[Themaintainers] the maintainers: introduction

[Bradley Fidler]

Hello, everyone!

Thank you again, Lee, for making this happen.  I think this is a very
important effort.  Being rigorous and reflexive in where we locate our work
along the innovation-infrastructure/maintenance continuum is crucial, I
think, in ensuring that our analytical frameworks are independent of the
historical consciousness of the groups we study.  With a solid account of
maintenance, our accounts of the innovation and discovery process (still
important, after all!) will be that much more meaningful.  I also think it
permits a far more nuanced study of power.

I am a historian with the UCLA Computer Science Department.  My PhD (UCLA
2011) was in the history of science, medicine, and technology, and I'm
currently working as a postdoc on a Darpa grant to better understand the
social and institutional basis of networked computing research.  I've
developed some networking history archives at UCLA, and participate in our
DH community.  Previously, I did political economy and theory at York
University.

I study the social and institutional histories of computer networks, with
an emphasis on early US Department of Defense technologies and
infrastructures, and their transition throughout the DoD, academia, and
intelligence community, and, finally, to the private sector.  This is
mostly c. 1975-95.  Working with Andy Russell on our paper about the
Defense Communications Agency has really helped me rearticulate and better
understand my work in terms of infrastructure implementation and
maintenance.  Lately, I taught a course on internet histories, and
published on computer network visualizations, and infrastructural metadata
(that's all at brfidler.com).

I second Joy's support for a 2016 conference, and look forward to engaging
with you all in the future!

All my best,
Brad (@brfidler)



---
Bradley Fidler, Ph.D. | Co-PI, UCLA Computer Science
4731E Boelter Hall | 323.963.4357 | brfidler.com
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