Dear stsing community,
We are happy to share an invitation from our member Fabian Pittroff (Ruhr University Bochum & RUSTlab) to a new working group.
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Hi there!
I would like to start a working group on data, and have already sent out an email to a few people and got some positive feedback. I'm happy to extend this invitation to everyone interested. Here, you can read about the basic idea, as well as next steps.
I would love to hear from you! If you're interested, drop me a line by 19 January. There will be an (online) get-together in February or March. 📧 fabian.pittroff@rub.de
The idea
After a decade of critical data studies, the field is as relevant as ever. AI is just the latest chapter in the story of creating/using data *somehow*, without talking enough about the multiple ways in which data come into being and are transformed. Many of you did work on this already, and I would love to hear about it. This can be about data of any kind, while I'm particularly interested in niche data, data in the everyday, and data that does not fit into any data centre. Numbers in tables are data, sure, but there are other, carefully described collections that might be data, too. Data might be found everywhere, wherever things are collected, labelled, classified, edited, compared, annotated, and archived. My own focus is currently on research data in the humanities, where I have found small and personal data practices that aren't measured or counted, but are otherwise observed, felt, recorded and sorted. I hope this will be just one of multiple (!) cases the group can work on. I bet you know others. This is not least timely and political because universities are in the midst of developing and implementing research data services and policies. National research data infrastructures are just now trying to consolidate their efforts into streamlined processes. Now is the time that politics become infrastructures that decide what (research) data can be.
The plan (so far)
If you're interested, the first step is to drop me a line by 19 January. I will get back to you later in January to organise an online meeting in February or March, where we can map out our interests, talk about methods of exchange, and future schedules. 📧 fabian.pittroff@rub.de
Additionally, the stsing e.V. conference Before Ruins is coming up (25–27 March, Bochum), and I applied for a working group session – a great opportunity to discuss papers, make plans for the future, or just meet in person. Registration for the conference is open from 15 January to 15 February. 🔗 https://stsing.org/before-ruins/about
I'm also holding a session at STS Graz (4–6 May) called “Data multiple. An inquiry into methodologies and ontologies of data” (ID 9). I invite you to submit a paper, or just come by. The call ends on 27 January, and papers need to be submitted via the conference website. 🔗 https://stsconf.tugraz.at/calls/call-for-abstracts
Best from Bochum, Fabian