My work is indebted to the care and curiosity of my friends, family, teachers, and colleagues. This work began at McGill University, where Jonathan Sterne and Carrie Rentschler have created a home for humane and original scholarship. Jonathan is my mentor, collaborator, and friend and he demonstrates how kindness is possible within academia and beyond. I strive to be for others what he is to so many people in our community. Carrie is the best teacher and reader I have known, and I am a better thinker and person for knowing her, her power, her compassion, and her lack of bullshit. Carrie showed me that this was a project about labor.
The Department of Art History and Communication Studies is a unique place to study. Thank you to Jenny Burman, Will Straw, and Darin Barney for their teaching and service to that academic community, and to Darin for never once letting me win at squash. At SFU, Zoë Druick provided guidance and mentorship when it was needed, and I am always in her debt.
At McGill, I was surrounded by amazing people and am lucky to count Joceline Andersen, Anna Candido, Li Cornfeld, Paul Fontaine, Amy Hasinoff, Jess Holmes, Rafico Ruiz, and Abi Shapiro among my friends. From Somerville–Cambridge, Devin Kennedy, Gili Vidan, and Marc Aidinoff have become crucial correspondents about, basically, everything.
A special appreciation is owed to the people who read parts of this work charitably and discovered facets that were hidden to its author. Thank you to Nancy Baym, Biella Coleman, T. L. Cowan, Tarleton Gillespie, Anna Lauren Hoffmann, Tom LaMarre, Cait McKinney, Sharif Mowlabocus, Andrew Piper, and Fred Turner. Thank you, as well, to Robin Lynch for the research correspondence.
At Microsoft Research, Nancy Baym, Tarleton Gillespie, and Mary Gray have created their own unique place for inquiry and intellectual cross-pollination. For two years, I had the ridiculous privilege of thinking through this project, and many other things, with them, Dan Greene, and our residents and visitors. There, and elsewhere, I am grateful for conversations with Meryl Alper, Mike Ananny, Dalida María Benfield, Rena Bivens, Jack Bratich, André Brock, Robyn Caplan, Nick Couldry, Kate Crawford, Stephanie Dick, Kevin Driscoll, Stefanie Duguay, Michaelanne Dye, Nathan Ensmenger, Megan Finn, Ysabel Gerrard, Jack Gieseking, Sarah T. Hamid, Caroline Jack, Steve Jackson, Elena Maris, Shannon McGregor, Mara Mills, Sue Murray, Lisa Parks, Genevieve Patterson, Chris Persaud, Jill Walker Rettberg, Craig Robertson, Nick Seaver, Hannah Spaulding, Lana Swartz, T. L. Taylor, Bill Thies, Nanna Bonde Thylstrup, Penny Trieu, Anjalie Vats, Kelly Wagman, Meredith Whitaker, Ben Woo, and Ming Yin.
The students at the London School of Economics (LSE) have inspired many new ideas, and I can’t wait to work on the next project with you. And I am fortunate to be surrounded by inspiring and warm colleagues in London. I am grateful to Sarah Banet-Weiser, for making my landing easier and helping me find the space to finish this work. My colleagues set an exceptionally high bar for their work, but, more important, they have provided friendship at a time when it was sorely needed. My gratitude goes especially to Nick Anstead, Omar Al-Ghazzi, Cath Bennett, Bart Cammaerts, Julia Corwin, James Deeley, Simidele Dosekun, Lee Edwards, Seeta Peña Gangadharan, Nicole Garnier, Ellen Helsper, Sonia Livingstone, Bingchun Meng, Jean-Christophe Plantin, and Alison Powell for helping me make London home.
Audiences at the University of Toronto, University of Indiana, University of Colorado, Denver, Harvard, Northwestern, and the Copenhagen Business School asked hard questions and helped me refine this project over the years. Thank you to the University of Maryland and Matthew Kirschenbaum for hosting me during my research in DC.
There is no scholarly work without the people who work to maintain the traces of history in archives, libraries, and institutions. I need to thank the staff who let me in their doors and were always patient with my admittedly strange requests. Equally, I am thankful for the support staffs at McGill, Microsoft Research, and the LSE for their knowledge, expertise, and consideration. This work was also aided by the financial support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Media@McGill, and the Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy. This project was also completed because of the life-altering labor of the people at Bigelow Cooperative Daycare, Osprey Daycare, LSE Nursery, and Heathbrook Primary, as well as Yulia Salnikova, Trista Charron, and Taylor Doyle.
At the MIT Press, I have had the pleasure of working with Katie Helke and Justin Kehoe, who brought this project into the press and urged it over the finish line. My gratitude goes to them, to the three very generous and persuasive anonymous reviewers, and to Geof Bowker and Paul Edwards. Final manuscript assistance came from Meichen Waxer, indexing from Jason Begy, and photography and cardboard skills from Lewis Bush.
My parents, Tania and Robert, made it possible for me to be a student for several decades—I am grateful for their love and care. Thank you to Jesse and Stephanie, and the cousins, for your love from afar; and to Susan Christensen for all of your love and support. The friendship of Lee, Karl, and Dominique makes me homesick—and of Tali and Brian, homesick for that other place. Thank you to Tarleton for all the rides and everything else. Thank you, Sharif, for friendship and much more. Thank you R. R., for all the art, both in this book and everywhere else.
Cait McKinney is a great friend, teammate, and intellect and is somehow one of my oldest friends and my closest collaborator. Every bit of this project was refracted through our conversations. Thanks, C.
Alice and Ida, thank you for making these lives together.