I am reading Diana E. Forsythe: Studying those who study us: An anthropologist in the world of artificial intelligence. The book is an anthology of her writings as she died in 1997, during a hiking trip in Alaska, 45 years old. The book is very interesting and relevant for the study of the conceptualisation of knowledge in the systems I am studying. More importantly, it is an very inspirational book as it is about a woman anthropologist working in the mainly male domain of knowledge engineering. It brought back all kinds of memories of working with computers - as a woman. One of the good ones is a workshop at Shu'un al'mar'a, the women's centre in Nablus on the West Bank, around 1993. At that time there was no Palestinian internet nor computers for sale with modems. I trained the women in installing and configuring an internal modem and how to use a BBS system. I have no words to describe how the women experienced installing a modem themselves. It was like opening a door that no one had dared to open until now.
It is one of those books in the category I wished I had read this book years ago. Forsythe is one of the founders of the field of anthropology of science and technology. Her focus was on the deletion of the cultural, social, gender and women in AI research, in particular in medical informatics.
Karen Neustaedter passed away yesterday, 40 years old. She had multiple sclerosis for almost 20 years and died of an infection her body couldn't handle anymore. She is a member of my extended family in Winnipeg, Canada. It is very very sad. Here is the link to
Karen's obituary