Anthony J. Pennings, PhD

WRITINGS ON AI POLICY, DIGITAL ECONOMICS, ENERGY STRATEGIES, AND GLOBAL E-COMMERCE

Spreadsheet Formulas and the Temporal Imperatives of the Leveraged Buyout Economy

The IBM PC and its compatibles (Compaq, Dell, DEC Rainbow 100), powered by Intel’s microprocessors, provided the hardware platform for the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet to thrive in the 1980s. The spreadsheet’s features, combined with Intel’s 8088’s processing power, made it a versatile tool for financial professionals. This post analyzes the digital spreadsheet’s capability to use […]

Lotus 1-2-3, Temporal Finance, and the Rise of Spreadsheet Capitalism

One of the books I read during my PhD years was Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco (1989), about the $25 billion leveraged buyout (LBO) of the iconic conglomerate (tobacco/snacks/) by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR). An LBO is the purchase of a company using large amounts of short-term debt and […]

The Framing Power of Digital Spreadsheets

The power of framing in digital spreadsheets arises from the ability to define what data is included, how it is processed by functions or formulas, and the visual or numerical emphasis placed on specific inputs and outcomes. Spreadsheets exert framing power through selecting and prioritizing data, formula logic and embedded assumptions, standardization and norms, simplifying complex realities, and selective presentation of results.

The Digital Spreadsheet: Interface to Space-Time, and Beyond?

The digital spreadsheet, a visual interface, uses language and numerical information organized for intelligibility and uses media and mathematical formulas to initiate horizontal and vertical causation. The spreadsheet interfaces the conscious agent with space-time and the quantum realm to operate in the space-time reality and to “summon” new realities through the acts of writing and measurement.

Technostructural Stages of Global ICT for Development (ICT4D)

This post explores and outlines the following stages or phases of economic and social development utilizing information and communications technologies. The ICT acronym has emerged as a popular moniker, especially in international usage, for the digital technology revolution and is often combined with “development” to form ICT4D.

VisiCalc and the Rise of the PC Spreadsheet

The big computer mainframes of the 1960s and even the minicomputers of the time were not accessible enough to provide the type of direct experience needed to play with the numbers by making multiple changes and producing various scenarios that would make the spreadsheets so valuable later on. It was the microprocessor-enabled PCs that made possible the successive lineage of major digital spreadsheet applications – VisiCalc, Lotus 1-2-3, Microsoft’s Excel, and Google Sheets that transformed modern organizational practices.

The Techno-Epistemology of Databases, Part I

Techno-epistemology refers to knowledge produced, categorized, and certified within a particular technological context. In particular, it asks how the characteristics of the technology shape the ways of perceiving, recording, and organizing knowledge. Database technology and management are at the nexus of systematizing knowledge in the organization.

Digital Spreadsheets as Remediated Technologies

The digital spreadsheet was designed as an electronic document in which data was arranged in the rows and columns of a matrix and could be manipulated and used in calculations. It combined listing, tabling, and other formulaic calculations to create a new imaginative technology that transformed modern finance and the management of organizations – large, and especially the small.

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  • About Me

    Professor at State University of New York (SUNY) Korea since 2016. Moved to Austin, Texas in August 2012 to join the Digital Media Management program at St. Edwards University. Spent the previous decade on the faculty at New York University teaching and researching information systems, digital economics, and strategic communications.

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    apennings70@gmail.com
    anthony.pennings@sunykorea.ac.kr

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