Finding the people#
SLOP8374 · Week 7
The cast list#
git shortlog -sn ranks contributors by commit count.
It is a cast list, not a credit roll: it omits reviewers, issue triagers, documentation writers, and whoever paid for any of it.
Trails#
People leave a digital presence: profiles, blogs, talks, mailing lists, conference videos.
Most of what you need is already public. Start there, and go to a person only when the artefacts run out.
Borrowed, not invented#
We are not inventing a method here. We are borrowing one.
| Field | Source type | Governing principle |
|---|---|---|
| History | Veterans, survivors | The interviewee owns their story |
| Anthropology | Community members | Do no harm to your subjects |
| Journalism | Sources, witnesses | On the record versus off it |
| Software | Former maintainers | All of the above |
The Oral History Association, founded in 1966, has been arguing about these rules for longer than most of our dig sites existed.
Ethics first#
- Introduce yourself
- Ask permission
- Explain how their words will be used
- Respect withdrawal
- Do not contact someone who archived their project with a statement
A non-response is a no.
Your assignment is not a reason to treat a stranger as a data source.
Case study: Roads and Bridges#
Nadia Eghbal’s 2016 report documented the invisible, unpaid labour holding up critical open-source infrastructure.
The maintainers in it were not famous. They were load-bearing — which is not the same thing, and is much harder to see from a commit graph.
What living sources know#
- The argument that led to the rewrite
- The sponsor who quietly withdrew
- The burnout nobody posted about
- Why the obvious fix was never applied
None of this is in any artefact. That is the whole reason to ask.
When contact is not possible#
Unreachable, uninterested, or inappropriate to approach.
Then say so. Document the secondary sources you used, and name the questions that stay open.
An acknowledged gap is a finding. A guess dressed as a finding is not.
Required reading#
Portelli, A. (1981) ‘The Peculiarities of Oral History’, History Workshop Journal 12(1), pp. 96–107.
Eghbal, N. (2016) Roads and Bridges: The Unseen Labor Behind Our Digital Infrastructure. Ford Foundation.
Before next week#
Investigate your dig site’s contributors.
Draft your approach before you send anything — or write down why you are not sending it.