Technology Quiz
Engaging Technology Quiz
Test your knowledge on the fascinating intersection of technology, sociology, and digital innovation! This quiz covers a wide array of topics, helping you deepen your understanding of key concepts like agency, materiality, and generative design.
Join us to explore:
- Actor-Network Theory
- Digital Representation
- Affordances and Materiality
- Generative Technologies
The lecture describes agency as:
an action or intervention that produces a particular effect
a method of scientific exploration
an activity supporting innovation processes
A public organization that serves the citizens
Nicki Lisa Cole (2021) argues that we must pay attention to structure if we want to understand human behavior. What statement to you think best describes her argument? Because:
Structures shape thinking, behavior, and choices of people
Structures limit choices and make people passive
Structures must be carefully designed
Structures support creativity in people
What are actor networks, according to Callon (2001)?
Artist development forums with particular impact on cultural life
Configurations of material objects with strong influence on human behavior
Heterogenous configurations of people that design and develop material objects
Configurations of humans and nonhumans that remain temporary and evolving
In sociology agency is understood as the capacity of individual human beings to act independently and to make their choices on the basis of free will. According to actor network theory, material objects can be assigned agency, without having intentions or free will. What statement best describes how such material agency is motivated?
Injecting a material object into an actor network produces effects that are comparable to effects of adding a person.
Injecting a material object into an actor network produces stronger and more persistent effects than adding a person.
Material objects are more important than people to make actor networks productive
Together, the material objects in an actor network forms structures that shape its development.
The introductory lecture involves an important concept from actor-network theory to motivate the idea of material agency: generalized symmetry. What do you think best describes the overall idea of generalized symmetry?
Material and human agents (i.e. Things and people), can and should be described in the same way
The actions of human agents (people) must be viewed in relation to the material agents (things) they engage with
Dependencies between human agents (people) reflect dependencies between the material agents (things) they work with
The will of human agents (people) is always reflected in the design of material agents (things)
The lecture introduced operand resource as a way to conceptually distinguish between material objects. Mark statement that are true?
An operand resource is material object without agency
An operand resource is a resource that act on other resources, to make things happen
An operand resource is a resources that an actor acts upon, to make things happen
An operand resource is a human agent, engaged in an actor network
The lecture introduced operant resources, as a way to conceptually distinguish between material objects. Mark all statements that are true?
An operant resource is material object without agency
An operant resource is a resource that act on other resources, to make things happen
An operant resource is a resources that an actor acts upon, to make things happen
An operand resource is a human agent, engaged in an actor network
The lecture involves Mark Poster, and his idea that the concept ‘analog’ can be understood through the relation between an ‘original’ and a ‘copy’. What statement do you think best describes his reasoning? For analog technology:
The copy is a representation of the original
The copy is a simulation of the original
The copy is an illustration of the original
The copy is a description of the original
An analog representation, like a photo, can be understood and decoded by a human being. That is not the case with digital representation. What is required, according to the lecture, to make a digital representation meaningful?
Both software and hardware
Both data and algorithm
Both information and capacity to explain it
Both digital competence and social skills
Paul Leonardi (2010) relies on the concept of affordances to discuss materiality of non-physical objects. What is the best description of affordances, as reflected in his paper? Affordances are:
Revenue streams, offered to organizations
Cost/Benefit analyses, made by firms
Novel ideas, produced by artifacts
Action possibilities, offered to a person
The lecture describes a computer, based on the von Neumann architecture, as an “Anything Machine”. What best describes this statement?
The hardware is modular, and can be tailored for different functions
The software is generic, and reveals nothing about the function of the computer
The software hides complexity in hardware, allowing for almost anyone to use it
The hardware is generic, and reveals nothing about the function of the computer
What best describes the marginal cost of a product or service?
The additional investment needed to become profitable
The additional cost of producing one more unit
The additional cost of a product update
The total development cost, shared by all units
The lecture describes programmability as the capability of giving a digital artifact new functionality across its life time. What statement do you think best describes the implications of programmability?
Programmability makes physical products outdated at a higher pace, resulting in shorter product lifecycles
Programmability allows for virtual organizations, resulting in a volatile labor market
Programmability moves innovation into a digital domain, making physical products economically irrelevant
Programmability allows for continuous generation of new functions and services, feeding new business models
The lectures uses the case of Amazon to illustrate that digital technology affords scalability. What statement best describes the influence of scalability on markets?
Local and regional markets can be rapidly expanded into global markets
Markets become segmented, creating new boundaries between customer categories
Markets are increasingly organized as value chains, where ‘links’ can be easily replaced
Markets are flooded by software and services, making physical products irrelevant
The lecture puts forward a definition of generativity (originally proposed by Tilson et al (2010)). What statement best captures this definition? Generativity is the capability of a self-contained system to:
Refine and further develop technologies that are highly useful for broad audiences
Attract smart people that together can come up with novel products and services
Produce new things, without involving those who originally made it
Construct new artifacts that comply with the intentions of those who originally made it
Jonathan Zittrain (2007) suggests that 'adaptability' is a characterizing trait of generative technology. Which statement best explains how adaptability affords generativity, according to this paper?
It allows the technology to be used for previously unforeseen purposes
It provides market overview and allows for gradual roll-out of products
It accelerates development processes
It allows for late adjustments of production processes
Jonathan Zittrain (2007) suggests that generative technologies have high ‘capacity for leverage’. Which of the following best illustrates his argument?
The more effort a technology saves, the more generative it is
The more well-known a technology is, the more generative it is
The less complex a technology is, the more generative it is
The cheaper a technology is, the more generative it is
The lecture argues that generative systems are characterized by emergence. What do you think best describes such systems?
They follow precise trajectories, defined by systems originators
Their development cannot be fully predicted, since patterns do not repeat themselves
They are repeatedly disrupted by injections of new technologies
They suddenly materialize, without notice and without visible creators
Michel Avital paper (2007) argues that generative design is evocative. What best describes his argument? A generative design:
Triggers new thinking and inspires people to translate their ideas into new contexts
Inspires people to focus on problems at hand and develop solutions to address them
Allows for people to explore alternative alternative ideas and make informed choices about design and development
Facilitates rapid commercialization and sales of novel product and services
Michel Avital paper (2007) argues that generative design is open-ended. What best describes his argument? A generative design:
Is resistant to security breaches, since it is transparent
Is easily diffused, since they are stored in public repositories
Can virtually generate an infinite number of configuration
Engages distributed and varied developer audiences
Both the lecture and the readings (Bergman et al, 2007) refer to the work of Star and Griesmer (1989) for a definition of a boundary object. What do you think best describes that definition?
A boundary object is a bridge between human and material agents that increases the paces of change in ecosystems
A boundary object is a bridge between platform owners and end-users that opens up alternative revenue streams
A boundary object is a bridge between developers that facilitates the production of high quality code
A boundary object is a bridge between different social worlds that facilitates the alignment of interests
Boundary resources may serve several purposes for a platform owner. Mark the statement you find correct.
Boundary resources are used to empower ecosystems
Boundary resources are used to prevent hostile take-over of a platform
Boundary resources are used to make different platforms compatible with each other
Boundary resources may serve several purposes for a platform owner. Mark the statement you find correct.
Boundary resources are used to shift design capability to ecosystems
Boundary resources are used to exclude influence over ecosystems
Boundary resources are used to make different platforms incompatible with each other
Boundary resources may serve several purposes for a platform owner. Mark the statement you find correct.
Boundary resources are used to shift design capability to the platform
Boundary resources are used to influence the goverment
Boundary resources are used to exercise influence over ecosystems
The lecture argues that ecosystems are characterized by co-opetition. What is the definition of co-opetition?
Collaboration between competing stakeholders
Collaboration between highly different ecosystem agents
Competition between similar innovators
Co-location of competing developer teams
The paper by Bergman et al (2007) focuses on Design Boundary Objects. What best describes how such objects are useful?
Design boundary objects allow for platform development without any specifications
Design boundary objects are templates that can be efficiently replicated in economies of scale
Design boundary objects help overcome gaps in design knowledge among heterogeneous stakeholders
Design boundary objects facilitate rapid diffusion of information across heterogeneous ecosystems
Ghazawneh and Henfridsson (2013) introduced a boundary resources model. This model relies on the concepts of resourcing and securing. What statement best describes why platform owners engage in resourcing?
Resourcing helps expand the platform ecosystem
Resourcing helps control the platform ecosystem
Resourcing is a way to pay for engagement in the platform ecosystem
Resourcing is a way to buy assets for the platform ecosystem
The lecture presented 4 tactics for how to design boundary resources. The last one was tuning. What statement best describes this tactic?
Tuning is a process where platform owners reuse existing assets for new purposes by observing third-party developers
Tuning is a process where platform owners seek to enforce a sanctioned development practice on third-party developers
Tuning is an iterative process where boundary resources are shaped in the interplay between platform owners and third-party developers
Tuning is a process where platform owners take inspiration from other domains to extend the portfolio of boundary resources
Nambisan et al (2020) promote a transdisciplinary dialogue on digital innovation. Why is that important, according to this paper? Because digital innovation:
Adopts business models from other, service-oriented markets
Has the capability to bridge different market segments
Involves ideas and insights from a wide range of scientific fields
Produces highly different products and services
In the handbook for digital innovation, Nambisan et al (2020) propose 3 essential aspects of “digital”, driving digital innovation. One of them is ontologically reversal. What best captures their view on ontological reversal?
Digital objects have become much more accessible than physical objects
Digital objects have become much simpler than physical objects
Digital objects have become much cheaper than physical objects
Digital objects have become more “real” than physical objects
Svahn et al (2017) argue that organizations, to master digital innovation, must learn to balance competing concerns. What do you think best describes what competing concerns refers to, in this context?
Labor market conflicts, resolved through union negotiations
Competitors within a market, struggling for dominance
Conflicting aspects of innovation, which cannot be easily combined
Divergence between markets segments, based on similar products but different user categories
The paper “Mastering the Digital Innovation Challenge”, by Svahn et al (2017), describes how Volvo Cars struggled with competing concerns, I.e. Aspects that are contradictory or at least difficult to combine. What do you think best characterizes the contradictory nature of innovation focus concerns (i.e. The balancing of process and product foci)?
A focus on digital business models require service orientation, while the focus on physical products rely on direct sales
A process focus is about what to do, while a product focus is about what has already been done
A focus on digital artifacts requires process competence, while a focus on physical products requires product competence
A product focus calls for upfront identification of functions, while a process focus recognizes that functions emerge over time
The paper “Mastering the Digital Innovation Challenge”, by Svahn et al (2017), describes how Volvo Cars struggled with competing concerns, I.e. Aspects that are contradictory or at least difficult to combine. What do you think best characterizes the contradictory nature of innovation collaboration concerns (i.e. The balancing of internal and external collaboration)?
Physical products are typically developed by companies, while digital technologies spur from ecosystems
Physical products take time to develop, while digital technologies reach markets much quicker
Internal collaboration is carefully coordinated, while external collaboration is self-organizing
Internal collaboration focuses on physical products, while external collaboration focuses on digital services
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