This book has progressed from “scattered thoughts” to “idea” to “research” to “writing” and now to “written,” but I’m sort of at a loss to explain how. I am quite sure I owe a lot to others. I am surrounded by communities of people engaging with our worlds, whose reflections and actions generate my own engagement and points of connection. The people whose activities are the basis for analysis in this book are due the most prominent recognition. My presence—as a stranger and “analyst” whose presence (let alone utility) in their midst was not immediately legible—has been patiently and trustingly welcomed by a host of people, online and off. They generously offered me their time and candor, and sometimes opened up painful memories; I hope I have been able to do justice to their stories and efforts in these pages. It would be improper to name them, given ethnographic convention and the level of personal and professional sensitivity of some of this material, but I offer them my profoundest thanks.

In addition, I am humbled by the generosity and dazzling expertise of a company of scholars and friends without whom my work would literally not be possible (to say nothing of tolerable, let alone ever enjoyable). Biella Coleman has been an invaluable interlocutor since the beginning of this project, providing feedback both shrewd and gracious at critical moments, as has Chris Kelty. Laura Portwood-Stacer, always a generous and thoughtful sounding board, provided early listening and guidance throughout. I am especially indebted to constructive readers of chapter drafts and earlier iterations of this work: Steph Alarcón, Chris Anderson, Ron Eglash, Lucas Graves, Silvia Lindtner, Mike Palm, Luke Stark, and Sarah Myers West. The book’s analysis was further shaped through focused conversation, literature recommendations, stray comments, and everything in between from Mike Ananny, Sarah Banet-Weiser, Jonah Bossewitch, Jack Bratich, Paula Chakravartty, A. J. Christian, Kristina Clair, Chris Csíkszentmihályi, Nathan Ensmenger, Megan Finn, Laura Forlano, Ellen Foster, Mel Gregg, Seda Gürses, DeeDee Halleck, Randy Illum, Natalie Jeremijenko, Dorothy Kidd, Ron Kline, Daniel Kreiss, Chenjerai Kumanyika, Deepa Kumar, Javier Lezaun, Manjari Mahajan, Charlton McIlwain, Mara Mills, Cyrus Mody, Lilly Nguyen, Wazhmah Osman, Victor Pickard, Joseph Reagle, Bryce Renninger, Carrie Rentschler, Alessandra Renzi, Adrienne Shaw, Christo Sims, Johan Söderberg, Jonathan Sterne, Tom Streeter, Sophie Toupin, Lee Vinsel, Cristina Visperas, Judy Wajcman, and Todd Wolfson. Dubious credit (but sincere gratitude) for the pun in the title of the book’s conclusion goes to Nick Seaver. I also thank my undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Southern California and Rutgers University who offered me the opportunity to work out some of my thoughts in conversation with them and shared theirs in return.

Fred Appel has been an engaged, rigorous, and enthusiastic editor. It has been a sincere pleasure to work with him. I am also profoundly grateful to my anonymous reviewers at Princeton University Press, and to the PUP staff, especially Jenny Tan, Natalie Baan, and Thalia Leaf, for their stellar assistance in bringing the book into being; Sarah McIntosh was an invaluable indexer. Research in progress has been presented at scholarly venues along the way, and I thank various audiences for productively critical feedback, including the University of Washington Information School, Oslo Metropolitan University’s Work Research Institute, UCLA Information Studies Department, USC Digital Humanities Program, and the Annenberg School at the University of Pennsylvania. Josh Kun and Sarah Banet-Weiser at USC Annenberg helped me carve out time to work on this book at key stages in its development and completion. Crack research assistance was provided by Soledad Altrudi (who cheerfully logged several semesters on this project), as well as Hyun-Tae (Calvin) Kim, and Lin Zhang (and Fanny Ramirez at Rutgers). Also at USC, Annenberg colleagues showed kindness (and lent bicycles, may they rest in peace) as I was attempting to adjust to California, so thank you, Jonathan Aronson, François Bar, Willow Bay, Manuel Castells, Taj Frazier, Hernan Galperin, Larry Gross, Andrea Hollingshead, Henry Jenkins, Josh Kun, Carmen Lee, Mark Lloyd, Peggy McLaughlin, Lynn Miller, Gordon Stables, Alison Trope, Miki Turner, Dmitri Williams, and Ernie Wilson. Juan De Lara and Andy Lakoff have been delightful coconspirators. Special thanks to Hye Jin Lee for invitations to step off campus. ASCJ staff Ally Arguello, Jordan Gary, Sarah Holterman, Christine Lloreda, Raymond Marquez, Frank Miuccio, David Mora, and Billie Shotlow provided lots of help streamlining administrative matters large and small. At my former workplace, a campus exhibition called “Trans Technology: Circuits of Culture, Self, and Belonging” that I curated with Bryce Renninger in 2012–13 fed into this research in a few nonlinear ways, so I thank Bryce, Rutgers’s Institute for Women and Art, and supportive former colleagues in Journalism & Media Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies for that detour.

This project was seeded with substantial support from the National Science Foundation for research travel and time (Science, Technology and Society, award 1026818, coawarded to Gabriella Coleman). Kelly Joyce was a supremely professional and supportive program officer at the NSF, helping me find a way to use this award during a transition in my academic career. Staff at New York University helped administer this grant, no small feat with both principal investigators moving in and out of NYU during the period of the grant; thanks to John T. Johnson in the Office of Research for steering us through the rocks. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are mine, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. The Virtual Knowledge Studio in Amsterdam hosted me as a fellow in 2010 in very early stages of this project.

Some other people were here with me too (even when we were in different time zones, which was quite often, and then oftener, sigh). Comrades who fed, watered, sheltered, and entertained me during these years include Tucker and Teresa Aaron, Chris Anderson, Peter Asaro and Diana Mincyte, José Chan, John Cheney-Lippold, Steve Chong and Kiran Gajwani, David Copenhafer, Robert Davis, Marya Doerfel, Ingrid Erickson, Cassie Fennell and Dan Topor, Pete Fried, Jayson Harsin, Vicky Karkov, Jessica Kaufman, Jason Livingston, Marie Leger, Khaled Malas, Cynthia Mason, Joe Mendelson, ICP, Rüth Rosenberg, Willy Schofield and Ian Lay, Set Sokol, Felix Teitelbaum, Dan Thalhuber, M.W. Tidwell, Neerja Vasishta, and Brad “Salvatore” Waskewich. My aunt and uncle, Kathy and Roger Later, helped soften my LA landing midway into this project. I have appreciated the sunny quiet of the Hoversten household, where much of this book was drafted. My parents, Elaine Dunbar and Al Hester, supplied the bedrock for a lifetime of reading, writing, and social inquiry. At the risk of redundancy, I thank again several of the intellectual compadres already referenced, this time for their “pure” (if occasionally polluting) love and friendship: Victor, Lucas, Laura, Other Laura, Mike, Other Mike, Wazhmah, Steph, Cristina, Todd, Bryce, Christo, Deepa, Jack, Jay, SBW. Boundless gratitude is owed to Dug and Noodles for warmth, comfort, and cheering. And to Anna for always being on hand with warm socks, cookies, and general sisterly support. And to Erik, for being by my side as we face our uncertain future.