Good-Enoughing: Software Work Cultures at a Middle Tech Company
Contrary to much of the popular discourse, not all technology is seamless and awesome; some of it is simply “good enough.” In this lecture, Prof. Paula Bialski (University of St. Galen) offers an ethnographic study of software developers at a non-flashy, non-start-up corporate tech company. Their stories reveal why software isn’t perfect and how developers communicate, care, and compromise to make software work—or at least work until the next update. Exploring the culture of good enoughness at a technology firm she calls “MiddleTech,” Bialski shows how doing good-enough work is a collectively negotiated resistance to the organizational ideology found in corporate software settings.
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Good-Enoughing: Software Work Cultures at a Middle Tech Company
Contrary to much of the popular discourse, not all technology is seamless and awesome; some of it is simply “good enough.” In this lecture, Prof. Paula Bialski (University of St. Galen) offers an ethnographic study of software developers at a non-flashy, non-start-up corporate tech company. Their stories reveal why software isn’t perfect and how developers communicate, care, and compromise to make software work—or at least work until the next update. Exploring the culture of good enoughness at a technology firm she calls “MiddleTech,” Bialski shows how doing good-enough work is a collectively negotiated resistance to the organizational ideology found in corporate software settings.
Data Materiality Episode 2: Shannon Mattern on 5G, Media Materiality, Archaeology and Pedagogy
Vasari Research Centre for Art and Technology
28 minutes 25 seconds
5 years ago
Data Materiality Episode 2: Shannon Mattern on 5G, Media Materiality, Archaeology and Pedagogy
In this episode of Data Materiality, we speak with Shannon Mattern, Professor of Anthropology at The New School for Social Research, New York City, USA. Shannon’s work spans a very wide range of topics – from archives and libraries to the deep histories of media infrastructures and the city. Our interview ranged from Shannon’s recent essay on the narratives surrounding 5G technologies, to her explorations of media, materiality, time and city. We not only speak about these topics as arenas of her research, but also as things that have often taken root and shape through Shannon’s teaching, pedagogy and exchanges with students.
The interview for this episode was recorded in May 2019
Music from https://filmmusic.io "Clean Soul" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
About the podcast: Data Materiality is a podcast series about the ways in which digital data depends on physical forms and infrastructures, and comes to matter in practice and imagination. The impetus for this podcast is a three-year research project by the same name – Data Materiality – co-sponsored by Birkbeck’s Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Media and Culture and the Vasari Centre for Art and Technology. The series is co-hosted by Joel McKim and Scott Rodgers.
For more information: www.bbk.ac.uk/vasari
To listen or subscribe via Apple Podcasts, visit: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/data-materiality-episode-2-shannon-mattern-on-5g-media/id1494065021?i=1000461854332
To listen or subscribe via Spotify, visit:
https://open.spotify.com/show/6JnV9RJc4QS50kMDKBBFHm
Vasari Research Centre for Art and Technology
Good-Enoughing: Software Work Cultures at a Middle Tech Company
Contrary to much of the popular discourse, not all technology is seamless and awesome; some of it is simply “good enough.” In this lecture, Prof. Paula Bialski (University of St. Galen) offers an ethnographic study of software developers at a non-flashy, non-start-up corporate tech company. Their stories reveal why software isn’t perfect and how developers communicate, care, and compromise to make software work—or at least work until the next update. Exploring the culture of good enoughness at a technology firm she calls “MiddleTech,” Bialski shows how doing good-enough work is a collectively negotiated resistance to the organizational ideology found in corporate software settings.
