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Surfacing: A Genealogy of Computer Interfaces and, Sometimes, Technical Communication

Surfacing: A Genealogy of Computer Interfaces and, Sometimes, Technical Communication. Johndan Johnson-Eilola Purdue University <johndan@purdue.edu> <http://tempest.english.purdue.edu/>. Automation and Work.

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Surfacing: A Genealogy of Computer Interfaces and, Sometimes, Technical Communication

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  1. Surfacing: A Genealogy of Computer Interfaces and, Sometimes, Technical Communication Johndan Johnson-Eilola Purdue University <johndan@purdue.edu> <http://tempest.english.purdue.edu/>

  2. Automation and Work “Pretty speeches about cooperation, communication, and common interests cannot hide the fact that in most companies, people who are doing the actual work do not ‘belong’ or do not feel that they do.” (Floyd, “Let’s Be Honest About Automation.” Computers and Automation, Sept. 1962, XI.9)

  3. Surfacing: An Overview • Interface: Primary Space for Intellectual Labor in the Next Century • Quality of Work Linked to Interface • Tech Comm Increasingly Fragmented, Made Invisible

  4. Postmodernist Shift:Time to Space • Philosophy (Feenberg, Foucault) • Literary Theory (Jameson, Baudrillard) • Management Theory (Drucker, Zuboff) • Usability (Suchman, Wurman)

  5. Interface and Work Knowledge

  6. Time-Based Interfaces • User Interaction Limited • User Communication Serial • Knowledge Accumulated in Larger Context via Apprenticeship

  7. Space-Based Interface: CLI • CLI = “Command Line Interface” • User Interacts “Directly” (+ Serially) • Knowledge Moves into Computer (But is Still Normally Invisible)

  8. Command Line Interface

  9. Command Line Interface

  10. Graphical Interface: GUI • User Interacts Across Two Dimensions • Knowledge Surfaces • Knowledge Space Shrinks

  11. Graphical Interface: GUI

  12. Contracting Spaces and Times • Work Space Condenses, Flattens • Help Space Condenses, Disappears • Interface Structures (and Deconstructs) Work

  13. Feenberg’s Primary and Secondary Moments of Instrumentalization

  14. Social Interface: ProNoun MOO • Surfaces Social • Re-Integrates Work into Social Context • Focuses on Communication as Ongoing Process

  15. Social Interface: ProNoun MOO

  16. Communication as the Future of Work • Take Control of the Interface

  17. Communication as the Future of Work • Take Control of the Interface • Make Tech Comm the Focus, not Technology

  18. Communication as the Future of Work • Take Control of the Interface • Make Tech Comm the Focus, not Technology • Technology = Rhetoric

  19. Communication as the Future of Work • Take Control of the Interface • Make Tech Comm the Focus, not Technology • Technology = Rhetoric • Improve Our Public and Corporate Image

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