1. Communication, Culture and Technology (CCT) Georgetown University Spring 2015 Fundamentals of Technology Evan Barba JR Osborn

2. Today Structure of the course & Key Concepts

3. Why fundamentals?

4. Change to information technology (IT) is constant and ongoing

5. Why fundamentals? Change to information technology (IT) is constant and ongoing Positioning CCT students to make a contribution to that dialogue is one goal of 506.

6. Jobs in Computing

7. A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He shouted, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

8. The woman below replied, "You're in a hot air balloon 30 feet above the ground. You're between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude."

9. "You must be an engineer," said the balloonist. “Everything you told me is, technically correct, but I've no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help at all. If anything, you've delayed my trip."

10. The woman below responded, "You must be in Management.” "I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?"

11. “You don't know where you are or where you're going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise which you've no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems.

12. “The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it's my fault."

13. A role for CCT students

14. Instructors Evan Barba Human-Centered Computing Design Cognition J.R. Osborn Communication Media Production and History

15. Course Site: https://blogs.commons.georgetown.ed u/cctp-506-spring2016/

16. Course goal: Open any ‘technical’ black box: technology, medicine, science, law Case study in 506: information technology

17. In this class we will de-black box the information and communications technologies (ICTs) that make up the computing infrastructure we rely on. To give you knowledge: Because ICTs are ubiquitous and knowing how they work is fundamental to most work in the world To give you skills: Because de-black boxing is a model that can be applied to any sociotechnical system

18. Opening the ‘black box’

19. ‘De-Black Boxing’ Twitter Trends Gilad Lotan at SocialFlow: “is Twitter censoring its Trends list to exclude #occupywallstreet and #occupyboston?”

20. ‘De-Black Boxing’ Twitter Trends “Trending” factors: Number of tweets New tweet or retweet? Acceleration of tweets? Has term trended before? Use across social networks? Gilad Lotan at SocialFlow: “is Twitter censoring its Trends list to exclude #occupywallstreet and #occupyboston?” “Sociotechnical System”

21. What tools do you need to open a black box? only a small number of these are domain specific How to parse a tweet, for example. The rest are abstract knowledge and transferrable skills that can be applied to any black box This requires expertise in acquiring expertise. (Framework for 21 st Century Learning)

22. “Sociotechnical System” The “systems approach” 1.Define the system (distinct from environment) 2.Describe the interactions of components 3.Elaborate connections to the environment - Identify any “emergent behaviors”

23. Sociotechnical System

27. “Black boxes all the way down” Deciding which boxes to open and which can stay shut is a big part of what we call “expertise”

28. How did the system produce this emergent state?

29. Sociotechnical System

31. Pedestrian A Driver A Traffic Light The Road Traffic Laws cellphone embodiment regulation communicates distracts regulation observes/ regulates

33. Sociotechnical System Pedestrian A Traffic Light The Road Traffic Laws cellphone embodiment distracts regulation

34. How did the system produce this emergent state?

35. Understanding environment and society as a system means thinking about parts, processes, and connections. Understanding systems…

36. A system is a group of parts which are connected and work together. Systems with living and nonliving parts are called ecosystems (which is short for ecological systems). (Odum, Odum, and Brown, 1997) To help understand systems, it is helpful to draw pictures of networks that show components and relationships. What is a system?

38.  With a system diagram, we can carry these system images in the mind. And learn the way energy, materials, and information interact.  By adding numerical values for flows and storages, the systems diagrams become quantitative and can be simulated with computers. Visualizing systems…

39. Procedures for Drawing a Systems Model 1.Draw the frame of attention that selects the boundary This separates the system from the environment 2.Make a list of the important input pathways that cross the boundary This fleshes out the environment and provides “Context” for the system 3.Make a list of the components believed to be important These can later be grouped into sub-systems 4.Make a list of the processes believed to be important within the defined system. These define interactions and are depicted as arrows or “Flows” of materials, energy, and information

40. If a complex diagram has resulted (> 25 symbols), redraw it to make it neat and save it as a useful inventory and summary of the input knowledge. Redraw the diagram with the same boundary definition, aggregating symbols and flows to obtain a model of the desired complexity (perhaps 6-12 symbols). (Odum and Odum, 1996) Procedures for Drawing a Systems Model