EVENT DETAILS

Geoffrey Bowker: Digital humanities and values in design: the view from CALIT2

Geof Bowker is professor of informatics at UCI and director of the EVOKE Lab and Studio. In this lunchtime conversation, Geof will share his research with us and discuss possibilities for cross-over involving CALIT2, informatics, and the School of Humanities.

Geof describes his research:

"Here at the Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences, I am delighted to serve as Professor and Director of our Values in Design Laboratory. Prior to finding a place in the sun, I was Professor of Cyberscholarship at the iSchool, University of Pittsburgh, and before that Executive Director and the Regis and Dianne McKenna Professor at the Center for Science, Technology and Society at Santa Clara University (CA). I research on the use of web and other digital resources across a set of disciplines. I work with scholars to uncover ways in which new forms of knowledge are being (or could be) generated by creative use of  these digital resources.  For example: how did a complete database of classical Greek literature transform work in the classics; or how could intensive, long term monitoring of ecosystems feed into a new policy framework for sustainability? My work on information infrastructure involves looking at shifting classification systems in medicine, distributed collaborative work practices in environmental science, data sharing practices and biodiversity informatics. My central analytic question here is how scientists in the various sciences contributing to the subject of biodiversity communicate both with each other and with policymakers - and in particular how do the data structures and practices in use affect this communication. My book on information management and industrial geophysics at Schlumberger, Science on the Run, is to be found in quality bookshops in airports everywhere; my book with Susan Leigh Star, Sorting Things Out: Classification and its Consequences was published by MIT Press in October, 1999 and is available at your neighbourhood online bookseller. A paperback version came out in September 2000. I am working right now (even as you are reading this) on distributed scientific work, with an emphasis on social and organizational features of emerging scientific cyberinfrastructures."