Steering Innovation in Communication Infrastructures

The Internet of Objects, Artificial Intelligence, Smart Cities, and the 5G mobile communication standard are among the many challenges facing today public and private entities in charge of communication infrastructures. That technological evolution is “disruptive” is, however, nothing new: from the invention of telegraphy and railways to Internet and drones, the communications sector’s established ways of doing had to be repeatedly reinvented. The interaction between technological innovation and governance of communication infrastructures constitutes the theme of the conference in February 2020. We wish to explore how innovation was steered by postal and telecommunication companies, as well as by other public and private players in the field of communication infrastructures: enterprises, governments, professional and state organizations, the users. Innovation being inherently unforeseeable, it can be regulated and steered only with difficulty — which didn’t hold companies and governments back from trying to channel technological evolution and make it more compliant with their respective motivations. Thus the question arises where “innovation” is located for the different players on the spectrum ranging from invention and vision to utopia and ideology. The conference intends to shed light on how the steering of innovation in postal and other communication infrastructures functions. These questions have often been explored in the fields of business history and the history of science and technology. The organizing committee is, however, interested in a multidisciplinary approach, which would reveal the many factors at play in the steering of innovation, such as social, economical, political, cultural, and technological. The committee is furthermore seeking contributions on national case studies — Switzerland, the conference venue, is a most welcome study case —, to be balanced by international and transnational studies. Programm Wednesday, February 5, 2020 14.00 – 15.45 Welcome and Panel 1

• Heike Bazak (PTT-Archive), Christiane Sibille (Verein Geschichte und Informatik) - Welcome
• Larissa Schüller (Universität Zürich) - Weibliche Kommunikationsarbeit in den Schweizer Telefonzentralen um 1900
• Anne-Katrin Weber (Université de Lausanne): Innovation and the Discourse on Newness: The Case of Television’s “Revolutions”, 1920s to 1970s
• Diego Hättenschwiler (Bern): Wikipedia: ein unerwarteter Erfolg. Seine Publikationssoftware als Infrastruktur zur weltweiten Zusammenarbeit

16.00 – 17.00 Visit of the Communication Museum Thursday, February 6, 2020 09.30 – 10.30 Visit of the PTT-Archives 11.00 – 12.30 Panel 2

• Richard Vahrenkamp (Logistic Consulting, Berlin): Von der Eisenbahnlogistik zur elektronischen Revolution: Infrastrukturinvestitionen in den Paketumschlag der deutschen Post im 20. Jahrhundert
• Brice Demars (Université de Cergy-Pontoise, France): Les Postes françaises face au Minitel « politique »
• Eng Sengsavang (UNESCO); Karin Priem (University of Luxembourg): Media Technologies for a Better World: How UNESCO Steered Communication Infrastructures and Uses of Media after the Second World War

12.30 – 13.45 Lunch 13.45 – 15.15 Panel 3

• Marie Sandoz (Université de Lausanne): La station terrienne pour satellites de Loèche (1974 –aujourd’hui) : éclairage culturel sur l’histoire d’une infrastructure technique transnationale
• Paolo Bory, Ely Lüthi, Gabriele Balbi (Università della Svizzera italiana): The birth of the Swiss Supercomputing Centre (CSCS)
• Daniela Zetti (ETH Zürich): Switching to digital times. The Swiss academic network SWITCH, 1980–2000

15.15 – 15.45 Coffee break 15h45-17h: History and Innovation in Dialog

• A talk with Wolfgang Eger, CIO Swiss Post
• Moderated by Heike Bazak and Christiane Sibille

16.00 – 17.00 Roundtable