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< MEETING_TYPE: Conference >< ACADEMIC: Academic >< SCOPE: International >< REFEREED: Yes, abstract >< PUBPROCEED: No >< USER_REFERENCE_CREATOR: Yes > Unpublished conference paper presented at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, Albuquerque, NM.

Published version Published as “Killer Apps and Technomyths” by Janet Abbate. Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, Vol. 43, Number 1, pps. 105–112. ISSN 1939-1811, electronic ISSN 1939-182X. © 2012 by the Regents of the University of California.

As in many areas of the history of technology, studies of the Internet are still largely limited to the United States and other established capitalist democracies. More research is needed on how such technologies are created, disseminated, and used in the very different context of emerging nations undergoing rapid political, economic, and cultural change. In this paper I explore the development of the Internet in Estonia since its introduction in June 1992, less than a year after the country declared its independence from the Soviet Union. Estonia’s speed in establishing an Internet infrastructure has been remarkable: in the first six years it connected over 20,000 computers, making Estonia the 15th highest European country in network connections per capita. As these figures suggest, Estonians have not been mere passive recipients of foreign technology; rather, various groups in Estonia have actively embraced the Internet for a wide range of economic and social ends. Despite the country’s commitment to free-market economics, commercial enterprises did not take the lead in providing network services. Rather, the government promoted Internet growth through its education and economic policies. A national educational network, EENet, was established in 1993, and in 1997 the Ministry of Education launched a program called Tiger Leap to upgrade the nation’s school system and connect every school to the Internet. The government also created the EEBone network to interconnect the nation’s fifteen county capitals, support regional development, and—looking toward increased economic integration with Europe—help Estonia participate in the European Union’s plans for a “Global Information Society.” In addition, non-governmental organizations such as the Open Estonia Foundation have provided funds to create Estonian-oriented Web content and to train the public in the use of the Internet, and a United Nations report on human development in Estonia has recommended increased public access to information technology. Another important factor in encouraging Internet growth has been Estonia’s historically close ties with Finland, which leads Europe in Internet connectivity and provides Estonia’s link to the rest of the Internet. After assessing the relative importance of economic, political, geographic, and cultural factors in accelerating Internet participation in Estonia, I ask how expansion of Internet access has affected Estonian society. One already visible symptom is a generation gap: surveys show that while 3/4 of Estonian teenagers have used computers, only 1/5 of their parents have done so. Other data suggest that Estonians have adopted a cooperative approach to using what is still a scarce and expensive technology, often going to friends’ and neighbors’ homes to use computers. Drawing on field research, I will attempt to uncover ordinary Estonians’ attitudes toward and motivations for Internet use; the ways in which different social groups have appropriated this technology for their own aims; and how the Internet has fit into—or disrupted—established cultural practices.

When astronauts return from a space mission they smile for the cameras, but behind the scenes they undergo grueling rehab to recover from the effects of space and may face long-term health consequences. Space flights lasting more than thirty days are considered long-duration and may impact astronauts' long-term health due to space exposure; this requires the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop new scientific, medical, and space operational knowledge to counteract and mitigate harmful effects. Understanding how knowledge production occurs is an important analytical and policy issue at NASA. This dissertation explores knowledge production about astronaut health risks using structured and unstructured interviews conducted at Johnson Space Center, the home of mission control for NASA. Applied Actor-Network Theory using a stage analysis shows how various human and non-human actors create this knowledge, constructing, combining, and passing facts across disciplinary boundaries about health risks. A normative analysis of informant statements demonstrates how knowledge and values regarding their understanding of long-term astronaut health risks impact the actions and policies developed at NASA. Steven Hilgartner (1992) suggests that risk research has done very little examination of the social construction of risk objects. He further suggests (1992) that studies fail to systematically examine the construction of causal attribution networks that link chains of risk objects to harm. (Hilgartner, 1992, p. 40-41) This study remedies that lack concerning space medicine by filling in the intellectual, social, and institutional processes that link space flight characteristics to physical harms. Doctor of Philosophy Safe long-duration human spaceflight requires developing new scientific, medical, and space operations knowledge to counteract and mitigate space's harmful effects. NASA is preparing for a mission to the Moon between 2023 to 2025 and then to Mars by 2035. Both missions will test astronaut adaptability, endurance, and resilience. NASA will also test the impact on long-term astronaut health as latent effects may appear decades after completing long-duration missions. Mars is approximately eighty-five million miles away, and a mission to Mars will take approximately nine months. The astronauts will remain on Mars between thirty and a thousand days before returning to Earth. Astronauts will experience physiological and psychological changes testing their ability to survive exposure to the space environment. Safe long-duration human spaceflight requires new scientific knowledge due to the uncertain but potentially severe impacts on individual health. Therefore, understanding how knowledge production occurs is an important analytical and policy issue at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The question driving my research is how does NASA approach knowledge production, consumption, and enactment in the social construction of risk and concern regarding astronaut health, and are there flaws in NASA's approach that create barriers to knowledge production and the ethical treatment of astronauts? Given the daunting amount of scientific, medical, and epidemiological knowledge necessary to sustain human life and counteract the hazardous environment of space, NASA and commercial companies must decide if sustained missions to the Moon and Mars are possible.

Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) is an irreversible chronic autoimmune disease that affects millions in the United States. Individuals with T1D rely on biomedical technologies to manage their disability and to stay alive. The increased use of and reliance on automated technologies creates complex entanglements between human bodies, technologies and external factors including digital infrastructures creating what I term as "biotechnological organism." This U.S.-based study focuses on the most advanced biomedical technology used to manage T1D today, the Artificial Pancreas System (APS), to demonstrate how seemingly liberating automated biomedical technologies can entangle, subjugate, and confine those they aim to free. This study features the analysis of two distinct social groups by focusing on their risk discourses and risk reduction efforts. The first group is a community of regulatory experts represented by the American Diabetes Association (ADA). It provides an important perspective grounded in evidence-based science, established norms, and professional standards of medicine, healthcare, and research. The second group is the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) biological community represented by DIY innovators, patients, caregivers, and advocates. It provides a different but equally important perspective shaped by affective dimensions that reflect a phenomenological experience with biomedical technologies. The combination of these two perspectives along with the improved understanding of this disability, the complexity of entanglements between humans and machines, differing approaches to health automation and knowledge production practices elucidates important social, economic, and political issues. The significance of this work lies in its examination of how the improved understanding of health automation efforts can help inform policy and healthcare decisions. Doctor of Philosophy Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) is a chronic condition when the pancreas does not make enough insulin necessary for the body to allow blood glucose (blood sugar) to enter cells and produce energy. This disability affects millions in the United States. Individuals with T1D rely on biomedical technologies to manage their blood glucose levels and need to inject insulin to stay alive. The increased use of and reliance on automated technologies is encouraged to reduce the risks of health complications and reduce the demands of T1D management. But automated biomedical technologies also pose additional burdens related to technological use, maintenance, data overload, decision-making, and risk. This U.S.-based study focuses on the most advanced biomedical technology used to manage T1D today, the Artificial Pancreas System (APS). I coin the term "biotechnological organism" to describe the complex relationship between humans and biomedical technologies. The study demonstrates how seemingly liberating automated biomedical technologies can burden those they aim to free from the demands of disease. This study features the analysis of two distinct groups by focusing on their risk perceptions and risk reduction efforts. The first group is regulatory experts represented by the American Diabetes Association (ADA). This group provides an important perspective grounded in evidence-based science, established norms, and professional standards of medicine, healthcare, and research. The second group is the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) biological community, which includes DIY innovators, patients, caregivers, and advocates. This group provides a different but equally important perspective shaped by the diverse lived experiences of people using biomedical technologies. The improved understanding of differing approaches to health automation and knowledge production practices within these two groups elucidates important social, economic, and political issues. This work aims to understand how health automation efforts can help inform policy and healthcare decisions.

Two sets of concerns have motivated and sustained the research in my dissertation. First, modern ideas of technology and engineering have been over-represented by their dominant forms: that technology is all about progress and the more advanced "high" technology and that engineering chiefly concerns quantity, efficiency, problem-solving, and "better" machines. Second, these potent values in technology and engineering, as a conceptual whole, tend to reinforce each other and create conditions conducive to its sociocultural reproduction that discounts and subjugates viable alternative practices. My dissertation draws on both historical and philosophical approaches to the question of technology and engineering. My historical-linguistic study looks for the historical meanings of the two words—technology and engineering–in connection with their modern counterparts and discusses the social values and conditions that shaped the dynamics of their early development to understand and deconstruct their modern dominant representation. The analysis of ancient writings locates precedent for dominant engineering practice in ancient siege engines and military engineering, where qualities such as quantity, power, superiority, and ingenuity reinforced each other at the critical times of high-stakes siege warfare. I demonstrate how these interlocking qualities became the ideological basis for an enduring historical-conceptual structure of the dominant ideas of engineering that, despite strikingly different social contexts, continues to the present and limits the diversity of knowledge and participants. Returning back to the present, I develop a philosophical critique of contemporary engineering as "technology of technology," in that modern dominant engineering practice becomes technically provincial yet socially ambitious for our personal and institutional technical practice. In this process, certain practices in engineering, including communication, ethical reasoning, empathy, etc., have been marginalized and become what I call the "subjugated technical practice." By identifying the specific criteria and values that systematically discount and exclude the subjugated technical practice in different aspects, my analysis highlights and validates the latter's extraordinary qualities that contribute no less significantly to the success of engineering practice. Finally, to explore the possibilities of substantive policy changes, I propose theory and practice under the heading of "critical reflexive technology" and call for radical changes and critical participation from within and beyond engineering. Doctor of Philosophy The dissertation is an interdisciplinary project seeking to critique and engage with contemporary engineering practice that predominantly emphasizes certain values—such as quantity, efficiency, problem-solving, and "better" machines—and narrows the diversity of knowledge and participants. Toward this end, my research has two parts: one that concerns the genesis and perpetuation of the dominant ideas of engineering in history and the other that is grounded in the philosophical critique of contemporary engineering practice. My historical analysis carries out etymological studies of words and uncovers the social context that has shaped their meanings since antiquity. Whereas technology, in the sense of Ancient Greek techne, denotes effective means toward an end that is diverse in scope with many possibilities, the idea of engineering has drawn from the concepts of engines and machines and connoted a tendency for means and goals that can be evaluated more or less quantitatively. Emphasis on quantity varied in degree and was not universal. Still, it was most conspicuous in the ancient writing of military engineering on siege engines, when numbers were correlated with the ideas of power, superiority, and ingenuity at the critical times of high-stakes siege warfare. I argue that while these ideas of engineering initially claimed precedence in the context of military conflicts and war engines, they coalesced into an integrated value system and became the ideological basis for the narrowed concepts of modern engineering. My philosophical critique of modern engineering characterizes it as a negative instance of "technology of technology," in that widespread practice in engineering becomes technically provincial yet socially ambitious for our personal and institutional technical practice. In this process, certain practices in engineering, including communication, ethical reasoning, empathy, etc., have been marginalized and become what I call the "subjugated technical practice." By identifying the criteria and values that render the subjugated technical practice irrelevant and undesirable in engineering, my analysis calls attention to the latter's extraordinary qualities that contribute no less significantly to the success of engineering practice. Finally, to explore the possibilities of substantive policy changes, I propose theory and practice under the heading of "critical reflexive technology" and call for radical changes and critical participation from within and beyond engineering.

Globally, two-thirds of the population face significant water shortages and eighty percent of the U.S. states' water managers predict water shortages in the near future. Additionally, the current centralized system in the United States is facing significant problems of scarcity, groundwater depletion, high energy consumption and needs a trillion dollars investment in repairs, replacement, and expansion. Furthermore, due to increased urban/suburban development, runoff (stormwater) pollutes our waterways and is causing increased flooding. The status quo is unsustainable in its present form and the water security of the nation is at risk. Fortunately, in recent decades there has been a resurgence in the use of a millenniums old approach, rainwater harvesting (RWH), that if deployed broadly, will mitigate those issues created by the current centralized municipal water system and the expanding development of our cities, suburbs, and towns reducing permeable surface area and lower water security vulnerabilities. This study enlists Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) to examine the transitioning that is occurring from the current centralized municipal water system to one in which it is significantly complemented by an alternative water source, RWH. MLP posits that pressures originating in the broader landscape exerts pressures on the existing regime, as well as the community as a whole, creating an opportunity for the niche to emerge and either replace or change the regime. In the case of RWH, the myriad of pressures are only partially placed on the current centralized water supply regime providing them less pressure to change. Alongside water shortages another significant pressure being placed on the public and governing authorities is increased flooding and pollution resulting in the RWH niche emerging in the construction industry. In response to these pressures a RWH niche formed, largely outside of the existing water supply regime, and grew until it was joined by actors within the regime (e.g., plumbers, plumbing engineers, standards development organizations). This research is framed using MLP's three phases Start-up (niche), Acceleration, and Stabilization. This dissertation does three things. First it shows the internal processes occurring between the MLP levels (landscape, sociotechnical regime, and niche) and mechanisms created that foster the broader adoption of RWH. Secondly, it reveals that while the incumbent regime is not being significantly influenced by the RWH niche, the construction industry is embracing RWH (especially the commercial sector) and following the MLP pathway of Reconfiguration. Third, it looks at RWH in a phase of stabilization. Doctor of Philosophy Today the world, as well as the United States, faces significant water problems. These problems include scarcity, groundwater depletion, high energy consumption, and is in need of a trillion dollars to repair or replace US water infrastructure. Additionally, due to urban sprawl and diminishment of permeable surfaces, runoff is a problem causing flooding and pollution. One mitigation is the use of a millennium old technology, rainwater harvesting (RWH). This research uses Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) framework to examine the transition occurring today in the construction industry to build sustainable RWH into new construction, especially commercial buildings. This research examines the dynamic processes and the mechanisms used to grow the RWH niche and then accelerate its adoption. Those mechanisms include building demonstration projects, manuals, standards, and incentive programs. This research also looks at RWH in the U.S. Virgin Islands where RWH has been mandated since 1964. The practical value of this research is to provide policy makers insight into the useful mechanisms aiding a transition to sustainable infrastructure. The theoretical value is that it reveals a transition occurring outside of the dominate regime, the centralized water suppliers, in the construction industry. Additionally, it shows that the creation of RWH standards and the administration of building code has created a new form of water governance.

In this dissertation, I look at the history of cloud computing to demonstrate the entanglement of history, metaphor, and materiality. In telling this story, I argue that metaphors play a powerful role in how we imagine, construct, and maintain our technological futures. The cloud, as a metaphor in computing, works to simplify complexities in distributed networking infrastructures. The language and imagery of the cloud has been used as a tool that helps cloud providers shift public focus away from potentially important regulatory, environmental, and social questions while constructing a new computing marketplace. To address these topics, I contextualize the history of the cloud by looking back at the stories of utility computing (1960s-70s) and ubiquitous computing (1980s-1990s). These visions provide an alternative narrative about the design and regulation of new technological systems. Drawing upon these older metaphors of computing, I describe the early history of the cloud (1990-2008) in order to explore how this new vision of computing was imagined. I suggest that the metaphor of the cloud was not a historical inevitability. Rather, I argue that the social-construction of metaphors in computing can play a significant role in how the public thinks about, develops, and uses new technologies. In this research, I explore how the metaphor of the cloud underplays the impact of emerging large-scale computing infrastructures while at the same time slowly transforming traditional ownership-models in digital communications. Throughout the dissertation, I focus on the role of materiality in shaping digital technologies. I look at how the development of the cloud is tied to the establishment of cloud data centers and the deployment of global submarine data cables. Furthermore, I look at the materiality of the cloud by examining its impact on a local community (Los Angeles, CA). Throughout this research, I argue that the metaphor of the cloud often hides deeper socio-technical complexities. Both the materials and metaphor of the cloud work to make the system invisible. By looking at the material impact of the cloud, I demonstrate how these larger economic, social, and political realities are entangled in the story and metaphor of the cloud. Doctor of Philosophy This dissertation tells the story of cloud computing by looking at the history of the cloud and then discussing the social and political implications of this history. I start by arguing that the cloud is connected to earlier visions of computing (specifically, utility computing and ubiquitous computing). By referencing these older histories, I argue that much of what we currently understand as cloud computing is actually connected to earlier debates and efforts to shape a computing future. Using the history of computing, I demonstrate the role that metaphor plays in the development of a technology. Using these earlier histories, I explain how cloud computing was coined in the 1990s and eventually became a dominant vision of computing in the late 2000s. Much of the research addresses how the metaphor of the cloud is used, the initial reaction to the idea of the cloud, and how the creation of the cloud did (or did not) borrow from older visions of computing. This research looks at which people use the cloud, how the cloud is marketed to different groups, and the challenges of conceptualizing this new distributed computing network. This dissertation gives particular weight to the materiality of the cloud. My research focuses on the cloud's impact on data centers and submarine communication data cables. Additionally, I look at the impact of the cloud on a local community (Los Angeles, CA). Throughout this research, I argue that the metaphor of the cloud often hides deeper complexities. By looking at the material impact of the cloud, I demonstrate how larger economic, social, and political realities are entangled in the story and metaphor of the cloud.

The Army-sponsored Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN) was an entrepreneurial research institute established at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2002. Using Science and Technology Studies (STS) concepts from Actor-Network Theory, I study the founding era of this twenty-first century laboratory-based community, from 2002-2007. Actor-Network concepts of enrollment and translation, described by Bruno Latour, and heterogeneous engineering, described by John Law, are used as I 'follow the actors' founding this emergent institution. The operationalization of translation is traced through four case studies, structured around Defense funding constructs and Science and Technology communities: 6.0 Founding the Institute; 6.1 Building Basic Research Networks; 6.2 Shaping Applied Research for Cancer Research and Science Education to include non-users; and 6.3 Student Prototyping Teams Accelerating ISN Research for Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI). Scientists, engineers, and transitioners partnered in new ways to transition innovative technologies to improve human protection, with soldiers as the first of many users. Using public information, I used qualitative and quantitative methodologies to assess the actor networks and research portfolio changes. These historical case studies extend STS with operationalization of translation and a new dynamic of bi-directional actor enrollment, as research teams transitioned nanotechnologies and prototypes. Doctor of Philosophy The Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN) was an Army-sponsored entrepreneurial research institute established at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2002. This historical study examines the founding era, rarely described for start-up organizations. Science and Technology Studies (STS) concepts of Actor-Network Theory enrollment and translation are traced through four case studies: Founding the Institute; Building Basic Research Networks; Shaping Applied Research for Cancer Research and Science Education to include non-users; and Student Prototyping Teams Accelerating Research for Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI). The scientists, engineers, and transitioners partnered in new ways to transition technologies to improve human protection, with soldiers as the first of many users. Using public information, I provide qualitative and quantitative methodologies to assess the social networks of actors, as well as the composition and changes in the research portfolio. These case studies show what the ISN members did and how the small teams innovated, operationalizing translation through enrollment, and transitioning nanotechnologies and other prototypes.

This dissertation examines the emerging practice of consumer neuroscience and neuromarketing, combined called CNNM. CNNM utilizes tools and technologies to measure brain activity and human behavior coupled with scientific theories for explaining behavior and cognition. Consumer neuroscience is one of the newest areas of application of neuroscience and related techniques, and is of significant social consequence for its possible deployment in the market place to both study and shape consumer behavior. Concerns arise in terms of consumer influence and manipulation, but there are also concerns regarding the actual efficacy and utility of the technologies and the application of behavioral theories. The dissertation's three essays each examine a facet of CNNM. Using historical sources, conference participation, and ethical analyses, the dissertation forms a multi-prong effort at a better understanding of CNNM through the use of science and technology studies (STS) methods. The first essay is an historical review of the usage of technologies to measure brain activity and behavior, parallel to the development of psychological theories created to account for human decisionmaking. This essay presents a new conception of "closure" and "momentum" as envisioned by social construction of technology and technological momentum theories, arriving at a new concept for inclusion called "convergence" which offers a multi-factor explanation for the acceptance and technical implementation of unsettled science. The second essay analyzes four discourses discovered during the review of approximately seventy presentations and interviews given by experts in the field of CNNM. Using and adapting actor-network theory, the essay seeks to describe the creation of expertise and group formation in the field of CNNM researchers. The third essay draws on a variety of ethical analyses to expand understanding of the ethical concerns regarding CNNM. It raises questions that go beyond the actual efficacy of CNNM by applying some of the theories of Michel Foucault relating to the accumulation of power via expertise. This essay also points in the direction for actionable steps at ameliorating some of the ethical concerns involving CNNM. CNNM is a useful technique for understanding consumer behavior and, by extension, human behavior and neuroscience more generally. At the same time, it has been routinely misunderstood and occasionally vilified (for concerns about both efficacy and non-efficacy). This dissertation develops some of the specific historical movements that created the field, surveys and analyzes some of the foremost experts and how they maneuvered in their social network to achieve that status, and identifies novel ethical issues and some solutions to those ethical issues. Ph. D.

I bring together ethnographic interviews with deck officers, studies in actor-network theory, explicit and tacit knowledge theory, and performativity theory in this work. I prove that bridge technologies produce what are called mimeomorphic (repeatable with some variation) actions that contain no deck officer collective tacit knowledge. I argue that deck officer bridge watch situated actions are mostly polimorphic (actions can vary depending on social context), and these actions are in fact performatives (in an Austin sense) derived from a more oral than literate performance production process. These performatives constantly build the mariner's identity within the maritime deck officer community and their successful performatives give deck officers agency in the form of an oppositional view to deskilling. These same performative acts are the value of the mariner's experiential technological knowledge within the ship's bridge technology framework. Ph. D.

Using a Systems Theory approach allows a person to analyze the intertwined elements of the drug development system and the potential influences of the environment. Thomas Hughes's Large Technological Systems (LTS) Theory is one that could be used for this purpose; however, it falls short in its ability to address the complexity of current day regulatory environments. This dissertation provides a critical analysis of Hughes's LTS Theory and his phases of evolution as they apply to the United States (U.S.) system for biologic drug research, development and labeling. It identifies and explains potential flaws with Hughes's LTS Theory and provides suggested improvements. As an alternative approach, this dissertation explores the concept of "techno-regulatory system" where government regulators play an integral part in system innovations and explains why such systems do not always follow Hughes's model. Finally, this dissertation proposes a hybrid version of Hughes's systems approach and uses it to explain the changes that occurred in the drug approval system in response to the push for, opposition, and inclusion of, pediatric research in drug development during the period 1950-2003. Ph. D.

This dissertation uses Actor Network Theory (ANT) and Stark and Bainbridge's rational choice theory of religion to analyze an established but controversial branch of science and technology, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). Of particular interest are the cultural, and sometimes religious, assumptions that its creators have built into it. The purpose of this analysis is not to discredit SETI, but instead to show how SETI, along with other avant-garde scientific projects, is founded, motivated, and propelled by many of the same types of values and visions for the future that motivate the founders of religious groups. I further argue that the utopian zeal found in SETI and similar movements is not aberrant, but instead common, and perhaps necessary, in many early-stage projects, whether technical or spiritual, which lack a clear near-term commercial or social benefit. Ph. D.

The introduction of social media presented a significant challenge to the often secretive culture of the U.S. military. DoD struggled with publishing a social media policy forcing the armed services to develop their own policies, which were all inconsistent. When DoD finally established a social media policy in 2007, certain social media sites were banned from the Services' networks for a variety of reasons -- the one most often quoted was risk. In February 2010, DoD completely reversed its policy and embraced social media. The new policy required the military to allow open access on the networks to social media for all employees, despite much resistance from internal stakeholders. In this dissertation, I research three significant events during the development of the DoD Social Media Policy: (1) the pre-policy environment, including actions to restrict social media on the DoD networks (2) coming to closure on the current policy and how DoD made its decision to open the networks to social media, and (3) the post-closure period and its ongoing and new tensions. This research project is a qualitative study of the evolution of social media (pre- and post a formal policy) within the DoD through the lens of social construction of technology (SCOT) and a discourse analysis of the policy formulation. My findings indicated that references to security and privacy risk, sociotechnological inevitability, responsible online behavior and youth were particularly important to the military discourse on social media. The study concludes the risk is worth to benefit to service members who want to use social media. Service members accept the sociotechnological inevitability of social media and feel they are responsible enough to use it wisely. The issue of youth was found to be not really a concern and leadership emerged as a discourse and is often referenced to solve any issue that may arise from the use of social media within the military environment. Ph. D.

Each year the Department of Defense spends over $10 billion on its science and technology development efforts. While deemed an investment by proponents (and beneficiaries) technology development programs are particularly vulnerable in times of budget cuts. As the government moves forward with efforts to reduce spending the Department of Defense will be pressed to sustain current levels of spending on technology efforts. This situation is similar to the post-Cold War phase in defense planning when savings in spending were sought as a peace dividend. This dissertation examines the Department of Defense efforts during 1989-1992 to define certain technologies as critical to national security. Inherent in the effort to identify critical technologies was the desire to articulate technology ideology; to establish asymmetries of power and resources; and to patrol the boundaries of policy and responsibility. The questions are: What are the ideologies associated with technology development planning? What are the discursive mechanisms used to secure and reinforce power? And, what evidence of boundary work and network construction emerges from the examination? First, I distill from four years of defense technology planning documentation the explicit ideologies, the ideologies masked in metaphor, and the discourse strategies used to secure and sustain power. Following the deconstruction of the discursive elements I use Science and Technology Studies tools including boundary work, boundary objects, the Social Construction of Technology, and network theory, to further understand the heterogeneous process of defense technology development planning. The tools help explain the mechanisms by which elements of Department of Defense technology development form a connected structure. Finally, the examination yields a spherical network model for innovation that addresses the weaknesses of prior innovation network models. I conclude that in the face of uncertain budgets, technology planning relies upon ideology, power strategies, and boundary-work to build a network that protects funding and influence. In the current budget climate it will be interesting to see if the strategies are resurrected. The examination should be of interest to both the Science and Technology Studies scholar and the policy practitioner. And hopefully, the review will stimulate further examination and debate. Ph. D.

While government intelligence"knowledge to support policy decision making"is often characterized as an art or science, this dissertation suggests it is more akin to what Science and Technology Studies call a "technological system" or a" sociotechnical ensemble". Such a policy support tool is a mechanism socially constructed for the production of policy-relevant knowledge through integration of social and material components. It involves organizational and procedural innovations as much as it does specialized hardware for obtaining, manipulating, and distributing information. The development and function of American intelligence is illustrated here through a case study of how the United States and its European allies learned about Germany's World War II secret weapons, especially the long-range liquid fueled rocket known to their military as the A4, but better known to the public as the V-2. The colonial British heritage and the unique American experiences of participating in wars taking place in domestic and foreign territories set the cultural stage for both the strengths and weaknesses with which American intelligence approached the rapidly evolving German secret weapon capabilities of World War II. The unfolding events that American and British intelligence dealt with in building their knowledge evolved through three stages: early speculation about the existence and nature of the secret weapon threat derived from frequently misleading or misunderstood espionage reports, followed by improvements in knowledge from direct access to information sources provided by enabling technologies, and, finally, systematic reflection on the aggregate of earlier knowledge and new data. This allowed government decision makers to build plans and resources with which to counter the new threats and to prepare for post-war management of similar political and technical issues. However, it also illustrated the difficulties that large and complex systems create for stabilization of institutional innovations. Ph. D.

In the twentieth century, the target market for household technologies was identified and labeled "Mrs. Consumer," and the lifestyle, values, and ideals attributed to her guided household technology marketing throughout the century. Bonnie Fox conducted an investigation into household technology marketing techniques, using advertisements in Ladies Home Journal (LHJ) as her source material. I argue here that, because of the homogenous, mostly-white readership of LHJ, Fox's use of only LHJ advertisements limited some of the conclusions she could draw about Mrs. Consumer's lifestyle, values, and ideals. This thesis studies household technology advertisements in Ebony magazine and current literature about the black American experience to identify the impact of including race in the evaluation of household technology advertising in twentieth century America. In particular, this thesis addresses Mrs. Consumer's extensibility across race; Ebony's household technology advertisements' treatment of segregation, integration, assimilation, and racial pride; and those advertisements' handling of the public opinion that the twentieth century American black family structure was "pathological." This research identifies similarities and differences between the advertisement practices in Ebony and LHJ in those areas of interest, concluding that the black American housewife's home experience was more likely to be divergent from Mrs. Consumer's attributed reality and that Ebony's advertisers tended toward the aspirational when modeling and scripting household technology advertisements. Master of Science

Google's AdWords processes information about what sorts of content users are browsing for about a quarter of all web site visits. The significance of AdWords' use of this vast amount of personal data lies not in its use for such obviously authoritarian purposes but instead as a network of grey surveillance with Google acting as the hub and the various publishers, advertisers, and users watching (and controlling) each other in distinct ways. Google's model of collective intelligence in its search and ad ranking systems has so deeply intertwined itself into user experiences online (and offline) that it acts as a shared nervous system. AdWords' use of specific words to target simple ads directly connects advertising topics with the content supported by the advertising, encouraging the content to do more of the work of assigning social meaning traditionally done by the ads themselves. And the AdWords pay-per-click ad auction system greatly increases the level of mechanization within the advertising and content production system, replacing the historical human bureaucracy of the advertising industry with the mechanical bureaucracy that is much more difficult to predict or understand. That mechanical bureaucracy shapes, in constitutive but unpredictable ways, the relationship between content and ads that drives the what content is published online and how advertisers and users interact with that content. Master of Science

This dissertation explores motivation in decision-making and action in science and technology, through the lens of a case study: scientific data sharing in cancer research. The research begins with the premise that motivation and emotion are key elements of what it means to be human, and consequently, are important variables in how individuals make decisions and take action. At the same time, institutional controls and social messaging send a variety of signals intended to motivate specific actions and behaviors. Understanding the interplay between personal motives and social influences may point to strategies that better align individual and social perceptions and discourse. To explore these dynamics, this research centers on a large-scale cancer research program led by the National Institutes of Health's National Cancer Institute. The goal of the program is to encourage interoperability and data sharing between diverse and highly autonomous cancer centers across the U.S. Housed in an organization focused on biomedical informatics, the program has a technologically-focused mission; the goal is to facilitate institutional data sharing to connect the cancer research enterprise. This focus contrasts with the more relationship-based point-to-point data sharing currently reported by researchers as the norm. Researchers are motivated to share data with others under specific conditions: when there is a foundation of trust with the person or community being shared with; when the perceived reward of sharing is well-defined and of value to the person sharing; and when there is perceived to be a lower risk or cost than the benefit received. Without these conditions, there are often determined to be insufficient incentives and rewards for sharing. Data sharing is both a personal decision and a social level problem. Data is both subjective and personal; it is often an extension of researcher's identity, and serves as a measure of his or her value and capability. In the search for standards and interoperable data sets, institutional and technologically-mediated forms of data sharing are perceived to ignore the subjective and local knowledge embodied in the data being shared. To explore these dimensions, this study considers the technology, economics, legal elements, and personal sides of data sharing, and applies two conceptual frameworks to evaluate alternatives for action. Ph. D.

The goal of my project is a detailed analysis of the technological culture of the United States Air Force from a Science and Technology Studies (STS) perspective. In particular, using the metaphor of the Air Force as religion helps in understanding a culture built on matters of life-and-death. This religious narrative—with the organizational roles of actors such as priests, prophets, and laity, and the institutional connotations of theological terms such as sacredness—is a unique approach to the Air Force. An analysis of how the Air Force interacts with technology—the very thing that gives it meaning—from the social construction of technology approach will provide a broader understanding of this relationship. Mitcham's dichotomy of the engineering philosophy of technology (EPT) and the humanities philosophy of technology (HPT) perspectives provides a methodology for analyzing Air Force decisions and priorities. I examine the overarching discourse and metaphor—consisting of techniques, technologies, experiences, language, and religion—in a range of historical case studies describing the sociological and philosophical issues of the Air Force. As the Air Force is the offspring of the U.S. Army, these examples begin with the Civil War era and the invention of the Gatling gun before moving to the interwar period's Air Corps Tactical School and its seminal organizational thinking about the aircraft. Moving to the more modern times after the birth of the Air Force, I describe and compare the Advanced Airlift Tactics Training Center and the Air Mobility Warfare Center, two organizations interacting with technology from different organizational archetypes. The final example is the Department of Defense Readiness Reporting System, an information technology application at the focal point of cultural change affecting not just the Air Force but the entire Department of Defense. Finally, I will conclude with a chapter on policy considerations and recommendations for the Air Force based on the Air Force religion, a balance of both people and technology, and with an eye toward the future of U.S. military operations. The primary goal is to answer three questions: is the U.S. Air Force truly a religion? If so, how should that affect its approach to technology and technological change? With an eye toward consciously building the future, how has the Air Force religion shaped the organization in the past? [The attached document is cleared by the Department of Defense for public release (OSR Case 09-S-0496).] Ph. D.

The political history of U.S. commercial remote sensing began in 1984 when the U.S. government first attempted to commercialize its civil earth observation satellite system " Landsat. Since then, the high technology of earth imaging satellite systems has generated intense debates and policy conflicts, primarily centered on U.S. government concerns over the national security and foreign policy implications of high-resolution commercial satellite systems. Conversely, proponents of commercial observation satellites have urged U.S. policymakers to recognize the scientific and socio-economic utility of commercial remote sensing and thus craft and implement regulatory regimes that allow for a greater degree of information openness and transparency in using earth observation satellite imagery. This dissertation traces and analyzes that tumultuous political history and examines the policy issues and social construction of commercial remote sensing to determine the role of knowledge in the effective crafting and execution of commercial remote sensing laws and policies. Although individual and organizational perspectives, interests, missions, and cultures play a significant role in the social construction of commercial observation satellite systems and programs, the problem of insufficient knowledge of the myriad dimensions and complex nature of commercial remote sensing is a little studied but important component of this social construction process. Knowledge gaps concerning commercial remote sensing extend to various dimensions of the subject matter, such as the global, economic, technical, and legal/policy aspects. Numerous examples of knowledge voids are examined to suggest a connection between deficient knowledge and divergent policy perceptions as they relate to commercial remote sensing. Relevant knowledge voids are then structurally categorized to demonstrate the vastness and complexity of commercial remote sensing policy issues and to offer recommendations on how to fill such knowledge gaps to effect increased collaboration between the US government and the U.S. commercial remote sensing industry. Finally, the dissertation offers suggestions for future STS studies on policy issues, particularly those that focus on the global dimensions of commercial remote sensing or on applying the knowledge gap concept advanced by this dissertation to other areas of science and technology policymaking. Ph. D.

This thesis takes a fresh look at software, treating it as a document, manuscript, corpus, or text to be consumed among communities of programmers and uncovering the social roles of these texts within two specific sub-communities and comparing them. In the paper, the social roles of the texts are placed within the context of the technical and cultural constraints and environments in which programs are written. Within that context, the comments emphasize the metaphoric status of programming languages and the social role of the comments themselves. These social roles are combined with the normative intentions for each comment, creating a dynamic relationship of form and function for both normative and identity-oriented purposes. The relationship of form and function is used as a unifying concept for a more detailed investigation of the construction of comments, including a look at a literary device that relies on the plural pronoun "we" as the subject. The comments used in this analysis are derived from within the source code of the Linux kernel and from a Corporate environment in the US. Master of Science

This dissertation uses a historical approach to study the origins and trajectory of computer engineering as a domain of disciplinary and professional activity in the United States context. Expanding on the general question of "what is computer engineering?," this project investigates what counts as computer engineering knowledge and practice, what it means to be a computer engineer, and how these things have varied by time, location, actor, and group. This account also pays close attention to the creation and maintenance of the "sociotechnical" boundaries that have historically separated computer engineering from adjacent fields such as electrical engineering and computer science. In addition to the academic sphere, I look at industry and professional societies as key sites where this field originated and developed. The evidence for my analysis is largely drawn from journal articles, conference proceedings, trade magazines, and curriculum reports, supplemented by other primary and secondary sources. The body of my account has two major parts. Chapters 2 through 4 examine the pre-history and early history of computer engineering, especially from the 1940s to early 1960s. These chapters document how the field gained a partially distinct professional identity, largely in the context of industry and through professional society activities. Chapters 5 through 7 turn to a historical period running from roughly the mid 1960s to early 1990s. Here I document the establishment and negotiation of a distinct disciplinary identity and partially unique "sociotechnical settlement" for computer engineering. Professional societies and the academic context figure prominently in these chapters. This part of the dissertation also brings into relief a key argument, namely that computer engineering has historically occupied a position of "persistent instability" between the engineering profession, on the one hand, and independent disciplines such as computer science, on the other. In an Epilogue I review some more recent developments in the educational arena to highlight continued instabilities in the disciplinary landscape of computing, as well as renewed calls for the establishment of a distinct disciplinary and professional identity for the field of computer engineering. I also highlight important countervailing trends by briefly reviewing the history of the software/hardware codesign movement. Ph. D.

IPv6, a new Internet protocol designed to exponentially increase the global availability of Internet addresses, has served as a locus for incendiary international tensions over control of the Internet. Esoteric technical standards such as IPv6, on the surface, appear not socially significant. The technical community selecting IPv6 claimed to have excised sociological considerations from what they considered an objective technical design decision. Far from neutrality, however, the development and adoption of IPv6 intersects with contentious international issues ranging from tensions between the United Nations and the United States, power struggles between international standards authorities, U.S. military objectives, international economic competition, third world development objectives, and the promise of global democratic freedoms. This volume examines IPv6 in three overlapping epochs: the selection of IPv6 within the Internet's standards setting community; the adoption and promotion of IPv6 by various stakeholders; and the history of the administration and distribution of the finite technical resources of Internet addresses. How did IPv6 become the answer to presumed address scarcity? What were the alternatives? Once developed, stakeholders expressed diverse and sometimes contradictory expectations for IPv6. Japan, the European Union, China, India, and Korea declared IPv6 adoption a national priority and an opportunity to become more competitive in an American-dominated Internet economy. IPv6 activists espoused an ideological belief in IPv6, linking the standard with democratization, the eradication of poverty, and other social objectives. The U.S., with ample addresses, adopted a laissez-faire approach to IPv6 with the exception of the Department of Defense, which mandated an upgrade to the new standard to bolster distributed warfare capability. The history of IPv6 includes the history of the distribution of the finite technical resources of "IP addresses," globally unique binary numbers required for devices to exchange information via the Internet. How was influence over IP address allocation and control distributed globally? This history of IPv6 explains what's at stake economically, politically, and technically in the development and adoption of IPv6, suggesting a theoretical nexus between technical standards and politics and arguing that views lauding the Internet standards process for its participatory design approach ascribe unexamined legitimacy to a somewhat closed process. Ph. D.