Questions on Schon, Sanyal and Mitchell ch 4-5

1) pp. 107-108 How have previous technologies transformed cities?

2) Pp. 108-9 Explain the historical development of IT in terms of space-time characteristics of different communication media.

3) Pp. 110-113 Why shouldn’t we expect the wholesale substitution of electronically mediated for face-to-face communication?

4) Pp. 113-115 What are the space demands associated with the 4 categories for space-time characteristics of different communication media? How does banking illustrate some social consequences that can occur as a result of new media?

5) 115-117 Explain how news and entertainment services differ depending on the 4 categories for space-time characteristics of different communication media.

6) 117-119 Explain how education and healthcare services differ depending on the 4 categories for space-time characteristics of different communication media.

7) 120-123 Explain how office and factory architecture can change when there are changes in the 4 categories for space-time characteristics of different communication media.

8) 124 (top) Why would Mitchell’s proposal for economic development in low-income communities be unsatisfying for anti-racist activists seeking to overcome ethnic stereotypes?

9) 124-5 What is the danger of urban planning based on telecommuting?

10) 126-9 How can we maintain community interaction and cohesion in the face of the fragmenting potential for electronic media?

11)133-4 What kinds of predictions did Edison make for electricity, and how does that compare to historical reality?

12)135-6 Who is Negroponte, and what kinds of predictions has he made regarding digital media?

13)137-9 What is the origin of American utopian myths of technology?

14)140-1 How does the example of women in Lowell MA textile mills illustrate the problematic nature of the rhetoric of progress?

15)141-143 How does Webster’s speech illustrate the change in concepts of progress? How is this change reflected in Webster’s own career?

16)144-145 How does Negroponte’s proposal for the homeless illustrate the move from Webster’s implicit concept of technology to a new explicit version?