[Themaintainers] Maintainers at BHC, and a reading suggestion

[Lee Vinsel]

I would love to read it too. I just got it from Interlibrary loan the other
day to use it for a lecture in my new course, Peoples and Things. One of
the things that already sticks out to me is Orr's focus on the place of
stories and narratives.

What's the best way to do a virtual reading group?

Lee

On Sun, Sep 11, 2016 at 3:24 PM, Matthew Weinstein <mweinste at kent.edu>
wrote:

> I'd love to read orr's book, too.
>
> On Sep 11, 2016, at 12:18 PM, Lara Houston wrote:
>
> > Hi Nathan / All
> >
> > I’d be really interested in a reading group. Orr’s book is deservedly a
> classic.
> >
> > Best wishes
> >
> > Lara
> >
> >
> >> On 11 Sep 2016, at 20:00, Ensmenger, Nathan <nensmeng at indiana.edu>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> I will add my voice to the chorus of folks interested in a Maintainers
> panel at the BHC.  By my count Bernardo, Ellan, and Andrew have all
> expressed interest, and we can take the conversation off-list.   If anyone
> else would like to chime in, just send me an email.
> >>
> >> On a completely different point: early on in the history of this
> mailing list it was suggested that we do a virtual reading group.  I have
> been thinking recently about how communities of maintainers communicate
> tacit knowledge, and was reminded of what I would argue is one of the
> greatest history of technology accounts of maintenance work ever written,
> namely\
> >>
> >>
> >> Orr, Julian. Talking About Machines: an Ethnography of a Modern Job,
> ILR Press Ithaca, NY, 1996.
> >>
> >>
> >> If you have not read this book, which is about Xerox repair
> technicians, you should so as soon as possible!   If you are too busy to
> read the whole book, read chapter 8  (“war stories of the service
> triangle”), which describes the ways in which these technicians use stories
> (vignettes, as Orr describes them) to teach each other the complicated
> knowledge required to diagnose and repair complex machinery.  These stories
> were typically shared over breakfast at informal gatherings.  When the
> company tried to formalize this tacit knowledge into a database driven
> expert system, the whole system broke down (as did the machines…)
> >>
> >> Andy and Lee (and others) have done a fabulous job getting the word out
> about *why* we should study maintenance. Orr’s book is an excellent example
> of *how* to do it.  If we do decide to do a #maintainers reading group, it
> might be a good place to start.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> -Nathan
> >>
> >> ---
> >> Nathan Ensmenger
> >> Associate Professor of Informatics
> >> School of Informatics and Computing
> >> Indiana University, Bloomington
> >> homes.soic.indiana.edu/nensmeng/
> >>
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-- 
Assistant Professor
Program on Science and Technology Studies
College of Arts and Letters
Stevens Institute of Technology
Hoboken, NJ 07030
leevinsel.com
Twitter: @STS_News
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