"Internet Studies: A Search for Academic Discipline"

William Aspray, Rudy Professor of Informatics, Indiana University.

When: Tuesday, Dec 4th, 3.30-5.00
Where: SZB 104 Al Kiva Auditorium

The talk will have three parts. The first section will discuss how well Internet studies hold up as an academic discipline and a professional practice, drawing its analysis from the sociological literature on professions. The second part of the talk will focus on the speaker's personal efforts through his teaching and writing to bring the disciplines of legal study, geography, science and technology studies, history of technology, and business and economic history to bear in the study of the Internet. The final section of the paper will examine two cases - using economic and business history to understand the dot-com bust and the impact of the Internet on a traditional business.

Bio:

William Aspray is Rudy Professor of Informatics at Indiana University in Bloomington. He holds adjunct faculty positions in computer science, history and philosophy of science, and library and information science. His work focuses on the history, policy, and social study of information technology. His most recent book is The Internet and American Business, co-edited with Paul Ceruzzi (Smithsonian), due out in early 2008 from MIT Press. He is currently editing a book with his colleague Barbara Hayes on The Informatics of Diabetes. Other recent and current work includes studies of gender issues in IT entrepreneurship, offshoring of software and services, the impact of digitalization in the media industries, and the history of privacy in America in the digital age.