Surfacing: A Genealogy of Computer Interfaces and, Sometimes, Technical Communication Johndan Johnson-Eilola Purdue University

Automation and Work “Pretty speeches about cooperation, communication, and common interests cannot hide the fact that in most companies, people who are doing the actual work do not ‘belong’ or do not feel that they do.” (Floyd, “Let’s Be Honest About Automation.” Computers and Automation, Sept. 1962, XI.9)

Surfacing: An Overview Interface: Primary Space for Intellectual Labor in the Next Century Quality of Work Linked to Interface Tech Comm Increasingly Fragmented, Made Invisible

Postmodernist Shift: Time to Space Philosophy (Feenberg, Foucault) Literary Theory (Jameson, Baudrillard) Management Theory (Drucker, Zuboff) Usability (Suchman, Wurman)

Interface and Work Knowledge

Time-Based Interfaces User Interaction Limited User Communication Serial Knowledge Accumulated in Larger Context via Apprenticeship

Space-Based Interface: CLI CLI = “Command Line Interface” User Interacts “Directly” (+ Serially) Knowledge Moves into Computer (But is Still Normally Invisible)

Command Line Interface

Graphical Interface: GUI User Interacts Across Two Dimensions Knowledge Surfaces Knowledge Space Shrinks

Graphical Interface: GUI

Contracting Spaces and Times Work Space Condenses, Flattens Help Space Condenses, Disappears Interface Structures (and Deconstructs) Work

Feenberg’s Primary and Secondary Moments of Instrumentalization

Social Interface: ProNoun MOO Surfaces Social Re-Integrates Work into Social Context Focuses on Communication as Ongoing Process

Social Interface: ProNoun MOO

Communication as the Future of Work Take Control of the Interface

Communication as the Future of Work Take Control of the Interface Make Tech Comm the Focus, not Technology

Communication as the Future of Work Take Control of the Interface Make Tech Comm the Focus, not Technology Technology = Rhetoric

Communication as the Future of Work Take Control of the Interface Make Tech Comm the Focus, not Technology Technology = Rhetoric Improve Our Public and Corporate Image