About
I study the history of computing and software interfaces, with a particular interest in digital archives and preservation.
My first book, Psychedelic Software, is forthcoming via MIT Press.
I am Assistant Professor in the School of Information at San José State University,
I am also Senior Fellow in the Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography at Rare Book School (University of Virginia) and Senior Book Reviews Editor for Information & Culture.
For research updates, follow me on Academia.edu, ResearchGate, or Google Scholar.
Select Publications
“Coastal water information orders: Reverse-engineering New York City’s data dashboards.” Social Studies of Science (with co-author Rachel Paprocki)
“A bibliographic archeology of game-like conspiracy narratives: Examining the Ong’s Hat Incunabula catalog.” Journal of Documentation, 81(3).
“The Role of Paradata in Algorithmic Accountability.” In Perspectives on Paradata: Research and Practice of Documenting Process Knowledge (eds. I. Huvila, L. Andersson, & O. Sköld). Springer International Publishing (with co-author Ciaran B. Trace)
“Algorithmic Futures: The Intersection of Algorithms and Evidentiary Work.” Information, Communication & Society (with co-author Ciaran B. Trace)
Taxonomizing Information Practices in a Large Conspiracy Movement: Using Early QAnon as a Case Study. Information & Culture 58(2).
Preserving algorithmic systems: a synthesis of overlapping approaches, materialities and contexts. Journal of Documentation (with co-author Ciaran B. Trace)
“How to Collect a Corpus of Websites With a Web Crawler.” In SAGE Research Methods: Doing Research Online (Morgan Currie, ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publishing.
“Simulating Domestic Space in 1990s Technoculture: Timothy Leary’s Virtual Home Library.” In Reading Home Cultures Through Books, (Kirsti Salmi-Niklander and Marija Dalbello, eds.). London, UK: Routledge.
“Forensic Analysis of Memetic Image Propagation: Introducing the SMOC BRISQUEt Method.” Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology (with co-authors Mitch Chaiet and Praful Gupta)
“Transcoding Authenticity: Preserving Unreleased Gaming Software Outside of Memory Institutions.” Journal of Documentation, 78(2).
“Forensically Reconstructing Biomedical Maintenance Labor: PDF Metadata Under the Epistemic Conditions of COVID-19.” Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 72(11).
“Forensic Approaches to Evaluating Primary Sources in Internet History Research: Reconstructing Early Web-based Archival Work (1989–1996).” Internet Histories, 5(2).
“Forensic Materiality and Technocratic Self-Regulation in the 1980s Software Cracking Scene.” IEEE Annals of Computer History, 41(4), spec. issue on Governance in the History of Computing, (Gerardo Con Diaz, ed.).
“Comparing Born-Digital Artifacts Using Bibliographic Archeology: A Survey of Timothy Leary’s Published Software (1985-1996).” Information Research, 24(2), spec. issue on Archaeology and Information Research, (Huvila, I., Dalbello, M., Dallas, C., Faniel, I.M., & Olsson, M., eds.).
“How Do I Hold This Thing? Controlling Reconstructed Q*Berts.” New Media and Society 19(10), spec. issue on Haptic Media Studies (David Parisi, Mark Paterson, and Jason Archer, eds.).