Here you’ll find some of the writing for publication, talks and presentations that I’ve done. Some of it is old enough to serve as something of a time capsule - here’s hoping you enjoy the trip back as much as I have in pulling the links together.
The Rise of Social Software (2003, ACM netWorker)
An early and surprisingly influential overview of the social web. My favorite line: “Soon blogs may become our primary way of interacting with one another online.”
Why Software Still Stinks (2002, ACM netWorker)
An impassioned plea for user-centered software design from the trenches. Sadly still mostly true.
Question (Is) Everything: Design That Answers Unimagined Questions (2005)
A short piece for Gizmodo, under the auspices of frog design, about the symbiotic relationship between planned product design and unplanned tinkering. Doesnt come together as well as I would have liked, but the issues I’m chewing on in the piece are still central to my work today.
Doctor Outsider (1999)
I wrote this essay on leaving academia, and on why the humanities professoriate should get over itself about people who leave for the “real world,” at the request of the wonderful minnesota review. Amazingly, still the #2 hit under my full name in Google as of this writing. I hope people in the same boat that I was once in have found it helpful to know they are not alone.
Michael Bérubé’s Difficult Balancing Act (1998)
Actual journamalism - a profile of a high-profile academic polemicist. Written as a tryout piece for Salon when they had an academic-issues section. I didn’t get the job, but was later hired by Lingua Franca, who they were copying, so, thanks anyway, guys!
How to Get out of the Building Without Taking the Building With You (YouTube)
My presentation at the Lean Startup Meetup in December 2011 on what startup entrepreneurs need to know about design research.
Project Masiluleke: Design Starts With the User (YouTube)
An interview in which I talk about the value of ethnographic design research for Project Masiluleke, a Pop!Tech Accelerator project to help combat the HIV/TB pandemic in South Africa. See the full case study which this interview is a part of here.
Project Masiluleke: Community Interviews (YouTube)
Another interview for the Yale case study. Walking through the artifacts of a participatory design exercise, and discussing their impact on the final project.
Collaborating Across Disciplines (PDF with notes coming soon)