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I am currently a post-doctoral researcher with the Virtual Knowledge Studio for the Humanities and Social Sciences (VKS), a research fellow in the Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR) at the University of Amsterdam, and a research affiliate with the Metamedia Collaboratory at Stanford University.

My work addresses the relationships between knowledge work, collaboration, and social and technical infrastructures. I am particularly interested in the contexts of knowledge work, and the distribution of those contexts across cultures through the mediation of material artifacts. Using an ethnographic and participatory approach I focus on how technological objects, as containers of symbolic and material values, both support and resist socio-structural change. I believe that understanding how innovation and social structuring can simultaneously occur requires attention both to the specific discursive and technical practices of individuals, and the "ratcheting up" and "weaving in" of these practices within particular social contexts. Further, I believe that attempts to change discriminatory systems, improve ill-fitting ones, and develop innovate ways of collaborating, communicating, and representing knowledge depend upon both theoretical and technical innovation, and a strong commitment to "on-the-ground" engagement with the persons and social groups affected.

Posted at Nov 16/2006 03:31PM:
timwebmoor: Matt, looking good. I've linked to this page from the Metamedia people.