Doctoral Dissertation Research: Honghong Tinn: "Tinkering with Computers, Constructing a Developing Country: The History of Computing inTaiwan, 1945-1985"

这个关于台湾计算机历史的项目是由美国国家科学基金会的科学、技术和社会计划资助的。它关注的是计算机的历史，以及战后台湾更广泛的发展。在冷战时期，台湾发展项目的一部分是摆弄电脑，而不是发明电脑。这个项目中的“修补”指的是以一种创新的方式模仿、调整、修改、组装，以及创造性地使用技术的实践。这个项目将在美国、欧洲和苏联之外扩展冷战期间计算历史的边界。在这一时期，对于参与台湾发展项目的科学家、工程师、技术人员和用户来说，摆弄电脑是最重要的问题。该项目侧重于三个历史案例。​第二个案例涉及到一个项目，在1968年到1971年间，国立交通大学的一个研究生项目，尽管能够从不同的供应商那里购买一台微型计算机，但还是从零开始制造了一台微型计算机。第三个案例调查了1976年至1985年间出现的两个有趣现象：为什么许多台湾个人电脑用户倾向于制造自己的微型电脑，以及这种偏好如何引发了一系列关于法律机构是否允许台湾公司生产苹果兼容产品的辩论。本项目拟对《科学技术研究》的文献作出三方面的理论贡献。首先，它旨在解决东亚电子计算历史及其与冷战期间科技政治的联系缺乏学术研究的问题。其次，修修补补概念的扩展扩展了科学技术研究中的用户研究领域。这个项目有助于从研究传统的发明和创新场所转向研究更广泛的用户类别——修补匠。第三，本项目将有助于研究后殖民国家发展项目中科技的意义。重点不在于技术转让的成功，而在于将电子计算引入台湾的当地解释和当地行动。

This project on the history of computing in Taiwan is funded by NSF's Science, Technology, and Society Program. It focuses on the intertwined history of computing and more generally of development in postwar Taiwan. Tinkering with computers, instead of inventing computers, was part of the development project in Taiwan during the Cold War period. "Tinkering" in this project refers to the practices of emulating, adapting, modifying, assembling in an innovative manner, and otherwise working creatively with technologies. This project will expand the boundaries of the history of computing during the Cold War outside the United States, Europe, and the Soviet Union. Tinkering with computers was the foremost issue for scientists, engineers, technicians, and users who participated in the development projects in Taiwan during this period. The project focuses on three historical cases. The first one is a technical-aid program involving mainframe computers that the United Nations established at National Chiao-Tung University (NCTU) in Taiwan in the early 1960s. The second case involves a project in which an NCTU graduate program, although able to buy a minicomputer from various suppliers, built a minicomputer from scratch between 1968 and 1971. The third case investigates two intriguing phenomena that surfaced between 1976 and 1985: why many of Taiwan's personal computer users preferred to build their own microcomputers and how this preference initiated a series of debates about whether legal institutions allowed Taiwanese companies to make Apple compatibles.The project intends to make three theoretical contributions to the literature in Science and Technology Studies. First, it aims to address the lack of scholarship in the history of electronic computing in East Asia and its connection to the politics of science and technology during the Cold War. Second, the proposed broadening of the concept of tinkering expands the field of user studies in science and technology studies. This project contributes to the movement away from studying a traditional site of invention and innovation by studying a broader category of users?tinkerers. Third, this project will contribute to the studies of the meanings of science and technology in the development projects of postcolonial countries. The focus is not on the success of technology transfer but on local interpretations of and local actions regarding introducing electronic computing to Taiwan.