COMS3403A Winter 2017 Communication Technology and Culture

1. COMS3403A • Winter 2017 • Communication Technology and Culture • Week 4 (Jan.30) – Philosophy of Technology Dr Tracey P. LauriaultCommunication StudiesSchool of Journalism and CommunicationTracey.Lauriault@carleton.caTeaching Assistant: Alyssa MacDougall Class Schedule: Tuesdays, 8:30-11:30Location: Southam Hall 516Instructor: Dr. Tracey P. LauriaultE-mail: Tracey.Lauriault@Carleton.ca Office: 4110b Pritchard HallOffice Hours: Tuesdays & Wednesdays 13:00-16:00

2. Announcements & Agenda • Paul Menton Centre Note Taker – Thank you! • Assignment 1 • IoT CUIDS • Office Hours • Proposal • Lesson • Visit from Librarians • In-Class Assignment

3. Week 2 Summary 2 contemporary discussions: • Simulation & • Augmentation 5 Challenges • Rapid technological advances • Unprecedented social change • Direction and type of effect • Target group • Changing uses 5 historical definistions w/ Technology as: • a material substance • knowledge • practice • technique • society “technology is an assemblage of material objects, embodying and reflecting societal values, such as knowledge, norms, and attitudes, that have been shaped and structured to serve social, political, cultural, and existential purposes” p.9

4. Week 3 Summary 2 Constructivist Approaches • Science and technology Studies • Relevant social groups • Interpretive flexibility • Closure and stabilization • Wider context • Actor Network Theory • Actors • Actants 2 Views • Utopian • Dystopian 4 Philosophies of Technology • Determinism • Technological • Social • Instrumentalism • Substantivism • Critical Theory Feenberg’s Categorization of Theories • Neutrality • Value-laden • Autonomous • Human controlled

5. Feenberg’s Categorization of Theories Theories of Technology and Society Source: Adapted from Feenberg, A. (1999). Questioning technology (p. 9). New York: Routledge, p. 9.

6. Technology and Social Change Technological Determinism Social Determinism Critical Theory

7. Science and Technology Studies (STS)

8. Key Concepts of SCOT • 4 key concepts have emerged within SCOT for analyzing technology: • Relevant social groups • Interpretive flexibility • Closure and stabilization • Wider context

9. a) Relevant Social Groups • Social groups are important due to their influence in attributing meaning to the artifact. • Meaning is obtained through interacting with like-minded social groups, who share a similar opinion about the artifact and its uses. • Without the necessary societal support, a new or existing technology can fail to be adopted within a group, causing both new and older products to be viewed as obsolete.

10. b) Interpretive Flexibility • This notion describes how artifacts are not neutral, but instead their meaning emerges in a socio-cultural context. • Flexibility exists not only “in how people think of or interpret artifacts but also that there is flexibility in how artifacts are designed” (Pinch & Bijker 1987). • A simple tool can be used for multiple purposes and its meaning and relevance emerge in a socio-cultural context.

11. c) Closure and Stabilization • As an artifact gains prominence in society, its flexibility to be interpreted for other uses decreases because the social construction of the artifact’s meaning becomes embedded in society. • Closure describes the moment at which the relevant social group has reached a consensus on what the tool is all about. • Stabilization occurs when the tool has been assigned a very specific use. • Rhetorical closure refers to a situation when a technological problem is not solved but a solution is presented by changing the language used to describe the problem and hence its social meaning. • In closure by redefinition of the problem, a technical problem is not solved, but rather, the problem is reformulated in different terms.

12. d) Wider Context • Pinch and Bijker describe how “the sociocultural and political situation of a social group shapes its norms and values, which in turn influence the meaning given to an artifact” (Pinch & Bijker 1987). • In this perspective, norms and values are powerful frameworks for interpreting artifacts and for understanding their value to society.

13. Actor Network Theory Michel Callon & Bruno Latour in Slack & Wise, 2015 • Technological mediation – what is an agent? • Actors (agents) • “Any element which bends space around itself, makes other elements dependent upon itself and translates its will into a language of its own” • Technologies are relational – we depend on spellcheck, the computer is dependent on electricity • Computers translate human language into machine language • Delegation/translation • Delegating tasks to a technology means that technologies do things humans used to do • bread making machine is delegated the task of making bread • The tasks are translated into a form of bread by machine • A new form of bread is inscribed as the tasks have been translated into a form the machine understands • The bread machine is therefore an agent in bread making

14. Ant ctnd. • Prescription • When technologies delegate tasks to humans • Once a technology has been inscribed into a culture it prescribes • ex,. Old phone – humans had to go to it, Mobile phones – the task was delegated to it to move, but it too prescribes behavior – to be carried, to be charged, to subscribe to a carrier, to use in new places, to be available all the time • Network • Summing up of relations among actors in relation to processes of translation, delegation, prescription • Connections are articulations • Networks of production and distribution • Technology is as critical actor in the networks as are humans

15. Ant cntd. • Technologies • “are mediators that perform tasks in ways that make presumptions about who we are and convey expectations on our behavior, attitudes and values” “the processes of delegation and prescription, translation occurs, and in the process of translation change occurs”. • “technology is never completely pliable to your will, as you are always engaged in a network of relations within which you are maintain some connections or changing others” • It is the network, not culture alone or technology alone – there is a cultural field of forces, relations processes and effects. • Agency implies power in the network.

16. Assemblage (Kitchin 2014)

17. Readings Chapters 1 Mapping Cyberspace & 2 Mapping Infrastructure and Traffic Chapter 6 The Adoption and Diffusion of Technological Innovations, 105-124. Malecki, E. J. (2002), The Economic Geography of the Internet's Infrastructure. Economic Geography, 78: 399–424. doi: 10.1111/j.1944-8287.2002.tb00193.x

18. What is…. Internet Infrastructure

19. Diffusion of Innovation

20. Gartner Hype Curve

21. Links and Nodes Malecki, E. J. (2002) • Backbone • Internet is an outcome of the firms that have invested in “backbone” networks and smaller networks that constitute it. The backbone networks define the superstructure or outline of the Internet’s infrastructure and, consequently, its close relationship with the urban system. • Interfirm linkages • Interconnection of the many networks of the Internet. • The spatial agglomeration of linkages and linkage sites is set in the context of the urban hierarchy of world cities. “the nodes and links of the network of networks define the geography, although not the content, of the space within which digital flows take place.” p.400

22. Geography of cyberspace Malecki, E. J. (2002) • Middle landscape • the interactivity between remote computers (and from nodes to nets) for real communication, not just data transfer, is not necessarily imagined • Virtual geography • created by computers and communications. • Place/space • (traditional geographic abstractions of place, such as cities as nodes); • Cspace • or computer space (i.e., inside computers and their networks, including geographic information systems); and • Cyberplace • the impact of the infrastructure of cyberspace on the infrastructure of traditional place. Buildings, wires, server farms,

23. Layers Malecki, E. J. (2002) • Layer 1: Internet Infrastructure • telecommunications companies, • Internet service providers (ISPs), • Internet backbone carriers, • “last mile” access companies and manufacturers of end-user networking equipment. • Layer 2: Internet Applications Infrastructure • software necessary to facilitate web transactions and transaction intermediaries; • consultants and service companies that design, build and maintain web sites, from portals to full e-commerce sites. • Layer 3: Internet Intermediaries • Web based businesses that generate revenues through advertising, membership subscription fees, and commissions. • Some companies are purely web content providers; • others are market makers or market intermediaries. • Layer 4: Internet Commerce • Companies that are conducting web-based commerce transactions.

24. Backbone Internet geography Malecki, E. J. (2002) • Original network • University of California at Santa Barbara, UCLA, the Stanford Research Institute, and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City • New Network • Telecommunications carriers, as well as the old telecom monopolies—many of which have become global players through acquisitions, mergers, consortia, and other arrangements • deregulation or liberalization are perhaps as significant as technology in forming the structure • Cherry picking and opportunist behavior • Global fiber provider in an archipelago of wired cities, offering “route diversity” and largely bypassing the PSTNs and participating in consortia for investment in new underseascables • Internet or world cities • New firms ride on and connect with original backbone (Techsavvy) • Cannot bypass megacities

25. Cities Malecki, E. J. (2002) • Dark fiber • is fiberopticcable that has not yet been “lit” by the optoelectronic equipment that facilitates the transmission of data. • Right of way • electricity, pipeline, and railroad sectors have installed such fiber along their rights-of-way. • Growth in backbone capacity • among the most prominent trends in Internet development • Alpha cities • International routes have concentrated on the alpha world cities, • Three groups of links: • long-haul links that connect the largest cities, including the group of seven; • a large number of shorter-distance links that connect cities within the regions surrounding the major Internet hubs; and • a number of alternative paths that connect the major hubs via redundant paths, providing alternative routes for data flows. https://www.newamerica.org/oti/the-cost-of-connectivity-2014/

26. “Interconnection and settlement agreements make the Internet a hierarchical infrastructure more akin to telecommunications than to the Internet’s image of a flat democratic network” p.415 Indicators Malecki, E. J. (2002) • Population • Network economies, agglomeration economies, and the density of users (business and residential). • A network is more valuable the greater the number of users (or other nodes) on the network • Domain names • are an equally common measure • stronger connection between Internet content and information-intensive industries than between Internet content and computer and telecommunications technology industries, although the latter was not measured by backbone connections or bandwidth. Information Geographies: http://geography.oii.ox.ac.uk/?page=home

27. Interconnections Malecki, E. J. (2002) • peering • a connection between two equal, or peer, networks. • 3 principal effects of oligopoly and unequal power relationships • billing mechanism, such as an item monthly telephone bills for digital subscriber line (DSL) • transit charges, or hierarchical peering—charging for interconnection. • Theemergence of an industry to facilitate peering and interconnection. • Knowledge of routes • Peer-to-peerbilateral interconnections are private peering points established between large firms that see themselves as equals • Private peering – transit fees • Hierarchical bilateral interconnection, also called a transit or a customer-provider relationship, the most • Privatepeering is particularly prevalent among the largest and oldest backbone providers • NSF NAPs: • public interexchange points • Chicago, New York (Jersey), San Francisco, Washington DC • Commercial Internet Exchange (CIX) • LINX (London Internet Exchange) • Metropolitan Area Exchange-East (MAE-East) • Palo Alto Internet Exchange (PAIX) • IX point, • where individual networks interconnect, mainly by private interconnection.

28. Co-Location Malecki, E. J. (2002) • Real estate firms, network providers, and others to operate “telecom hotels” and carrierneutralcolocation facilities that enable network interconnection • Urban hierarchy is reaffirmed • Local exchange providers • ISPs • Web design firms • Service providers • Web hosting • Carrier-owned data centers and a new crop of “concierge floors” inside those hotels, operated by colocation firms Choice cyberlocations • are where data centers, server farms, and other facilities that depend on the Internet-related infrastructure tend to agglomerate or cluster • Cyberbuildings • multiple fiber connections to several different backbone providers and space inside for cables and gear; • facilitation for multiple ISPs to connect to each other inside, reducing the number of network hops; and • an aggregation of expensive equipment to facilitate fast switching and peering. • Many of the buildings are far from being prime real estate; most are aging and in declining neighborhoods in the center or edge of downtown. • Other physical features: • to locate key infrastructure (routers, switches, and long distance hubs) at common locations. These • common locations are typically at or near (some of) the central offices of telephone carriers or at “carrier-neutral facilities.” • These locations are hubs of fiber-optic networks, are often the location of points of presence (PoPs), and therefore • serve as private peering points where ISPs interconnect.

29. Mapping Cyberspace Dodge and Kitchin (2001) • Cartography: • provides a means by which to classify, represent and communicate information about areas that are too large and too complex to be seen directly • Spatialization: • where a spatial, map-like structure is applied to data where no inherent or obvious one exists – can provide an interpretable structure to other types of data • Important because: • information and communication technologies and cyberspace are having significant effects on social, cultural, political and economic aspects of everyday life. • evidence suggests that cyberspace is altering: • community relations and the bases for personal identity; • is changing political and democratic structures; • is instigating significant changes in urban and regional economies and patterns of employment; • and is globalizing culture and information services. • Extent and use of cyberspace had grown • Help users, service providers and analysts comprehend the various spaces of online interaction and information, providing understanding and aiding navigation • Pushing ability to visualize complex data & indicators • Aesthetics of mapping

30. Spatial Geometries of the Internet • Space in cyberspace is relational • Many socially constructed media types • Not all media have spatial qualities – no weight, mass, fixity, sometimes no traces • Break two of the fundamental conventions that underlie Western cartography: • that space is continuous and ordered; • the map is not the territory but rather a representation of it “The site becomes the map; territory and representation become one and the same”.

31. When reading maps consider: • A map is imbued with the values and judgements of the people who construct it. • Maps are undeniably a reflection of the culture and broader historical and political contexts in which their creators live. • Maps are not objective, neutral artefacts but are constructed in order to provide particular impressions to their readers. • Maps, then, are situated, embodied and selective representations. Commonly, the messages are those of the powerful who pay for the maps to be drawn, and the ideological message is one of their choosing. • Products of those who coded their construction algorithms • Maps are made for a purpose

32. Consider • The agency of mapping: • What is the way doing, saying, conveying • Representation and distortion: • presentation; • ecological fallacy; and • omission • Level of user knowledge • Maps are sophisticated models • They do not always communicate well • Data quality and availability • Timely, accurate, representative data • Ethics • Act of mapping reveal patters • Surveillance, privacy

39. Description 2.8: Matrix.Net Internet world maps • chief cartographer: John S. Quarterman and his colleagues (Matrix.Net, Inc., Austin, Texas). • aim: to chart the geographic extent of the Internet as a function of the volume of networked computers at the city level. • The first map charted four different networks, while the later one shows only Internet-connected computers. • form: world map with networked computers represented by a graduated circular symbol. • technique: digital maps as bitmaps and Postscript-generated using custom software and mapping application. • dates: January 1997, January 2000. • further information: Matrix.Net homepage at

40. Assignment 2 (5%) in-library assignment. • In the Map, Data and Government Information Centre (MADGIC) there is a map display entitled the Evolution of the Communication Infrastructure in Canada. The maps are organized into 6 groups. You will be assigned a set of maps and an in-class assignment will be handed to you. These maps and books are irreplaceable please treat them with care. • Assignment 3, 2-3 pages, (10%) due Week 6 Feb.13 at 11:55PM • you will have been pointed to a number of manuscripts from the Canada Year Books (1861-2011) as well as three Commissions (1929, 1949-51 & 1957) in the Library. Six of the Year Books include a special history of communications in Canada (1932, 1933, 1947, 1957-58, 1959 and 1967). You will be assigned a section to read and will discuss your observations in relation nation building and the diffusion of innovation chapter. When reading pay attention to indicators, the technologies discussed, were any key figures mentioned, were any policies, laws, regulations mentioned, any other actors discussed (i.e., unions, associations, private sector entities etc.). How do you think what you read relates to the construction of the Canada as a nation? How does what you read relate to the adoption and diffusion of technological innovations?

41. Final Essay Final Essay (2 parts) Students will demonstrate their familiarity with the course material by applying concepts and theories about technology in relation to a specific technology of their choice. Students will recognize counter arguments, while also developing strong and original arguments. Essay Proposal, Week 5 Feb. 6, 11:55 PM (10%), 1 page Quad Chart: • Introduce the technology you will discuss in you essay. • Provide two potential research questions. • State which theory, philosophy and concepts you plan to engage with & why. • References Final Essay, Week 11 Mar. 27 11:55 PM(20%), 15 pages: • Include references and a cover page, you may insert images, charts, and tables, etc. which can extend your page count, but be sure to label these.

42. COMS3403A Communication, Technology and Culture, Submitted to: Dr. Tracey P. Lauriault, Paper Proposal, DATE, Leia Ortega, 100905241 TITLE Introduce the technology you will discuss in you essay State which theory, philosophy and concepts you plan to engage with & why Students will demonstrate their familiarity with the course material by applying concepts and theories about technology in relation to a specific technology of their choice. Students will recognize counter arguments, while also developing strong and original arguments. • Provide two potential research questions. References

43. Assignment 4 - Technology Community Observation Assignment (2 pages) (2 pages) Mar. 14 week 9, (5%): • Students will attend a meetup, a hackathon, a City of Ottawa Technology sub-committee meeting, or a technology seminar on or off campus during the term. • You attend as observers, and will take notes: • observe how the agenda is set, • who is convening the meeting, • where is the meeting, • how is the meeting structured, • what is the purpose of the meeting or gathering, • what is being discussed, • how many people in attendance, • what are the demographics (age, race, gender/sex, etc.), • who is doing most of the talking, • who is asking questions, • did anyone talk to you? etc. • Finally share your observations of this type of gathering and be sure to engage with concepts you learned in class.

44. Term Overview Week 1 (Jan.10) – What is Technology? Week 2* (Jan. 17) – Technology, Society & Culture #1 Due Week 3 (Jan. 24) – Philosophy of Technology Week 4* (Jan. 31) – Communication Infrastructure #2 In-class Week 5* (Feb. 7) – Digital Labour & the Digital Divide - Essay Prop Week 6* (Feb. 14) – Love, Relationships and Porn #3 Due Study Break Week 7 (Feb. 28) - Code, Software and Platforms Week 8 (Mar. 7) – The Sharing Economy Week 9* (Mar. 14) – Resistance, Hacking, Technological Citizenship #4 Due Week 10 (Mar. 21) – Surveillance and Policing Week 11*(Mar. 28) – Ethics and the Environment Essay Due Week 12 (Apr. 4) – Review