Events
OTTRS Speaker Series: “‘You Have to Give a Shit’: Information Brokering as Sociomaterial Infrastructuring”
Start: Friday, April 17, 2026 - 12:00 pm
End: Friday, April 17, 2026 - 1:00 pm
Location: Virtual
UMD students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends—join us for the OTTRS Speaker Series. (Registration Required)
Abstract:
This work explores the process of information transfer through the lens of infrastructure. Focusing on brokering as a behavior that includes the facilitation of connections and knowledge transfer across organizational and disciplinary boundaries, it examines a wide array of actors across contexts to understand brokering in its less visible forms. Via longitudinal interviews and artifact capture, the work highlights micro dynamics and contextually rooted behavioral strategies that brokers use to connect communities. These broker experiences are applied to current models of brokering in an effort to contextualize high-level understandings of practice and flesh out the invisible labor involved in brokering. This contributes insights into the mechanisms, tools, and relationship formation involved in brokering, taking a practice view of the phenomenon, and serves as a bestiary of brokering behavior for managers seeking to reward the valuable but obscured contributions of their employees.
Connie Siebold
Bio:
Connie is a PhD candidate in the INFO College at UMD. Her primary dissertation research focuses on interpersonal connectivity and how information flows through people and systems – the study of ‘knowing a guy who knows a guy’. She also teaches in the INFO college and moonlights as a researcher or assistant on projects ranging from disability and accessibility to sociolinguistic identity and English language education. As a former librarian and bartender, she is happy to answer strange questions at strange hours and probably ‘knows a guy’ if you need one.
Additional Information:
Please contact infoevents@umd.edu at least one week prior to the event to request disability accommodations. In all situations, a good faith effort (up until the time of the event) will be made to provide accommodations.
For parking information and directions, please visit the Transportation Services website or view the campus map.
Speaker(s): Connie Siebold, PhD Candidate and Instructor, College of Information, University of Maryland College Park