Dissertation (Chapter 3)

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3       Electronic cultural activities

 

     Technacy, in the era of electronic language , is analogous to literacy  in the era of writing  and print . It is a capability a person must have when using the many, and often times, disparate cultural technologies  which are present when using a computer  to perform particular tasks of simulation . This chapter focuses on the new cultural activities that are to be found in offices, classrooms and other locations where computers are used as a way of communicating ¾ making meaning one to another.

     People who have aided in the formation of ideas for this chapter are all highly technate computer  users who either program  computers in readiness for others to use them, or those who are experts in the culture  of computer use, in that they supervise people who work with computers all day and they also use computers as their key tools of meaning making. The contents of this chapter are the distillation of five years of working amongst expert computer users  in business  settings and is a summation of experience about how computers are used, what happens when a computer is the dominant tool of communication , art and business.

The survey

     A paper-based survey was conducted over a three year period in combination with addresses and lectures the writer presented in various workshops, and conferences in five countries. The survey questions were based on a theoretical perspective the writer had developed in previous studies (Jenkins, 1988a, 1988b, 1988c, 1989). Specifically assumptions of the survey included:

1.      there are different ways people use a computer dependent on their conception of what type of a tool it is (Heim, 1987; Jenkins, 1988a; Landow, 1992; Turkle, 1995);

2.      computers have been used as tools of calculation, simulation, textual production, and virtuality (Heim, 1987; Jenkins 1989; Turkle 1995);

3.      people construct text differently when working on a computer than when using a pen and paper (Emig, 1978; Daiute, 1983; Bickel, 1985; Catano, 1985; Jenkins, 1988a;  Bonner, 1992);

4.      graphical user interfaces provide a rich context within which people choose to work in a daubing, editing type manner (Catano, 1985; Jenkins, 1988a);

5.      people work with more than one program at a time to provide a richer context (Jenkins, 1989).

These assumptions formed the basis of questioning to confirm a growing trend the writer had identified as a possible cultural shift in the way people are now working with computers. This cultural shift, away from using a computer as a tool of calculation towards a culture based on simulation, is considered to be sponsored by the introduction of graphical user interfaces in the main.

The respondents

     The bulk of this chapter is based on responses to this survey answered by 4,850 people in the years 1993 to 1996. The table below displays the countries, dates of contact and numbers of people responding to the survey.

 

Country	Dates of Contact	People
USA	1993, 1995, 1996	1,500
UK	1994, 1996	1,250
Switzerland	1995, 1996	500
Canada	1993	100
Australia	1994-1996	1,500
Total		4,850

Table 2: People surveyed, by country and year .

All respondents attended a conference or workshop with a computer focus, and in the main, respondents were specialists in their field, eg., programmers, graphic designers, expert users of mainstream programmes, and writers (in the majority computer journalists and commentators on the industry).

The objectives

The objectives of the survey included:

1.      to identify the conception the respondents have of a computer ¾ identifying whether they considered a computer was a calculation tool, a virtual reality machine, a machine of simulation, all three, or some other conception;

2.      to sample information about how they conceive of their work with a computer ¾ are you simulating, calculating, etc.

3.      to determine how people work when using a computer ¾ do they plan on paper before composing text, do they work directly on the computer, re-writing and re-visiting as they go;

4.      to discover how people work with programmes on computers ¾ how they work with programmes, do they connect programs to work together, do they use programs in isolation, do they learn how to use a program best in a training session, or at the computer through trial and error;

5.      to seek from people an opinion as to what they think they are doing when they use a computer ¾ are they “writing”, “constructing text”, “simulating”, “calculating”, etc.

6.      to identify the experience of the computer user ¾ the length of time the user works on a computer in a day, and the expertise of the user in working on a computer un-aided.

Method of survey

     Prior to the main presentation, the writer introduced the fact that a survey was being conducted. A four page survey sheet was usually handed out as the introduction was being made and the writer spoke through the survey as each respondent answered the questions. Each of the respondents was asked to complete the form and hand it in before the presentation.

     While the questions were in the main multiple choice, there was in every section a question which required two to three handwritten lines of response. Each of the respondents was asked for a day time telephone number so that the writer could follow-up on any responses that answered the questions in a particular way. Over 25% of the respondents were phoned and a discussion about their answers ensued. The phone calls were used as a mechanism to highlight further understand the responses and to add practical detail.

Results of the survey

     The majority of respondents (83%) suggested that a computer, in both the way they conceptualise a computer and they way they use a computer is a tool of simulation. One respondent summed it up his conception in this way:

Whether I am using a word processor, designing a bathroom, preparing a spreadsheet, what I am doing is simulating. A computer is a simulation tool; it provides a fluid environment in which trials can be constructed. (Architect, 39 years, USA).

A minority (8%) suggested that computers can be a calculation tool depending on the programmes that are used. Most of these respondents were structural engineers or research scientists.

     The majority of respondents (79%) use a computer as a thinking tool ¾ a site where one can materially see text as it is being constructed. By far the majority (92%) consider that past texts are the best starting point for new texts, with a considerable number (76%) indicating that it was not just formats copied from previous texts but content as well. A sizeable group (68%) of respondents use texts from other people’s computers and/or work both on their site of work and on other computers off site.

     Only a handful (7%) of the experts (computer users for more than 5 years) surveyed use programs in isolation. By far the majority (92%) use programs in combination with each other. A different set of programmes is knit together for each work task by 33% of respondents, and the same or similar set of programmes combined is used for every task by 61%. Most people see this as setting up the computer to get work done ¾ programmes give “a general set of options and what I must do is to select those features I want from a number of programmes to get a job done” (Programmer, 28 years, Australia).

     From the results of this survey, and from experience the writer has and with computer professionals over the last five years, the balance of this chapter is a presentation concerning the meaning and application of this data relating to how computers are used culturally in places of work. It is proposed here that there is a central culture of simulation that empowers people to work with computers, and the practices of this culture include:

·        a bricolage style of working (see discussion beginning page 99);

·        building knowledge of how programmes can be learnt as one works (see page 105 onwards);

·        a capability of stitching programmes together to form, what is termed in this dissertation, microworlds (see page 113 onwards);

·        and an ability to simulate (see page 134 onwards).

Technate cultures

     While this chapter has as its central theme, the culture  of simulation , it is necessary to identify the range of cultures that can be said to be technate cultures; this includes computer  cultures  of calculation, simulation and virtuality. A broad overview of each of these cultures provides a backdrop to a study of the primary culture of technacy  - simulation. Diagram 8 identifies the relationship between technacy and the over riding cultures of calculation, virtuality and simulation.

Diagram 8: Cultures of Technacy

     Human activities that are typical of simulation are applicable to more than those activities of computer  use. It is a culture  practiced by people working in a variety of offices, small offices and home settings in a number of Western countries, including the United States of America, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, and Canada. This culture may even have spread wider than this due to the nearly universal spread of Apple Macintosh , IBM compatibles and Microsoft  operating systems  and software  built for these platforms.

     The culture  of simulation  is not only about using a computer . Primarily it is about a way of thinking  and working. While the computer and its operating  system platforms are an object  of that culture (much in the way we might carry a “spear” back from a Papuan Culture to display that object in a museum), methods of thinking and working with the computer is the essence of that culture that cannot necessarily be gleaned from simply looking at the object of that culture - the computer. Central to the culture of simulation are those tools of thought, those ways of testing new contexts, and methods of making meaning that we must explore.  

     Technologies that are particularly to do with technacy, and not just specifically of one cultural orientation to technacy, include technologies  of program , screen organisation, and handling change within electronic environments. Each of these cultural technologies  is understood to be a different thing in each of these cultures. They have changed through use, and through the fact that we are dealing with physically different machines in the 1990s than we were dealing with in the 1980s. Computers in the 1990s are graphically oriented machines that rely upon a fast processing speed to perform screen refreshes, displays graphics, providing a window within which multiple processed objects can be viewed and acted upon. This is in contrast to the command-line textually based single processor machines in earlier years.

     Because personal computers have come of age, there are now new ways we think when using them. For individuals this thinking  may involve quite diverse ways of understanding what they see, what they feel, and how things seem to be organised. For the wider community of computer  users, though, there is now a particular orientation we have to the way things work. From the perspective of the culture  of simulation , computers are no longer super-calculators, nor are they super-typewriters, but they are rather simulation machines.

     An overview of the culture  of calculation , which predominated in the late 1970s and 1980s, provides a backdrop against which this newer culture of simulation  can be compared and contrasted. During the period where the culture of calculation predominated, two programmes featured as popularisers of the personal computer  - VisiCalc and WordPerfect . VisiCalc is a spreadsheet program  that allowed a computer user the capability of automating complex data  sheet calculations. The program took control over the personal computer and while that program was operating , the whole computer was a calculation sheet - nothing else would run in that computer space. As a calculation device its power was unprecedented. It could organise a huge quantity of data and remember complex calculations to perform on selected cells of data. The display of data used a monospaced typeface that looked like typing; it could be printed from the computer but little control over the actual layout on a page  was available.

     WordPerfect, the premier word processing  program, allowed people to complete typing jobs on a computer but with greater flexibility than if it was completed on a typewriter . The program took complete control over the computer, turning the computer into a word processor - the machine being compared with a dedicated word processor which was at that time, a typewriter with extra featured that allowed replay of a single page, correction of stored pages  and so on. WordPerfect displayed the text  being worked on as a mono-spaced typewritten text on the screen, even though it was possible to identify a range of fonts  that it could be turned into once printing . Both VisiCalc and WordPerfect turned the computer into either a super-calculator or a super-typewriter; nothing else could be done with the computer while either program was in operation.

     As a simulation  machine, computers in the 1990s are capable of doing more than one thing at a time. A spreadsheet program , or a word processing  program does not take total control over a computer . A number of programmes can be run at one time. The computer is not turned into a machine that runs only a calculator or a typewriter  at the one time. It is now a machine that can run a spreadsheet, a word processor and a number of other programmes at the one time, and can share information  from one program to another. Through the flexibility of this machine, the computer user can create a copy of the actual document  on the screen. The computer does much more than simply calculating or word processing. It allows for the actual object  to be simulated - that is a copy can be created of a finished product . A calculation  can be completed in a spreadsheet, passed to a word processor, incorporated into a document, several files can be bound into a book, the book can be viewed from cover to cover, and a graphic illustration  can be added to the front cover. Whilst calculation and word processing are a part of simulation, the fact that the whole document can be completed within the computer and a number of different programmes can be used to enhance and complete that object is the capability now afforded by the computer. This is the basis of the culture  of simulation .

     At the intersection of technacy and the culture  of simulation , the terms program , user options, etc., all have a meaning that is peculiar to those people who work at that intersection. Where Technacy and the culture of calculation  meet, however, these terms mean something quite specific again. A program, for those participating in the culture of calculation, is a single object  invoked at the beginning of using a computer , within which were all the capabilities required for a particular function - calculating figures, or processing words for a document. For those participants of the culture of simulation, a program rather than being a self-contained object is a range of related tightly related functions that can be used as a primary window for computer activity , or as an object that can be inserted into another program window. User options, in the calculation culture, were simply a range of options within a single program; within the simulation culture, user options are more than just options within a program - they are options of invoking and inserting program functionality of one program into another, options within a program, and options that have little to do with any one specific program, but rather a range of ways of presenting and representing information  in a windowing environment.

     In the culture  of calculation , a single program  focus was primary, with computer  activities being similarly narrow focussed. A spreadsheet was prepared as the primary function of the spreadsheet program; the spreadsheet was not prepared for display and/or insertion into other programmes - it was the calculation that was primary. In the culture of simulation , programmes maintain a narrow focus but allow for a broader range of inter-connectivity; a spreadsheet program allows for a folder of spreadsheets to be composed, inter-related data  to be inserted from a word processing  document , and capability for the spreadsheet to be included in another document ready for print preparation.    

     The culture  of calculation is an older culture and one that is largely being replaced by the newer culture of simulation . Calculation, as a set of computer  activities was centrally involved with the technical issues as to how a computer handled a wide range of computations in order to arrive at results that seemingly had little to do with calculation. In programming  terms, algorithms or pseudo-mathematical calculations were constructed to complete tasks. For example, a repeated mathematical routine of calculating dot shape and placement to draw lines between data  cells in the spreadsheet. Computations were central to devising the size and shape of a page  - the computer user had to enter the measurements from the edge of the page to the margin, the size of the page in inches or centimetres, and so on. The computer then calculated the size of the page and set about calculating where a line should end and a new one begin.  

     The culture  of virtuality is a newer culture than simulation  or calculation. It is to do with the use of computers to create a total environment on a screen and using sound  and full video  to establish a “real -like” world  within which rules of operation  within that world a “virtually-like reality”. In this culture, virtual objects, like the real, are displayed on the computer  screen. An actual page  is displayed, words are placed on that page in the way that words would be placed on a real page. The page has similar characteristics to a real page - it can be screwed up and thrown into a bin, for example. A page can be cut in half by dragging a pair of virtual scissors to the page, and then holding the control key, it can be dragged down the page to cut it in half.

     The culture  of virtuality is significantly different from the culture of simulation  in that simulation does not require the environment to be self-acting, or self-consistent. Virtual world  technologies  are all based on the idea that electronic environments provide “reality”; if I see a door it must act like a door, and I should be able to open it, close it lock it and or whatever else I would like to define a door as doing, and it should look real  from three dimensions. The culture of simulation does not require electronic texts  to be self-acting and self-consistent. It requires only the pertinent details of an environment to be represented on the screen, and usually only that require alteration to run the simulation. Rather than having virtual scissors, in the culture of simulation a person adjusts the size of the page  by dragging the edge of the page to the required size. Words are automatically formatted to suit the required page. Simulation is constructing a version of an object  that uses electronic properties and enough real-world properties for a connection between the two to be made, not necessarily so that it looks anything like the “real world” but so that it can be done and the eventual product  can logically simulate a “real world” way of thinking.

Bricolage as a style of working

     With the rise of a personal culture  in the 1980s, more people owned their own machines and could do what they pleased with them. This meant that more people began to experience the computer  as an expressive medium that they could use in their own ways. The idea that the computer was a new medium of expression did not really make sense until the 1990s when large numbers of people owned personal computers with colour screens, powerful graphic engines and CD-ROMs. Prior to the 1980s and early 1990s, there was an elite who knew how “really” to use computers, as experts and professionals, and often as computer programmers  — now there are thousands of people who know how “they use computers”. These are the people who are at the focus of this study. They are the people practice activities that are of the culture of simulation .

     The elite status of abstract thinking  in the Western thought can be tracked back at least to Plato . Western scientific culture  has traditionally drawn a firm line between the abstract and the concrete. The tools of abstraction are propositions; the tools of concrete thinking are objects, and there has always been a right and wrong side of the abstraction track. The terms “pure” science and “pure” mathematics made clear the superiority of pristine propositions to filtering out the messy objects. There have been champions of the idea of “things-in-thinking”, but there have also been, even amongst these ranks, people who resist the importance of thinking with objects. For example, Lévi-Strauss and the noted Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget both discovered ways of reasoning that began with objects and move to theory, but then they found ways to marginalise them.

     In the 1920s and 1930s, Piaget (1952, 1956, 1930) first noticed concrete modes of reasoning among children. Children thought that when you spread three marbles apart there were more marbles than when they were together. Through such observations, Piaget was able to see what others had not: concrete mapping and manipulation of objects enable children to develop the concept of number, a concept that only gradually becomes a formal sense of quantity. The construction of number, on other words, is born through bricolage .

     Piaget fought for the recognition for this way of thinking , but at the same time he saw that it was something to be outgrown. The adult was “beyond the concrete”. For Piaget, there was a progression of modes of reasoning that culminates in a final, formal stage when propositional logic liberates intelligence  from the need to think with things. So Piaget both discovered the power of the concrete in the construction of the fundamental categories of number, space, time and causality, but denigrated what he had found by relegating concrete ways of knowing to an early childhood stage of development.

      Lévi-Strauss (1968), too, both discovered and denied the concrete. He described bricoleur scientists who do not move abstractly and hierarchically from axiom to theorem to corollary but construct theories by arranging and rearranging a set of well-known materials. But the bricoleur scientists, from Lévi-Strauss’ perspective, all worked in non-Western societies. This perspective, it should be understood, display’s a very limited understanding of thinking  on Lévi-Strauss’ part; concrete tools of thought are commonly used, even when thinking in an abstract manner.  As Piaget had relegated the concrete to childhood, Lévi-Strauss relegated it to the “primitive” and modern Western humanists.

     Western cultures have tended to consider concrete operations with a notion of “soft” or unscientific or undisciplined as well as with feminine and with a lack of power.  The notion of “soft” is used here for a notion of “flexibility”, non-hierarchical style, one that allows a close connection with the object ’s of one’s study. Using the term “soft” mastery goes along with a notion of “software ” - “changeability to meet the needs of the moment” - and considers negotiation, relationship and attachment as cognitive virtues.

     “Soft” mastery is not a stage, it is a style. Bricolage is a way to organise work. It is not a stage in a progression to a superior form. This is precisely what the culture  of simulation  encourages people to do — to work as a bricoleur, to come close to objects, to think with these objects, to negotiate a path of thinking  with these objects, to form a relationship with this thinking considering this to be personal discovery and therefore owning the ideas or forming attachments to them.

     Kristie is a personnel manager in a large business  in Sydney. She has worked in this capacity for the past two years, and prior to this was a training manager, with a specific responsibility of training management in the use of computer  technologies . For Kristie, solving problems  as a bricoleur is a way of working that permeates her style of management. While using a computer is central to that style, it is not restricted to using a computer.

     Kristie was required to circulate all eight senior managers of the organisation, within which she works, with a document  supporting an initiative of the organisation to locate overseas staff for Team2000 — a group of people who would provide a foreign language  public relations front for the organisation in the lead up to the Olympics  in the year 2000. To identify what this document should contain and what it should do, and to then follow up and compose such a document Kristie took the following steps:

1.      she searched through her filing cabinet to obtain a copy of any other document  that may have been used in the office to do a similar task;

2.      she identified whether she had a copy of that document  on the computer  system — and she found a copy;

3.      taking a “soft” copy of this document , she then changed headings  in that document with her own headings

4.      she wrote a number of paragraphs to fill the slots where key paragraphs should be placed

5.      she printed a copy of that document  out and perused its contents — she was questioning whether a document like that would meet the needs of communicating with these managers the necessary information

6.      she then modified the outline of the document  on the screen and began copying diagrams , illustrations, photographs and paragraphs from other documents

7.      she reviewed the “new” document  on the screen and modified it substantially — she moved headings  into a different order, completely delete some sections, changed the format of the entire document to look more like a newsletter than a report;

8.      she reviewed the document  on the screen again — it was then passed around her staff for their comment.

Kristie was working in a “soft” manner as would a bricoleur. Rather than working through the problem by using an abstract idea as to what such a document  should do, she worked from some materials at hand, gradually modifying these to produce a document that would do the task for her. This job was one of performing a large number of “what ifs” or simulations both on and off the computer .

     The task, for Kristie, was one of identifying what actual elements within a document  should be included to get the task of communicating this venture to the other managers of the organisation, what that document should look like, and how it was to be structured. By taking an object  and re-shaping that object, she was able to solve the problem. It was a matter of performing a number of simulations, assessing that simulation  and making further modifications until the document was shaped in a way that she felt would do the necessary communication  task.

     This is also the way Kristie solves problems when working out how to use a new program  on the computer . For example, she purchased a new program FORMTOOL. To learn how to use the program, she worked in the following manner:

·        install the program  on the computer ;

·        load a number of examples from the disk as to how people had used the program ;

·        work with the example to modify it into something that she could use;

·        modify that first document  that she had composed from the example to make a new document.

To learn new functionality of the program, Kristie explored items - the menu items of that new program when working with that third document  in that new computer  program. She would test to see what difference the menu options made in the document with which she was working.

     Within the culture  of simulation  the major methods of working include:

·        locating an object  that can be used in a task;

·        modify that object  as a method of thinking ;

·        analyse the object  once it has been modified to consider how it might be re-worked;

·        identify any new actions  that might be performed on that object ;

·        re-consider the object  in its next instance.

 

     This is working as a bricoleur; this is using simulation as a means of thinking . The thinker simulates an object  on the screen, and asks a question of “What if this was the object I used? Would this do the task? Does this solve the problem?”

Knowing programmes

     Given that a person already has a computer  and a selected operating  system, most people within the culture  of simulation  consider that it is necessary that computer users know:

·        what a program  is

·        what it can do

·        how it can be used

·        when loaded onto a computer , how can it be recognised as that program  in contrast to all the other elements already on the computer.

 

Being able to identify a program  and understand its potential  is considered to be key. Consider the comments from the following people:

It is not enough to just use a program . You must be able to identify a program from all others and know what it does. Many of the starters here get someone else to start a program for a job. They just mechanically repeat a task. They don’t think with the program. They don’t think a job through. By knowing the range of possible choices, they can then think, “Is there another way of doing this job better?” (Sandy, Supervisor of secretarial pool. RTA, 1994)

When I sit down to someone else’s computer  I immediately look to see what programmes I have available to get a job done. At a minimum to do the sort of thing I do I need a paint programs (or something that can do bitmaps), a notepad or elementary word processor, and a multi-media tool. It doesn’t really matter what the commercial names of the programs are, it is just that there is a program  of that type and that it can function in the way I need it to function. (Darren, Multi-media author. RTA, 1994).

To know the programmes on a machine is to know the potential  that one starts with. (John, expert user at management level. RTA, 1994).

     Knowing programmes, however, is not achieved by learning  every detail of a program ; it is a matter of “experiencing” the program, or “using” the program. Here the term “using” is charged with a concept of “exploration” which brings about increased practical knowledge . In the culture  of simulation , it is a matter of learning a program through “simulating ” a real  work condition:

When I get a new program , I take it home to learn. I don’t do it at work. It gives me the space to learn it in my own time. When I get it home, I also take some work that I have to do. It is a matter of getting my work done while exploring the program. I don’t use the program in the normal sense of the word; I explore every feature of the program as I get my work done. Sometimes the document  that comes out of an exploration like that is a bit over the top because I have used every thing I can in the program. (Darren, Multi-media author. RTA, 1994).

Learning a program  through a course is not the favoured option. Courses tend to take people through each option of the program in a hypothetical simulation  that has little relevance to the way work is done in the office:

I have given up going to courses. In a course you cannot explore a program  like you can at the office or at home. Learning the options of a program is learning  the options in the context of what one has to do in real  jobs. Staff here, after going to a course, do the real learning over the next ten to fourteen days after the course. When they are given jobs to do, they do it and have to do a whole lot of exploring — learning that they didn’t get at courses. (Sandy, Supervisor of secretarial pool, RTA, 1994).

This notion of learning  a program  in the context of work tasks strongly permeates this culture. So much so, that Microsoft  has changed the way it presents documentation. Microsoft has modified the documentation it now presents along with the product  — this is a major shift as shown in Microsoft Office manual:

Historically, we’ve focussed on documenting our products — that is, explaining how they work, often in intricate detail. However, you’ve told us that the primary focus is on getting your work done, not learning  our products! This motivated us to rethink our approach. We not only assessed what we’ve done in the past, but we also thought about makers of other types of products and how they provide assistance to their users.

For example, when you buy a car, you need enough information  about how the car works to enable you to drive it safely; you don’t necessarily need to understand all the workings of the internal combustion engine. If you later find that you need more information, you can always consult an expert or refer to the owner’s manual or a repair manual. And when you’re planning to drive your car from point A to point B, you probably just want to know the most direct route, not every possible route.

We realise that you have a job to do; you need to get from point A to point B. Our job is to provide you with a “map” and steer you in the right direction so that you can get there quickly and efficiently. If you need more information  along the way, it’s right there at your fingertips in our new on-line user assistance system — all you have to do is ask the Answer Wizard! (Getting Results with Microsoft Office for Windows 95: Real world solutions for the Work You Do, 1995:ix).

     This methodology would seem to be fine for those people who are already adept in using a computer . How do new computer users learn a program ? Sandy suggests that it is exactly the same way as an expert computer user would, except that the learning  is a little slower and takes a little longer for the new user to completely understand the consequences of his/her actions  when using a program. Sandy’s suggestions of steps, for a new computer user, in learning a new program include:

Steps	Action
1	Installing the program  according to the instructions provided with the product .
2	Select a job that you need to do and that seems possible to complete with the program .
3	Start working on your job in the program .
4	When you need to make a decision about options of operating  the program , explore what all the other option include.
5	Test a range of the other options, even if you don’t know what they do.
6	Look at your work to see what effect that exploratory option had in the document . Leave that in the document.
7	Test a whole lot of others. Then compare what the effects are at the end of trying a whole lot.
8	The idea is to try a whole lot of things. Then to choose which you will use. Learning a program  like this is about simulating  — changing the inputs to simulate the effects. Through simulation  you will test a number of possibilities. Then you will be in the position to choose what will do the job the best.

Table 3: Steps in learning  a new program

     Recognition of programmes once they are loaded and are in use is more complex than would at first be thought. This is about learning  how to navigate  the desktop , in the case of the Mac, or leaning how navigate the multiplicity of windows when working in Microsoft  Windows . This is a task of identifying more than just the title lines at the top of each window. It cannot be taken for granted that a single window represents a single program . Table 4 shows the possible range of relationship of programmes to windows:

Relationship	Window Space	Example
One  to one	One  program , one window	Word  for Windows in its own window.
Two to one	Word  window with another program  in a frame in the word document	Word  menu items merged with key menu items of the new program.
Two to one plus one	Word  window with another program  in a frame in the word document  plus another individual window under control of other two.	Word  menu items only plus the Media Player window operating .

Table 4: Relationship of programmes to windows

     To understand exactly what program  provides the range of options at any one juncture, it is necessary to read more than the title bar of a single window. Identification of a single window to understand what options are available at particular times requires reading all elements in the whole window all the time. Key features to watch include:

·        title bar to identify the main program  in use

·        menu bar to identify what options are showing (in general at this point in time — are they the normal Word  options?)

·        the document  in construction or use — does it show a mark around the inserted item, if so, what mark is it?

·        the play between the menu bars when another window is added in, and the movement of the document  to allow the additional room.

     The above was a consideration of reading a single window at a time. There can be multiple windows open at one time on the screen which requires a person to navigate  between in order to continue the activity  of working. Programmes can also be displayed in the following configurations on the screen:

Relationship	Appearance
Multiple instances of a program  in different windows	Word  can be run in up to ten  different windows at the one time. Each Window is a new instance of the program  and it operates independently of each other program.
Multiple programmes displayed on the screen at once	Word , Excel, Access, Notepad, etc can all be run in their own windows on the computer  independently of each other.
A single program  operating  numbers of programmes in the background	Word  can be operating  on the screen, calling the functions of Access (database program ) to provide a display of updated numbers in an Excel spreadsheet. All three programmes are operating,in operating even though only Word is visible.

Table 5: Complex relationship of programmes, and windows, on a Windows  95 screen

     Identification of programs within windows and navigation between windows requires developing personal thinking  strategies. Liz, a multi-media designer with two years experience, suggests that nobody ever tells you how to do this sort of thinking — it is something you develop yourself:

At different times during a working day, I will have between 10 and 20 windows open.. I have open Corel Paint, L-view, ToolBook, Word , Corel Draw , Corel Flow, Corel Xara, Media Clip, MIDI sequence, and possible six or seven different instances of Notepad all with different text  in each. So that I get my work done quickly and efficiently, I must remember what I have on my “desktop ”. While I am collaging things in ToolBook, I need to be thinking  ahead of what I will need next to put into the multi-media spread I am working on. I keep pictures in my mind  of what is on the screen hidden behind the surface layer. No one tells you how to do this, I just did it this way to make it easier for me to work. I can see in my mind all the other windows open and whether it is on the next layer behind the current program  or three or four layers down, and which side of the large screen I am working on it might be seen.   (DD, 1994).

     Tony, an information  management consultant, prepares large reports on his computer  for about sixty percent of each day. He has a different way of keeping track of programmes and windows:

I use about six main programmes in my working day. I try to keep my screen as clear as possible. So as soon as I don’t need a window, I minimise it so that it is no more than an Icon. I then organise my Icons. Over on the left margin of the screen I put all my communication  type programmes, such as Mail, Schedule, Remote Access. Along the bottom of the screen I put my processing programmes, such as Word  and Excel. On the right hand margin of my screen I put utility type programmes, such as File Manager. While I am working with one I have it open. As soon as I have finished with that I minimise it down to an Icon and it goes back to its place. I have my space organised. That space is in my head where I could open a program  blind folded if I needed to. (DD, 1994).

     Different technologies , of a cognitive type, are adopted by each individual as they work with programmes and sort out the confusing array of possible arrangements of programmes on the screen. On an individual level, the context facilitates pluralism of technologies that people can use to explain the collagic array experienced on a screen. (cf Turkle , 1995:45). It is of little importance that one person works with the complexities of programs, windows, screens using their own explanatory technologies. The important matter is that the operating  system invoked on a particular platform does allow for an individuality of styles, technologies and systems of organisation.

     Individuals, using their own technologies  to explain the confusion of windows on a screen must make distinctions of how programmes, each with its range of options and functionality, affect the available functionality in each window of the interface.  Identifying a particular program  is important insofar as a program delivers user options and functionality; it is not the naming of the program but knowing what program icon or name to call upon to get at particular functionality. Obtaining functionality, as shown above, is not necessarily related to functionality within a particular window. It is related to knowing the relationships of programmes and how each can rely on another to bring particular functionality to a particular window. 

Constructing microworlds

     Microworlds are constructed by computer  users making selections and adjustments to the operation  of their particular computer in one or more sites within the complex of multiple programmes and systems on a personal computer.

     A microworld  is a specific context that is established by making selections or modifications to a current program  or set of programmes so that a particular job or task can be accomplished. The type of activity  required by the expert computer  user is “spotage”. Through spotage an expert can make adjustments to the way two programmes work so that they mesh together to perform in combination. Spotage is used here as the user generally must concretely think through the problem of coupling the programmes. The user tests and looks, identifies a problem or blemish, makes a configuration change, then moves to the next problem.

     Not all user options, that are available in an operating  system, or in a program  or set of programmes, aid in the construction of a microworld. Only those user options that allow connection and constancy between this and other programmes in the microworld are significant. Many computer  users can relate experiences where a document  has been worked on for many days or even months on a single machine, and when it is transferred to another machine, headings  appear in the wrong places, tables flow over pages , audio clips do not work, video  clips do not appear as they should have, etc. All this is due to the fact that the person involved in the construction of the electronic text  was not aware of the user options s/he had chosen within his/her own system that are required to be set in all other systems to bring about an equivalence in operation .

     Commercial programmes identify a minimum set of system requirements for the program  to operate at its optimum. For example, FORMTOOL Gold V2 for Windows  suggests these system requirements:

·        IBM  Compatible 386 or better

·        4MB+ of RAM

·        Windows  3.1 or better

·        Hard Disk + floppy

·        VGA monitor  or better recommended

·        mouse

·        CD-ROM player

·        Sound Card recommended

·        Compatible with Microsoft  Office 7.0, and other OLE 2.0 programmes.

 

Such a specification list not only includes the hardware  that is required to make it operate, but also an indication of other software  within which it operates. This specification is a list of not only the Macro-system but also a general indication of the software required in order to properly construct a microworld  within which simulations can be fabricated.

     Even more important than it is for a commercial program  to indicate system requirements for operation , a simulation  requires particular attention to a set of requirements for operation of that simulation to be transferred from one computer  to another. A set of requirements for operation of a simulation defines a particular microworld  within which one or more simulations may be fabricated.

     While it is possible for a different microworld  to be constructed for each and every simulation , this is not always necessary, although in some cases it might be the most desirable eventuality. There are open public systems of defining and handling microworlds that facilitate transport of simulations from one platform to another simple. The world  wide web  is an open system that accomplishes that task. It is a system where people constructing simulations can ignore many of the microworld problems that exist when using other programmes, such as Word .

The World Wide Web : World-Wide Microworld

     The world  wide web  is based on a number of Internet  protocols, each of which are recognised standards throughout the world and for which on Macintosh  operating  system, Windows  of its various types, Unix or various breeds, and any other operating system, software  has been constructed (called browsers) to interpret those protocols and to translate for each context micro adjustments to construct a relatively similar environment across all computers connected to the Internet. Some of the protocols used in world wide web organisation are outlined in Table 6.

Protocol	Protocol	Use
HTML	Hypertext Markup Language	Provides standard formatting method for Constructing WWW hypertext documents
HTTP	Hypertext Transfer Protocol	Transfers hypertext documents across the Internet
.GIF	Graphic Interface File	A standard file  format for a graphic file used across the Internet .
FTP	File Transfer Protocol	The system that allows non Internet  files to be transferred across the Internet retaining their original format.

Table 6: Protocols used across the Internet  to facilitate microworld  setup regardless of platform

While such protocols may aid in the establishment of microworlds across all platforms, there are numbers of faults with the system of which people should be aware:

·        while there is a standard HTML 1.0, 2.0 and now 3.0 not all browsers (the software  element used on each platform to interpret the protocol into visual and audible representation ) have coded into them each of those standards. Emissary for example uses HTML 1.0 as its standard, Netscape on the other hand uses HTML 3.0. Therefore documents constructed with one standard may not be able to be displayed correctly within a browser  using another standard. Consequently, site now must advertise their standard and suggestions are made on sites what browser should be used to view that site. This may mean that a viewer may have to download a browser, or purchase a browser before looking at a particular site.

·        There are dozens of colour definitions within the range of graphic file  formats that are possible. For example, a graphic image may have been constructed with 256 colours but the person downloading that image may only be able to display 16 colours. Therefore, the image will look rather odd when displayed.

·        There are bugs in the way protocols are interpreted in various programmes. This may lead to a document  or simulation  displayed rather oddly. Used with another browser  the document may look entirely OK.

·        All microworld settings are not defined in the protocols and this can change the appearance and display of a simulation  quite dramatically. HTML defines a primary heading, for example, as <h1>. On an person’s own machine, a “Heading 1” can be defined however that person chooses, with any particular font, and of any size s/he so chooses. This means that a simulation can look quite differently in that all fonts , colours, and backgrounds can be defined locally by the user.

Regardless of system, even for a public open system like the world  wide web , there are always microworld  changes that a user can make. However, most of the major microworld options are controlled within the world wide web system so that in general most simulations perform quite similarly across all platforms.

Java: A Program Microworld System

     The world  wide web , is a document  based system; that is, it is a document simulation  environment. This does not mean that it is a paper -based document system. A page  in the web environment is a variable notion. A page can mean a single file  that when its display is viewed on the screen could be of up to 20 or more A4 pages , or it could be less than a line. A page in this environment may also mean it is composed of more than a single file but it displays as a single page in a browser . A page may have several graphic files  that display in between text  located in a single html file. The web document or page concept is an electronic rendition of a paper concept. In the electronic environment pages can be any length, any width, and composed of any number of files and other objects to appear as a single document in a browser.

     In spite of their electronic nature, web  pages do not provide a system of allowing programmes to be shared from one environment to another, from one platform to another. This problem is solved, however, by the Java extension to HTML. The Java environment is proposed as an add-on to HTML. Each browser  will need to have a Java interpreter built into it. Along with an HTML document , Java files can be down loaded that allow a program  to operate within that setting regardless of platform or other settings. While this is a proposal, it is yet to be seen whether this programming  language  and system is to take be included in the majority of browsers.

     Java is a programming  language  related to C++. It can be used to construct stand alone programmes that run on a computer  system as would any other executable files (programmes). Java is an object  oriented language, that is, through the language objects are created that are consistent within themselves and have methods of communicating with each other object in the family of objects. All objects in Java inherit their properties from one object called “Object”. One  of the Inherited objects is “Applet” which is an object that operates within the microworld  provided in a browser . Any programmes constructed from, or inheriting characteristics from “Applet” operates as an Applet within the world  wide web  browser microworld. Regardless of the computer platform, operating  system, or other variable context within the computer world, a Java applet program  can operate within a browser that includes the Java extensions. This provides a very consistent microworld on every computer system.

     Java objects, within the domain of Java programming , are constructs that draw together a range of values, options and code to support those options that work together in a consistent manner to achieve a particular task. An example of a Java object is an animation  object that takes fifteen graphic elements and presents them one after another to make a screen object look like it is animated. A number of options are available when the animation is progressing, such as a click on the mouse button may stop the animation, another click to make it continue.       

     Java objects can be extensive and complex, so much so that a user may not comprehend the extensiveness of the object. However, through use of that object, the user may develop a cybernetic map of that object - that is, the map may be updated through feedback when using the object. There are however many hundreds of Java objects that are in use now. For a user to build a map for each of these objects in use would be difficult if not impossible, particularly as objects increase in number and complexity the world  over.

     The complexity of Java and Java objects, however, is due to the fact that it is a programming  language , and that poses a problem to most people who are computer  users rather than programmers . A new protocol, to fill this gap, has been constructed called Java Script. This provides an English language protocol that people can use to assemble program objects, written in Java, within the HTML protocol environment. While Java script is complex it is relatively easy to learn and can be used to construct programmes much in the same way that people construct documents in HTML.

Diagram 9: Java microworld  complexity.

     The Java microworld  provides an insight into the complexities and depth of electronic language  to which a theory of the language must address itself. It is also particularly illustrative of the way that electronic systems are used to mask complexity and allow human beings to develop tools in order to cope with that complexity. At the level of complexity wherein programmers  work to put Java objects together, a programmer must develop a complex mental image of structure and function. A programmers knowledge  is necessary to construct the world ; without an interpretive device, that knowledge is also needed to use those objects. Thus the necessity of a scripting language; a way of reducing that complexity. The scripting language allows a user to develop a mental toolset that is easy to learn as it is set in a more common semiotic  than the highly abstract and cryptic programming  language. It is with this toolset that the user is then able to compose an html page  to present a complex set of events .

     The Java microworld  looks promising as a consistent environment within which simulations can be fabricated. While it is promising, it will be a number of months, perhaps even years before it achieves refinement to apply it to large scale business  processing solutions .

The Microsoft  Environment

     Microsoft  is the world ’s most influential software  house, being the developers of both the Windows  operating  systems and many of the most popular programmes used in business. The most used word processor, Word  for Windows  and Word for Macintosh , now holds 75% of market share in business, small home office and academic sectors. Considered in context with all other Microsoft software that is available, the Microsoft Office suite of programmes, and other smaller programmes that are used as support programmes, such as Paint, Word Pad, Graph, Media Clip, provide a highly developed program  environment within which substantial microworld  can be built.

     The Microsoft  platform is also a notable platform in that a large number of its programmes can work together, as though one program , using a system called OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) Version 2.0. OLE is a significant tool that allows highly complex microworlds to be constructed. This dissertation , in its electronic form, operates using OLE objects. Each Media Clip in this document  is an embedded object  that appears in this document, but calls another program to display itself while still physically within this program. By selecting a number of variables, and making choices as to how this will be effected, it has been possible to construct a microworld  with a huge range of functionality not originally written as Microsoft Word  functionality. In fact, some of the programmes that are used to present Media Clips in this document are not even Microsoft programmes, but because they operate using the standard OLE 2.0 system, they can also be used in Word.

     Such is the refinement of the Microsoft  OLE system that it can be used effectively as a backbone to major microworlds for application in business  settings. Forms can be constructed in Word  that use databases constructed in Access. These databases and forms can be shared by a number of people across the local network of the business. Information from these databases can also be organised in Excel, a spreadsheet program , and a section of the spreadsheet can be pasted into a Word document . All these inter-operations can be set so that when information  is updated in the database, it also automatically updates in the Excel spreadsheet and therefore also in the Word document.

How microworlds are constructed

     A microworld  can be as simply constructed as making a number of selections from the available user options within a single program , or it can be a complex arrangement of a number of programmes interoperating. Numbers of Information Technology Departments in large organisations have been instrumental in devising and constructing microworlds for people in other departments to use. Of the ten instances identified during this study, none of those pre-planned and highly complex microworlds was in use six months after their implementation. The idea of planning and installing microworlds that use a range of programmes such as found in Microsoft  Office (Word , Excel, Power Point, Access and Schedule) is an idea that belonged to the culture  of calculation ; within that culture, large scale systems were created to manipulate huge quantities of data  for purposes of storage, calculation and representation . Large scale systems are created in this way and using that mode  of thinking  for main frame computers. To apply this thinking and planning to personal computer  activity , however, does not work for two reasons:

1.      People operating  personal computers can and do operate them with some degree of independence. To present people with a highly planned and bound systems that use personal computer  programmes is not the same mode  of operation  that has become standard. If a person computer is used, and a program  such as Word  is used, then people want to be able to control the use of that program including its microworld  (user options), they do not like being railroaded.

2.      Personal computers connected together by  way of a network forms a setting where distributed systems are operated. The older system concept is a centralised model where there is a single point of activity  around which everyone revolves, whereas the model of networked personal computer  is one where each link in the system is semi-autonomous and can be modified to suit the needs of the local department or users.

The most successful personal and office-wide microworlds identified in this study were those that “evolved” from completion of daily work, and where each of the computer  users had a sufficient knowledge  of programmes and microworlds to know how to interchange ideas of organising a distributed microworld  system. Participants who had either constructed or participated in the construction of each of the twelve microworlds identified for this study all were comfortable with a bricolage style of operation  and constructed the microworld as a part of completing daily work. Each of these successful microworlds evolved over a period of time, and even six months after the original study of each microworld were still in use; however, throughout that six month period each of the successful microworlds were quite different from when first studied in that they continued to evolve over that period of time.

The Making of the Roads and Traffic Authority Microworld      

     A microworld  was constructed across three offices in the Western Region of the Roads and Traffic Authority of New South Wales (1993-4). The Information Technology Officers in each of Parkes, Dubbo and Broken Hill, along with the Fleet Manager in Dubbo and the Accounting Officer in Dubbo and Broken Hill, the Quality Management Officer in Parkes (Head Office for the Region) and the writer of this dissertation  were involved. The microworld was constructed in Microsoft  Windows  3.1, Word  for Windows  2.0 and an Access database.

     I was asked to construct a distributed system that would maintain a database of the RTA fleet in the Western Region, provide information  as to when the fleet cars should be traded-in and provide details of monies spent and monies retrieved. A first attempt was made in constructing a pilot system through interaction with the author and the staff in each of the locations. When the pilot was completed, each of the staff involved in maintaining information about fleet vehicles was given a copy of Word  2.0 templates, and instruction  was given to each on how to use the system. That system was never put into service for the following reasons:

1.      Each of the officers did not use the system in the way it was designed, each feeling that there were better ways of completing the tasks

2.      The automated tasks in each of the templates were not properly understood and so a number of entries each week were not updated in the database.

3.      Each of the people involved in the pilot considered that the system did not meet their needs and so did not use the system and preferred to continue to maintain the database manually as had been done before.

     For a second try at constructing an automated fleet register, the author convinced the Quality Manager from Parkes that the author should work with each of the officers completing along with them their real  work, and that the system could be built as a side product  from doing those tasks. Each of the officers was introduced to the concept of bricolage as a method of working, and it was this method that was adopted in constructing the second system.

     Eventually the second system comprised of:

·        four templates in Word  for Windows  — a request for trade-in form, a tender for trade form, a sale order and a purchase order

·        an Access database that recorded information  from each of the above forms

·        an update macro  that updated information  so that when a car was offered for trade and it was successful (that is, it was traded, then the record for that vehicle was automatically moved to another database).

     The items that were required for the system were constructed over a six week period by the staff that were to use them on an ongoing basis. During the first two weeks, the staff were focussed on preparing and making forms. As a car was required to be traded, or offered for trade, etc., the staff would manually create a form in Word  to do the task. As each of the staff members created a form they would place it on the network for all the other members of the staff to see. When a particularly good form was posted in the second week, one of the staff members sent a memo to the others and recommended they all use it for the next trade. This form was successfully implemented, although after a number of modifications. The second and other forms were constructed in the same way over the next three of weeks.

     One  of the Broken Hill staff constructed a database to take information  from all of the forms in the fifth week. A staff member from Dubbo constructed a macro  to update vehicle information when a trade had been completed. The system was operant in the sixth week, although it did take about an additional three weeks to place all the information about all fleet cars.

     Each day of work over the next six weeks, members of all offices used the new system. As modifications were identified (such as placing the date on the opposite of the page in one form, as people did not fill it in when it was placed on the far right), modifications were made and shared with the group. A major change came in the third week, after all the information  about all the vehicles was now on the system. One  of the group wanted a system to locate a vehicle in the database. He constructed a search tool as a Word  form that was powered by a Word macro . He shared the tool with the rest of the group. Others in the group made modifications to the tool and forwarded it to all others. While even to this day there are three different versions of the search tool, all members have a search tool that suits their particular needs.

     In the final week of the study, the staff members made another modification to the system. An additional form was constructed after a meeting with all members at Dubbo. It was a tax exemption form that is required by law when completing government purchases; the form was originally part of the purchase order, but because SES (Special Executive Service) cars were being purchased that were not tax exempt, it was felt that the form should not be a part of the purchase order.

     After six months, the microworld  was revisited. It now comprised of an additional three macros, the tax form was now a part of a larger form that collected other taxation information , and the original Access database was now split into three tables within the form. A menu written in a Word  macro  had been constructed by one of the members of the group providing a quick way for forms to be loaded and put into use.

Reasons for Success of the RTA Microworld

     The microworld  was successfully constructed and is now in various states of evolution and use as:

·        there is a high level of ownership — the staff feel that it is something they have built, so they are willing to use it and improve it as a part of their work

·        the system meets the needs of the people who are using it because they identified the needs and made it fit their purposes

·        the system will always meet the requirements of the job because the people who constructed the system are modifying the system as they go so that it always will meet their needs

·        in that each of the people are the bricoleurs  who are making the system, they are the best ones to re-evaluate the system and make modifications in mid-course as it is in use

·        each of the people, in that they have gone through a learning  curve to be able to construct the system have learnt a good deal more about Word , Access and Windows  and therefore are in a better position not only to do their work using these programmes as their tools, but they are in a better position to modify their tools to do the job better as it is required.

     Jeff, one of the staff members involved in the construction of the microworld  summed up the success of it in the following way:

The Fleet Trade-in System  is ours. We made it. We use it. And the only people to blame if it does not work is us. But there is no point in blaming anything on anyone. If it isn’t right, we fix it. There is more to it than that though. We have all learnt a lot about their programmes. It will never be the same again. We will be on the lookout to see where we can build other things like this to get our work done. And we don’t even have to ask for a budget to do anything like this. This is now a part of our daily work. If we want something, we make it. And it is not hard to do. Every day you do a little bit more as you do normal work, and after a few weeks, a new system is made and already in use. (RTA, 1994).

Tasks involved in constructing a microworld

     Microworld’s can be as small as a single a few simple modifications of the user’s options in a single program, to the orchestration of large templates, macros and operation  of number of programmes. For example, the microworld  built to write this dissertation  started off being some simple modifications to Word  for Windows  in the Tools/Options menu. However, at this point in the writing , it now consists of:

·        three macros

·        chapter templates

·        frontispieces template

·        index template

·        bibliography template

·        creation of OLE objects for each media clip insertion, and each diagram

·        DDE links to Power Point and Excel for information  that is maintained in documents in those programmes but which is also included in this document  (table of numbers relating to studies completed and reported in this dissertation ).

 

     Tasks involved in constructing this microworld  have included:

·        Recording macros in word. This has involved “show by doing” activity  with the macro  recording facility on and then playing it back to identify any changes required.

·        Building chapter templates as the document  is in progress. Whenever a change is made to a heading, that change is saved to the document template. Building the template is a part of the document writing .

·        Creating OLE objects. This is as simple as using the Insert/Object menu, selecting an object  type, such as Media Clip, and selecting the particular media clip required.

·        Creating DDE links. This is simply done by selecting the table required to be linked in Excel, turning to Word, and selecting the menu item Edit/Paste Special. This creates the updatable link in the Word document .

 

None of the above actions  is very difficult to complete nor is it time consuming — it has been a part of the development of the document . As this dissertation  is nearing its halfway mark, building the microworld  is now using less and less of my time and the balance of the document will be much easier to complete because of the functionality that has been built into the microworld. Should the author need to complete another document such as this one in the future, copying the microworld to another directory on the computer  would give the author a head start in putting the next large document together.

Building a microworld  toolkit

     Expert computer  users suggest that they work at their peak efficiency  when they have had about three months use of a particular set of programmes. While using the programmes gives them an understanding of what the program  can do, developing a number of styles, templates, a dictionary of autotext entries and macros is what improves efficiency. Sandy, a multi-media developer, suggests that her toolkit is the most important set of files on her computer:

My toolkit is my repertoire of things that I can do on the computer . All the things in my toolkit are either bits and pieces from which I can construct other microworlds, or they are already built microworlds that I can use again with some modification. When I start a new job, I simply come to my templates, borrow one from there that is pre-made, make some modifications, copy a macro  across from one I have done before, and there, a new microworld  ready to start a new project. Another way I can start is to copy an already completed document  from one of the Microworld Suites, and simply replace everything in that old document with new headings , and stuff. (QT, 1993).

Diagram 10: Sandy's Toolkit Directory

This process of building a microworld  toolkit is not unlike collocation and spoken and written language  learning . Sandy, just as does a spoken language learner, develops a range of options and possibilities with which to language in this and similar contexts. The repertoire of things that Sandy can do, whether it is spoken, written or electronic language, is learnt, added to and changed through experience. We learn how to mean within a particular context and use those learnings to interact in those contexts in the future.

The microworld task

     Building microworlds is a work practice that people who work with computers employ to establish a set of pre-made parts, and already established mini-environments that can be re-used over again. This is particularly useful in a less structured context, such as the Microsoft  set of programmes. It can also be useful in the world  wide web  context as well, where numbers of pre-built elements are amassed so that starting any new job is simplified through having already pre-constructed a microworld  in which to complete the job.

     Building microworlds can also be a group task, particularly where a microworld  needs to be shared with a number of people to build a system of data  processing of some type. Working from pre-built elements participants can bring their experience and set of pre-made microworlds to the group. Conferencing, in this case, is essential as each member who brings pre-made microworld elements needs to be able to bring others in the group up to speed with those elements.

     Building microworlds and elements for inclusion in future microworlds is taken as part of the task of any computer  user; it is not a separate job or task to build microworlds and microworld  systems. Building microworlds is a simple task when taken as part of any computer job and  is a task for people on the job who think with the materials at hand. These people are in the position of making changes to the way jobs are done.

Performing simulations

     Simulations are fabricated, assembled, or contrived within microworlds. A business  report constructed in Word  for Windows , and which has links to an Excel spreadsheet is a simulation  of that report. By naming it a “simulation” this is to suggest that it is in a state of composition, construction, or assemblage. Part of the notion of simulation, within the culture  of simulation  is the possibility of at any time asking “What if” questions. This is part of the act of construction when using a bricolage style of working, and it is part of the act of simulation, that once having asked such a question to re-direct, re-plan or re-work the direction in which the whole task is headed.

     Alex is a technical writer for a computer  technology company in Sydney. He composes document  of between 200 and 500 pages  in length and composes approximately 20 to 30 technical illustrations per document. The notion of simulation is central to his style of working:

When I have been given a large job to complete I work through about five stages. I first mock up a front cover, a table of contents, first pages  for each chapter, and I write an introduction. This is my first simulation . It is a simulation of what I think this document  should look like. The next stage, when I am happy with the simulation, I print  it out and distribute that to the people involved in the project. I ask them for their remarks. The third stage is to re-work the simulation taking into account remarks I may have received back. This may involve knocking out some chapters, adding others in. The fourth stage is to construct all the illustrations, print out the simulation again with chapter headings , introduction and illustrations, and receive remarks again. The fifth stage is to write the text  for each chapter, and to surround each of the illustrations with explanation. This may still involve knocking out some chapters, amalgamating chapters, merging illustrations. No chapter, section, illustration  is left there if it does not serve a purpose. What I am doing is simulating  a manual. Each stage is just a more detailed simulation. Even the near final copy is still a simulation. We can ask the question, “What is this was the way the manual was to be?” What if we added a chapter on x?” “What if we deleted this illustration?” We ask those questions because we put ourselves in the place of the user, or the sales person who has to sell the product  — “What if he were to sell the product with this manual?” (Aspect, 1993).

The notion of “simulation ” as an act of composition is not necessarily a technology of Technacy; it is a notion of the culture  of simulation . However, those who practice the activities of simulation by “simulating ” documents, multi-media presentations, web  pages , architectural drawings, models, business  reports and similar, are usually highly technate people. It is the freedom provided by personal computers that gives these people the opportunity to continually ask of the emerging product  these questions of simulation. It is also their style of working — bricolage – that allows them the freedom to ask those questions and to be able to re-direct their working activities at any point in the project.

     The notion of “simulation ” as an act of composition or construction is slightly modified and has another significance for those people who construct electronic texts  that are displayed in and are used as  electronic texts. Because an electronic text  is always able to be re-worked, such a text is always a “simulation”. Iain constructs web  pages  for his company’s web site. He designs, writes and illustrates each page  and has the task of ensuring that all information  on the site is always up to date. Iain suggests that working on a web site one must never think of any page as ever having attained a “finished” status:

There is never a thing called an “end product” with pages  on a web site. I only ever have “simulations”. One  “simulation ” is held for a time until it proves not to be doing its job. We are simulating  an act of communication  here. If no browser  takes up a link to a particular page  within a week (we have about 3,000 people browsing our site weekly), then the links to that page are changed. If browsers link onto that page and do not pick up a link from that page to others, then that page is changed until we do get people linking from that page. Every page is a “simulation” always. When people stop linking from that page, we remove it, or change it, or add to it. We are constantly “simulating” communication, and if people do not respond, then our communication is not working. End of that simulation, beginning of the next. (AWA, 1994).

Simulation for Iain involves human reaction within the electronic medium itself. The computer  is set to count the number of people who link onto any particular page, and the number of people who accept links off that page onto others. This is the “simulation ” of the flow of communication . People who browse the site indicate their acceptance of information  from a page by their selection of a link, or set of links off a particular page. This is the communication back to the web  master that information has been understood.

Cultural technologies of simulation

     Central to the technologies  of simulation  are the technologies of:

·        bricolage - a way of working that emphasises concretely working with electronic materials and computer  technologies  - it is a way of thinking  that identifies an object  with which a task can be completed, modifying the object to fit into the context, re-consider its suitability, modify the object, reconsider its suitability;

·        spotage - a particular way of configuring an operating  system or program ; it involves making a change, testing that change, making another configuration change, testing that; this is repeated until all necessary changes are made;

·        using - for a computer  user, the concept of “using” relates to an experiential knowledge  of a program , computer or other electronic device; it involves trying available options in the program to know how it can be used to solve the particular problem at hand, and how it can be accomplished; an expert on computers is known as a “user” because s/he actually uses programmes - that is knows intricate details to solve real  problems in a particular field . This is not to suggest that the person has a knowledge of every possibility, but has a good working knowledge of how to solve problems in a specific context. 

     Bricolage involves concepts of trial and error, simulation  using “what if” questions, re-direction of course while directly involved in the task (as opposed to detailed planning, then sticking to the plan throughout the task), and cybernetic thinking  (that is, rather than thinking through an entire task thinking to make a course re-direction, evaluating the results of that thinking, then making another decision as to what should be done next). This method of operation  often requires people to use “soft” options rather than detailed mechanistic or planned approaches.

     Bricolage, as an activity , must be seen as more than ad hoc trial and error. Its essence, in the context of computer  activity, and particularly in the context of the culture  of simulation  has a clear linking with notions of cybernetic thinking. While the term cybernetic was first introduce by the mathematician Weiner  (for example, 1964:17) having links with Shannon’s information  theory - feedback is used to provide guidance and control - in its present use, the emphasis of cybernetics is on how people construct models of the systems with which they interact (Harel, 1988:31). In this context, bricolage as an activity is informed by a number of constructed models of the system in use each with discontinuous explanations of the system. Working in this style then requires jumping from one model to another as the need arises and as experience dictates.  

     Spotage involves concepts of estimation and trial. Different to the “what if” questions of bricolage , spotage involves the computer  user identify a “spot” or blemish in the text , being able to accurately determine the parameter that needs adjusting, estimating what the change needs to be, and then effecting that change. The more expert the computer user is, the blemishless frequent tries will be made until the blemish is rectified. Spotage is a similar concept to bricolage in that both involve hands-on concrete thinking . The essential difference between spotage and bricolage is that spotage involves working across models of systems in order to bring about continuity - to correct the seeming blemish or spot. Bricolage is more about working with the inconsistencies without having to bring about consistency of unity. Essentially, spotage involves a range of thinking tools that endeavours to bring about continuity to an otherwise seemingly discontinuous text - fixing the spots in a text that seem to diverge or disagree. Tools such as this involve tools of comparison, identity, content definition, etc.

     Using involves concepts of “practice”. While bricolage  involves “trial and error”, using suggests that there will be less error as the “user” becomes more expert in each “trial”. Because of a heightened knowledge , the user will be able to be successful in each “trial” and have increasingly less error. Using implies accumulated knowledge over time.

     Each of these technologies  is significantly related and stems from the primary concept of “bricolage ”. It is bricolage that is the central concept while each of these others are tools for making distinctions of how bricolage is carried out by particular people.

Variables of a simulation

     Fabricating simulations such as Iain does with web  pages  requires careful attention to not only the amount of verbal text  on a page, graphic layout and other design of a web page, but also to the links to other pages, the size of the graphics, and how they are portrayed on that page. These are the variables that are manipulated whilst conducting a simulation , and it is these variables that provide the composer of the electronic text with feedback from those who use the text. Because a web site microworld  can track the responses of a human browser , it is an ideal setting to be able to measure human responses, identifying the success of communication .

     The web  page  in Diagram 11 is a very successful page. This is quite an attractive page; however, it is not the attractiveness of the page that draws people to this page. Sun Microsystems is a well known organisation that have a large following of people who purchase Sun Computer systems, and a large following of people who are interested in the new programming  language , Java. It is not surprising that this page has more than 2,000 people per day come to this page. What is remarkable is that all the links on the page are evenly used and that this page is the preferred entry point into the pages  on this server.

 

Diagram 11: Sun Microsystems Java Page

 

     This is a remarkable fact because of the following reasons:

·        This page  is purely a menu page — a page from which others are launched. Often, people who browse the web  do not visit a menu page each time they come to a web site; they store a link directly to the pages  they visit often so as not to waste time down loading purely a menu page. However, a count of the people using this menu page is approximately equivalent to all the people who link to other pages. A count of people who link from this page to one of the listed pages is almost equivalent to those people who use those other listed pages.

·        There is such an even usage of each of the links on this page  to other pages . This indicates that the composers of this page have identified a range of headings  to represent the subject matter of this site according to the interest in particular topics in the community of users who access this site.

The Sun Microsystems Java menu page  is also well constructed from the perspective of how it operates on the wider distributed computer  system. The page does not have any large graphics that take a long time to down load and appear. This possibly accounts for the fact that people find it an easy page to wait for and use and so prefer to use this as a menu page rather than go directly to particular pages .

     Important issues relating to the identified variables, in the microworld  of web  pages , include:

·        the amount of verbal text on a page — this is a medium within which it is possible to display a mixture of media, ie., graphic, video , audio, verbal text elements, and there fore any excessive use of any one element may not keep the interest of the people who browse those page, unless, in special circumstances, people who visit those page are expecting to see large quantities of verbal text, for example, a set of pages  displaying an academic paper , a context where most people would feel more comfortable reading a lengthy discourse;

·        graphic layout — huge graphics take a long period of time to down load and for people to wait for a lengthy time the graphic must serve a greater purpose than purely to show a number of links to other pages ; for example, a graphic that people are willing to wait for may itself be the information  they require, such as a diagram of a machine showing the exact location of a particular element that requires replacing;

·        space on a page — overall, people tend to fill web  pages  with too many elements, not leaving enough space surrounding them; the Java page in Diagram 11 displays an uncluttered page, for example; space surrounding elements on a page often bring to the foreground the reason for a page’s existence;

·        links to other pages — too many links on a page  confuse, too few links on a page reduces the interest in the page or its usefulness;

Overall, the study of traffic data  (the number of links selected from a particular page ) indicates that the most successful pages  in this microworld  are those that are limited to between 7 and 12 elements on a page, and between 6 and 9 links on a page for menu pages, and between 3 and 5 links where a reasonable amount of text  is involved. Verbal text longer than 200 words per paragraph does not hold the attention of people browsing a site, and a text of more than six paragraphs is not often used unless it contains specialist information  as required by specialist browsers, such as a specific academic site where people are expecting to obtain a lengthy text on a specific topic.

     Through a study of traffic data , mind  style models can be built up. A general model of what people are expecting from web  pages  centres around the expected graphic nature of the world  wide web. People browse web pages and therefore tend not to read alphabetic text  to a great extent. Therefore, a limitation on the amount of text and the complexity of options per page  is related to the mind style of the participants for greater applicability to the users. This suggests that academic browsers therefore have a different mind style of model of what browsing means - they are willing to work at much greater length with reading and allow for a much more complex arrangement of options.

     Within a multimedia  microworld , pages  have a different construction than in a world  wide web  microworld, due to the method of projection onto a screen, storage size available on a CD-ROM, and the devices available when displaying such a text . The page  in Diagram 12 illustrates common features on a multimedia page.

Diagram 12: Multimedia Microworld Page

     Note that on this page  there are still only about 12 elements on a page; this is common with world  wide web  pages . However, due to the better access to data  for display of such a page, it is possible to have greater definition in the graphics, they can be larger and more detail can be displayed in total per page.

     Consideration of pages , their information , and how they are used are topics that need to be considered from a different perspective. Considering elements on each page  as a variable with which to alter simulations is a smaller view of a wider topic, that of using and understanding screen information.

How a simulation  is performed

     A simulation  is performed when using a personal computer  to complete work using a bricolage  method of working. It involves using a set of related programmes to build a copy of a document  or other communication  entirely within the electronic environment. Usually, the simulation is a simulation of a document that is to be used in a business  setting as a paper  document; however, a simulation an also be a simulation of an electronic text , such as a CD-ROM multi-media presentation, or a world -wide web  text.

     Andrew is a world -wide web  designer and simulates web environments for clients on a paid basis. To begin the simulation , Andrew sets up a computer  with a range of programmes he knows he will have to use in that simulation. A web environment requires the following programmes:

·        a word processor - such as Word  for Windows

·        a graphic tool for manipulation and improving graphic objects - such as L-view

·        an html authoring tool - Internet  Assistant

·        a web  browser  to check results - Netscape

·        a web  server - Website

·        a drawing  tool - Corel Xara.

Andrew also copies to this computer  a range of web  page  templates that he has built up over the last 18 months he has been designing web sites, as well as a range of graphic objects he can use as buttons, and other navigational tools on web pages .

     Andrew, in an interview identifies his initial steps:

When I begin working I have a mental image of what the first page  looks like and that translates into what the rest of the site will have on it. The front page has all the links to the rest of the site. I analyse what the business  wants on the site and think of a way of organising that number of links on the front page. If there are a lot of links, then there will be a lot of directories under the http directory (where all the web  pages of a site are stored). When I have an idea of that front page, I then select a template that is close. I construct that front page and then construct a directory in which to store the pages for each link. (WA, 1995).

Andrew often sketches a model of a site, particularly if it is a complicated model and there are a number of people who will be building the site. Diagram 13 is a model of a mediumly complex site Andrew is currently working on:

Diagram 13: Andrew's site sketch

     From this mental image of a site, Andrew then builds a sample page  for each section of the site. Should he work out that a new section is required, he inserts into his mental image a new link on the front page and a new directory.

     For Andrew, the simulation  never ends:

Building a site like this is a never ending job. People always want changes done to the site as it is being used. It is always a simulation . The site is a copy to which changes will be made to make another copy. We are always asking questions about a site like this: What if we changed the front cover to look like this? What if we added a new graphic as a navigational tool? We are always simulating  the site. We are always creating a copy of the site, to then help us work out what the next change will be. There is never a finished site, just simulated sites. (WA, 1995).

     Rarely does Andrew update the first sketch he makes of a site. He says that this is not necessary. All that he has to do to know what the new site looks like is to compare the front page  with the directories under the http directory. This provides a new mental image from which Andrew can understand what is on the site and what has been changed since looking at it last.

     Pages are constructed using the range of software  tools Andrew has made available on the site. Andrew suggests that he must have an idea of what a page  must look like before he starts - “it is a framework I work out in my head that must have some similarity with all other pages  on the site. When I work in Xara, to create a picture, I must make that picture look like it belongs on those pages - colour, shapes, and layout must have some similarity.” Working on building a site involves constructing a mental image of that site on three dimensions: a page look and feel, depth of pages and interconnections. Andrew talks about this in the following way:

When a site gets to be 32,000 pages , no one else can see the site in total. I have built the system of pages in my mind . I know the general link interconnections, how many pages deep each connection goes and how those connections feature on the pages. I have a map in my mind that is like a road map. The only thing is that it changes more frequently than road maps change. It sometimes changes three times a day. (WA, 1995). 

     A simulation  is performed through a process of bricolage It involves piecing the simulated object  together over time, adding and modifying the site as required. It involves using the current site as feedback for suggestions as to how it should be shaped in the future. It involves comparing a mental image with indicators  of what is currently constructed, creating a new mental image and then working from that point to add new elements.

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