Remember Y2K? Seems like a distant memory for most of us — but what sort of memory?
In this video (below) filmed at The New Museum (New York, NY) in December 2014 we get some intriguing reflections on what was at stake during those years of concern leading up the millennium … (you’re going to need about an hour and a half to watch the whole thing, but the first 20 minutes offers a nice summary).
One of the speakers coined the term “Y2K” so it is limited company.
Installing (Social) Order 
http://sts.hks.harvard.edu/events/workshops/science-and-its-publics/
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communicating uncertainty/risk to policy-makers:
Click to access AudioPdf.aspx
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talking the end of science:
http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/34644
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It was a feeding frenzy back then. Events like these are also rife with “other” concerns too about how to reshuffle organizational form or how to situations like these present problems as well as opportunities (depending upon which side of the table you’re on …
I’ve got a piece that is about prioritizing software package installation that hinged a bit on such issues (the initial adoption, at least), which dramatically inflated the role of IT in university settings.
On Wed, Apr 15, 2015 at 11:48 AM, Installing (Social) Order wrote:
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I didn’t follow this too closely when it was happening but can’t help but be drawn in by the alltoofamiliar punditry, reminds me of our ongoing discussions of the aporias of experts, predictions, and taking science/engineering public.
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Just to out myself: Y2K was a big part of my dissertation — the event help to usher/justify massive transformations in information and communication technology in Universities across the US (namely, the switch from legacy systems to vendor-provided Enterprise Resource Planning Systems. So, in all fairness, this is a soft spot for me.
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