Norms and Open Systems in Open Science
by Johanna Cohoon and James Howison
p. 115-137
Abstract
Through a review of studies of open science and open behaviors (data sharing, open access publishing, open source software development) and editorial writing that promotes open science, we identify two themes prominent in the advocacy of open science: normative (Mertonian) scientific values and the importance of open systems. We report examples of these themes and suggest that open science advocates understand the movement as a value-driven ethos pursuing improved science through the use of technology. We contend that a belief in the open ethos is distinct from participation in open behaviors and that, consequently, open systems are used by two ideologically distinct user groups. We conclude by discussing the implications of this characterization of open science, focusing on the consequences of different user groups using the same technological systems.
Johanna (Hannah) Cohoon is a doctoral candidate in the School of Information at UT Austin. Her research is focused on the process of change in science. She received her BA in cognitive science from the University of Virginia and worked at the Center for Open Science before becoming a Longhorn.
James Howison is an associate professor in the School of Information at UT Austin. A sociotechnical systems scholar, he studies open software development, especially in science. He publishes in OSCW, MIS Quarterly, and JASIST and is supported by the Sloan Foundation and the NSF (2015 CAREER, 2019 PECASE) (http://james.howison.name).
Processing Mad Men: Media Studies, Legitimation, and Archival Description
by Kate Cronin
p. 138-157
Abstract
Media scholars and historians are well aware of major gaps within the archival record, gaps that have fundamentally shaped the theories and methodologies of media studies as a discipline. However, much of the valuable media studies research that has been done to interrogate ideological work within "the archive" is actually research into the politics of one specific archival process: acquisition. This article focuses instead on the process of archival description. Comparing the rhetorical strategies present in the press surrounding the Harry Ransom Center's (HRC) acquisition of Matthew Weiner's Mad Men materials with the HRC finding aid's description of the collection itself, this article demonstrates a historiographical imperative for media scholars to cultivate basic archival literacies drawn from the archival disciplines themselves. I argue that by better valuing the intellectual labor of archivists, media scholars will be well-positioned to make use of the considerable archival record that does remain.
Kate Cronin has a master’s degree in film and media preservation from the University of Rochester and is currently a PhD candidate in the Radio-TV-Film Department at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on the labor and practices of information professionals within the US film and television industries.
Leveraging Secrets: Displaced Archives, Information Asymmetries, and Ba'thist Chronophagy in Iraq
by Michael Degerald
p. 158-177
Abstract
During ruptures in state power in both 1991 and 2003, varying groups and individuals seized many Iraqi state archival records, with some later taken outside of the country. Different Iraqi groups gathered unprotected archival records, as did US troops in 2003, while other records were destroyed on the ground in Iraq, likely by state employees, to maintain the records' secrets. Would the information in these records be revealed, destroyed, or used by others to leverage power? Using the concept of information asymmetry, this article explores the battle over information held in Iraqi state archival records by tracing the shifting power relations and attempts to write Iraqi history based on the information the records contain. Accordingly, this article takes up the question of scholarly engagement with the displaced records.
Michael Degerald is a guest researcher at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University. He holds a PhD in Near and Middle Eastern studies from the University of Washington (2018). His research focuses on cultural, intellectual, and media histories of Iraq and the Levant during the Cold War.
Minding the Gap: Creating Meaning from Missing and Anomalous Data
by Ciaran B. Trace and Yan Zhang
p. 178-216
Abstract
Complicating the notion that personal surveillance is always ubiquitous and pervasive, this article investigates the macro-, meso-, and microlevel "gaps" that confound the study of self-tracking. Literature from human-computer interaction, critical data studies, and archival science, as well as insights from qualitative research by the authors into the long-term value of self-tracking data, is used to expand a typology of "gaps" that exist as part of the activities, behaviors, technologies, and data practices of self-tracking. In this article an emphasis is placed on elucidating microlevel accountable and expressive gaps, articulating how people respond to and make sense of the temporal absences in their own self-tracking data. In the process, the authors argue for self-tracking research to reorient from a perspective that seeks to mitigate all data gaps to one in which data gaps are viewed as an opportunity to connect individuals with meaningful changes in the patterns of life.
Ciaran B. Trace and Yan Zhang are associate professors at the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin. Trace’s research examines what constitutes a literate society and the role that people play in creating and sustaining literate environments. Zhang’s research centers on consumer health information needs and information search behavior.
Archival Returns: Central Australia and Beyond ed. by Linda Barwick, Jennifer Green, and Petronella Vaarzon-Morel (review)
Monica Galassi
p. 217-218
Archival Returns: Central Australia and Beyond
edited by Linda Barwick, Jennifer Green, and Petronella Vaarzon-Morel
SYDNEY UNIVERSITY PRESS AND LANGUAGE DOCUMENTATION & CONSERVATION, 2020. 372 PP.
PAPERBACK, AUD$45
ISBN 978-1-7433-2672-5
Architects of Memory: Information and Rhetoric in a Networked Archival Age by Nathan R. Johnson (review)
James A. Hodges
p. 219-220
Architects of Memory: Information and Rhetoric in a Networked Archival Age
by Nathan R. Johnson
UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA PRESS, 2020. 224 PP.
CLOTH/EBOOK, $49.95
ISBN 978-0-8173-2060-7
The Creativity Code: Art and Innovation in the Age of AI by Marcus Du Sautoy (review)
Jina Hong
p. 221-222
The Creativity Code: Art and Innovation in the Age of AI
by Marcus Du Sautoy
BELKNAP PRESS OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2019. 312 PP.
PAPERBACK, $17.95
ISBN 978-0-6749-8813-2
The Known Citizen: A History of Privacy in Modern America by Sarah E. Igo (review)
Andrea Ringer
p. 223-224
The Known Citizen: A History of Privacy in Modern America
by Sarah E. Igo
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2020. 569 PP.
HARDCOVER, $35
ISBN 978-0-6747-3750-1
Lie Machines: How to Save Democracy from Troll Armies, Deceitful Robots, Junk News Operations, and Political Operatives by Philip N. Howard (review)
Claudia Flores-Saviaga
p. 225-226
Lie Machines: How to Save Democracy from Troll Armies, Deceitful Robots, Junk News Operations, and Political Operatives
by Philip N. Howard
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2020. 240 PP.
HARDCOVER, $26
ISBN 978-0-3002-5020-6
The Information Manifold: Why Computers Can't Solve Algorithmic Bias and Fake News by Antonio Badia (review)
Christiana Varda
p. 227-228