David Ribes is a research investigator at the School of Information. His research interests include the organization of large-scale infrastructure development, the practice of science policy, and the consequences of informational transformations in scientific research. His training is in Sociology with a specialization in Science and Technology Studies (STS). His primary methods are ethnographic.
Prior to joining the School of Information David pursued his doctoral studies at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) in the Sociology department and the Science Studies Program. His dissertation traces development in the Cyberinfrastructure project GEON (the Geo Sciences Network). GEON seeks to provide computing, visualization and data integration resources to the broader earth sciences. David's research focuses on the practical processes of work across distance, institutional difference and technical expertise in building an umbrella community infrastructure for the earth sciences. David shows how integrating -- or 'interoperating' -- the geosciences has involved much more than IT R&D, it has also been a significant social and organizational undertaking. In building GEON members have had to navigate the multiple existing institutions of earth science and the diversity domain knowledges while simultaneously developing a distributed organization and information infrastructure. The primary method for data collection involved a three year multi-site esthnography including participant observation, interviews and document analysis. On several occasions David intervened on the GEON project providing formal feedback on social and organizational aspects of ongoing development.
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