David Alan Grier

David Alan Grier studies the international impact of the computer, communication, and information industries. He writes the column and blog "Errant Hashtag" for the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society, "Market-based Values" for the IEEE Consumer Electronics Society, and "CS David" for the IEEE Chinese Computing Federation (published in Mandarin). He was made a Fellow at the IEEE for his work establishing the field of crowdsourcing and has served on the IEEE’s magazine, Computer Society, as Editor of the Annals, Vice President for Publication, and President. Grier has written over 200 articles for publications ranging from The American Mathematical Monthly to The New York Times. He has also been the Joseph Henry Lecturer at the Washington Philosophical Society.

 

RESEARCH PROJECT

I’m working on a project that deals with the interaction of organizations and information technology, specifically with the interaction between the abstractions of computer software that simulate organizations and the organizations themselves. I view the process as a dialogue in which the organizations acquire certain aspects of the software and the software captures some but not all of organizational behavior. In this work, I’m following the model established by John Dewey in his classic 1927 book “The Public and Its Problems” and Herb Simon’s great “Administrative Behavior.” I’m tracing the interaction of software and organizations by mining the literature on software engineering and organizational behavior.  This work has been appearing in a variety of places, notably my column in Computer magazine and my podcast “How We Manage Stuff.”