iConference 2012

My next trip will be to the iConference in Toronto.

This will be the first presentation of my new research thread focusing on historical ontology and phenomeno-technical change. This is really exciting for me, and there is more to come!

Historical Ontology and Infrastructure

ABSTRACT
We explore the relationship between long-term scientific
infrastructure and its changing objects of research. Specifically,
we focus on the historical changes in HIV disease during the life
of a longitudinal medical study that has been investigating it for
nearly thirty years. We ask: within the study of information
infrastructure and research-based organizations, what are the
things that inherently change, and how do such changes
reverberate through the structure and organization of
infrastructure? In applying the notion of historical ontology to
cyberinfrastructure, we present the groundwork for a broader
understanding of the sustainability of infrastructure within an
environment inherently in flux.

I am also co-organizing (with Jillian Wallis) a discussion panel of Monitoring, Modeling and Memory (MMM) Cyberinfrastructure scholars:

The State of Infrastructure Studies

Paul N. Edwards – What is Infrastructure Studies? (University of Michigan)
Geoffrey C. Bowker – When is Infrastructure? (University of Pittsburgh)
Ayse G. Buyuktur – Method in Infrastructure Studies (University of Michigan)
Steven J. Jackson – Maintenance and Repair (Cornell)
David Ribes – Units of Analysis: Beyond ‘the Project’ (Georgetown)
Jillian C. Wallis & Christine L. Borgman – Collaborative responsibility for scientific data (UCLA)