Tech Talk @ Google

At Google Seattle tomorrow:


Web Archives & Interfaces for Social Studies of Online Action

About the Topic:
Capturing Web-based phenomena for retrospective and developmental analyses is a challenging necessity for social researchers interested in understanding online action. Choices at each step in the process of creating Web archives and archive interfaces reflect particular forms of knowledge, and shape the kinds of analyses that will be possible for archive users. We will compare several different Web archive interfaces, exploring how each shapes analysis paths that enable and constrain the lines of inquiry that can be pursued and the kinds of knowledge produced.

About the Speaker:
Kirsten Foot, Associate Professor of Communication, UW
Kirsten Foot earned her PhD in Communication at UC San Diego, and is an Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Washington in the areas of communication technologies & society and international communication. Her research interests include the reciprocal relationship between information/communication technologies and knowledge production. As one of the directors of the WebArchivist.org research group, she develops new tool and techniques for studying social and political action on the Web. She is the coauthor of Web Campaigning (MIT Press, 2006), coeditor of The Internet and National Elections (Routledge, 2007), and coproducer of several Web archives. She is an editor for the Acting With Technology book series at MIT Press, and an organizer for the Digital Media Working Group network at UW.

I'll be there, looks fascinating! More info.