cct 506 studying

Question 1

why fundamentals?

Answer 1

… in order to move beyond the “great divide”

of social vs. technical knowledge.

Question 2

when we talk about social, we mean….

Answer 2

…. the historical, humanistic, political and
organizational circumstances “surrounding” a
technology

Question 3

when we talk about technical, we mean….

Answer 3

…. the “inner” workings, design, and

practical applications of technology and tools

Question 4

Course objective - Obtain a familiarity with the inner-workings
of computers and ICTs so that you can:

Answer 4

a. communicate with technical people
b. be critical about how technologies work and
how they are used
c. understand the foundational concepts of
computing
d. go on to more advanced technical work

Question 5

Course objective - Use communication and design media to:

Answer 5

a. visualize and explain interactions in a
sociotechnical system
b. express and communicate technical ideas to
a variety of audiences
c. understand how digital tools arrange and
manipulate information

Question 6

a blackbox is…

Answer 6

…. a thing that does a thing.

has an input and an output

Question 7

Architecture

Answer 7

a collection of components

that make up a technical artifact

Question 8

Algorithm

Answer 8

a series of steps that move

information from one state to another

Question 9

A sociotechnical system can be described as….

Answer 9

….blackbox composed of other blackboxes.

“ X is a sociotechnical system for Y”

Question 10

Analyzing Sociotechnical Systems steps:

Answer 10

1. Define the system
2. Identify key components of the system
3. Describe interactions among the components
4. Elaborate connections in order to identify
   broader implications and emergent behaviors

Question 11

Social relations shape….

Answer 11

…. technical relations…. and vice versa!

Question 12

when artifacts have politics, (not Politics) they….

Answer 12

…. were deliberately designed and
built that way by someone who wanted
to achieve a particular social effect

Question 13

sociotechnical politics

Answer 13

1. Humans use and design technology for social
   and political reasons.
   Human actors work with technology.
2. Technology shapes social structures and
   organize political interactions.
   Technologies do work
   alongside human actors.

Question 14

ex: a consequence of nuclear weapons….

Answer 14

b/c they were deliberately designed and the decisions made will continue to shape the world.

Question 15

delegation (shifting out)

Answer 15

the assignment of work to another actant

door example: we have delegated non-human grooms (door stop example) to do the work of closing doors.

Delegation to technology has both intended and unintended sociotechnical consequences.

Question 16

a blackbox HAS….

Answer 16

an architecture that helps it execute an algorithm*

*it can also be part of larger-scale and smaller-scale architectures and algorithms
(“blackboxes all the way up and down”)

Question 17

Actant

Answer 17

characters that do things

• Can be human or nonhuman *

Question 18

Script

Answer 18

what actants do and how they do it. scenarios played out by actants

Question 19

Transcription

Answer 19

translating a script from one actant or system to another

Question 20

Prescription

Answer 20

what a script presupposes or asks from other actants in the system

Question 21

Inscription

Answer 21

upstream work that supports or “programs” a technical script

Question 22

Kashmir Hill:

“Life Without the Tech Giants” summary / statement

Answer 22

Critics of the big tech companies are often told, “If you don’t like the company, don’t use its products.” I did this experiment to find out if that is possible, and I found out that it’s not—with the exception of Apple.

These companies are unavoidable because they control internet infrastructure, online commerce, and information flows. Many of them specialize in tracking you around the web, whether you use their products or not. These companies started out selling books, offering search results, or showcasing college hotties, but they have expanded enormously and now touch almost every online interaction.

Question 23

What work are computers doing?

Answer 23

Representation
Interpretation
Manipulation
… of information.

Question 24

I.D.E.

Answer 24

integrated development environments. provide services that speed up development.
examples: Xcode

Question 25

syntax

Answer 25

the rules of programming language

Question 26

operators are…

Answer 26

… symbols that tell the computer to perform an action with some input.
aka addition is +, subtraction is - etc

Question 27

function

Answer 27

block of code packaged together with a name

Question 28

run-length encoding (RLE)

Answer 28

built in compression for file formats that shrinks the data in the files to take up less room on a disk