BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Memento EPFL// BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Sustaining Knowledge and its Infrastructure: Digital knowledge inf rastructures at the crossroads of governance practices DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20220616 DTSTAMP:20260416T133742Z UID:baa51bfbd265a4b42dd2ddbc38ff5392381f9be5f3b7e3fc823c63c5 CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars DESCRIPTION:Christine Borgman\, Dominique Pestre\nTwo-day workshop\, 16-17 June\, SG 0213 and online\nFree\nRegistration: simon.dumasprimbault@epfl. ch \n\nThe development of digital technologies as ubiquitous tools for bo th computing and communicating entails important changes in the way knowle dge is designed\, produced\, circulated\, and assessed. During the last de cade\, infrastructure emerged as a key concept to understand the issues at stake in this reconfiguration\, for example in the context of data mana gement or open science. Digital knowledge infrastructures are diverse: fro m digital libraries (e.g.\, Gallica) to repositories (e.g.\, Zenodo\, Data verse)\, but also research tools (e.g.\, Gephi\, Zotero)\, indexes (e.g.\, the DOAJ)\, or collaborative platforms (e.g.\, Google docs). Most of the current discussions about the role of digital knowledge infrastructures re volve around the issue of sustainability. In that perspective\, the major question is not only how to grow and sustain infrastructures in general i n a digital environment\, but also\, more deeply\, how to design infrastru ctures that are themselves fit for the specific purpose of knowledge produ ction in various contexts.\n    As socio-technical systems\, digital k nowledge infrastructures are essentially heterogeneous and unstable object s. We can conceive of them as precarious assemblages of:\n\n a layered c omposite made up of skills\, conventions\, software\, and materials\;\n a  network of stakeholders that come with their own professional cultures and cooperate together as staff\, financial sponsors\, users but also non- human proxies\;\n a set of trading zones acting as the loci of interacti on and mingling of languages\, powers\, and skills.\n\nSuch complexity is both a blessing and a curse: the tensions generated by the interplay of al l these elements are at once the driving force of an infrastructure\, as w ell as an ever-present threat to its integrity. Within the framework of th is rudimentary model\, constant maintenance work is needed to ensure that the infrastructure holds and adjusts to ever changing internal and externa l conditions. It is therefore necessary to unfold the intricacy of what co nstitutes an infrastructure from a socio-technical perspective.\n    F urthermore\, complementary to this perspective\, a cross-cutting interest in the politics of infrastructures is vital. Indeed\, while digital knowle dge infrastructures usually appear as mere technical devices governed by i nstrumental rationality (and consequently evaluated in terms of efficacy\, services\, technicity)\, they actually embed systems of values brought in by the various types of stakeholders that interact with them. This raises the fundamental issue of their governance.\n    Understood broadly\, governance is the set of processes that distribute power and power relati ons between all the stakeholders involved–e.g. actors intuitu personæ\ , as well as legal persons such as institutions and businesses–by assign ing and framing roles and responsibilities within a socio-technical system such as an infrastructure. Governance practices are the social and materi al operations through which actors themselves  negotiate such processes o n the field. Considering governance as what lies at the junction of techni cal systems and sets of values\, the issue here is to understand how infra structures specifically articulate these two types of rationality. The car eful weaving of multiple governance practices is indeed essential to ensur e the sustainability of digital knowledge infrastructures. \n\nBuilding o n a year of research seminars held at EPFL\, this workshop aims at sheddin g further light on how diverse governance practices may play together in d igital knowledge infrastructures to guarantee their sustainability. Unders tood broadly\, sustainability encompasses not solely financial safety\, bu t also technical and structural resiliency\, coordination of means\, or us ers community involvement\, practically amounting to the infrastructure’ s ability to endure. This workshop will address three complementary aspect s of infrastructural sustainability:\n\n Legitimacy: how infrastructures o pen the access to resources\, enable different users\, support knowledge e cosystems\, thereby justifying the investment they require\;\n Maintenance : how infrastructures are constantly curated to "hold together" and keep c onsistent in spite of their composite nature\;\n Governance: how power rel ations are negotiated by stakeholders within infrastructures\, and how cr itique can be seen as an iterative process of sustaining governance.\n\n\n Gathering researchers\, practitioners\, and users of digital knowledge inf rastructures\, this workshop will be organized around two keynotes and thr ee roundtables\, with ample room for discussion and debate\, each dedicate d to one of the previously mentioned aspects of infrastructural sustainabi lity. Parallel to the workshop\, all participants will be able to partake in a shared visual reflection on how these modes of governance may assembl e and articulate to ensure the sustainability and openness of digital know ledge infrastructures (this will be held on collaborative boards open to a ll).\n \n\nDetailed Program\n\nDay 1. Thu. 16th June 2022\n\n13h30 - 14h     Welcome speech\n14h - 14h30    Public initiation to the use of t he platform for visual reflection\n14h30 - 15h30    Keynote 1. Dominique Pestre on the changes brought about by the digital to research infrastru cture in the 20th century (presentation by Jérôme Baudry)\n15h30 - 16h     Coffee break\n16h - 18h     Roundtable 1. Legitimacy: how infras tructures interact with their ecosystem and make the case for their useful ness\, to justify the investment they require\n\n\nDay 2. Fri. 17th June 2 022\n\n9h30 - 10h30     Keynote 2. Christine Borgman on the scientific work with data (presentation by Charlotte Mazel-Cabasse)\n10h30 - 12h30     Roundtable 2. Maintenance: on the endless curation work necessary to hold together in tension the heterogeneous elements of infrastructures\ , and adapt them to internal and external conditions\n12h30 - 14h30     Lunch break\n14h30 - 16h30     Roundtable 3. Governance: on the design and critique of power structures for the sustainability of infrastructure s\n16h30 - 17h     Coffee break\n17h - 18h     Closing discussion an d feedback on the boards\n\n\nGraphic design: Federica Pardini (@federica. pardizini) LOCATION:SG 0213 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==SG%200213 STATUS:CONFIRMED END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR