One focus needs to be on making PECE more user friendly. The user documentation, videos etc. don't seem to work for the majority of users -- we have tried running tutorials over virtual calls as well, also with mixed success. If one of the goals is to broaden the user base of PECE, if only to showcase possibilities for experimental ethnographic work, we need to work towards making it easier as platform for folks to work with.
Besides that, many of us are beginning to work with PECE for various spin off projects. Being able to write PECE into our grant applications helps, and this can also work synergistically to support further development of PECE. We have conversations in relation to this, but these haven't yet crystallized into concrete mechanisms that we could follow. Perhaps something to follow up at the Ecuador meetings.
Having worked with folks not used to PECE as part of STSinfrastructures for the past couple of years, I think one barrier to making the intellectual critique that PECE responds to and enacts is that it isn't very intuitive or obvious as a platform or even as something that folks can navigate on their own. It takes a fair bit of guidance on our behalf to help folks get accumstomed to PECE. For users to engage with PECE more in-depth, we will need to work toward making it easier for folks to work with.
Having said that, 6+ cities material is rife to demonstrate the potential of PECE as exemplary of reflexive experimental ethnographic practice. I think, in part, the work ahead is to more actively work toward curating contact toward publication on the platform, we could also separately curate the material to exemplify the methodological dimensions of PECE/ TAF.
One important initiative over the next few years is to work toward a volume on “Transnational STS” that builds on the work we have been doing on the STSinfrastructures platform. The Transnational STS Working Group will also continue to work on STSinfrastructures. We intend to work on the volume with STSinfrastructures at its very core: contributors will actively work with the platform while they are developing their contributions. In addition to deepening understanding of Transnational STS, we would also like the volume to become a space to explore the relationship between print and digital media, and ways they can complement each other in the process of scholarly publishing. Besides, I am currently in the process of preparing another South-South multi-city research proposal that looks at "cooling infrastructures". We indtend to use PECE as architecture to sustain this collaborative research project as well.
I have primarily been working with TAF and STSinfrastructures. TAF has been used primarily as a repository of research data that we have been generating. We have done less thus far by way of data analysis and presentation. Much of the content TAF content for India is available here: Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Pune.
I have also been managing STSinfrastructures since its inception. It was used to support the STS Across Borders exhibit at 4S 2018 in Sydney. We are continuing to use it to support the Innovating STS for 4S 2019 in New Orleans. Both of these comprise of digital exhibits developed on the platform to tell stories of how STS as a scholarly field was developed across various “formations” like academic departments, national and regional networks, and scholarly journals. They also take the shape of a physical exhibit, centered around posters, that constitute a gallery-style exhibit at the conferences.