davidribes.com - Writing

Writing

---------------

Click on a link for a final or final-draft (PDF) version of the article or the journal web-page.

Updated January 2015.

---------------

Three key publications that will give you a good sense of my core research interests:

Ribes D and Polk JB (2015) Organizing for Ontological Change: The Kernel of a Research Infrastructure. Social Studies of Science 45(2): 214-241.

The paper offers the concept of 'the kernel' to explore the ability of infrastructure to support scientific research across ontological transformations. The paper tracks a longitudinal cohort study called the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS) which has continued to support investigations of HIV/AIDS for over 30 years, weathering dramatic and sometimes unpredictable transformations to its objects of research.

This article is written for an STS audience. For a similar approach, directed at CSCW/information studies, and which compares across AIDS and Ecological sciences, see this paper.

Ribes, D. and T. A. Finholt (2009). "The long now of infrastructure: Articulating tensions in development." Journal for the Association of Information Systems (JAIS): Special issue on eInfrastructures 10(5): 375-398.

Research infrastructures face many challenges as they seek to become long term and as they are sustained over time. Using cross case comparisons, this article identifies and illustrates nine tensions such organizations face at institutional, organizational and practical scales.

Ribes D. (2014). Ethnography of scaling or, How to fit a national research infrastructure in the room. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW'14). ACM, 158-170.

The paper offers the concept of 'scalar devices' as an object of analysis for the ethnographer. It recounts my ethnographic and archival approach to the study of large, global, or multisited things by focusing on how actors' themselves work to make sense of their own big endeavors.

---------------

Journal Publications

Ribes D and Polk JB (2015) Organizing for Ontological Change: The Kernel of a Research Infrastructure. Social Studies of Science 45(2): 214-241.

Gad C and Ribes D. (2014) The Conceptual and the Empirical in Science and Technology Studies. Science, Technology & Human Values39: 183-191.

Ribes D and Polk JB. (2014) Flexibility relative to what? Change to Research Infrastructure. Special Issue of the Journal of the Association of Information Systems (JAIS) on Innovation in Information Infrastructures 15: 287-305.

Millerand, F., D. Ribes, K.S. Baker, and G. C. Bowker. 2013. Making an Issue out of a Standard: Storytelling Practices in a Scientific Community. Science, Technology & Human Values 38 (1):7-43.

Ribes, D., Jackson, S. J., Geiger, R. S., Burton, M., & Finholt, T. (2012). Artifacts that organize: Delegation in the distributed organization. Information and Organization, 23(1), 1-14.

Ribes, D., & Lee, C. P. (2010). Sociotechnical Studies of Cyberinfrastructure and e-Research: Current Themes and Future Trajectories. Journal of Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 19(3-4), 231-244.

Ribes, D. and G. C. Bowker (2009). "Between meaning and machine: learning to represent the knowledge of communities." Information and Organization 19(4): 199-217.

Peer-Reviewed Proceedings Papers

(For those outside the information studies worlds, proceedings carry a fair weight within the community; many of my favorite pieces appear in these venues)

Ribes, D. (In Press). Notes on the Concept of Interoperability: Cases from an Ecology of AIDS Research Infrastructures. In Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW).

Ribes D. (2014). Ethnography of scaling or, How to fit a national research infrastructure in the room. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW'14). ACM, 158-170.

Ribes D. (2014). The Kernel of a Research Infrastructure. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). ACM, 574-587.

Ribes, D. and J. B. Polk (2012). Historical Ontology and Infrastructure. Proceedings of the 2012 iConference. Toronto, CA, ACM: 252-264.

Jackson, S. J., D. Ribes, et al. (2011). Collaborative rhythm: temporal dissonance and alignment in collaborative scientific work. ACM 2011 conference on Computer supported cooperative work. Hangzhou, China, ACM: 245-254.

Geiger, R. S., & Ribes, D. (2011). Trace Ethnography: Following Coordination through Documentary Practices. Proceedings of the 44th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS).

Jackson, Steve, Ribes, David, and Buyuktur, Ayse (2010) 'Exploring Collaborative Rhythm: Temporal Flow and Alignment in Collaborative Scientific Work', Proceedings of the 2010 iConference, Urbana-Champagne, Feb 2-6 2010.

Geiger, S. and D.Ribes (2010). ‘The work of sustaining order in Wikipedia: The banning of a vandal,’ Proceedings of the 2010 ACM conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), Savannah, Georgia, USA, February 6–10.

Ribes, D. and T. A. Finholt (2008). ‘Representing community: Knowing users in the face of changing constituencies.‘ Proceedings of the 2008 ACM conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), San Diego, CA, Nov.8-12.

Ribes, David and Finholt, Thomas A. (2007) ‘Tensions across the Scales: Planning Infrastructure for the Long-Term‘, Proceedings of the 2007 international ACM SIGGROUP conference on Supporting group work, Sanibel Island, Florida, USA.

Ribes, David and Baker, K.S. (2007) ‘Modes of Social Science Engagement in Community Infrastructure Design‘, in Steinfield, Brian T. Pentland, M. Ackerman and N. Contractor (eds), Proceedings of Third International Conference on Communities and Technology (London: Springer): 107-30.

Ribes, David and Finholt, Thomas A. (2007) ‘Planning infrastructure for the long-term: Learning from cases in the natural sciences‘, Proceedings of the Third International Conference on e-Social Science, Ann Arbor, MI June 2006.

Ribes, David and Baker, K.S. (2006) ‘Elements of Social Science Engagement in Information Infrastructure Design’, ACM: The Proceedings of the 7th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research, San Diego, CA, May 21-24.

Baker, K.S., Ribes, David, Millerand, Florence and Bowker, Geoffrey C. (2005) ‘Interoperability Strategies for Scientific Cyberinfrastructure: Research Practice‘, in, Proceedings of the American Society for Information Systems and Technology.

Ribes, David, Baker, K.S., Millerand, Florence and Bowker, Geoffrey C. (2005) ‘Comparative Interoperability Project: Configurations of Community, Technology, Organization‘, Proceedings of the Second ACM/IEEE-CS Joint Conference on Digital Libraries.

Book Chapters

Vertesi J, Ribes D, Loukissas Y, Forlano L, Cohn, M. (In Press). Engaging, Designing and Making Digital Systems. Handbook of Science and Technology Studies. MIT Press

Ribes D. (In Press). Materiality methodology and a few tricks of the trade in studying data and samples. In digitalSTS: A Fieldguide. Princeton University Press.

Ribes, D. (2014). Redistributing representational work: Tracing a material multidisciplinary link. In A. Carusi, A. S. Hoel, T. Webmoor & S. Woolgar (Eds.), Visualization in the Age of Computerization. London: Routledge.

Ribes, David, and S. J. Jackson. 2013. Data Bite Man: The Work of Sustaining a Long-Term Study. In "Raw Data" is an Oxymoron, edited by L. Gitelman. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press: 147-166.

Bowker, Geoffrey C., Baker, K.S., Millerand, Florence and Ribes, David (2010) ‘Towards Information Infrastructure Studies: Ways of Knowing in a Networked Environment’, in J.D. Hunsinger, M. Allen and L. Klastrup (eds), International Handbook of Internet Research: Springer.

Ribes, David and Bowker, Geoffrey C. (2008) 'Organizing for Multidisciplinary Collaboration: The Case of the Geosciences Network', in G.M. Olson, A. Zimmerman and Nathan Bos (eds), Scientific Collaboration on the Internet (Cambridge: MIT Press): 311-30.

Reports

Edwards, P. N., Jackson, S. J., Chalmers, M. K., Bowker, G. C., Borgman, C. L., Ribes, D., Burton, M. Calvert, S. (2013). Knowledge Infrastructures: Intellectual Frameworks and Research Challenges . Ann Arbor: Deep Blue.

Ribes D and Bowker GC. (2011). The Long Now: Revolutions in knowledge production and exchange in the 21st Century and the need for large-scale, long-term qualitative research of sociotechnical systems in Rebuilding the Mosaic: Fostering Research in the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences at the National Science Foundation in the Next Decade. Publication Number: NSF 11-086.

Epstein S and Ribes D. (2001) Book-Length Scholarship on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues As Reflected in Contemporary Sociology, 1972-2000. Report prepared for the American Sociological Association’s Committeee on the Status of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Persons in Sociology, 12 December 2001.

Editor: Journal Special Issues

Gad C and Ribes D. (2014) Special Issue: The Conceptual and the Empirical - Expanding STS. Science, Technology & Human Values (STH&V).

Lee CP, Ribes D, Bietz MJ, Karasti H and Jirotka M. (2010) Special Issue: Sociotechnical Studies of Cyberinfrastructure and e-Research: Supporting Collaborative Research. Journal of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (JCSCW).

Editorials

Ribes D and Hackett EJ. (2014). Book Reviews at ST&HV. Science, Technology & Human Values (ST&HV) 39: 1-2.

Book Reviews and Other Publications

Ribes, David (2008) ‘“The Matter of Users” Review of How Users Matter: The Co-Construction of users and technologies, Nelly Oudshoorn and Trevor Pinch (eds.)’, Metascience 17/1.

Ribes, David (2008) ‘“Tying Internet Studies Together” Review of Sociology in the Age of the Internet, Allison Cavanagh’, Metascience 17/2.

Khoo, Mick and Ribes, David (2005) ‘Studying Digital Library Users in the Wild: Theories, Methods, and Analytical Approaches‘, in, D-Lib Magazine.

Ribes, David (2005) ‘The Positions of the Social Scientist: Social and Technical Acts of Intervention’, D-Lib Magazine 11/7/8 (July/August).

Baker, K.S, Bowker, G.C, Millerand, F., Ribes, D. (Spring 2005) “Continuing an Ethnographic Approach - Interoperability Strategies for Scientific Cyberinfrastructure: A Comparative Study” LTER Network Newsletter.

Dissertation

Ribes, D. (2006). Universal Informatics: Building Cyberinfrastructure, Interoperating the Geosciences, in the Department of Sociology (Science Studies). (San Diego: University of California).