- 2 It is hard to draw the line between "soft" and "hard" skills in engineering projects
- 3 There is no single person knowing how a telephone works, not even the people who build the infrastructure.
- 4…But people know how to deal with "their" touchpoints to it competently → see: Pragmatism
- 6 The physics-based description is seen as ideal for technological literacy. → see: Culture
- 9 For the physics-view some things are relevant ("underlying" ones like length, thickness, angle), others are not ("impure" or "irrelevant" ones, like history, material, grain).
- 14 two ideas of artifact creation:
- a) Savant: Artifact is the realization of underlying principles
- b) utilitarian: the artifact is defined by the market and by what is "good" for actors.
- 17 Design Processes seen as autonomous and leading to the "right" result. → See: Seitz, Design Thinking
- 30 META (describing the site)
- 33 META Issues of recording → see: Law, Mess and Methods
- 37 META: using notes and video
- 49 Seeing-as: Chemical compunds as compunds-of-elements, which are inside of the compund and can be separated again. → See: Schön, Generative Metaphor?
- 49 Technology is not self-standing; it is intertwined with all sorts of other things (and processes, and…)
- 51 Engineering Work: Struggles, hopes and make things do things → See: Callon, Scallops → See: The Soul of a New Machine, Kidder
OBJECT WORLDS
- 57 Modeling+Data
- 62 Object world example: How to think about the thing?
- Objects
- their mathematical model
- Tools and methods
- Basic principle: "conservation of energy"
- Basic metaphor: "Flow"
- The world is seen through these concepts and representations
- 71 Different disciplines see different aspects or interpretations → See: S.L. Star, Boundary Objects
- 72 A "true" interpretation now might not be "true" later
- 74 How to establish cause-effect if there are too many variables to control? → See: SL Star, certainty in science
- 76 Object world in disarray; stories to not hold; variables confunded; what is there to do?!
- 76 Bridging abstract and concrete by "feel" and tacit knowledge
- 77 Tailoring specific knowledge to fit the task
- 81 Object worlds are both abstract-mathematical and personal-local
- 81 People need to explain their object world to others who have other object worlds, sometimes about the same object. → See: S.L Star Boundary Objects.
- 84 Object worlds are deterministic, reductionist and abstract; flows of energy; math; physical attributes; connections to the concrete are made via measurements or their estimates; the world has boundaries in which limits need and can be set
- 86 Object Worlds are explained in hierarchies in which there is always a more basic explanation; from a specific model up to a general physical principle → see: Schön Reflective practice
- 91 drawings are also abstract, assuming euclidian lines or in wireing maps even structures that have an abstract mapping rather than a 1:1 relation.
- Ambiguities are bad.
- But still: there is implicit knowledge needed to read them, e.g. orthogonal projection or what tolerances can be assumed if not specified.
- Ideas of underlying form (also see 86, 84, 76, 62, 6, 9)
- 94 Overlaying plans with annotations
- 95 Plans need some familiarity with the drawn object world
- 97 e.g. the appropriate timeframe of the dynamics needs to be assumed correctly.
- 98 What must be left behind to read a problem "right"?
- 99 reading diagrams correctly: what are the arrows, what are the letters?
- 100 seeing through problems
- 103 Real life experiences can distract form the "correct" solution for an engineering problem
- 107 Seeing the underlying math, reducing the "world" to formulas
PROCESSES
- 110
- a) Process controlled via division
- b) time as both a resource and as progressing independently
- → See: "Metaphors we live by" for the views on time; → See: Authentic cognitive activities for process view
- 111 processes have different stages
- 111 Processes are object-worlds themselves
- 111 Processes have pedagogical value
- 111 Processes are orderly, testable and market-able → see: Design Thinking
- 111 Processes have a clear beginning and end
- 111 Implied passage of time inprocesses
- 112 Iterations are cost-in-time
- 112 Who does the work, with whom, with which knowledge is not clear [thus it is seemingly independent from people, their collaboration and their knowledge]
- 112 Processes may indoctrinate the object world but do not show the mess.
- 113 Although the diagram looks constant, the interpretation and use of it is different for different people
- 114 exclusion as well as inclusion in the process → See: Sorting things out → See: Frame Discussions?
- 114 Process is free from calendar time
- 115 Seemingly programmed; no ambiguity
- 115 Process is independent of people. → See: Taylor
- 116 Challenge of keeping events in sync
- 118 No method can look into the future
- 119 Process as a resource in conversation → what are plans for, Agre
- 122 Process "boxes" seem to be clear but it is not clear, an order can be a form as well as an activity – which is it?
- 123 Things in design will always go "wrong" or unexpected ways since it is inherently about creating new things
- 124 Shielding machines from irrational, unpredictable users → See: Woolgar, Usability Tests
- 130 Infrastructure parts and networks.
- 132 Regulations
- Scientific laws (are just there)
- Self given rules and thresholds (changable and accepted)
- Government Regulations (bad!)
- 136 Rewriting stories
- 137 Weighting cost and risks of different kinds
- 139 Philosophy as bad word: "This is just philosophy – what shall we do?!"
- 140 Likens org charts ot design process flows: boxes and arrows.
- 142 Divisions of machines into components are not "out there", they are made → See: Sorting things out
- 144 Binding mutual expectations by gifts → See: The power of gifts in open source software
- 145 Convincing others → See: Soul of a new machine
- 148 Legitimizing resources
- 157 Even if there is a clear specification, it can always be read differently by different people. The method used in the case assumed multiple criteria but an outcome needs to be evaluated by one criterion.
- 157 If there is no conflict, it might be that the consensus is due to focus on uninteresting, general ideas which are clear anyway.
- 157 Interpretation of method is not out there,; words might mean different things
- 158 Conflicts can set the stage for conflict free meetings later by clarifying concepts
- 162 Problems need to be created; possibly they are also un-created: No problem!
- 167 The same object, a solar panel, is a careful combination of cells, each of its own qualities, for one group. And a module for the others. Same object, different readings.
- 171 Even in obejctive "Object Words" and when drawings and laws are in place, people interpret results differently. But this openness can be used to create boundary concepts
- 174 Wording is designing
- 175 What is an "explosive"? A powder? A thing with wires?
- 177 After the design meanings seem to be clear and constant.
- 177 Designing is uncertain If there is certainty, it is not designing, but copying, processing…
- 188 Diagrams and methods as help in negociations; their results are contracts. → See: Of maps and scripts
- 195 A finished design is "dead" it does not produce surprises anymore.
- 197 What is a "better" design? Better for whom? there are many different criteria.