HCC: Small: Values of Information Technology for Progress: Three Case Studies

该项目将开发方法，利用对技术的历史理解来评估社会技术变革的潜在后果，并激发新的设计实践。信息技术（IT）建立在与重大文化转变相关的更悠久的技术历史之上，通常被概念化为推动社会进步的技术创新。本研究通过以下问题批判性地分析了社会技术进步的概念：它是如何概念化的？在追求进步的过程中，哪些实践、价值观和利益相关者被边缘化了？它的后果是什么？当前被边缘化的因素如何激发新的设计形式？它使用这些问题来评估It在发展过程中扮演的角色，并设想和设计It可能扮演的新角色。本项目通过三个案例研究来回答这些问题，这些案例研究着眼于全球边缘的社会，这些社会利用技术进步作为改善其环境的手段。案例研究着眼于(1)纽芬兰农村从自给自足、以渔业为基础的经济迅速转变为工业化经济的过去尝试；(2)当前冰岛类似转型的后果，信息技术的普遍采用改变了小船渔业；(3)由于牙买加突然普及移动电话技术而引发的关于未来可能的争论。这些新颖的案例研究提供了一个新的视角，通过它来理解信息技术所体现的价值，它的文化影响，以及它们对人机交互领域实践的影响。在方法上，这项工作建立在设计人种学的基础上，展示了历史方法如何丰富人机交互工作的能力，以解决技术更广泛的文化影响。通过分析现代化的后果与把希望投资于技术作为进步工具的对比，该项目将提供证据，支持对信息技术的影响进行更严格的辩论。通过使用这种分析来产生新的设计见解，该项目支持可能改善技术含义的设计实践，特别是作为促进经济发展的生产力工具和手段。

This project will develop methods for using historical understanding of technology to assess potential consequences of sociotechnical change and to inspire new design practices. Information technology (IT) builds on a longer history of technology tied to significant cultural shifts, commonly conceptualized as technological innovations driving societal progress. This research critically analyzes the idea of sociotechnical progress by asking: How is it conceptualized? What practices, values, and stakeholders become marginalized in the pursuit of progress, what are its consequences, and how can currently marginalized factors inspire new forms of design? It uses these questions to evaluate roles that IT has played in progress, and to envision and design for new roles it could play.This project answers these questions through three case studies that look at societies on the global margin which have seized on technological progress as a means for bettering their circumstances. The case studies look at (1) a past attempt to rapidly transform from a subsistence, fishing-based to an industrialized economy in rural Newfoundland; (2) the consequences of a similar transformation in present Iceland, where pervasive adoption of information technology has transformed the small-boat fishing industry; and (3) debates over possible futures arising from the sudden and pervasive adoption of mobile phone technology in Jamaica. These novel case studies provide a new lens through which to understand the values embodied in information technology, its cultural impact, and their implications for practices in the field of human-computer interaction.Methodologically, this work builds on design ethnography to demonstrate how historical methods can enrich the ability of work in human-computer interaction to address the broader cultural impacts of technology. By analyzing how the consequences of modernization compare with hopes invested in technology as a tool for progress, the project will provide evidence to support a more rigorous debate about the impact of information technologies. By using this analysis to generate new design insights, the project supports design practices that may improve the implications of technology, especially as productivity tools and means for advancing economic development.