Geoffrey C. Bowker, Executive Director, Center for Science, Technology and Society, Santa Clara University , California , USA

Title: All of the Data, All of the Time: Archival Practices in the Sciences

Abstract:

In an era when memory is cheap and scientific computing is generating huge stores of data through new technologies such as remote sensing and genome sequencing, it would seem that we have unparalleled opportunities to create rich archives of scientific data for ourselves and for future generations. In this paper, I explore key issues that are emerging as we try (as generations have before us) to create a universal encyclopedia of knowledge and a permanent store of data. I discuss in turn issues of access of knowledge ( http://research.yale.edu/isp/eventsa2k.html); the importance of the classificatory and metadata frameworks which are generated for the very shape of future science and the possibilities and pitfalls of making data available across disciplinary traditions.

Bio:

Geoffrey C. Bowker is Executive Director, Regis and Dianne McKenna Professor
Center for Science, Technology and Society, Santa Clara University . He was previously Professor in and Chair of the Department of Communication, University of California , San Diego . His PhD is in History and Philosophy of Science at Melbourne University . He studies social and organizational aspects of the development of very large scale information infrastructures. He has written with Leigh Star a book on the history and sociology of medical classifications ( Sorting Things Out: Classification and Practice - published by MIT Press in September 1999). This book looks at the classification of nursing work, diseases, viruses and race. His most recent book, entitled Memory Practices in the Sciences, is about formal and informal recordkeeping in science over the past two hundred years, includes extensive discussion of biodiversity informatics, and was published by MIT Press in February 2006. He was 2002-2003 member of an OECD working group on international data sharing in science – the report can be found at this address: http://dataaccess.sdsc.edu/. More information, including a number of publications can be found at his website: http://epl.scu.edu/~gbowker.