This lecture looks at Determinism and Technological Determinism. This lecture is part of the Media and Cultural Theories module on the MSc and MA in Creative Technology and Creative Games at The University of Salford.
The is a brief presentation on the central tenets of Bikjer and Pinch's theory on significant factors at play in forming, developing, adopting, and establishing sociotechnical objects.
An introduction to what an audience is, how this relates to media studies and why audiences are important. Presentation talks about categorisation, audience fragmentation, the impact of new technology and links to help support your learning.
The is a brief presentation on the central tenets of Bikjer and Pinch's theory on significant factors at play in forming, developing, adopting, and establishing sociotechnical objects.
An introduction to what an audience is, how this relates to media studies and why audiences are important. Presentation talks about categorisation, audience fragmentation, the impact of new technology and links to help support your learning.
Technological determinism, media ecology and medium theory are all interrelated and make sense together. This paper will define those three terms and explain their purposes, as well as their relation to each other. Understanding technological determinism, media ecology, as well as medium theory is particularly crucial today in our modernized society. It allows one to better perceive the evolution of technologies and its impacts on societies and on people.
My presentation at the Media Ecology Association Convention 2010. Objective: to explore and expand the ecological metaphor including concepts like media evolution, media extinction, human-media coevolution, etc.
Do Artifacts Have PoliticsAuthor(s) Langdon WinnerS.docxaryan532920
Do Artifacts Have Politics?
Author(s): Langdon Winner
Source: Daedalus, Vol. 109, No. 1, Modern Technology: Problem or Opportunity? (Winter,
1980), pp. 121-136
Published by: The MIT Press on behalf of American Academy of Arts & Sciences
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LANGDON WINNER
Do Artifacts Have Politics?
In controversies about technology and society, there is no idea more pro
vocative than the notion that technical things have political qualities. At issue is
the claim that the machines, structures, and systems of modern material culture
can be accurately judged not only for their contributions of efficiency and pro
ductivity, not merely for their positive and negative environmental side effects,
but also for the ways in which they can embody specific forms of power and
authority. Since ideas of this kind have a persistent and troubling presence in
discussions about the meaning of technology, they deserve explicit attention.1
Writing in Technology and Culture almost two decades ago, Lewis Mumford
gave classic statement to one version of the theme, arguing that "from late neo
lithic times in the Near East, right down to our own day, two technologies have
recurrently existed side by side: one authoritarian, the other democratic, the
first system-centered, immensely powerful, but inherently unstable, the other
man-centered, relatively weak, but resourceful and durable."2 This thesis
stands at the heart of Mumford's studies of the city, architecture, and the his
tory of technics, and mirrors concerns voiced earlier in the works of Peter
Kropotkin, William Morris, and other nineteenth century critics of industrial
ism. More recently, antinuclear and prosolar energy movements in Europe and
America have adopted a similar notion as a centerpiece in their arguments.
Thus environmentalist Denis Hayes concludes, "The increased deployment of
nuclear power facilities must lead society toward authoritarianism. Indeed, safe
reliance upon nuclear power as the principal source of energy may be possible
only in a totalitarian state." Echoing the views of many proponents of appropri
ate technology and the soft energy path, Hayes contends that "dispersed s ...
Making Peace with the Machine: The Case for Technological Realism - David Bla...Cybera Inc.
David Black, Associate Professor in the School of Communication and Culture at Royal Roads University, presented these slides as part of the Cybera Summit 2010 session "Techno-skeptics: A Critique of the Role of Technology in Western Society". For more information, visit http://www.cybera.ca/techno-skeptics-critique-role-technology-western-society
This is the module introduction for the Transmedia Narratives strand of the module MED306 for Interactive Media Arts students at The University of Ulster
This lecture breaks down the idea of narrative into 4 sections, looking at plot, setting, themes and charaters. It has a focus on Aristotals poetics.
(thanks goes to @vee_uye for her work with narrative)
MED316 - Mobile Phone As Camera And Screen - Viral Videos_
This lecture looks at the new developments in film production, as the mobile phone progresses from communication device to video camera and tv screen. This lecture focuses on the practice of viral videos and youtube as a distribution platform
This module outlines important developments within video and television production and distribution within network cultures and new media arts, specifically how programme content is being adapted and explored on mobile platforms. It will introduce you to the key theoretical debates with reference to influential work in the field, and examine these through the production of video content designed for delivery on new platforms.
This presentation looks at the maybe over used essay by Walter Benjamin, "The Work of Art in The Age of Mechanical Reproduction" and looks at its relevance to digital arts practice.
This Lecture will look at the theories of Johan Huizinga and the Magic Circle and interogate it through the practice of Augmented and Alternative Reality Gaming as a form of New Media Storytelling
This session covers the breaking of the magic circle by Alternative/Augmented Reality and pervasive gaming. This presentation is accompanied by videos of events and examples of games
This lecture looks at gamings wider cultures and games within culture. Video Games permiate our wider culture and do not stand alone. Video Games create a space of/for play but influence and are influenced by a wider culture. This lecture takes 3 case examples and examines the paratexts of Video Games. Games are not an island
JMeter webinar - integration with InfluxDB and GrafanaRTTS
Watch this recorded webinar about real-time monitoring of application performance. See how to integrate Apache JMeter, the open-source leader in performance testing, with InfluxDB, the open-source time-series database, and Grafana, the open-source analytics and visualization application.
In this webinar, we will review the benefits of leveraging InfluxDB and Grafana when executing load tests and demonstrate how these tools are used to visualize performance metrics.
Length: 30 minutes
Session Overview
-------------------------------------------
During this webinar, we will cover the following topics while demonstrating the integrations of JMeter, InfluxDB and Grafana:
- What out-of-the-box solutions are available for real-time monitoring JMeter tests?
- What are the benefits of integrating InfluxDB and Grafana into the load testing stack?
- Which features are provided by Grafana?
- Demonstration of InfluxDB and Grafana using a practice web application
To view the webinar recording, go to:
https://www.rttsweb.com/jmeter-integration-webinar
DevOps and Testing slides at DASA ConnectKari Kakkonen
My and Rik Marselis slides at 30.5.2024 DASA Connect conference. We discuss about what is testing, then what is agile testing and finally what is Testing in DevOps. Finally we had lovely workshop with the participants trying to find out different ways to think about quality and testing in different parts of the DevOps infinity loop.
GraphRAG is All You need? LLM & Knowledge GraphGuy Korland
Guy Korland, CEO and Co-founder of FalkorDB, will review two articles on the integration of language models with knowledge graphs.
1. Unifying Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: A Roadmap.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.08302
2. Microsoft Research's GraphRAG paper and a review paper on various uses of knowledge graphs:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/graphrag-unlocking-llm-discovery-on-narrative-private-data/
"Impact of front-end architecture on development cost", Viktor TurskyiFwdays
I have heard many times that architecture is not important for the front-end. Also, many times I have seen how developers implement features on the front-end just following the standard rules for a framework and think that this is enough to successfully launch the project, and then the project fails. How to prevent this and what approach to choose? I have launched dozens of complex projects and during the talk we will analyze which approaches have worked for me and which have not.
Key Trends Shaping the Future of Infrastructure.pdfCheryl Hung
Keynote at DIGIT West Expo, Glasgow on 29 May 2024.
Cheryl Hung, ochery.com
Sr Director, Infrastructure Ecosystem, Arm.
The key trends across hardware, cloud and open-source; exploring how these areas are likely to mature and develop over the short and long-term, and then considering how organisations can position themselves to adapt and thrive.
Kubernetes & AI - Beauty and the Beast !?! @KCD Istanbul 2024Tobias Schneck
As AI technology is pushing into IT I was wondering myself, as an “infrastructure container kubernetes guy”, how get this fancy AI technology get managed from an infrastructure operational view? Is it possible to apply our lovely cloud native principals as well? What benefit’s both technologies could bring to each other?
Let me take this questions and provide you a short journey through existing deployment models and use cases for AI software. On practical examples, we discuss what cloud/on-premise strategy we may need for applying it to our own infrastructure to get it to work from an enterprise perspective. I want to give an overview about infrastructure requirements and technologies, what could be beneficial or limiting your AI use cases in an enterprise environment. An interactive Demo will give you some insides, what approaches I got already working for real.
Search and Society: Reimagining Information Access for Radical FuturesBhaskar Mitra
The field of Information retrieval (IR) is currently undergoing a transformative shift, at least partly due to the emerging applications of generative AI to information access. In this talk, we will deliberate on the sociotechnical implications of generative AI for information access. We will argue that there is both a critical necessity and an exciting opportunity for the IR community to re-center our research agendas on societal needs while dismantling the artificial separation between the work on fairness, accountability, transparency, and ethics in IR and the rest of IR research. Instead of adopting a reactionary strategy of trying to mitigate potential social harms from emerging technologies, the community should aim to proactively set the research agenda for the kinds of systems we should build inspired by diverse explicitly stated sociotechnical imaginaries. The sociotechnical imaginaries that underpin the design and development of information access technologies needs to be explicitly articulated, and we need to develop theories of change in context of these diverse perspectives. Our guiding future imaginaries must be informed by other academic fields, such as democratic theory and critical theory, and should be co-developed with social science scholars, legal scholars, civil rights and social justice activists, and artists, among others.
Slack (or Teams) Automation for Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Soluti...Jeffrey Haguewood
Sidekick Solutions uses Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Solutions Apricot) and automation solutions to integrate data for business workflows.
We believe integration and automation are essential to user experience and the promise of efficient work through technology. Automation is the critical ingredient to realizing that full vision. We develop integration products and services for Bonterra Case Management software to support the deployment of automations for a variety of use cases.
This video focuses on the notifications, alerts, and approval requests using Slack for Bonterra Impact Management. The solutions covered in this webinar can also be deployed for Microsoft Teams.
Interested in deploying notification automations for Bonterra Impact Management? Contact us at sales@sidekicksolutionsllc.com to discuss next steps.
Dev Dives: Train smarter, not harder – active learning and UiPath LLMs for do...UiPathCommunity
💥 Speed, accuracy, and scaling – discover the superpowers of GenAI in action with UiPath Document Understanding and Communications Mining™:
See how to accelerate model training and optimize model performance with active learning
Learn about the latest enhancements to out-of-the-box document processing – with little to no training required
Get an exclusive demo of the new family of UiPath LLMs – GenAI models specialized for processing different types of documents and messages
This is a hands-on session specifically designed for automation developers and AI enthusiasts seeking to enhance their knowledge in leveraging the latest intelligent document processing capabilities offered by UiPath.
Speakers:
👨🏫 Andras Palfi, Senior Product Manager, UiPath
👩🏫 Lenka Dulovicova, Product Program Manager, UiPath
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 4DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 4. In this session, we will cover Test Manager overview along with SAP heatmap.
The UiPath Test Manager overview with SAP heatmap webinar offers a concise yet comprehensive exploration of the role of a Test Manager within SAP environments, coupled with the utilization of heatmaps for effective testing strategies.
Participants will gain insights into the responsibilities, challenges, and best practices associated with test management in SAP projects. Additionally, the webinar delves into the significance of heatmaps as a visual aid for identifying testing priorities, areas of risk, and resource allocation within SAP landscapes. Through this session, attendees can expect to enhance their understanding of test management principles while learning practical approaches to optimize testing processes in SAP environments using heatmap visualization techniques
What will you get from this session?
1. Insights into SAP testing best practices
2. Heatmap utilization for testing
3. Optimization of testing processes
4. Demo
Topics covered:
Execution from the test manager
Orchestrator execution result
Defect reporting
SAP heatmap example with demo
Speaker:
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
Essentials of Automations: Optimizing FME Workflows with ParametersSafe Software
Are you looking to streamline your workflows and boost your projects’ efficiency? Do you find yourself searching for ways to add flexibility and control over your FME workflows? If so, you’re in the right place.
Join us for an insightful dive into the world of FME parameters, a critical element in optimizing workflow efficiency. This webinar marks the beginning of our three-part “Essentials of Automation” series. This first webinar is designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills to utilize parameters effectively: enhancing the flexibility, maintainability, and user control of your FME projects.
Here’s what you’ll gain:
- Essentials of FME Parameters: Understand the pivotal role of parameters, including Reader/Writer, Transformer, User, and FME Flow categories. Discover how they are the key to unlocking automation and optimization within your workflows.
- Practical Applications in FME Form: Delve into key user parameter types including choice, connections, and file URLs. Allow users to control how a workflow runs, making your workflows more reusable. Learn to import values and deliver the best user experience for your workflows while enhancing accuracy.
- Optimization Strategies in FME Flow: Explore the creation and strategic deployment of parameters in FME Flow, including the use of deployment and geometry parameters, to maximize workflow efficiency.
- Pro Tips for Success: Gain insights on parameterizing connections and leveraging new features like Conditional Visibility for clarity and simplicity.
We’ll wrap up with a glimpse into future webinars, followed by a Q&A session to address your specific questions surrounding this topic.
Don’t miss this opportunity to elevate your FME expertise and drive your projects to new heights of efficiency.
LF Energy Webinar: Electrical Grid Modelling and Simulation Through PowSyBl -...DanBrown980551
Do you want to learn how to model and simulate an electrical network from scratch in under an hour?
Then welcome to this PowSyBl workshop, hosted by Rte, the French Transmission System Operator (TSO)!
During the webinar, you will discover the PowSyBl ecosystem as well as handle and study an electrical network through an interactive Python notebook.
PowSyBl is an open source project hosted by LF Energy, which offers a comprehensive set of features for electrical grid modelling and simulation. Among other advanced features, PowSyBl provides:
- A fully editable and extendable library for grid component modelling;
- Visualization tools to display your network;
- Grid simulation tools, such as power flows, security analyses (with or without remedial actions) and sensitivity analyses;
The framework is mostly written in Java, with a Python binding so that Python developers can access PowSyBl functionalities as well.
What you will learn during the webinar:
- For beginners: discover PowSyBl's functionalities through a quick general presentation and the notebook, without needing any expert coding skills;
- For advanced developers: master the skills to efficiently apply PowSyBl functionalities to your real-world scenarios.
2. Technology and Culture Complex relationship between culture and technology Pervasive influence of technology makes the issues pertinent to many disciplines “Any theoretical engagement with this thing called technoculture needs to be as dynamic as its object. Theory needs to be supple, not monolithic.” Murphie, A. & Potts, J., (2003) Culture and Technology, Palgrave Macmillan
3. How would we define… Are we talking about technology with a big T or a small t?
4. Technoculture Can we talk about culture without talking about Technology (with a big T)? Kulturetechnik refers to technologies that you must be able to use to take part in a culture. (It has no equivalent word in English).
5. Technology Shows how meanings change over time Current meanings of the word emerged in the second half of 19c (Marx never used the word) Use developed along with other terms like ‘industrial revolution’ to describe the radical re-structuring of western societies as a result of the industrial processes
6. Technology has now become so ubiquitous that it is said we now live in technology “Technology has been generalised to the point of abstraction: it suggests an overarching system that we inhabit” Murphie, A. & Potts, J., (2003) Culture and Technology, Palgrave Macmillan
7. Technology Is it about artificiality? Technology is not natural but made by human beings? “Technology can be viewed as that constellation of knowledge, processes, skills and products whose aim is to control and transform” Simpson, L.C., 1995. Technology, time, and the conversations of modernity, Routledge.
8. Culture “one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language” Williams, R (1974) Television: Technology and Cultural Form, London: Collins
9. Culture “one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language” Williams, R (1974) Television: Technology and Cultural Form, London: Collins How would you define the word ‘culture’?
10. Culture Culture is dynamic not static Like technology it is conditioned by political and economic forces Notions of dominant and oppositional cultures – contradictions
12. Determinism It is said that there are two forms of Determinism “Hard Determinism” and “Soft Determinism” Theory is often said to be Deterministic or Non-Deterministic
13. Technological Determinism Termed coined by ThorsteinVeblen in 1920s Belief that technology is the agent of social change Technology moulds society and changes our behaviours and interactions ThorsteinVeblen (1857 – 1929)
14. Technological Determinism Still massively popular in contemporary post-industrial society Technological determinism suggests that society is shaped by its dominant technologies Considers technology as an independent factor
15. Technological Determinism Marx often seen as a technological determinist because of statements such as “The windmill gives you society with the feudal lord: the steam mill with the industrial capitalist” Marx, K., (2005). The Poverty of Philosophy, Adamant Media Corporation.
16. Technological Determinism Technological determinism usually refers to the present projected onto the future ‘we have no choice but to adopt this technology’ Also a theoretical approach towards the study of cultural effects of technological developments – focus is on the way a new technology creates a new potential and possibility for human activities and thought
17. Technological Determinism So in short the term is contentious One of the most well known theorists promoting a determinism view was Marshall McLuhan whose premise was that all technologies are extensions of human capacities
18. Technological Determinism "The medium, or process, of our time - electric technology is reshaping and restructuring patterns of social interdependence and every aspect of our personal life. It is forcing us to reconsider and re-evaluate practically every thought, every action, and every institution formerly taken for granted.” McLuhan, M. & Fiore, Q., (1967). The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects, Bantam Books. He has received renewed attention in the 1990s with the emergence of mass digital technologies Media are technologies that extend human sense perceptions
19. Technological Determinism His famous proposition “the medium is the message” argues that the cultural significance of media lies not in their content but in the way they alter our perception of the world The impact then of any technology is ‘the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs’
20. Technological Determinism The way they alter ‘patterns of perception steadily and without any resistance’ So McLuhan very much seen as a technological determinist defining history by technological change
21. Critiques Technological determinism as an explanation is monistic or mono-causal. Reduces the arguments to cause and effect It is however very suggestive and very appealing Lewis Mumfordargued that equating technology with tools and machines is itself reductionist
22. Critiques Baudrillard for instance argues that contemporary culture is increasingly determined by an array of technologically produced ‘simulacra’ which has come to hi-jack reality itself McLuhanhowever was optimistic while Baudrillard is pessimistic (TV is the ‘pornography of everyday life’ beamed back at us)
23. Cultural Text Stephen Hill in The Tragedy of Technology discusses the interplay of forces as the ‘cultural text’ “Technological change….is not, by itself, productive of social change. Instead, the direction of change is a product of the particular alignment between the technological possibilities and the society and culture that exists” Hill, S., 1990. The Tragedy of Technology, Pluto Pr.
24. Can technology be neutral? Some critics both arguing for and against technological determinism have suggested that technology is neutral – awaiting deployment
25. Can technology be neutral? McLuhan denounces this position because for him the most important point is the way technologies structure us …other theorists contend that new media alters the ‘communicative relationship’ allowing for a diversity of relationships …or that a new technology creates a precondition for cultural change
26. Can technology be neutral? The Frankfurt School developed an influential critique of mass culture as an industrialised apparatus all part of a heavily administered social system Many critics (Marcuse, Adorno, Ellul, Mumford) argued against technology as neutral - rather that technology had become a powerful regulating system in itself
27. Can technology be neutral? Langdon Winner asked if in fact certain technologies are ‘inherently political’ Do some technologies demand political and cultural responses in themselves? Do technologies have ideology built into them?
28. Case Studies If Technology is Deterministic what effect could we say specific technologies have… @