research projects:

access to knowledge

at yale i'm participating in the access to knowledge initiative. in the digital era, most multinational corporations and policymakers are of the view that the current trend characterised by increasing intellectual property rights and corporate control over knowledge best serve society's interests. at the same time, however, a growing number of commentators believe that widespread access to knowledge (A2K) and the preservation of a healthy knowledge commons are the real basis for sustainable human development. Nonetheless, intellectual property-based approaches continue to singlehandedly dictate global legal norms and shape national legal infrastructures. the first goal of the Yale A2K Initiative is to come up with a new analytic framework for analysing the possibly distortive effects of public policies relying exclusively on intellectual property rights. beyond this aim, the A2K initiative seeks to support the adoption and development of alternative ways to foster greater access to knowledge in the digitally connected environment.

the open world

within the context of information systems, this work investigates the complex interconnections that exist among technology and ideology, language and legitimation, authority and assimilation, expertise and reputation. Specifically, it explores the links between metaphors and values and the ways by which the former enable or constrain the embedding of the latter within information technology (IT). This is a story about how, at a particular historical moment at the end of the 20th century and the end of the cold war, a combination of social, political, technological, economical and legal factors coalesce to allow the centuries-old values of participatory democracy to strengthen their influence on the design, production and deployment of IT and to become significant drivers for its shaping across multiple domains. This thesis tries to do several things concomitantly ­ to tell a story about the ways in which a "closed" world opens up; launch an investigation that explores the mechanisms that govern socio-technical construction in a rapidly changing environment; offer an analysis of a revolution that does not resort to techno-revolutionary speech; and, finally, search for the traces of a shift in the balance of values that are constructed, reflected and perpetuated in our 'information age' and our 'network economy', terms that in themselves need to and will be unpacked.

understanding FLOSS

a set of my essays develops a cultural theory of FLOSS (free/libre open source software). writing against deterministic explanations of floss (economic, technological) I aim to bring the social, cultural and political back into the picture. to do so, I draw on lessons learned in Science and Technology Studies, and look at points of controversy. my two focus areas right now are scholarly publishing and healthcare, where I look at how FLOSS (taken broadly) plays a part in shaping systems that are in radical flux. check out the papers and talks sections of this site to get a feel for my theory in progress.


the designer's guide to technology and schizophrenia

this is a fragmentary attempt to refelect on digital culture and develop safe principles of design. the project is currently under review at Postmodern Culture
visit the project homepage here
Arguably, the practices of technological design have always been informed by cultural, political and social values. The difference with today's information science systems, however, is that striving for engineering objectivity often renders value choices invisible. This concealment creates a dichotomy of sorts: on the one hand, we are ever more aware of technology, the role it plays in our lives and the perils it embodies- at least since Freud, Heidegger, and Huxley (if not before) there is a growing sensibility to fictional and non-fictional stories about technology and its discontents-- we have come to appreciate and fear the dangers of brave new worlds and matrices, we have come to abhor visions of dystopic societies taken over by technology, we are suspicious of the conflation of economy and technology and to the affects of this meltdown on 'society'. On the other hand, however, we have only begun to develop the perceptiveness to the stories that unfold everyday in the form of chips, printed-circuits, antennas, compilers, and bits. In the early years of computing and information systems design, most research has revolved around input and output to these systems: how information is extracted, codifiry ed and distributed. But when ubiquitous computing systems and sensors move computational power and communication capacity into every aspect of our environments, resulting in what Kroker has been termed as digital delirium, it is important that we realize‹building upon a growing body of work in technology studies and critical theory--that these new systems need to be conceptualized as integral components of our everyday value-laden activities, and not as separate entities.

appraise

Project Team: Shay David, Geri Gay, Carl Lagoze, Bing Pan, Simeon Warner
Appraise, explores the relationship between the technological basis of scholarly communication and the structure of scholarly communities and institutions. The project explores how documents provide the context for ideation and other scholarly activities in an environment which is in radical flux. A hypothesis of the research is that there is a reflexive relationship between the nature of documents and the nature of the social-networks in which scholarly activity takes place. By exploring the arXiv e-print archive (arguably the preeminent manifestation of innovative publishing) the project aims to reveal the detailed structure of a hybrid network (see image below) that includes human and material actors while developing methods for analyzing it. Using quantitative and qualitative research methods (including ethnography, social-network analyses, and citation analysis) this project will inform the building of mechanisms and software that facilitates hybrid networks in information systemsí design.

you can see a presentation from our recent talk here



cemcom

cemcom, or Culturally Embedded Computing is a research group at Cornell Information Science and Science & Technology Studies

At CEMCOM We analyze, design, build, and evaluate computing devices in cultural context. We analyze the ways in which technologies reflect and perpetuate unconscious cultural assumptions, and design, build, and test new computing devices that reflect alternative possibilities for technology. We are part of a community of critical technical practices [as coined by Phil Agre], or practices that integrate technical system-building with cultural, philosophical, and critical reflection on technical practice. We have a focus on reflective design, or design practices that help both users and designers reflect on their experiences and the role technology plays in those experiences. We work with collaborators in the Affective Presence coalition to develop an approach to affective computing in which the full complexity of human emotions and relationships as experienced by users in central to design (rather than the extent to which computers can understand and process those emotions).

We draw from, contribute to, and mutually inform the technical fields of human computer interaction and artificial intelligence and the humanist/sociological fields of cultural and science & technology studies.