PDX DevOps Monthly Meetup!

Join us for our monthly gathering to discuss everything from incident response to cross-team collaboration to automation frameworks. Food provided. Please RSVP!

THIS MONTH

“That Time I ‘Broke the Internet’–and Then Fixed It”: An Anthropology of Engineering in the Age of Digital Complexity

When it comes to digital development, reliability is the key ingredient in keeping things from falling apart. When they do, the effects can be disastrous, halting global communications, threatening traffic patterns and power grids, or blocking access to critical exchanges and information.

We need to rely on our digital environment. Understanding culture—the shape, values, language, and practices in which digital systems take root—is key to keeping things running. In this talk, I will show how anthropology—and theories and methods that help us understand human nature and engagement with tools and technology—illuminates the digital landscape DevOps engineers build and maintain.

Anthropology can be applied to the work of digital developers and operators in a number of ways. I study how the culture of their companies (and the places in which these companies are based) give rise to reliability problems by surveying cultural artifacts including mission statements and product development rituals. I document how SREs navigate their way out of fight-or-flight mode by engaging them in directed storytelling to mine the deeper causes and processes that unfold during incidents. I work to understand what happens when digital products are produced and engaged in global contexts. I conduct “digital archaeology,” mining messaging archives and search queries to understand the contexts and communication that unfold when systems begin to fail.

To understand the DevOps world is to understand the ways humans develop and maintain complex systems, machines, and communities. I look forward to sharing these perspectives with the DevOps community at large to work toward a more holistic understanding of the humanity imbued in our digital landscape.

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Ali Colleen Neff, Ph.D. is a digital anthropologist and Senior UX Researcher and innovation strategist in New Relic’s product incubator. She is also an assistant professor affiliated with Portland State University’s Women’s and Gender Studies department.

Since 2005, she has researched the ways in which humans from different walks of life, abilities, resources, values, places, perspectives and needs engage technology. At New Relic, she is focused on the relationship between human behavior, tooling, and reliability. As a globe-trotting researcher, educator, team leader, and writer/media producer, she is passionate about creative cultures and digital futures.

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We are on track to once again partner with NAYA (the Native American Youth and Family Center, https://nayapdx.org/) for their annual gift drive. More details at the event itself. Participation is optional but warmly encouraged.