Technology and Society Humanities 110, Week 3- Architectures Slide 1: eCommerce- who benefits? Who loses? How can successes be repeated? One tool for reliable results is a set of principles that controls how the pieces fit together as a whole. If the pieces always fit together in the same way, the results should generally be the same. Architectures produce predictable results. If you were hoping that this lecture would be about housing, don’t despair. You just need to wait a few weeks for another lecture. What we will discover today is that there are many types of architectures. All are plans for making the pieces of a structure fit together seamlessly.
Rudy Volti, a leading historian on the effects of technology, says the Chinese by the Sixteenth Century had already invented: 1). The compass 2). Paper 3). Gunpowder 4). Segmental Arch Bridge 5). Chain Drive Transmission 6). The Spinning Wheel 7). Watertight bulkheads 8). Printing 9). Fishing Reels 10). Differential Gears (pages 69-70)
Slide 3: How Does a Civilization Fall from Greatness? Great regional powers that fell from power included: Persia Egypt Sweden Do civilizations collapse because of “hubris?” This was the Greeks’ word for self-destructive pride that was an insult to the gods. Or do civilizations fail for other reasons? China attained greatness, then fell from greatness and now ascends to lead the world. When England attempted to open trade relations the !Zhong Guo kingdom reported to George III- “There is nothing that we lack.” Later Kang Youwei, a proponent of Western culture, in 1898 falls out of favor when Dzu Xi takes the throne. A China that was temporarily leaning toward openness to trade with the rest of the world then fell back into isolation. Chaing Kai-shek , dictator- general, during the 20th Century attempted to return China to Confucian ideals. Ultimately the country is split with Chaing Kai-shek establishing a separate capitalistic China on Formosa-Taiwan. On the mainland, Mao’s introduced an anti-intellectualism in response to the regime on Taiwan (Volti, 71). NIH: Not Invented Here. If an idea, invention, culture, etc. is not “ours” we will want to reject it. This is partially because of pride. This is the human failing rerefferd to as NIH. It is also true as Henry Ford II said, ”The status quo is a hell of a lot easier than making changes” (82). But NIH also disposes of the “baby with the bathwater.” It attempts to limit the introduction of foreign influence on us and cross-cultural sharing. Here are some examples of attempts to limit foreign influence. 1). Venetian glass blowers are assassinated if they attempt to emigrate. 2). English law forbade emigration of certain trades in 1719 (82). 3). The export of machinery is forbidden by the English in the 1780s (83). 4). Today there are prohibitions against exporting encryption software today by the US.
Slide 4: Signs of a failing civilization? 1). Declining populations 2). Lack of Social Participation 3). Inflation The Effect of Climate According to Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel , 13,000 years ago the Middle East was warmer and wetter than it is today. As a result, game was plentiful. Small bands of hunter-gatherer clans were able to be successful by following animal migrations. They succeeded through the advancement of primitive technologies and skilled workforces that “easy” hunting could support. The Availability of Grains By about 12,500 years ago, the earth began to become colder and dryer. Drought caused humans to remain close to sources of water. They begin to encourage the growth of the grains they had been gathering in a wild state. The prominent grains cultivated by region were: 1). In the Middle East, barley and wheat 2). In China, rice 3). In the Americas, corn and beans 4). In Africa, Sorghum Types of Domesticated Animals Diamond says that in addition to the types of domestic plants that could be cultivated, societies could prosper if two other conditions were present. Larger domestic animals allow for larger harvests Early Specialization Skills developed by working with fire allowed for early metallurgy or crafting with metals. The key to the development of wealth was this type of specialization. As long ago as 9000 years settlements in the Middle East, like Guare in southern Jordan, had controlled air flow in homes. They also used plaster to cool interiors. Food surpluses are stored in conditioned buildings with raised floors to protect grain from moisture/mold and insects. Summary Water, grains, large domesticated animals and the availability of certain metal ores, then, are the features that made for ancient prosperity.
Slide 5: What Does Specialization Have to Do with Architectures? Architectures An architecture is a plan showing how the elements of a whole fit together. Architecture may be descriptions of how the components of a house relate, or a computer network, or the safety and security devices of a nation, or a business's departments. Stovepipes “ Stove-pipe” is a term for a failed architecture. It represents a victory of Independent operation over cooperative development. In industry there are natural rivals. Unlike competitive rivals, the ones I refer to are within the same company. These might be the Sales and Accounting or Finance departments within the company. Each organization has the same corporate goal-- to make the company successful. These organizations within the company, however, have conflicting departmental goals: One wants to make the sale at any expense; the other wants the highest margin (revenue per unit). Specialized Departments build human and machine systems, each in good faith, that report results. Sometimes the separate views of each other’s results are at odds. Sometimes the views of the company’s performance may be at odds too. Speed is of the essence in business. Both Sales and Finance have their own deadlines to meet. They each build their systems quickly. Since they have differing views of the world they would rather not pause to coordinate the rules they use in their systems. When Is a Sale a Sale? Is a sale a sale when … 1). It is agreed to verbally or in writing? 2). When the customer has financing to pay for the order? 3). When the order is delivered? 4). When the bill is paid? If these seem like foreign concepts, substitute car for “order” and consider when that car you are buying actually becomes yours. Coordinating and sharing an understanding or a definition like the one above takes time. In business, no one has time for the understanding of another department- until an explanation is called for. That question is usually: “Why do the Sales and Finance numbers say the company made differing amounts of money? Whose numbers are right?” Those awful questions must be asked because each department has it’s own Stovepipe architecture that does not share data with other independent stovepipe architectures. As departments build human and technical systems to support operations without pausing to develop common definitions with other departments, they begin to look more like independent companies. Processes and reports serve the purposes of the department rather than the company. The reports created answer real business questions but after several years or decades, the reports may still exist even if no one remembers why the reports were originally created. Architectural Inertia Some years ago, I was part of a study for New Jersey Bell Telephone Company. The study traced over twelve hundred monthly reports. Some were addressed to individuals; others to departments. More than sixty percent of the reports that were more than one year old were not being used. Upon receipt, some were discarded. Some were filed without being looked at. Some of the people who were the intended recipients of the reports had retired years before the study. One of the problems with stovepipes is that they encourage they creation of processes that are only meaningful to the person who invents them. Inertia is an impediment to progress. Once motion begins, it continues. Once motion ceases, it is difficult to restart. Stovepipes encourage inertia. It is easier to move one architecture than many. There is a tough decision to be made: Should an organization maintain the heritage of the past or start over?
Slide 6: When a Job Becomes a Department Business Function Management As Businesses expand, specialization increases. Each specialty has a discrete function to perform and each function is led by a managerial specialist. Each of these managerial specialists believe that her or his organization has the one true perspective. Only she or he knows what is really important to the company. If You Had a Business What Technology Would You Need? When a sole proprietorship (a small business) begins operations the owner/operator does it all. Here are some of the jobs the small business owner does him or herself: 1). There may be a technical function.(Like landscaping, or weaving baskets) 2). Design or Manufacturing Application 3). Finance 4). Payroll 5). Human Resources 6). Inventory 7). Materials Management 8). Accounts Payable 9). Accounts Receivable 10). Buildings Operations 11). Security 12). Purchasing 13). Advertising 14). Marketing 15). Customer Service 16). Taxes 17). Regulatory information 18). Budgeting 19). Strategic Planning 20). Succession Planning Back to the Elements of Technology With enough growth, each of these functions becomes a department. Each department represents not just different people but different objectives (or attitudes), skills, tools (or artifacts) and organizations.
Slide 7: Dueling Stovepipes Businesses then outgrow the owner’s ability to do everything herself. In the past, business performed these functions manually. As functions introduce computer support, the department begins to build computer systems or applications and procedures or practices (another type of architecture). The applications serve as “stovepipes.” They “serve” their home department but do not share data. Departmental stovepipes may have different, competing or conflicting facts when compared to stovepipes built by other departments within the same company. For many large businesses, “headcount” or “people” is the greatest expense. Theoretically, a department would know how many people worked there. Even this simple example proves not to be that simple. Timing, editing and departmental practices can create differences in the numbers reported. Is a person an employee 1). If she is on a leave of absence? 2). If a person resigns while on a leave of absence when did that person stop being an employee? 3). What makes a person a contractor versus an employee? 4). For global companies, how does the international dateline affect reporting head-counting? Mind the Gap Small companies suffer from a “skill gap”(the owner doesn’t know accounting practices); Large companies suffer from a “communications gap.”(the accountant must talk with Purchasing, Human Resources, Security, etc.)
Slide 8: What Types of Architectures Are Needed? An architecture is simply a means of connecting or communicating among units or communities. If the hunter-gatherers who lived in the Middle East 12,000 years ago could communicate with other clans, they could have known where the water was, where the herds had migrated, etc. When these connections emerged, commerce resulted. That was an information architecture much simpler than those that companies maintain today to support telecom, databases, business applications, informational websites, hardcopy printing, etc. Integrated or Enterprise Architectures A Stovepipe is the opposite of an architecture. The larger a business is, the more dependent it becomes on architectures. In the 1990s, integrated architectures emerged. These perform two kinds of functions... 1). mechanize small businesses 2). streamline large businesses (standardize) These architectures called enterprise architecture bring together business functions under a single umbrella. When an order is received, delivery may be scheduled. Inventory is dedicated to the order and replacement materials may be ordered. A bill may be sent out too. These software suites ensure conformity and purge unnecessary functions. Enterprise Architectures include 1). Oracle Applications 2). PeopleSoft (now part of Oracle) 3). SAP 4). Great Plains 5). MicroSoft WebApps
