The conference was dedicated to the role of informal spaces in the production of innovation. It was organized by the EUSP’s Center for Science and Technology Studies, and supported by a megagrant from the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, recieved for the study of Russian IT specialists and their diaspora.
Informal spaces of communal use, such as garages and hacker spaces, have captivated researchers interested in the ongoing changes in the implementation and practice of innovation. These spaces have eclipsed universities and scientific laboratories as objects of study for innovation infrastructure. Innovation is now created in the cyber infrastructure, where the only important detail is the presence of a computer and keyboard.
Areas like garages, kitchens and hacker spaces are important in the context of producing new technologies, and indeed they are responsible for changing the very term of “entrepreneurship”. Innovations produced in informal spaces are related to very different areas and disciplines. People such as creators of amateur radio and other non-professionals play an important role in engineering issues and physics.
Recently, the types of innovation-producers themselves have also changed from the innovations of an “activated” consumer modifying methods of production, to the complete development of a consumer itself (as in case of hackers or DIY biologists, for example.
The “Garages, Kitchens and Hacker Spaces: Arenas and Narratives of New Innovation” conference brought together scholars studying innovation spaces with those researching the narratives created by commentators and practitioners in reference to these spaces.
The key lecture of the conference, titled “Breakfast at Buck’s: Informality, Familiarity and Innovation in Silicon Valley” was given by Steven Shapin, a professor at Harvard University. Technological innovation in Silicon Valley generally includes collaboration between two types of participants: the producers of new ideas and venture capitalists. A number of these symbioses take place in person, that is why Shapin has directed his attention to the public aspect of communication. This communication is an integral part of the innovation-producing process and occurs at an early stage in the relationship between developers and capitalists. Breakfast meetings play an important role in these relationships, and for the past 25 years have been concentrated at a modest restaurant called Buck’s in Woodside, California. In his lecture, Shapin focused on the restaurant’s role in generating public communication between participants, as well as what happens in the place during the breakfasts themselves and the role of the morning meal. Having breakfast at Buck’s is always an event, and one that is “formally informal.” The setting, time, and a relaxed atmosphere allow important issues to be resolved in a free end easy way. Studying breakfasts at Buck’s allows us to understand the role of everyday communications in the production of Silicon Valley innovation.
Sofya Lopatina
