Austin Toombs
Indiana University, School of Informatics and Computing, Graduate Student
- Computer Science, Identity (Culture), Self and Identity, Human Computer Interaction, Care Theory, Maker Culture, and 14 moreHackerspaces, DIY culture, Do It Yourself (DIY), Makerspaces, Makers and D.I.Y. technology, Makers, Hackers, Civic Engagement, Youth Civic Engagement, Care Ethics, The Ethics of Care, Feminist Theory, Feminism, and Feminist Philosophyedit
Communities contain a rich diversity of backgrounds, personal experiences, and viewpoints. Fortunately, online social networks can make it even easier for people within a community to meet each other. This leads to an opportunity space... more
Communities contain a rich diversity of backgrounds, personal experiences, and viewpoints. Fortunately, online social networks can make it even easier for people within a community to meet each other. This leads to an opportunity space for exposing people to the differences of their neighbors through mutual interaction. Our study presents Foodmunity, a social networking site that facilitates the organization of food-related events by members of a community. Meeting over a meal provides a more comfortable environment for experiencing new ideas, new people, and new viewpoints. Foodmunity utilizes themed events based on personal experiences its users have with food. This serves as both a cultural representation of those individuals and as a method of bonding between neighbors. By encouraging its users to reflect on the experiences they want to share and the experiences they have attending others' events, our system facilitates the growth of communities and a deeper understanding of the differences within.
Research Interests:
ABSTRACT Cultures of making - that is, social practices of hacking, DIY, tinkering, repair, and craft - continue to rise in prominence, and design researchers have taken note, because of their implications for sustainability,... more
ABSTRACT Cultures of making - that is, social practices of hacking, DIY, tinkering, repair, and craft - continue to rise in prominence, and design researchers have taken note, because of their implications for sustainability, democratization, and alternative models of innovation, design, participation, and education. We contribute to this agenda by exploring our findings on self-made tools, which we encountered in a 9-month ethnographic study of a hackerspace. Self-made tools embody issues raised in two discourses that are of interest in design research on making: tools and adhocism. In this paper, we explore ways that tools and adhocism interface with each other, using our findings as a material to think with. We find that this juxtaposition of concepts helps explain a highly generative creative practice - tool-making - within the hackerspace we studied.
Research Interests:
Working with course catalogs, the DAPR system, the course shopping cart, and the course request system is confusing for most students. With these resources it is difficult for students to make good decisions about which courses to enroll... more
Working with course catalogs, the DAPR system, the course shopping cart, and the course request system is confusing for most students. With these resources it is difficult for students to make good decisions about which courses to enroll in, the order in which to take a ...
Recent scholarship in Human-Computer Interaction, science and technology studies, and design research has focused on hacker communities as sites of innovation and entrepreneurship, novel forms of education, and the democratization of... more
Recent scholarship in Human-Computer Interaction, science and technology studies, and design research has focused on hacker communities as sites of innovation and entrepreneurship, novel forms of education, and the democratization of technological production. However, hacking practices are more than new technical practices; they are also political, value-laden, and ideological practices. The significances of these underlying commitments is less understood not only in
academic research, but also within the communities themselves, which tend to profess a libertarian ethos often articulated as apolitical. In this dissertation, I investigate how the process of developing a hacker identity within a hacker community is influenced not only by technical skill, but also by care and community maintenance practices. By studying their projects, community interactions, and social policies, I explore how the broader hackerspace movement unintentionally but systematically excludes broader participation. I leverage several qualitative methods to create a well-rounded account of the hacker identity development process, including: an interview study of hackers’ projects; a 19-month ethnography in a hackerspace; and an analysis of the most-discussed issues on the international hackerspaces.org Discuss listserv. I analyzed these data through a lens informed by
care ethics, foregrounding the interdependent, nurturing relationships hackers develop, and explicating the duties to care that are felt and acted on—but rarely discussed—in these spaces. I present results suggesting that developing a hacker identity can be a vulnerable process, and is both supported and made difficult by the social environment in these communities. While critical to a hackerspace’s success, care and maintenance practices are often overshadowed by rhetoric of self-empowerment and independence. As a result, it becomes difficult for women and minorities to join and fit in, despite members’ best intentions. These results have implications for research on hackerspaces, for hackerspaces themselves, and for analyses of care in such communities.
academic research, but also within the communities themselves, which tend to profess a libertarian ethos often articulated as apolitical. In this dissertation, I investigate how the process of developing a hacker identity within a hacker community is influenced not only by technical skill, but also by care and community maintenance practices. By studying their projects, community interactions, and social policies, I explore how the broader hackerspace movement unintentionally but systematically excludes broader participation. I leverage several qualitative methods to create a well-rounded account of the hacker identity development process, including: an interview study of hackers’ projects; a 19-month ethnography in a hackerspace; and an analysis of the most-discussed issues on the international hackerspaces.org Discuss listserv. I analyzed these data through a lens informed by
care ethics, foregrounding the interdependent, nurturing relationships hackers develop, and explicating the duties to care that are felt and acted on—but rarely discussed—in these spaces. I present results suggesting that developing a hacker identity can be a vulnerable process, and is both supported and made difficult by the social environment in these communities. While critical to a hackerspace’s success, care and maintenance practices are often overshadowed by rhetoric of self-empowerment and independence. As a result, it becomes difficult for women and minorities to join and fit in, despite members’ best intentions. These results have implications for research on hackerspaces, for hackerspaces themselves, and for analyses of care in such communities.