Ethnocomputing

[phil cash cash]

nice Don!  i will add these references (as hyperlinks) to my resource
listing of research on indigenous languages and technology.

here are some interesting quotations from the article Ethnocomputing a
Multicultural View on Computer Science:

"ethnocomput-ing refers to a cultural perspective in the problem solving
methods, conceptual categories, structures, and models used to
represent data or other computational practices."

"Ethno represents particularity and computing universality, and a
combina-tion of particular and universal leads to computing activ-ity
that takes its place within a culture. The concepts of ethnocomputing
can manifest as direct applications in real-life situations, or objects
among cultural groups, and they reflect the traditional practices of a
culture – whether or not technically advanced."

later,

phil cash cash
UofA, ILAT


> ----- Message from dzo at BISHARAT.NET ---------
>     Date: Mon, 2 Aug 2004 01:56:17 -0500
>     From: "Donald Z. Osborn" <dzo at BISHARAT.NET>
> Reply-To: Indigenous Languages and Technology
<ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
>  Subject: Ethnocomputing
>       To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
>
> "Ethnocomputing" is one of those terms that sounds like I've heard it
> someplace,
> but in fact it is relatively new (searchs on ILAT and GKD
> yielded no hits and Google had only 60 some). That is not to say that
> the
> thinking behind it would be unfamiliar to many people working on
> "ICT4D" and
> "digital divide" issues. Still, it may be a useful concept to add to
> the
> repertoire for discussions of ICT & development, ICT & language,
> knowledge
> generation in non-Western or indigenous communities, etc.
>
> Here are a few references I ran across on this:
> * An article, "Ethnocomputing a Multicultural View on Computer
> Science" by Matti
> Tedre, Piet Kommers, Erkki Sutinen at
> http://www.cs.joensuu.fi/~ethno/articles/ethnocomputing_ICALT2002.pdf
> * A M.S. thesis (2002) by Matti Tedre entitled "Ethnocomputing: A
> Multicultural
> View on Computer Science" at
>
http://www.cs.joensuu.fi/~ethno/articles/tedre_matti_ethnocomputing.pdf
> * There was even a webpage www.ethnocomputing.org, though that
> apparently exists
> now only in the Web Archives at:
> http://web.archive.org/web/20030711043220/cs.joensuu.fi/~ethno/
>
> Part of the abstract from the Tedre's thesis (similar to one in the
> article) is
> reproduced below.
>
> Don Osborn
> Bisharat.net
>
>
> "The prevailing westernness of Computer Science is a major problem
> with the
> Computer Science education in developing countries. The students not
> only face
> a new subject, but also a fundamentally different philosophy and
> problem
> solving methods. In this thesis, I shall present a new member to the
> family of
> ethnosciences: ethnocomputing. Ethnocomputing challenges the
> prevailing way of
> thinking that in order to keep up with the West, other cultures have
> to adapt
> to
> the western ways of thinking. Relying on constructivist theories, I
> argue that
> the universal theories of computing take different forms in different
> cultures,
> and that the European view on abstract ideas of computing is
> culturally bound,
> too. Studying ethnocomputing— i.e. the computational ideas within a
> culture —
> may lead to new findings that can be used in both developing the
> western view
> of Computer Science, and improving Computer Science education in
> non-western
> cultures."
>
>
> ----- End message from dzo at BISHARAT.NET -----