ICS 131: Social Analysis of Computerization

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ICS 131 Social Analysis of Computerization

• Lecture 4
• Social Aspects of
• Technical Questions
• Part I

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Topics

• Code
• Operating Systems

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Social Aspects of Technical Questions Code

• Key Ideas
• The processes and products of computer
  programming involve many social issues.
• These issues influence how the processes proceed
  and what products can be made.

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Code Explicit Goals

• Write software that can be used to do something.
• Do so quickly.
• Create tools that can be
• employed in an efficient
• and usable way.

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Code Potential Implicit Goals

• Maintain job security.
• Keep management in the dark.
• Circumvent the law.
• Demonstrate own prowess.
• (Sometimes these are explicit)

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Code Assumptions

• Java, for example
• English speaking
• Has eyes, hands and fingers
• Has access to power, food, etc.
• Good at math/science/logic
• Computer literate
• Not all of these must be true, but most usually
  are

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Code Stakeholders

• Programmers who use the language
• IDE programmers
• Family/Friends
• Clients
• Society

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Code Impacts

• Gender
• Race/Ethnicity
• Age
• Socio-economic status

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Code Impacts

• Gender
• How many males vs. females in this class?

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Code Impacts

• Gender
• Last year
• UCI as a whole 49.7 female
• UCI ICS Undergrad 825 male/117 female 12.4
  female
• UCI ICS Grad 210 male/62 female 22.8 female
• Why?

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Why Fix It?

• Make current products better by utilizing a
  diverse perspective on existing problems.
• Conceive of new products that a diverse group of
  people are interested in.
• Make products that a diverse group of people can
  use.

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Unlocking the Clubhouse

• Jane Margolis Allan Fisher
• Computer science claimed by men, ceded by women
• Female students more interested in applications,
  less interested in geek mythology

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How to Fix It?

• CMU study
• the entering enrollment of women in the
  undergraduate Computer Science program at
  Carnegie Mellon has risen from 8 in 1995 to 42
  in 2000
• Ada Byron Research Center
• Women in Computer Science

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Code Impacts

• Race/Ethnicity
• Among the 1999 recipients of computer science
  bachelor degrees from Ph.D. granting institutions
  in US Canada, only 4 were African-American and
  4 Latino/a. Such low numbers are found
  elsewhere, as African-American and Latino/a
  students together make up less than 7 of the
  high school advanced placement computer science
  test-takers nationwide. In 1999, only 7
  California African-American female high school
  students took the AP CS exams (out of a total of
  455 female test takers), 24 African-American
  males (out of 2501 males), 21 Mexican-American
  females and 52 Mexican-American males.
• Source http//www.tcla.gseis.ucla.edu/divide/poli
  tics/margolis.html

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Code Impacts

• Socio-economic status
• Need a computer, or access to one.

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Code Impacts

• Age

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When did you learn how to code? Why?

• Discuss

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My missed opportunities

• Had a Vic 20 when I was 7, but the books had
  typos
• Took computer programming in 6th grade, but it
  didnt stick
• Finally learned how to code when I was 24.

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Teaching Programming

• Very few books for little kids to learn to code.

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Public Understanding of Code

• Lynn Stein says It is important that the general
  public understand something about the nature of
  the computational infrastructure on which they
  are increasingly dependent.
• Agree or disagree?

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Topic for Discussion

• Consider a programming language that is based on
  a language other than English (Spanish, Mandarin,
  American Sign Language, etc.)?
• Questions
• What kinds of programs might it be used to write?
• What would the code itself look like?
• What would the process of creating it be like?
• How would society be different?

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Interface Metaphors
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Key Ideas

• The metaphor underlying a computational system
  affects how it will be used.
• A good metaphor can help frame how people
  approach a system, and inspire developers to
  produce certain kinds of software packages.
• Metaphors have limited life spans.

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A Metaphor

• Examples from poetry/literature
• My love is like a red, red rose.
• Robert Burns (Listen)
• All the world's a stage,
• And all the men and women merely players
• They have their exits and their entrances
• William Shakespeare (from As you like it 2/7)

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What a Metaphor Gives You

• Way of harnessing previous experience to help
  understand current interaction
• Inspiration for other directions

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What things need to be in place for a metaphor to
be relevant?

• Previous experience
• New technology, or rethinking of old technology
• Connection between them.

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What are the problems with metaphors?

• Inspirational at first, constraining at the end.
• The better they are, the more entrenched they
  become and the more constraining they are.

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A Computer Is Like a Typewriter

• Keyboards
• Text
• Printing
• What other
• expectations?
• What problems?

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A Computer Is Like a Whole Desktop

• Good for work
• Writing letters/papers
• Some communication channels
• Move things around it
• What other expectations?
• What problems?

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Xerox PARC

• Originated the graphical user interface, desktop
  metaphor in 1970s.
• Alan Kay

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A Computer Is Like a Notebook

• Carry it with you
• Put text in it
• Other expectations?
• What problems?

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A Computer Is Like a Notepad

• Write on it
• Graffiti
• Other expectations?
• What problems?

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Workstation vs. Playstation
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Croquet

• What is/are the metaphor(s)?
• What expectations do they build up?
• Problems with
• their metaphors?

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The Island Metaphor

• Virtual Raft Project

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(No Transcript)
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Questions?
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A Debate

• Which makes a better metaphor for computational
  systems a computer is a social partner or a
  computer is a tool?
• You may be asked to defend either side.
• Be prepared to defend against the other sides
  arguments.
• When possible, use examples from the reading to
  support your arguments.
• Please take 5 minutes to discuss with your
  neighbors (preferably different neighbors than
  last Tuesday).

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And our lucky contestants are...

• come on down front!

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Tomorrow

• Social Aspects of Technical Questions II
• Readings