Society and Information Research Group

For our next meeting, on 27 June at 2.00 in the David Gorham Library, we are pleased to welcome Adam Linson, currently pursuing a PhD in the OU’s Computing department. Adam has supplied the following abstract:

About Adam Linson

Adam Linson (born 1975 in Los Angeles) is currently a PhD candidate doing research in Artificial Intelligence and Improvised Music at the Open University (UK), in the Faculty of Mathematics, Computing and Technology. His research interests extend to other areas of musical human-computer interaction, especially phenomenology and cybernetics. He received an MFA from Bard College in 2012, and a BA in Philosophy from the University of California, San Diego in 1998, where he also studied composed and improvised music under George Lewis (now his PhD co-supervisor), and classical double bass under Bertram Turetzky. As a software engineer and GNU/Linux specialist, he has extensive experience in the private sector, ranging from large-scale distributed architectures to embedded systems. He is active internationally as a double bassist, improvisor and composer, performing acoustically and with live electronics, solo and in a wide variety of ensembles. He also designs, develops, and performs with real-time interactive computer music systems. He has composed music for chamber ensembles and international contemporary dance productions, and can be heard on several critically-acclaimed albums. (website: www.percent-s.com)

SIRG is delighted to announce that the next meeting will be devoted to a presentation by the distinguished academic Professor Judy Wacman of the London School of Economics. The meeting (which is open to all) will be at 2.00 in the Systems Seminar Room (Venables, S0049) at Walton Hall. Professor Wajcman has supplied the following abstract.

Life in the fast lane? Towards a sociology of technology and time

The subject of time has become a major preoccupation in academic and popular writing because people feel short of it. It is now conventional wisdom to think that more and more aspects of our lives are speeding up. While many factors are contributing to this phenomenon, information and communication technologies are seen as the main drivers. Images of technologically tethered, blackberry-addicted workers abound. This talk considers the way social theorists analyse concepts of time and acceleration and then examines how these claims might be assessed in the light of empirical research. Such research shows that time compression has multiple dimensions, and that the effect of digital devices like the mobile phone is not simply one of acceleration. In particular, I suggest that the social studies of technology offers a richer analysis of the reciprocal relationship between technological innovation and changing time practices.

Judy Wacjman’s web page:

http://www2.lse.ac.uk/sociology/whoswho/academic/wajcman.aspx

Two members of SIRG (Chris Bissell and Chris Douce) recently attended a public lecture by Professor David Stupples at City University, London.  Chris Douce has recently written a blog post that summarises some of subjects and themes covered in the lecture.

I’m pleased to announce that Dr Jane Gregory has been appointed as Visiting Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Communication and Systems. Jane will be associated with SIRG.

Jane has a distinguished record in the field of science and technology studies (STS), and was most recently a member of the STS department at University College London.

I’ve had a paper accepted for a panel organised by Tim Boon, Chief Curator of the UK Science Museum, for the 3 Societies Conference in Philadelphia in July (www.hssonline.org/Meeting/3_Society.html).

The paper is ‘Joe Trenaman’s Investigation of BBC Listeners’ Understanding of Science’ and is based on a talk I gave at SIRG a couple of months ago.

Allan

Have a look at http://www.springer.com/engineering/robotics/book/978-3-642-25208-2 for details of the book I recently co-edited with Chris Dillon, erstwhile of this parish

Chris

I’ve been invited to give a keynote at http://www.ndes2012.org/ and also to contribute an introductory article to a special issue of Automatisierungstechnik http://www.oldenbourg-link.com/loi/auto … a typical German Festschrift issue to commemorate 100 years from the birth of Winfried Oppelt – someone I wrote about recently in Kybernetes http://oro.open.ac.uk/21350/.

The March meeting of SIRG will be on Wednesday 28 March at 2.00 p.m. in the David Gorham Library, Venables Building (room N1015). All welcome.

Elizabeth Bruton (Leeds University) will give a presentation based on her research. Elizabeth has provided the following abstract.

In contrast to the standard historical narrative of wireless history, this presentation explores the institutional support for, and shaping of, wireless communications in Britain in the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century.  Using three case studies – the Post Office, the Institution of Electrical Engineers, and the Admiralty – the presentation looks at these institutions’ differing influences on the technologies and regulations of wireless communications during this formative period in its history.  Finally the presentation examines how these innovations laid the foundation for the later successes of wireless communications and broadcast radio.

The next Society and Information Research Group seminar takes place on Wednesday 25 January @ 2 pm in the David Gorham Library. All welcome — details follow.

SIRG Seminar
Wednesday 25 January @ 2 pm
David Gorham Library, Open University (first floor Venables, N1015)

Joe Trenaman’s Investigation of BBC Listeners’ Understanding of Science

Allan Jones

During 1949, Joe Trenaman of the BBC’s Further Education Department conducted an experiment into listeners’ comprehension of science broadcasts (and some non-science broadcasts). Subjects listened to a recorded broadcast and then wrote everything they could recall. Their recollections were marked and correlated with their educational qualifications and level of interest. The major findings were that subjects who understood the talk best were not the ones who found it most interesting. Rather, subjects for whom the talk was only just comprehensible found it most interesting.

This ‘scientific’ test of comprehension had a number of outcomes for the interested parties. Trenaman conducted further experiments and eventually become an academic educationalist. For the BBC, the findings supported existing institutional practices, in particular the three-service network that had been developed just after the War. For scientific advisors to the BBC, however, the findings played into a current debate with the BBC over the form science broadcasts should take. Trenaman’s results were announced just as scientist-advisors were on the defensive, having had their claim that science broadcasts concentrated unduly on ‘social issues’ disproved by evidence from BBC managers. Trenaman’s findings were used by scientists to support their argument that science broadcasts should be managed by an outside scientist, who would ensure that they were comprehensible and scientifically coherent. The outcome was the experimental appointment of a coordinator for scientific broadcasts.

The episode is placed in the context of long-running contention by scientists that the BBC had a duty to privilege science in BBC output ‘in the national interest’, and the BBC’s equally long running resistance to such external scientific pressure.

The next SIRG seminar will take place on Wednesday 30 November at 2 pm. Details follow.

SIRG Seminar

Wednesday 30 November 2011 @ 2 pm
David Gorham Library, Open University (first floor Venables, N1015)

Internet and democracy: the impact of public understanding of science on online citizen engagement

 
Danilo Rothberg
 

New information and communication technologies have made an impact on democracy and citizenship, often raising the availability of information on policies and creating mechanisms for participation in policy making in digital public consultations promoted by governments with increasing frequency and scope. But the formal educational systems, scientific diffusion in non-formal environments and initiatives to promote public understanding of science and technology have not fully assimilated this impact, which poses new requirements for citizenship formation, especially in relation to the skills needed for collective participation in the formulation of public policies. This presentation will discuss the implications of findings from public understanding of science surveys carried out by institutions in Europe, US and Brazil which bring evidence to support the idea that citizens want to participate in decisions on science and technology.

Danilo Rothberg holds a PhD in Sociology from Unesp –Sao Paulo State University (Brazil). He is currently a Lecturer in Science Education at the Unesp and a Visiting Lecturer at the Open University, and was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Open University in 2006-2007.