Today's economic system, premised on the sale of physical goods, does not fit the information... more Today's economic system, premised on the sale of physical goods, does not fit the information age we live in. The capitalist order requires the maintenance of an artificial scarcity in goods that have the potential for near infinite and almost free replication. The sharing of informational goods through distributed global networks – digital libraries, file-sharing, live-streaming, free software, free-access publishing, the free-sharing of scientific knowledge, and open-source pharmaceuticals – not only challenges the dominance of a scarcity-based economic system, but also enables a more efficient, innovative, just and free culture.
The internet as a new communications media in many ways challenges traditional distinctions betwe... more The internet as a new communications media in many ways challenges traditional distinctions between media production and consumption. As such it represents a fascinating new site for the study of the dialectic of encoding and decoding of media messages, and the political implications of such developments. However, such potential is premised upon access to new forms of technology and, as such, new forms of inequality and exclusion are generated and reinforced, again an area of critical social scienti®c research and analysis. Added to this are issues related to state and corporate attempts to control both the production and distribution of electronically mediated materials, both within and between state jurisdictions. The paper proposed here is based on research carried out by the Kent University Centre for Social Anthropology and Computing``British Library Ethnographic Research on Bibliographic Services'' (BLERBS) project into new information media and their social and political implications. The research focus is both on power relations and the creative and strategic uses of the internet in the context of the presently intensifying contradiction between communication as commodity and communication as cultural exchange.
... Working With jQtouch to Build WeBsites on top of jQuery Matthew DaviD AMSTERDAM BOSTON HE... more ... Working With jQtouch to Build WeBsites on top of jQuery Matthew DaviD AMSTERDAM BOSTON HEIDELBERG LONDON NEWYORK OXFORD ... iii Working with jQTouch to Build Websites on Top of jQuery .....1 Rapidly Building iPhone Apps without Learning ...
This paper presents results from research into the uses and usefulness of electronic bibliographi... more This paper presents results from research into the uses and usefulness of electronic bibliographic databases in academic contexts, using ethnographic and focus group techniques. This research looks at the processes of sense-making (and the breakdown of such attempts) in the ethnographic context of particular academic departments. The ethnographic and focus group data was gathered from students and staff of three faculties at three universities, addressing relations between cultural and technical networks in knowledge production and information management. 1. The BLERBS project The aim of the British Library Ethnographic Research into Bibliographic Services (BLERBS) project was to evaluate the use and non-use of electronic bibliographic services within academic contexts. The initial focus of interest was BIDS (Bath Infor mation and Data Services), but the research was widened to include the diversity of online and networked CD-ROM services. The team, made up of an anthropologist, a librarian and an ethnographically-oriented sociologist, set out to use ethnographic surveying methods to study the use/non-use of bibliographic sources, and conversa tion analytic approaches to the analysis of human-computer interaction. This paper brings together the range of themes which emerged from the ethno graphic dimensions of the research (which itself draws on and reflects upon ethnomethodological theory and research).
Today's economic system, premised on the sale of physical goods, does not fit the information... more Today's economic system, premised on the sale of physical goods, does not fit the information age we live in. The capitalist order requires the maintenance of an artificial scarcity in goods that have the potential for near infinite and almost free replication. The sharing of informational goods through distributed global networks – digital libraries, file-sharing, live-streaming, free software, free-access publishing, the free-sharing of scientific knowledge, and open-source pharmaceuticals – not only challenges the dominance of a scarcity-based economic system, but also enables a more efficient, innovative, just and free culture.
The internet as a new communications media in many ways challenges traditional distinctions betwe... more The internet as a new communications media in many ways challenges traditional distinctions between media production and consumption. As such it represents a fascinating new site for the study of the dialectic of encoding and decoding of media messages, and the political implications of such developments. However, such potential is premised upon access to new forms of technology and, as such, new forms of inequality and exclusion are generated and reinforced, again an area of critical social scienti®c research and analysis. Added to this are issues related to state and corporate attempts to control both the production and distribution of electronically mediated materials, both within and between state jurisdictions. The paper proposed here is based on research carried out by the Kent University Centre for Social Anthropology and Computing``British Library Ethnographic Research on Bibliographic Services'' (BLERBS) project into new information media and their social and political implications. The research focus is both on power relations and the creative and strategic uses of the internet in the context of the presently intensifying contradiction between communication as commodity and communication as cultural exchange.
... Working With jQtouch to Build WeBsites on top of jQuery Matthew DaviD AMSTERDAM BOSTON HE... more ... Working With jQtouch to Build WeBsites on top of jQuery Matthew DaviD AMSTERDAM BOSTON HEIDELBERG LONDON NEWYORK OXFORD ... iii Working with jQTouch to Build Websites on Top of jQuery .....1 Rapidly Building iPhone Apps without Learning ...
This paper presents results from research into the uses and usefulness of electronic bibliographi... more This paper presents results from research into the uses and usefulness of electronic bibliographic databases in academic contexts, using ethnographic and focus group techniques. This research looks at the processes of sense-making (and the breakdown of such attempts) in the ethnographic context of particular academic departments. The ethnographic and focus group data was gathered from students and staff of three faculties at three universities, addressing relations between cultural and technical networks in knowledge production and information management. 1. The BLERBS project The aim of the British Library Ethnographic Research into Bibliographic Services (BLERBS) project was to evaluate the use and non-use of electronic bibliographic services within academic contexts. The initial focus of interest was BIDS (Bath Infor mation and Data Services), but the research was widened to include the diversity of online and networked CD-ROM services. The team, made up of an anthropologist, a librarian and an ethnographically-oriented sociologist, set out to use ethnographic surveying methods to study the use/non-use of bibliographic sources, and conversa tion analytic approaches to the analysis of human-computer interaction. This paper brings together the range of themes which emerged from the ethno graphic dimensions of the research (which itself draws on and reflects upon ethnomethodological theory and research).
Uploads
Papers by Matthew David