Digital photography use by marine mammal scientists

This is a submission to the "Interrogating the social realities of information and communications systems pre-conference workshop, ASIST AM 2006". Digital photography has widely replaced film in recent years, yet there has been relatively little research into digital photography as a socio-technical phenomenon. This project examines the computerization of scientific photography among marine mammal researchers. Scientists studying marine mammals use photo-identification to identify individual animals (whales, dolphins, etc.) in their research, and have recently widely switched to digital photography. This study examines ways in which scientists' work practices, communication patterns, relationships, and behaviors have changed by applying Kling's Socio-Technical Interaction Network (STIN) strategy. STIN integrates the social and technical to develop a nuanced understanding of technology and extends Actor-Network Theory