1,446 research outputs found
Ideologies of computer scientists and technologists (Correctness beyond reason)
Ideologies of computer scientists and technologist
Dynamics of Gender Bias in Computing
Gender bias in computing is a hard problem that has resisted decades of
research. One obstacle has been the absence of systematic data that might
indicate when gender bias emerged in computing and how it has changed. This
article presents a new dataset (N=50,000) focusing on formative years of
computing as a profession (1950-1980) when U.S. government workforce statistics
are thin or non-existent. This longitudinal dataset, based on archival records
from six computer user groups (SHARE, USE, and others) and ACM conference
attendees and membership rosters, revises commonly held conjectures that gender
bias in computing emerged during professionalization of computer science in the
1960s or 1970s and that there was a 'linear' one-time onset of gender bias to
the present. Such a linear view also lent support to the "pipeline" model of
computing's "losing" women at successive career stages. Instead, this dataset
reveals three distinct periods of gender bias in computing and so invites
temporally distinct explanations for these changing dynamics. It significantly
revises both scholarly assessment and popular understanding about gender bias
in computing. It also draws attention to diversity within computing. One
consequence of this research for CS reform efforts today is data-driven
recognition that legacies of gender bias beginning in the mid-1980s (not in
earlier decades) is the problem. A second consequence is correcting the public
image of computer science: this research shows that gender bias is a contingent
aspect of professional computing, not an intrinsic or permanent one.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figure
Augmented body: changing interactive body play
This paper investigates the player’s body as a system capable of unfamiliar interactive movement through digital mediation in a playful environment. Body interactions with both digital and non-digital environments are suggested here as a perceptually manipulative exploration area, where by a player altering how they perceive of their body and its operations can create a new playful and original experience. It questions how player interaction can change as perception of the body changes using augmentative technology
Barry Smith an sich
Festschrift in Honor of Barry Smith on the occasion of his 65th Birthday. Published as issue 4:4 of the journal Cosmos + Taxis: Studies in Emergent Order and Organization. Includes contributions by Wolfgang Grassl, Nicola Guarino, John T. Kearns, Rudolf Lüthe, Luc Schneider, Peter Simons, Wojciech Żełaniec, and Jan Woleński
Social conditions of outstanding contributions to computer science : a prosopography of Turing Award laureates (1966-2016)
The Turing Award, commonly described as computer science's highest award and equivalent of the Nobel prize in that discipline, has now been awarded for half a century. In the following, we describe the social regularities that underlie and the conditions that embed these high achievements in computer science innovation. We find, contrary to a meritocratic ideal of one's only abilities determining success or recognition within sciences, that several characteristics of scientists, exogenous and non-exogenous alike to their scientific work and identities, are of overbearing or disproportionate importance in defining academic acknowledgement. We find in particular that nationality or birth place, gender and one's network have a big role in making Turing Award laureates. As do social origins, with a significant portion of Turing Award winners coming primarily from middle- and upper-class family backgrounds, especially households with significant cultural capital i.e. one or both parents hold an advanced degree or are engaged in an academic profession). Reviewing the data before us, we were also unable to ignore the non-participation of visible minorities and non-white computer scientists to the body of Turing Award recipients. In short, place of birth, nationality, gender, social background, "race" and networks play a role in making Turing Award laureates. This paper also explores the ways in which a social history or sociology of computer science and the wider technology sector may unfold in the future, by discussing theoretical implications, methods and sources
Digital Attribution: Copyright and the Right to Credit
In a 1951 article in Science magazine, librarian Ralph Shaw argued that copyright law paid insufficient attention to the attribution interests of authors. Shaw observed that the straightforward pecuniary interests of publishers diverged from the more complex reputation-based interests of authors. He noted how authors and publishers might have differing views regarding the benefits of providing thousands of copies of a work for “free distribution.” Of course, since Shaw had pointed out that no sensible publisher would be interested in giving away such free works, the example he used was fanciful at the time. Today times have changed. The World Wide Web delivers a hyperlinked high-speed information environment that Shaw could not have imagined. Most importantly, just as Shaw predicted, authors are now giving away thousands—even millions—of free “reprints” and realizing what Shaw described as “a great additional profit… in terms of professional credit.” Copyright law, for various reasons, has largely ignored this fact. Shaw\u27s “right to credit” is still as much a fantasy as the World Wide Web was half a century ago. This article takes up Ralph Shaw\u27s call for a right to credit in a new era of networked information systems. Copyright law should be adjusted to take into account the growing importance of open access forms of copyright creation and reputation economies. Prioritizing the legal importance of attribution in copyright is a change that is long overdue. The contemporary digital environment provides an opportunity and an important additional reason to revisit Shaw\u27s salient distinction between the motivations of authors and publishers
Social Software, Groups, and Governance
Formal groups play an important role in the law. Informal groups largely lie outside it. Should the law be more attentive to informal groups? The paper argues that this and related questions are appearing more frequently as a number of computer technologies, which I collect under the heading social software, increase the salience of groups. In turn, that salience raises important questions about both the significance and the benefits of informal groups. The paper suggests that there may be important social benefits associated with informal groups, and that the law should move towards a framework for encouraging and recognizing them. Such a framework may be organized along three dimensions by which groups arise and sustain themselves: regulating places, things, and stories
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