Are computers merely "supporting" cooperative work
R. Stuart Geiger · 2013
My dissertation investigates bots as a mode of software development. I am interested in how bots reconfigure relations in collaborative systems, particularly the production of alternative relations of power and agency between developers, users, platforms, and code. I am particularly interested in exploring whether bots require us to focus not on how computers 'support' the cooperative work of humans, but instead on how bots can be seen as active participants in collaborative communities. To this end, I propose a two-faced ethnography of bot development, relating first the subjective experiences of bot developers, then the subjective experiences of bots themselves.