Tim Berners-Lee “inventor” of the web

technological determinism views the web as the product or outcome of scientific advances encourages us to see technology (e.g. the web) as ‘a thing’ (a process of reification) with effects on society.

social shaping the relationship between science and technology is far more messy, contingent and complex. From this perspective technologies do not have ‘an essence’ (they are not ‘a thing’, they are not fixed) and our relationship with technologies is reciprocal (we shape the web and the web shapes us).

Task Work in groups of Create timeline/map/picture showing all the things, groups, events and interactions that are implicated in the development of the World Wide Web. This visual representation should be aimed at a general public audience and aim to explain ‘social shaping’ - that the Web did not just happen, nor was it invented by one person but instead is a sociotechnical phenomena co-created by technology and society. Flip chart paper and pens are provided along with some ‘prompt cards’. Use as many of the prompt cards as you wish and add other ideas from your own knowledge (or Google)

“The view that technology just changes, either following science or of its own accord, promotes a passive attitude to technological change. It focuses our minds on how to adapt to technological change, not how to shape it. It removes a vital aspect of how we live from the sphere of public discussion, choice, and politics. Precisely because technological determinism is partly right as a theory of society (technology matters not just physically and biologically, but also in our human relations to each other) its deficiency as a theory of technology impoverishes the political life of our societies.” McKenzie D and Wajcman J. (1999). Introductory essay: the social shaping of technology. In McKenzie D and Wajcman J. The Social Shaping of Technology (2 nd ed) Berkshire: Open University Press p5