Computing and change on campus

Bibliographic Information

Computing and change on campus

edited by Sara Kiesler and Lee Sproull

Cambridge University Press, 1987

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Note

Bibliography: p. 237-245

Includes index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

What do computers mean for organizations and for the people in them? Computing and Change on Campus constitutes a fascinating study of the advantages and costs of massive experimentation with new technology. It chronicles the computerization of Carnegie Mellon University, now perhaps the most computer-intensive university in the world. Drawing on the results of an extensive and systematic research program, Sara Kiesler, Lee Sproull, and their colleagues describe how available resources, behavior, and attitudes to computing evolved campus-wide over the period from 1981 to 1985. They examine the impact of computerization on faculty, staff, administrators, and students, and find that the new technology has social consequences - changes in patterns of attention, social contact, norms, and social structure. The authors' conclusions transcend particular computer systems and will be of interest to all educators, managers, and social scientists who care about the social implications of technological change.

Table of Contents

  • Preface
  • Acknowledgments
  • Part I. Thinking About the Social Process of Technological Change: 1. Computers and society Herbert A. Simon
  • 2. Old colleges, new technology James G. March
  • 3. The social process of technological change in organizations Sara Kiesler and Lee Sproull
  • Part II. Components of Change: Resources, Behaviour, and Attitudes: 4. The computers are coming! Suzanne Penn Weisband and Jane Siegel
  • 5. Electronic observations of computer user behaviour Mike Blackwell
  • 6. Faculty and student observations of their computing behaviour Paul Anderson
  • 7. What's news about computing? Suzanne Penn Weisband and Teresa Gardner
  • Part III. Workers and Managers: 8. Secretaries and computers Karen Hartman
  • 9. Automating a university library: some effects on work and workers Sara Kiesler, Scott Obrosky and Felicia Pratto
  • 10. Instrumental and symbolic aspects of an executive information system Suzanne Penn Weisband
  • Part IV. Students and the Social Environment of Computing: 11. Encountering an alien culture Lee Sproull, Sara Kiesler and David Zubrow
  • 12. How computing attitudes change during the freshman year David Zubrow
  • 13. Learning to like computing Lee Sproull and Tony O'Dea
  • Part V. Conclusion: 14. General and practical implications Sara Kiesler and Lee Sproull
  • References
  • Author index
  • Subject index.

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