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Defining open and closed technologies

15 January, 2016 - 09:47

One interesting way, among others, to update Dewey’s notion of technological transparency for the contemporary context is to ask about the degree to which today’s technologies are transparent and open to our understanding. Thinking along these lines, one can classify technologies along a spectrum from “open” to “closed.” Open technologies are technologies that allow the user (a) to understand how the technologies function on both a surface and a deeper level, and (b) to become involved in their overall construction, design, and management. It is this ‘openness’ that allows for the possibility of agency.

Wikis are one of the best examples of an open Web 2.0 technology—they allow for content to be completely user-generated and allow multiple users to collaborate to create artifacts. Although users do not have complete control of the overall design of the environment, they are the main force behind the development of the objects that populate the environment. If users disagree with specific content on a Wiki, they know that, given the control they may exert over the content in the environment, they have the agency to try to change it.

Closed technologies are those where the end-user is neither encouraged to understand how the technology works, nor participate in its design and evolution. This, from our perspective, results in an indifference towards making changes in the technology. The user accepts it as technology that “just works.” The mechanisms necessary for change to occur, whether they are open channels of communication between users and designers or in-depth structural information about the technology, simply do not exist. Closed technologies are, in our current framework, entities where the construction and design choices open to users are limited to non-existent. Some knowingly accept that it cannot be changed and happily use the tool as it was designed, resulting in continued apathy towards promoting change in the technology itself. Facebook is an excellent example of a closed Web 2.0 technology—individual owners can exert a certain amount of control over their profile or 'walls', but the overall design framework is rigid and the functioning of the system is not transparent to the user. This has the advantage of making the technology easy to use in that there are very few decisions for the user to make, but it is unlikely to stimulate interest in the way that the technology itself functions.