ProjectDef_LP

Project Definition || A Cultural Analysis of the Semantic Web’s Information Infrastructure
 * figuring out methods
 * Working title:

Key words: information infrastructure, history of AI, semantic Web, logics/thought styles, data structures ||
 * Data sets? || Social theoretical questions? || Research questions? || Why now? || How prepared? || Bias? || Fields of Work? || Funders? ||
 * Email archives for the development of OWL – the Web Ontology Language || How do competing epistemologies/worldviews become embedded in information infrastructures?

How does the design of information infrastructure shape what is permitted to become knowledge/a politics of knowledge representation? || How do legacy thought styles from artificial intelligence, cybernetics, information studies, linguistics, and computer science shape the way Semantic Web engineers approach the Web’s design?

How do competing thought styles get negotiated (or do they) in the development of controlled vocabularies and ontologies? Is it more a trick? Or a hypertension?

How do those building the semantic Web distinguish which "differences make a difference"? What modes of thinking get them there? || OWL is increasingly shaping how we experience information on the Web || Jim Hendler is ready to hand over the email archives to me. || Friendships with individuals that will be discussing in these conversations || History of computing and AI

Science Studies

Information infrastructure studies || Mellon ||
 * The data formats/structures themselves || How do competing epistemologies/worldviews become embedded in information infrastructures?

How does the design of information infrastructure shape what is permitted to become knowledge/a politics of knowledge representation? || How do the shapes and affordances of the Web’s data structures reflect (or better refract) legacy thought styles?

Whose knowledge is represented on the Web? Whose is eclipsed?

How do the affordances of the Web - from hypertext to controlled vocabularies - influence what information becomes discoverable?

How do the Web (and AI’s) data structures - such as frames - produce information margins? || The field of critical code studies/software studies is just starting to gain traction, and it could benefit from a broader understanding of what “reading code” could entail. || I’ve been working with the Semantic Web for several years and have developed a fairly strong understanding of its workings. I’ve also worked with other types of data structures. || Humanness (I may be kidding). || Critical code studies

Software studies

Language theories

Cultural anthro? || Mellon || What macro-structures (DARPA, the W3C and discourse around openness, singulatarians) shape the world views/epistemologies/thought styles that become embedded in the Semantic Web?
 * Interviews with those involved in the Semantic Web activities in the W3C (those setting the standards) || How do competing epistemologies/worldviews become embedded in information infrastructures? || How do legacy thought styles from artificial intelligence, cybernetics, information studies, linguistics, and computer science shape the way Semantic Web engineers approach the Web’s design?

How do semantic Web engineers understand meaning? Semantics? Information? Knowledge? || With information infrastructures muddied with surveillance, military spending, advertising, etc, the role of macro-structures in influencing the design of the Web is particularly important. || I’ve been following the W3C mailing lists for several months, so I know how to identify the key players. Dr. Hendler can introduce to most. || Introductions from Jim || Science studies

Cultural anthropology

Information infrastructure studies || Mellon Gren ||
 * Interviews with AI researchers in knowledge representation || How do competing epistemologies/worldviews become embedded in information infrastructures? || How has development and growth of the Web since the early 90s changed the possibilities in the field of artificial intelligence (and thus reshaped the affordances of the Web’s data structures)? How has the opening of data? || The history of knowledge representation is still playing out in the development of Web infrastructure and standards today. || Again, Jim Hendler has offered to put me in touch with several key figures in the history of knowledge representation. || Introductions from Jim || History of computing and AI

Cultural anthro || SHOT ||