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Ethnocomputing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ethnocomputing is the study of the interactions between computing and culture. It is carried out through
theoretical analysis, empirical investigation, and design implementation. It includes research on the impact
of computing on society, as well as the reverse: how cultural, historical, personal, and societal origins and
surroundings cause and affect the innovation, development, diffusion, maintenance, and appropriation of
computational artifacts or ideas. From the ethnocomputing perspective, no computational technology is
culturally "neutral," and no cultural practice is a computational void. Instead of considering culture to be a
hindrance for software engineering, culture should be seen as a resource for innovation and design.
Contents
1 Subject matter
2 Origins
3 Further reading
4 External links
Subject matter
Social categories for ethnocomputing include:
= Indigenous computing: In some cases, ethnocomputing "translates" from indigenous culture to high
tech frameworks: for example, analyzing the African board game Owari as a one-dimensional
cellular automaton,
= Social/historical studies of computing: In other cases ethnocomputing secks to identify the social,
cultural, historical, or personal dimensions of high tech computational ideas and artifacts: for
example, the relationship between the Turing Test and Alan Turing’s closeted gay identity.
= Appropriation in computing: lay persons who did not participate in the original design of a computing
system can still affect it by modifying its interpretation, use, or structure. Such "modding" may be as
subtle as the key board character "emoticons" created through lay use of email, or as blatant as the
stylized customization of computer c:
.
= Equity tools: a software "Applications Quest" has been developed for generating a "diversity index”
that allows consideration of multiple identity characteristics in college adm
Technical categories in ethnocomputing include:
= Organized structures and models used to represent information (° data structures)
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= Ways of manipulating the organized information (- algorithms)
= Linguistic realizations of computation (theories of computation)
= Mechanical realizations of computation (computational tools)
= User interfaces
= Internationalization and localization
= Cultural HCL
= Uses of computational tools (uses)
= Ethnotechnology
Origins
Ethnocomputing has its origins in ethnomathematics. There are a large number of studies in
ethnomathematics that could be considered ethnocomputing as well (e.g., Eglash (1999) and Ascher &
Ascher (1981)). The idea of a separate field was introduced in 1992 by Anthony Petrillo in Responsive
Evaluation of Mathematics Education in a Community of Jos, Nigeria, Dissertation (Ph.D.): State
University of New York at Buffalo, which Petrillo elaborated a bit more on in March 1994,
Ethnocomputers in Nigerian Computer Education, paper presented at the 31st Annual Conference of the
Mathematical Association of Nigeria, Just like computer science is nowadays considered to be a field of
research distinct from mathematics, ethnocomputing is considered to be a research topic distinct from
ethnomathematics. Some aspects of ethnocomputing that have their roots in ethnomathematies are listed
below:
= Counting and sorting: The use of a systematic way to compare and order discrete objects
= Locating: Exploring one's spatial environment and conceptualizing and symbolizing that environment
with models, maps, drawings, and other devices
= Measuring: Quantifying qualities like length and weight for the purposes of, for instance, comparing,
classifying, or ordering objects
= Designing: Applying formal or non-formal algorithmic or computational ideas in arts or design
= Playing: Devising and engaging in games and pastimes with more or less formalized rules that all
players must abide by
= Explaining: Finding systematic ways to represent phenomena or the relationships between
phenomena
Further reading
= Eglash, Ron (1999) African Fractals: Modern Computing and Indigenous Design. New Brunswick,
New Jersey, and London: Rutgers University Press,
= Ascher, Marcia & Ascher, Robert (1981) Mathematics of the Incas: Code of the Quipu
Jahknen, Esko; Kommers, Piet (2006) Ethnocomputing: ICT in Social
= Tedre, Matti; Sutinen, Erkl
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and Cultural Context. Communications of the ACM 49(1):pp.126-130
= Petrillo, Anthony (1994, March). Ethnocomputers in Nigerian Computer Education, Paper presented
at the 31st Annual Conference of the Mathematical Association of Nigeria.
External links
= ethnocomputing (http://www. ethnocomputing.org/) pages at www.cthnocomputing.org
= Applications Quest (http://www.applicationsquest.comy/) Juan Gilbert's too! for diversity in college
admissions
= AADMLSS (http://www.aadmlss.comy) The African-American Distributed Multiple Learning Styles
System
= CSDT (http:/Avww xpi.edu/~eglash/esdt.htm!) Culturally Situated Design Tools
= Engineering with Social Metaphors (http://cfpm.org/sic/) A one day theme of the "Socially Inspired
" University of Hertfordshire, April 2005.
Computing Symposium,
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Categories: Mathematics and culture
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