The Adoption and Enforcement of a Technological Regime: The Case of the first IT Regime

In this paper we explore the process of adoption and enforcement of a number of new information processing technologies, such as the typewriter, calculators, tabulation gears and book-keeping machines, starting from the 1880s in the United States. We show that their innovation and diffusion was inexorably coupled to the economic development in the USA in the late 19th century. It is a complex and contradictory consequence of underlying socio-economic processes that led to the formation of modern organisational structures in large scale manufacturing which required systematic and efficient information processing. The typewriter and all the complementary office automation devices that entered the scene shortly after were part of a socio-technical regime that started being established: the office work regime or as we prefer to call it the first IT regime, as for the first time a technology was set up to process information on large scale. The logic of large scale manufacturing to produce standardised products in large series and to apply labour saving techniques was cast into the organisation of administration. This required a convergence of technical practices. The lock-in to the inferior QWERTY-keyboard is hence the outcome of the diffusion and hardening of the First IT Regime.Technological regimes; adaption and enforcement of technologies; information technology; QWERTY

Text Entry in Immersive Head-Mounted Display-Based Virtual Reality Using Standard Keyboards

We study the performance and user experience of two popular mainstream text entry devices, desktop keyboards and touchscreen keyboards, for use in Virtual Reality (VR) applications. We discuss the limitations arising from limited visual feedback, and examine the efficiency of different strategies of use. We analyze a total of 24 hours of typing data in VR from 24 participants and find that novice users are able to retain about 60% of their typing speed on a desktop keyboard and about 40-45\% of their typing speed on a touchscreen keyboard. We also find no significant learning effects, indicating that users can transfer their typing skills fast into VR. Besides investigating baseline performances, we study the position in which keyboards and hands are rendered in space. We find that this does not adversely affect performance for desktop keyboard typing and results in a performance trade-off for touchscreen keyboard typing

Lock in, Path Dependence, and the Internationalization of QWERTY

This paper looks at the emergence of what is described here as the QWERTY family of standards (QWERTY and its international adaptations QZERTY, AZERTY, and QWERTZ). QWERTY has been described as an inferior solution and an accident of history. However, the analysis here finds that each member of the family represented highly efficient adaptations to specific user needs and technical challenges encountered in their own environments. These findings may be seen to have wider implications given QWERTY’s role as paradigm case in the literature on increasing returns and path dependence, and these are pursued in the pape

A Tool for Analysis of User's Typing Skills as an Add-On for Firefox

Cílem této bakalářské práce je vytvořit aplikaci, která běží na pozadí a ukládá statistická data o psaní na klávesnici. Na vyžádání uživatele se data v přehledné podobě vyhodnotí. Tato zpětná vazba má pomoci ke zdokonalení techniky psaní na klávesnici. Implementačně je aplikace realizována jako doplněk pro Firefox. V této technické zprávě se zabývám teorií hmatové metody ovládání klávesnice deseti prsty, objasňuji motivaci pro vytvoření mé aplikace a popisuji její návrh a implementaci. Samostatná část je věnována technologiím, které jsou specifické pro vytváření doplňků pro Firefox. Na závěr se pokouším na základě zkušeností od uživatelů objektivně zhodnotit přínos této práce.The objective of this Bachelor thesis is to create an application running in background, saving statistic data about typing. This data is evaluated on user's demand and displayed in a transparent form. The purpose of this feedback is to help improve typing skills. The aplication is implemented as a Firefox add-on. In this technical report I focus on the theory of touch typing technique, clarify the motivation to create my application and describe its design and implementation. There is a separate section devoted to technologies that are specific to developing Firefox add-ons. In the summary I objectively try to evaluate the benefits of this work based on experience from the users.

The Affect Misattribution Procedure.

The Affect Misattribution Procedure (AMP) has been forwarded as one of the most promising alternatives to the Implicit Association Test and the evaluative-priming task for measuring attitudes such as prejudice indirectly. We investigated whether the AMP is indeed able to detect an evaluative out-group bias. In contrast to recent conclusions about the robustness of AMP effects, six out of seven pilot studies indicated that participants did not show any prejudice effects in the AMP. Yet, these pilot studies were not fully conclusive with regard to our research question because they investigated different domains of prejudice, used small sample sizes, and employed a modified AMP version. In a preregistered, high-powered AMP study, we therefore examined whether the standard AMP does reveal prejudice against Turks, the biggest minority in Germany, and found a significant, albeit very small prejudice effect. We discuss possible reasons for the AMP's weak sensitivity to evaluations in socially sensitive domains

DVORAK and COLEMAK Keyboards

A previous article investigate typable words from the various rows of keys on the AZERTY and QWERTZ keyboards. In this article, I look at the layouts of the DVORAK and COLEMAK keyboards

Марковљеви ланци и проблем одређивања распореда слова на тастатури српске ћирилице

Serbian Abstract: У раду се разматрају проблеми одређивања оптималног распореда слова на тастатури, који мора бити заснован на карактеристикама и специфичностима сваког конкретног језика. Данашњи стандард за српски језик заснован је на тзв. универзалном распореду и као такав неподесан је. Емпиријском анализом на примеру двају класичних романа српске књижевности, уз примену апаратуре Марковљевих ланаца, анализиране су перформансе постојеће, „српске” тастатуре, и указано је на потребу рада на новом стандарду. English Abstract: The paper considers issues related to an optimal keyboard layout which needs to be based on the characteristics and specificities of each particular language. Today’s standard for Serbian language is based on the so-called universal layout and, as such, is inadequate. The performances of the today-existing “Serbian” keyboard were analyzed through an empirical analysis of two Serbian classical novels as well as the use of Markov chains apparatus, and a need for further development of a new standard was emphasized