Victor,
Ok, I have some idea of what you're after. I'll respond in detail off-
list.
Warm Regards
David
--
blog: www.communication.org.au/dsblog
web: http://www.communication.org.au
Professor David Sless BA MSc FRSA
Director • Communication Research Institute of Australia
• helping people communicate with people •
Mobile: +61 (0)412 356 795
Phone: +61 (0)3 9489 8640
60 Park Street • Fitzroy North • Melbourne • Australia • 3068
On 02/03/2006, at 6:27 PM, Victor Margolin wrote:
> Dear David and Ken:
> Yes, all the things you mention are relevant. My interest is in
> building up a time line beginning with barter, moving into cash,
> and then into credit and chips as far as the economy goes.
> Regarding surveillance, yes, the development of photography for
> surveillance purposes is appropriate. I am making a tentative
> distinction between identity capture (photography, fingerprinting)
> and action capture (credit card activities, surveillance cameras
> etc. I would also include under photography small spy cameras and
> all the paraphernelia related to secret documentation. Some of this
> is covert but there is some in which citizens participate willingly
> as subjects who offer up data to others. I'm not sure where all
> this is going but I am thinking down the road of an interesting
> exhibition with an enormous diagram that delineates the ways in
> which we produce data and then what happens to it, combined with an
> exhibition of devices, historic and contemporary, for surveillance,
> data capture etc. There is an entire design industry, little or
> none of which enters design history, having to do with data and
> surveillance. I think it would be highly useful to bring more of
> this to public attention.
> Ken, yes, I know the Control Revolution. Besides the devices for
> capturing data, I think it is important to look at the history of
> statistics and other techniques for making information out of data.
> Techniques for identifying and analyzing patterns and flows are
> included as well. At the moment I am in the "data" collecting phase
> and am not sure what I will do with it all but I can begin to see
> the outlines of a pattern beginning to emerge. Is that clearer? If
> not, I will try again. Besides my own interest, I would like to
> propose data production and distribution as well as surveillance
> from cameras to RFIDS as legitimate topics for design researchers.
> To be honest, I'd like to up the political ante a bit on the list
> and unleash our collective investigatory powers on these topics.
> There is too much that we don't know and much to learn. I have
> thanked others off line for their suggestions.
> Victor
>
>> There are 5 messages totalling 534 lines in this issue.
>>
>> Topics of the day:
>>
>> 1. PHD-DESIGN Digest - 27 Feb 2006 to 28 Feb 2006 (#2006-54) (4)
>> 2. Data Capture, Sorting, and Organization
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> -
>>
>> Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 20:41:16 -0800
>> From: Victor Margolin <[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: Re: PHD-DESIGN Digest - 27 Feb 2006 to 28 Feb 2006
>> (#2006-54)
>>
>> Dear colleagues:
>> i would like to introduce a new copy to the list: the design of
>> equipment for surveillance and data capture, sorting, and
>> organization. I am interested in exploring the history of a host of
>> devices that have been invented for producing and organizing data:
>> these include
>> credit card machines,
>> fingerprinting machines
>> facial technology machines
>> credit cards
>> swipe cards
>> toll booth machines that register swipe cards
>> chip implants
>> identity cards
>> airport scanning machines
>> I'd be interested to know of any other machines that anyone can think
>> of and where one might find information about them. Along with the
>> machines, I'd like to begin to chronicle the history of software
>> programs that relate to data capture, data protection etc. This would
>> include the history of cookies, spyware, firewalls, and in general
>> the whole world of electronic data security. Any books or articles on
>> this subject would be helpful. My long term project is a complex
>> diagram of data production and data use, including ways that data is
>> bought and sold and then reused for commercial or surveillance
>> purposes. I'd like to suggest that the design of data devices and
>> data collection, documentation, and storage systems is a useful
>> product for design researchers. Is anyone interested in this topic?
>>
>> Victor Margolin
>> University of Illinois, Chicago
>> --
>> Victor Margolin
>> Professor of Design History
>> Department of Art History
>> University of Illinois at Chicago
>> 935 W. Harrison St.
>> Chicago, IL 60607-7039
>> Tel. 1-312-413-2463
>> Fax 1-312-413-2460
>> www.uic.edu/~victor
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2006 14:42:19 +1100
>> From: David Sless <[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: Re: PHD-DESIGN Digest - 27 Feb 2006 to 28 Feb 2006
>> (#2006-54)
>>
>> Hi Victor
>>
>> Most of the examples you give are at the interface between people
>> and =20=
>>
>> computer devises. How broadly do you want to cast your net? Do you
>> =20
>> want to include pre-computer technologies such as photography or =20
>> printing? What about the back room processing stuff such as cheque
>> =20
>> and credit card slip reading machines, and more recent OCR and
>> voice =20
>> technologies, plus all the data bases that drive these these things.
>>
>> Do you want to include the type of Etag systems that are used on
>> many =20=
>>
>> toll roads these days? What about video surveillance cameras?
>>
>> Give us some boundaries, please!
>>
>> David
>> --=20
>> blog: www.communication.org.au/dsblog
>> web: http://www.communication.org.au
>>
>> Professor David Sless BA MSc FRSA
>> Director =95 Communication Research Institute of Australia
>> =95 helping people communicate with people =95
>>
>> Mobile: +61 (0)412 356 795
>> Phone: +61 (0)3 9489 8640
>>
>> 60 Park Street =95 Fitzroy North =95 Melbourne =95 Australia =95 3068
>>
>>
>> On 01/03/2006, at 3:41 PM, Victor Margolin wrote:
>>
>>> Dear colleagues:
>>> i would like to introduce a new copy to the list: the design of =20
>>> equipment for surveillance and data capture, sorting, and =20
>> > organization. I am interested in exploring the history of a
>> host of =20=
>>
>>> devices that have been invented for producing and organizing
>>> data: =20
>>> these include
>>> credit card machines,
>>> fingerprinting machines
>>> facial technology machines
>>> credit cards
>>> swipe cards
>>> toll booth machines that register swipe cards
>>> chip implants
>>> identity cards
>>> airport scanning machines
>>> I'd be interested to know of any other machines that anyone can =20
>>> think of and where one might find information about them. Along =20
>>> with the machines, I'd like to begin to chronicle the history of
>>> =20
>>> software programs that relate to data capture, data protection
>>> etc. =20=
>>
>>> This would include the history of cookies, spyware, firewalls,
>>> and =20
>>> in general the whole world of electronic data security. Any
>>> books =20
>>> or articles on this subject would be helpful. My long term
>>> project =20
>>> is a complex diagram of data production and data use, including =20
>>> ways that data is bought and sold and then reused for commercial
>>> or =20=
>>
>>> surveillance purposes. I'd like to suggest that the design of
>>> data =20
>>> devices and data collection, documentation, and storage systems
>>> is =20
>>> a useful product for design researchers. Is anyone interested in
>>> =20
>>> this topic?
>>>
>>> Victor Margolin
>>> University of Illinois, Chicago
>>> --=20
>>> Victor Margolin
>>> Professor of Design History
>>> Department of Art History
>>> University of Illinois at Chicago
>>> 935 W. Harrison St.
>>> Chicago, IL 60607-7039
>>> Tel. 1-312-413-2463
>>> Fax 1-312-413-2460
>>> www.uic.edu/~victor
>>>
>>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2006 10:31:00 +0530
>> From: Ranjan M P <[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: Re: PHD-DESIGN Digest - 27 Feb 2006 to 28 Feb 2006
>> (#2006-54)
>>
>> Dear Victor
>>
>> You could include these technologies to your list.
>>
>> Bar Code systems
>> RFID Tag systems
>> Smart Cards with embedded chip
>> and all the above with their related data base.
>> Although these are largely associated with monitoring goods and
>> services
>> they are used for surveillance and monitoring of the people who are
>> involved in these transactions.
>>
>> You have not included the obvious, surveillance cameras, web cams and
>> digital imaging and archieving systems in your list below. Machine
>> readable Passports and Visa endorsements too may be included as
>> well in
>> a broader study. One fruitful area of study may be to include a deep
>> look at National and International Laws dealing with identity and its
>> use for monitoring populations for travel, taxation etc. These
>> laws and
>> policies have gone through their own process evolution as a result of
>> globalisation and increased awareness and use of terror by dissenting
>> groups. I believe that the laws and policies have a far greater
>> influence on the hardware, software and administrative systems of
>> most
>> product systems than they are generally credited by the design
>> community
>> (I know such generalisations are dangerous) But I have not seen many
>> papers that include Supreme Court Judges and Law Makers as
>> "Designers"
>> and if you know of any I would be pleased to get some references
>> since I
>> am currently looking at macro level influences on design thinking and
>> action in a variety of design disciplines particularly since there
>> is a
>> glaring gap in policy in India when it comes to use of design for
>> development.
>>
>> My institute is involved currently in a massive exercise of designing
>> the proposed National Identity Card for Indians but much of this
>> work is
>> confidential except what has already appeared in the national
>> print and
>> TV media. In India we have had a history of attempts (successful and
>> botched) to bring about a National Identity system, several
>> associated
>> with the work of the Election Commission of India (voter identity
>> cards), The Income Tax Department (taxpayer identification number
>> - PIN)
>> but we do not have a Social Security System, which is perhaps the
>> intention of the proposed National Identity Card activity. India has
>> moved to a dematerialised stock and bonds trading system in all its
>> investments and trading systems and this is a massive surveillance
>> system with a regulatory framework which is already in place. We (my
>> institute and faculty colleagues) were involved in 1989 to design the
>> Indian Electronic Voting Machine which was used after much political
>> debate in 10% of the seats in 1999 and ijn the last election in
>> 2004 it
>> was used in 100& of the seats at the national and local polls. The
>> key
>> design input and contribution that we made (i believe) was the
>> semiotic
>> analysis that was conducted in 1988 by a graphic design faculty
>> colleague, Neeta Verma, who took cardboard models into the field to
>> assess the positions of the symbols and buttons and our product
>> design
>> team (J A Panchal & V M Parmar) worked on the industrial design, form
>> and structure of the voter unit and the control unit while the
>> electronics was developed by the producing companies ECIL and BEL for
>> the Election Commission of India. A parallel team from the IDC in
>> Mumbai
>> was involved by the BEL in this project. I was personally
>> associated as
>> an administrator since I headed the NID consulting division
>> between 1981
>> and 1991 and therefore had a ringside view of this project and many
>> others like it in those days. Unfortunately not many of these are
>> properly documented so far. An opportunity for some design
>> researcher??
>>
>> With warm regards
>>
>> M P Ranjan
>> from my Mac at home on the NID campus
>> 1 March 2006 at 10.25 am IST
>>
>> ___________________________________________________________________
>>
>> Prof M P Ranjan
>> Faculty of Design
>> Head, NID Centre for Bamboo Initiatives
>> Faculty Member on NID Governing Council (2003 -2005)
>> National Institute of Design
>> Paldi
>> Ahmedabad 380 007 INDIA
>>
>> Tel: 91+79+26610054 (Res)
>> Tel: 91+79+26623692 ext 1090 (Off) (Changed in January 2006)
>> Tel: 91+79+26623692 ext 4095 (Off) (Changed in January 2006)
>> Fax: 91+79+26605242
>>
>> email: <[log in to unmask]
>> web archive: <http://homepage.mac.com/ranjanmp/>
>> ___________________________________________________________________
>>
>>
>> Victor Margolin wrote:
>>>
>>> Dear colleagues:
>>> i would like to introduce a new copy to the list: the design of
>>> equipment for surveillance and data capture, sorting, and
>>> organization. I am interested in exploring the history of a host of
>>> devices that have been invented for producing and organizing data:
>>> these include
>>> credit card machines,
>>> fingerprinting machines
>>> facial technology machines
>>> credit cards
>>> swipe cards
>>> toll booth machines that register swipe cards
>>> chip implants
>>> identity cards
>>> airport scanning machines
>>> I'd be interested to know of any other machines that anyone can
>>> think
>>> of and where one might find information about them. Along with the
>>> machines, I'd like to begin to chronicle the history of software
>> > programs that relate to data capture, data protection etc. This
>> would
>>> include the history of cookies, spyware, firewalls, and in general
>>> the whole world of electronic data security. Any books or
>>> articles on
>>> this subject would be helpful. My long term project is a complex
>>> diagram of data production and data use, including ways that
>>> data is
>>> bought and sold and then reused for commercial or surveillance
>>> purposes. I'd like to suggest that the design of data devices and
>>> data collection, documentation, and storage systems is a useful
>>> product for design researchers. Is anyone interested in this topic?
>>>
>>> Victor Margolin
>>> University of Illinois, Chicago
>>> --
>>> Victor Margolin
>>> Professor of Design History
>>> Department of Art History
>>> University of Illinois at Chicago
>>> 935 W. Harrison St.
>>> Chicago, IL 60607-7039
>>> Tel. 1-312-413-2463
>>> Fax 1-312-413-2460
>>> www.uic.edu/~victor
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2006 11:20:01 +0000
>> From: Janet McDonnell <[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: Re: PHD-DESIGN Digest - 27 Feb 2006 to 28 Feb 2006
>> (#2006-54)
>>
>> Dear Victor,
>>
>> The UK Government (Office of Science and Technology) runs large scale
>> 'foresight' projects in a number of areas each year. Last year
>> there was a
>> major study on Cyber Trust and Crime Prevention which touched on
>> many of
>> the areas (surveillance, etc) that you might be interested in.
>>
>> Reports etc are available at
>> www.foresight.gov.uk/previous_projects/
>> cyber_trust_and_crime_prevention/index.html
>>
>> Best wishes,
>>
>> Janet McDonnell
>>
>>
>> |---------+---------------------------->
>> | | Victor Margolin |
>> | | <[log in to unmask]> |
>> | | Sent by: |
>> | | PhD-Design - This|
>> | | list is for |
>> | | discussion of PhD|
>> | | studies and |
>> | | related research |
>> | | in Design |
>> | | <PHD-DESIGN@JISCM|
>> | | AIL.AC.UK> |
>> | | |
>> | | |
>> | | 01/03/2006 04:41 |
>> | | Please respond to|
>> | | Victor Margolin |
>> | | |
>> |---------+---------------------------->
>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> ---------------------------------------------------|
>> | |
>> | To: [log in to unmask] |
>> | cc: |
>> | Subject: Re: PHD-DESIGN Digest - 27 Feb 2006 to 28 Feb
>> 2006 (#2006-54) |
>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> ---------------------------------------------------|
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Dear colleagues:
>> i would like to introduce a new copy to the list: the design of
>> equipment for surveillance and data capture, sorting, and
>> organization. I am interested in exploring the history of a host of
>> devices that have been invented for producing and organizing data:
>> these include
>> credit card machines,
>> fingerprinting machines
>> facial technology machines
>> credit cards
>> swipe cards
>> toll booth machines that register swipe cards
>> chip implants
>> identity cards
>> airport scanning machines
>> I'd be interested to know of any other machines that anyone can think
>> of and where one might find information about them. Along with the
>> machines, I'd like to begin to chronicle the history of software
>> programs that relate to data capture, data protection etc. This would
>> include the history of cookies, spyware, firewalls, and in general
>> the whole world of electronic data security. Any books or articles on
>> this subject would be helpful. My long term project is a complex
>> diagram of data production and data use, including ways that data is
>> bought and sold and then reused for commercial or surveillance
>> purposes. I'd like to suggest that the design of data devices and
>> data collection, documentation, and storage systems is a useful
>> product for design researchers. Is anyone interested in this topic?
>>
>> Victor Margolin
>> University of Illinois, Chicago
>> --
>> Victor Margolin
>> Professor of Design History
>> Department of Art History
>> University of Illinois at Chicago
>> 935 W. Harrison St.
>> Chicago, IL 60607-7039
>> Tel. 1-312-413-2463
>> Fax 1-312-413-2460
>> www.uic.edu/~victor
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2006 23:13:12 +0100
>> From: Ken Friedman <[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: Data Capture, Sorting, and Organization
>>
>> Dear Victor,
>>
>> Your post this morning addresses two issues. One involves a broad
>> field of inquiry - "data capture, sorting, and organization." the
>> other involves a specific use of data, surveillance.
>>
>> Over the years, I have given serious thought to issues in data
>> capture, sorting, and organization. This is a core question in
>> several fields, including social informatics and information
>> economics. (While surveillance technology concerns me as a citizen, I
>> have not given it much thought as research problem.)
>>
>> Several excellent books give a large-scale overview of how human
>> beings developed and design different kinds of information systems to
>> capture, sort, and organize data.
>>
>> The best broad historical survey with a focus on what we now call
>> information systems is probably James Beniger's (1986) The Control
>> Revolution. Beniger explores the relations between technology and
>> economics, showing how specific forms of technology brought about and
>> evolved from specific social and economic problems, situations, and
>> contexts.
>>
>> Michael Hobart and Zachary Schiffman (1998) wrote a book with far
>> broader scope, spanning human time from Homer's Troy and Mesopotamian
>> accounting to the modern age of digital computing.
>>
>> One great feature of this book is a useful bibliographic essay that
>> traces topics and themes book by book for the reader who wishes to go
>> deeper.
>>
>> Two of the best writers on these issues were economists, Harold Innis
>> and Fritz Machlup. Innis (1951, 1980, 1995) examined many aspects of
>> the relations between information, geography, technology, and social
>> economics. He also helped to inspire Marshall McLuhan's work on
>> communication and culture.
>>
>> Machlup (1982a, 1982b, 1984) was a pioneer of information economics.
>> He was writing a comprehensive, several-volume study of information
>> economics when he died in 1983.
>>
>> There are some extraordinarily good books that investigate specific
>> aspects of these topics. One of my favorites is a book by Patrice
>> Flichy (1995) that shows how the way we organize information and the
>> ways we organize social life and work life are always related in
>> intimate and often surprising ways. He starts with the first proposal
>> for a telegraph in the 1600s through the semaphore telegraph up to
>> the telephone and television of our own era.
>>
>> This topic is filled with interesting angles. A study on early
>> Mesopotamian accounting by Hans Nissen, Peter Damerow, and Robert
>> Englund (1993) is a typical example of this. It shows how accounting
>> practices and organization of data helped to structure societies and
>> their economies.
>>
>> This has always been evident to reflective political leaders. I
>> recall some fascinating discussions in Winston Churchill's history of
>> England in which Churchill discussed the role of the exchequer and
>> accounting practices in the organization and formation of the early
>> modern English nation as a political unit.
>>
>> Then there was the Domesday Book. Of course, that brings us back to
>> surveillance.
>>
>> A tour through Beniger's Control Revolution and Hobart and
>> Schiffman's Information Ages will be especially rewarding for anyone
>> who wishes to get a broad overview of these issues. From there, one
>> can drill down to how these intersect with design and design
>> research.
>>
>> Yours,
>>
>> Ken
>>
>> --
>>
>> References
>>
>> Beniger, James R. 1986. The Control Revolution. Technological and
>> Economic Origins of the Information Society. Cambridge,
>> Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
>>
>> Nissen, Hans J., Peter Damerow, and Robert K. Englund. 1993. Archaic
>> Bookkeeping: Early Writing and Techniques of Economic Administration
>> in the Ancient Near East. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
>>
>> Flichy, Patrice. 1995. Dynamics of Modern Communication. The Shaping
>> and Impact of New Communication Technologies. London: Sage
>> Publications.
>>
>> Hobart, Michael E., and Zachary S. Schiffman. 1998. Information Ages.
>> Literacy, Numeracy, and the Computer Revolution. Baltimore: The Johns
>> Hopkins University Press.
>>
>> Innis, Harold. 1951. The Bias of Communication. Toronto: University
>> of Toronto Press. (Reprinted with an introduction by Paul Heyer and
>> David Crowley. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995.)
>>
>> Innis, Harold. 1980. The Idea File of Harold Adams Innis. William
>> Christian, editor. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
>>
>> Innis, Harold. 1995. Staples, Markets, and Cultural Change. D.
>> Drache, editor. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University
>> Press.
>>
>> Machlup, Fritz. 1982a. Knowledge, Its Creation, Distribution, and
>> Economic Significance. Vol. 1. Knowledge and Knowledge Production.
>> Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
>>
>> Machlup, Fritz. 1982b. Knowledge, Its Creation, Distribution, and
>> Economic Significance. Vol. 2. The Branches of Learning. Princeton,
>> New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
>>
>> Machlup, Fritz. 1984. Knowledge, Its Creation, Distribution, and
>> Economic Significance. Vol. 3. The Economics of Information and Human
>> Capital. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
>>
>> --
>>
>> Victor Margolin wrote:
>>
>> i would like to introduce a new copy to the list: the design of
>> equipment for surveillance and data capture, sorting, and
>> organization. I am interested in exploring the history of a host of
>> devices that have been invented for producing and organizing data:
>> these include credit card machines, fingerprinting machines, facial
>> technology machines, credit cards, swipe cards, toll booth machines
>> that register swipe cards, chip implants, identity cards, airport
>> scanning machines. I'd be interested to know of any other machines
>> that anyone can think of and where one might find information about
>> them. Along with the machines,
>>
>> I'd like to begin to chronicle the history of software programs that
>> relate to data capture, data protection etc. This would include the
>> history of cookies, spyware, firewalls, and in general the whole
>> world of electronic data security. Any books or articles on this
>> subject would be helpful. My long term project is a complex diagram
>> of data production and data use, including ways that data is bought
>> and sold and then reused for commercial or surveillance purposes. I'd
>> like to suggest that the design of data devices and data collection,
>> documentation, and storage systems is a useful product for design
>> researchers. Is anyone interested in this topic?
>>
>> --
>>
>> Ken Friedman
>> Professor of Leadership and Strategic Design
>> Institute for Communication, Culture, and Language
>> Norwegian School of Management
>>
>> Center for Design Research
>> Denmark's Design School
>>
>> +47 46.41.06.76 Tlf NSM
>> +47 33.40.10.95 Tlf Privat
>>
>> email: [log in to unmask]
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> End of PHD-DESIGN Digest - 28 Feb 2006 to 1 Mar 2006 (#2006-55)
>> ***************************************************************
>
>
> --
> Victor Margolin
> Professor of Design History
> Department of Art History
> University of Illinois at Chicago
> 935 W. Harrison St.
> Chicago, IL 60607-7039
> Tel. 1-312-413-2463
> Fax 1-312-413-2460
> www.uic.edu/~victor
>
>
|
