Oertzen, Christine von (Author)
The advent both of punch cards and of the electric tabulating machine, which was invented in 1889, are typically described as key milestones in the development of modern data processing, bringing about a fundamental and inexorable transformation of information technology. This essay aims to decenter the American Hollerith revolution by assessing precisely how punch cards and machine processing transformed established manual techniques and practices of census compilation. By focusing on the Prussian census bureau and its long-standing reluctance to mechanize, this essay reveals an unremarked European revolution in data processing during the 1860s, when a new notion of “data,” novel paper tools, and a carefully nurtured workforce, including many women working from home, yielded unprecedentedly refined census statistics. The essay argues that manual concepts, technologies, and practices of data power—rather than punch cards and Hollerith machines—heralded the modern information age.
...MoreArticle Bruno J. Strasser; Paul N. Edwards (2017) Big Data Is the Answer … But What Is the Question?. Osiris: A Research Journal Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 328-345).
Article Elena Aronova; Christine von Oertzen; David Sepkoski (2017) Introduction: Historicizing Big Data. Osiris: A Research Journal Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 1-17).
Article
Steven Ruggles;
Diana L Magnuson;
(2020)
Census Technology, Politics, and Institutional Change, 1790–2020
(/isis/citation/CBB460583621/)
Article
Włodzimierz Gogołek;
(2017)
Refining Big Data
(/isis/citation/CBB158654943/)
Article
Christine von Oertzen;
(2021)
True to form: Media and data technologies of self-inscription
(/isis/citation/CBB573262366/)
Book
Germaine Halegoua;
(2020)
Smart Cities
(/isis/citation/CBB219487083/)
Article
Labbé, Morgane;
(2007)
Institutionalizing the Statistics of Nationality in Prussia in the 19th Century (From Local Bureaucracy to State-Level Census of Population)
(/isis/citation/CBB000773206/)
Article
Christine von Oertzen;
(2023)
Paper Knowledge and Statistical Precision
(/isis/citation/CBB422462024/)
Article
Anu Masso;
Maris Männiste;
Andra Siibak;
(2020)
‘End of Theory’ in the Era of Big Data: Methodological Practices and Challenges in Social Media Studies
(/isis/citation/CBB632756299/)
Article
Gregory Rodriguez;
(September 2019)
Autonomous Vehicles and Unmanned Aerial Systems: Data Collection and Liability
(/isis/citation/CBB342486962/)
Article
Shi, Yong;
(Winter 2014)
Big Data History, Current Status, and Challenges going Forward
(/isis/citation/CBB511260715/)
Book
Viktor Mayer-Schönberger;
Kenneth Cukier;
(2013)
Big Data: A Revolution that Will Transform how We Live, Work, and Think
(/isis/citation/CBB394194579/)
Article
Watts, Duncan J.;
(Winter 2013)
Computational Social Science: Exciting Progress and Future Directions
(/isis/citation/CBB953214411/)
Article
David Sepkoski;
(2017)
The Database before the Computer?
(/isis/citation/CBB586818085/)
Article
Jacy L. Young;
(2020)
Thinking in Multitudes: Questionnaires and Composite Cases in Early American Psychology
(/isis/citation/CBB385770594/)
Article
Waller, G. N. H.;
(2014)
A Review of Nineteenth-Century Records of Sowerby's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon bidens)
(/isis/citation/CBB001202225/)
Article
Jessica Pykett;
Mark Paterson;
(2022)
Stressing the ‘body electric’: History and psychology of the techno-ecologies of work stress
(/isis/citation/CBB933468112/)
Article
Josh Ellenbogen;
Alison Langmead;
(January 2020)
Forms of Equivalence: Bertillonnage and the History of Information Management
(/isis/citation/CBB934667166/)
Article
Filippo M Sposini;
(2021)
The paper technology of confinement: evolving criteria in admission forms (1850–73)
(/isis/citation/CBB754801671/)
Article
David Armstrong;
(February 2019)
The social life of data points: Antecedents of digital technologies
(/isis/citation/CBB757557196/)
Book
Valentino Catricalà;
(2024)
Le meraviglie dell’Avanguardia. Arte e tecnologia all'inizio del Novecento
(/isis/citation/CBB821854743/)
Book
Blok, Aad;
Downey, Greg;
(2003)
Uncovering labor in information revolutions, 1750--2000
(/isis/citation/CBB001180030/)
Be the first to comment!