Data Entry, Labor Identity, and Inequality in Computer Automation

这个技术研究项目的历史侧重于计算机自动化，着眼于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，大量的信息必须从纸张转换成计算机可读的形式，然后才能自动处理。因此，计算机自动化产生了迅速膨胀的数据输入需求，其中大部分是手工完成的。这个项目的成果将通过解决相关问题，使卑微的数据输入成为计算历史的一个可见部分，例如：计算机自动化如何改变工作流程？谁承担了新出现的例行数据输入工作，在什么条件下，为什么？除了资助学术研究和出版物外，该项目还提供公共历史方面的本科生培训机会，并创建了一个虚拟展览，让更广泛的观众参与有关工作流程和技术变革的数据输入历史所提出的问题。该项目关注20世纪50年代至70年代美国、西德和东德德国的银行自动化，调查冷战高峰时期的计算技术和不平等。报告审查了数据输入工作者的参与和身份及其工作条件的变化;此外，报告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，该项目补充档案研究和专业技术记录与流行的杂志，报纸和口述历史访谈的分析，以规避目前的档案收藏的局限性。对于计算的历史，该项目将注意力从专业程序员（主要是男性和白人）转移到不熟练的数据输入打字员，以对抗技术进步的线性叙述。一个跨大西洋的比较将有助于提供一个本地化的纠正，以概括不同政治经济体的工人身份和技术的假设。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

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.