问题。该项目着眼于20世纪50年代至70年代美国、西德和东德的银行自动化，研究了冷战高峰时期的计算技术和不平等。它审查了数据输入工作人员的参与和身份及其工作条件的变化；此外，它还提出了银行自动化对社会和经济的影响，以及竞争压力对边缘化社区银行服务的影响等问题。在方法上，该项目通过对流行杂志、报纸和口述历史访谈的分析来补充档案研究和专业技术记录，以规避目前档案收藏的局限性。就计算机历史而言，该项目将人们的注意力从专业程序员（主要是男性和白人）转移到了不熟练的数据输入打字员，这与技术进步的线性叙述相反。跨大西洋的比较将有助于为不同政治经济中关于工人身份和技术的一般性假设提供本地化的纠正。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This history of technology research project focuses on computer automation with an eye towards providing historical lessons for contemporary developments in artificial intelligence and robotics technologies, which are expected to uproot the balance between human and machine labor. When modernizing corporations first began installing digital electronic computers, it became clear that large amounts of information had to be converted from paper into computer-legible form before they could be processed automatically. Computer automation thus created a rapidly ballooning need for data entry, much of which was done manually. The outcomes of this project will make menial data entry a visible part of the history of computing by addressing pertinent questions such as: How did computer automation change work processes? Who took up the newly emerging routine data entry work, under what conditions, and why? In addition to funding scholarly research and publications, the project provides undergraduate student training opportunities in public history and creates a virtual exhibit that engages broader audiences with questions raised by the history of data entry about work processes and technological change today. Focusing on banking automation in the United States, West and East Germany from the 1950s to the 1970s, this project investigates computing technology and inequality at the height of the Cold War. It examines changes in the participation and identity of data entry workers and their work conditions; in addition, it raises questions about social and economic implications from bank automation, and the effects of competitive pressures on banking services for marginalized communities. Methodologically, the project supplements archival research and professional technical records with an analysis of popular magazines, newspapers, and oral history interviews to circumvent current limitations of archival collections. For the history of computing, the project shifts attention from professional—mostly male and white—programmers to unskilled data entry typists, countering linear narratives of technological progress. A transatlantic comparison will serve to provide a localizing corrective to generalizing assumptions about worker identity and technology in different political economies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.