Kevin Driscoll is a PhD candidate in the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at USC. (CV)
Research
Popular computing
For the next year or so, I will be working on a dissertation titled, Hobbyist inter-networking and the popular internet imaginary: Forgotten histories of networked personal computing, 1977-1997. The elevator pitch is that it's about an alternative internet mythology focusing on hobbyist telecommunication from amateur radio repeaters to FidoNet BBSes. Henry Jenkins is the committee chair.
Related publications
- Driscoll, Kevin. (2012). From Punched Cards to "Big Data": A Social History of Database Populism. communication +1, 1, (4).
- Driscoll, K., and Diaz, J. (2009). Endless loop: A brief history of chiptunes. Journal of Transformative Works and Cultures, 2. doi:10.3983/twc.2009.0096.
Political talk online
I'm also working on a number of projects related to political talk online with the Civic Paths research group and as a research assistant for François Bar. Currently, we're looking at the use of humor by people live-tweeting the 2012 presidential debates using a combination of macro-scale computational methods (thematic clustering, natural language processing) and micro-scale textual analysis.
Related publications
- Thorson, K., Driscoll, K., Ekdale, B., Edgerly, S., Thompson, L. G., Schrock, A., Swartz, L., Vraga, E. K., and Wells, C. (2013). YouTube, Twitter and the Occupy Movement: Connecting Content and Circulation Practices. Information, Communication & Society. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2012.756051. (PDF)
Other writing
- Crowdfunding an archive: What’s worth saving and who’s gonna pay for it?, Civic Paths, 2013.
- Review of Evgeny Morozov's To Save Everything, Click Here, Los Angeles Review of Books, 2013.
- Soulja Boy and dance crazes, Spreadable Media Web Exclusive, 2013.
- The dark side of DIY: Makerspaces and the long, weird history of DIY hobbyists & military funding, Civic Paths, 2012.
- Conversations on epistemology and expertise, Culture Digitally Podcast, 2012.
- Code critique: "Altair music of a sort", Critical Code Studies Working Group, 2012.
- Protest code and the anti-SOPA blackout, Culture Digitally, 2012.
- This is what a broken internet feels like, Civic Paths, 2012.
Elsewhere on the www
- @desconcentrado
- Higher volume Twitter account for day-to-day talk.
- Minitel Research Lab, USA
- Online archive of devices and ephemera related to the French network that ran continuously from 1982-2012.
- Feature Phone
- Scrapbook of weird phones and other mobile tech.
- Animated GIF Zoetrope
- Print and play on a standard turntable. (Warning: 13MB PDF!)
- Lone Wolf - Nightwind
- A mixtape of slowed trance music for late night driving.
- Pinboard
- Research-related bookmarks
- This is My Jam
