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--- blog:2024:1120_experience_and_technological_design:who_where_when_and_why [2024/11/20 21:02] – mchiasson
+++ blog:2024:1120_experience_and_technological_design:who_where_when_and_why [2024/11/20 21:16] (current) – [Technology] mchiasson
@@ Line 74: / Line 74: @@
     * how: in many industrial cases, the threat of industrial action is no longer present.  Nevertheless, so-called problems with employee resistance in post-implementation use remain.
-Beginning with end-user computing and the rise of personal computing in the 1980s, extending into the internet era, we see another social and material ensemble emerge, which we call **participant-initiated computing**, in an effort to explain in a phrase, the forms of participation it encouraged.   Whether through spreadsheets and word processor in the 1980s, internet browsers and e-mail in the 90s, social-computing in the 00s, or personalized productively apps in the 10s, the plethora of software available for download and use encourages a very different set of answers to our questions about participation:
+Beginning with end-user computing and the rise of personal computing in the 1980s, extending into the internet era, we see another social and material ensemble emerge, which we call **participant-lead computing**, in an effort to explain in a phrase, the form of participation it encouraged.   Whether through spreadsheets and word processor in the 1980s, internet browsers and e-mail in the 90s, social-computing in the 00s, or personalized productively apps in the 10s, the plethora of software available for download and use encourages a very different set of answers to our questions about participation:
-  * why: a range of responses, but generally a participant-lead selection, exploration and individualized use of software for writing, deciding, and communicating
+  * why: a range of responses, but generally the end is the production of useful software through participant-lead selection, exploration and use of software for personalized productivity: writing, deciding, and communicating
-  * what: giving time and availability for the exploration of functionalities that inform, delight, communicate --
+  * what: the availability of numerous software apps to meet an ever-increasing appetite for functionalities that inform, delight, communicate --
-  * who: employees, citizens, and responses to their wants and needs through software app producers, social medial companies,
+  * who: employees and citizen revealed demands; software app producers and social medial companies meeting and exceeding the want.
-  * where and when: participation is continuous, with app companies meeting the new demands (or not) of their users
+  * where and when: participation is continuous and through society-wide use, within and beyond the organization; app companies meet or create the demands (or not) for their products
-    * why: the "market" prompts these app providers to take on (perhaps) the need for their own systems to meet this demand.
   * how: through user forums and customer experiences; producing or reducing market demand
+In many respects, the **participant-lead computing** looks like the dominant answer to the production of useful software, the diversity of human needs, and the inclusion of diverse perspectives into technological design.  However, its ideal rests on a number of important assumptions that are not immediately closed to critical questions:
+  * enterprise systems development still dominates most people's experiences of technological design in work.
+  * the challenges of scaling individually-selected software into group and enterprise-wide coordination is difficult (but not impossible) to imagine.
+  * given the previous point, the conditions and possibilities for participant-lead computing may be minor compared with other social and material conditions
+  * the meeting of any particular individual demands still rests on the market availability of software to meet demand.  If there isn't enough of a market for a particular function, individual needs remain unmet.
+  * with any downloadable software, there is still often considerable time and expertise required in order to shape the software towards individual needs and productivity.  It may thus be only possible for those who are in jobs and organizations where such resources and time are available.
+Our third social and material setting, while more recent but sitting beside and often drawing upon the second setting, is another social and material ensemble which we call **data-revealed computing**.   Whether through spreadsheets and word processor in the 1980s, internet browsers and e-mail in the 90s, social-computing in the 00s, or personalized productively apps in the 10s, the plethora of software available for download and use encourages a very different set of answers to our questions about participation:
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