Abstract

This thesis attempts to specify the political economy (the 'scale' and 'convention') of late twentieth century America and the role that the internet plays with a specific example from healthcare. It's thematic concern is the spectrum leading from language to technology ('programmed languages') that includes English prose, buzzwords and hype, regulatory legislation, copyright and contract law, software source code, and technical standards for software, protocols and telecommunications design. The thesis argues that the conventions of standardization on the internet promote a permanent modifiability or openness of the medium based on provisional consensus, as opposed to those of modern bureaucratic standardization that demand stability and firm consensus. The argument is specified by reference to ethnographic research in an internet healthcare start-up company and a Telemedicine Research Center in a large academic medical center, and research on the standards processes of the internet. The thesis then raises concerns about the political implications of the argument by reference to several actors who understand and promote "open-ness" of various sorts ('open source' software, open government, and similar principles of monitoring and modifying in manufacturing practice). The configuration of property law, contract law, the political economy of the American regulatory state and the American healthcare infrastructure is laid out in order to explain how demands for such versions of 'open-ness' have become possible.

Last Modified 11-Sep-99 9:11 PM ckelty@mit.edu

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