Fears and Fascinations -75 years of legislative struggle with information technology: Methodology (ELS)

70 years ago, in June 1952, the so-called Automatic Relay Calculating Machine Amsterdam, or ARRA was inaugurated, at the Mathematical Centre of the University of Amsterdam. The mayor of Amsterdam d´Ailly and the Minister of Education and Science Rutten were invited to officially put the “calculating robot” as it was called in Dutch media in use. They pushed a button, the ARRA produced some random numbers and then it stopped and never worked again.
The ambition to develop computers in this post-war era in the NL fitted very well into the optimistic post-war climate of reconstruction, and the search for economic growth through innovation and industrialisation, and thanks to the Marshall plan there were more financial means than ever for scientific research and industrial development.
So, In the years 1946-1949 about 350.000 Dutch guilders had been allocated by the Ministry for the development of the first computer, the Mathematical centre was subsidized by the brand new governmental organisation for fundamental research (ZWO) and the Minister himself not only officially inaugurated the first Dutch Computer but also was a member of the board of the MC. All this public display of political support contributed to the societal and political acceptance and even to the embracing of this brand new technology.
It would take another 40 years or so (until 1989 and 1993) before the first Dutch computer legislation in the strict sense of the word would enter into force. But the Dutch legislator (the government and the parliament) started reflecting and debating about the introduction of computer technology in Dutch society long before that.
In this period the (pre-)legislative process was in fact anticipating the rise of computer technology itself. My impression is that it was a crucial phase where Dutch parliament was testing or preparing for future ICT legislation, warming up for the real thing. And it could well be that their attitudes back then might even help to explain why our current ICT laws are as they are.
Central in my research is the empirical (qualitative) research– a discourse analysis - of the early debates that took place in Dutch parliament with regard to new computer technologies in which I try to uncover their views, appreciation, ambitions etc (in short, their feelings) with regard to that new technology.
In this lecture I addressed some of the methodological problems I encountered during my empirical research.