CHS: EAGER: Understanding the Socio-Technical Ecologies that Form the Human-Technology Frontier of Work: Successes, Opportunities and Training for Future Workers

这项研究将确定文学出版行业如何在复杂的人类技术前沿成功运作。在线技术的创新改变了就业，新的利益相关者和系统为自主创业提供了机会。作者现在可以独立销售他们的作品，但要为传统出版公司过去提供的所有工作负责。为了在这一前沿领域工作，作者使用了大量不同的基于计算机的工具来销售，同时也增加和维持他们的消费者群体。他们也使用同样的工具来寻找其他人来帮助他们的工作，比如获得营销援助。这个人类技术前沿是一个由人和平台组成的生态，作者必须能够利用其中的每一部分，同时也要集体管理生态的整体，才能取得成功。这种就业模式反映了美国劳动力的更广泛趋势，在零工经济中，越来越多的人通过自营职业赚钱。尽管他们成功地从为他人工作转变为自主创业，但学术研究在很大程度上忽视了这种成功是如何发生的。忽视这一人类与技术的前沿，以及人类的成功，会对我们理解以技术为媒介的当代工作模式构成风险。此外，它限制了我们构建支持这类工作的系统的能力，并限制了我们帮助其他人在这一前沿领域培训工作的能力。关注零工经济中自主创业的成功案例对于构建对未来美国经济的最佳实践理解至关重要，而彻底转变的文学出版行业是扩大女性和少数族裔参与计算机行业的有效基础设施。这项工作将分为两个主题，共解决五个问题。第一个主题考虑使用构成人类技术前沿的特定系统意味着什么。这两个子问题是：(1)成功的出版网站有哪些特点？(2)个体户作家需要知道什么，才能理解如何利用那些无形地影响他们业务的算法？第二个主题侧重于使用人类和工具的社会技术生态的工作，这是他们的人类技术前沿。三个子问题是(3)什么是新的工作形式？谁是帮助他们的新工人，他们做什么？(5)将这种社会技术生态联系在一起的关系采取什么形式？这些问题将通过一系列活动得到解答。这项多维度研究将审查公开可用的材料，采用定性方法，包括对公共活动的访谈和观察，以及严格的调查，并建立支持工作和工人的系统。这些活动将采取措施解决这些问题，这将共同有助于理解风险和挑战，以及通过利用人员和平台的生态，自主创业的机会和回报。成果包括学术成果，但不仅如此，还包括教育美国人如何成功参与这一人类技术前沿工作的系统和培训材料。通过关注被忽视的工作形式，由此产生的知识将反映出比通常更广泛的计算视图。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 research will identify how the literature publication industry successfully works in a complex human-technology frontier. Innovations in online technologies have changed employment, with new stakeholders and systems offering opportunities for self-employment. Authors can now independently sell their products but are responsible for all the work that traditional publishing companies used to provide. To work at this frontier, authors use a considerable number of different computer-based tools, to sell but also grow and maintain their audience of consumers. They also use these same tools to find other people to help them in their work, such as getting marketing assistance. This human-technology frontier is an ecology of people and platforms that the writer must be able use each part of, but also collectively manage the totality of the ecology to be successful. This pattern of employment mirrors broader trends in the American workforce, where more people are making money through self-employment in the gig economy. Despite their successful transitions from working for others to self-employment, academic research has largely overlooked how that success happened. Ignoring this human-technology frontier, and the success of people, poses a risk to our understanding of contemporary patterns of technologically mediated work. Further, it limits our ability to build systems to support this type of work, and to help others train for work at this frontier. Focusing on successful cases of self-employment in the gig economy is crucial for building best practice understanding for the future American economy, and the radically transformed literature publication industry is an effective infrastructure for broadening participation of women and minorities in computing.The work will be structured in two themes, addressing a total of five questions. The first theme considers what it means to use specific systems that make up this human-technology frontier. The two sub-questions are (1) What characteristics do successful publication sites have? (2) What do self-employed writers need to know to understand how to leverage the algorithms that invisibly influence their business? The second theme focuses on the work of using the socio-technical ecology of people and tools that is their human-technology frontier. The three sub-questions are (3) What are the new forms of work? (4) Who are the new workers helping them and what do they do? (5) What form do the relationships that tie this socio-technical ecology together take? These questions will be answered through a combination of activities. This multi-dimensional research will review publicly available materials, use qualitative methods including interviews and observation at public events, plus rigorous surveys, and build systems to support work and workers. These activities will take steps to address these questions, that will collectively contribute an understanding of the risks and challenges, as well as the opportunities and rewards, of being self-employed via leveraging an ecology of people and platforms. Outcomes include scholarly products but go beyond that to include systems and training materials to teach Americans how to successfully participate in work at this human-technology frontier. By focusing on overlooked forms of work, the resulting knowledge will reflect a broader view of computing than usual.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.