Technology Project: Some Guidelines

1. Choose a Technology: It can be a specific item (steam engine, electric toaster, automobile, etc.) or a technological complex (e.g. electric power, highway network, etc.), or a technological project (e.g. the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the Manhattan Project, the Human Genome Project, etc.)

2. You will need to prepare a history of the project--who or what was responsible, what kind of social or political organization did it require, etc.

3. Where did the major impetus for the technology come from?  Who were the major sponsors, etc?

4. What sort of discoveries were necessary for the technology to be developed?  Who made them and why?

5. For whom was the technology designed? How were those people able to gain access to it? 

6. What were the social, political and environmental costs and benefits of the technology?  What were the effects on social relations or the distribution of political power?

7. What is the "penetration rate" of the technology: how man people have access to or use or depend on it?