The edited volume Raw Data is an Oxymoron by Lisa Gitelman seeks to deconstruct the typical notion of data for

who? Professor of English and Media, Culture and Communication at New York University The introduction written by Gitelman frames the book by outlining how data is typically conceived of, and why that conception is false. Following the prevalent food metaphor that data is raw, Gitelman urges readers to understand why and how data are always already cooked and never entirely raw (2). She prefaces the books chapters, attempting to integrate them to her overarching theme, which she does to a large success. In fact, the books argument is more cohesive here than in the actual essays. When reading the essays require a lot of work on the part of the reader to comprehend how these work into the larger picture she hopes to move forward on the large scale. She proves that data can be conceived of in many ways but is that enough? Indeed, the seemingly indispensable misperception that data are ever raw seems to be one way in which data are forever contextualizedthat is, framedaccording to a mythology of their own supposed decontextualization (5-6). She explains how the book is divided into four subsections with two essay chapters comprising each subsection. The various origins of data as a concept, how disciplines conceive of their objects and vice versa, prehistories to the contemporary database, and finally data in the present. The two essays in each section work together in that they illustarate the sub-theme and independently in that they push their own agendas that are in some cases very different (ex. card index) Data before the Fact by Daniel Rosenberg offers a description of the early conceptual history of data to how the word came to its current meaning, while also successfully debunking the myth of objective data. He does this by He differentiates between the terms data, facts, and evidence to underscore the semantic function of data is[as] specifically rhetorical (18). He then does a performative analysis in which he describes his own experience of tracking the word data through history using the google Ngram viewer and describing how the analytic tools brought up inconsistent results, forcing him to comb through them and discard things that did not fit his intended data set, in the end exclaiming that Missed some, mistook some (31) 2,300 Had to go through manually My own data may once have been raw, but by the time I began serious interpretation, I had cooked it quite well (30). Data has no truth (37). Procrustean Marxism and Subjective Rigor: Early Modern Arithmetic and Its Readers by Travis D. Williams a chapter as rigorous and multi-faceted as its name. Problems of making assumptions about data and trusting numbers as objective, timeless concepts our reading and their reading, our vigor and their vigor 42 A data set is already interpreted by the fact that it is a set: some elements are privileged by inclusion, while others are denied relevance through exclusion (41).

Some examples of current arithmetical pedagogy show that we, perhaps more than people in other eras, are particularly keen to segregate mathematics from anything that doesnt fit our sense of what mathematics should be (47). We read their math with our conventions and it does not add up accept cultural differenceeven their generalizations were not our generalizations Mathematics, whether or not part of an organized educational system, is as ripe as anything to function as one of what Louis Althusser calls the Ideological State Apparatuses (50). Convincingly makes the case that Math is not an absolute truth

To being in the section that covers how disciplines have used data to apply to certain objects and what belongs as data where The aggregative quality of data helps to lend them their potential power, their rhetorical weight (8). From Measuring Desire to Quantifying Expectations: A Late Nineteenth-Century Effort to Marry Economic Theory and Data by Kevin R. Brine and Mary Poovey Recounts the influences of Irving Fisher Crazy machine designed to quantify economic theory Supply demand, water 64: without machine to visualize it would have been more difficult to not only picture influence but also investigate more complicated variations of interrelations Representations quantify things in material world Take material and make into quantity through visualization tool Devise method for representing he relationship between prices of commodities and monetary value (66) The numbers that seem simply to represent actual economic events are actually the products of a complex historical and practical process that has made them useful for the formulation in which they appear (61). Influence of Bimetallism debate Data scrubbing table w/ footnote not showing process This process of commensuration, which could also be called cleansing or amendng, involved removing incorrect or inconvenient elements from the available data, supplying missing information, and formatting it so that it fit with other data (70). Fishers peculiar treatment of data madeand, to most modern economists, still makes sense (73). Where is that Moon, anyway? The Problem of Interpreting Historical Solar Eclipse Observations by Matthew Stanley Accounts for what type of data is useable, logical, allowed to be used to determine truth.

Several astronomers through time and their acceptance or rejection of different methods of data sources The problem, Newcomb said, was that proper observation of the natural world could only be th result of rigorous scientific training, thus accounting for the rude and doubtful character of nearly all ancient data (80). Newton concluded that the vagaries of translation and linguistics did not allow a high reliability to be assigned (83). Astronomical data could not be produced solely by astronomical methods (84). Prehistories to the database: Data are effectively made independent of their organization, and users who perform logical operations on the data are thus protected from having to know how the data have been organized (9). Chapter Five facts and FACTS: Abolitionists Database Innovations by Ellen Gruber Garvey Fascinating chapter describing how the Grimke sisters remediated slave classifieds, created data from unconventional source that worked perfectly for their means, this chapter may be helpful to media scholars interested in remediation before ubiquitous digital media. American Slavery as it is: testimony of a thousand witnesses Creating data set Incidental classified ads in one context became the instruments of pure moral suasion in another (90). Interpreted correctly, the ads yielded information on a horrifying spectrum of abuse, both of enslaved peoples bodies and their spirits (93). Sarah and Angeline Grimke and Theodore Weld reconceived of ads and articles in proslavery papers as alienable bitsas contentthat could be broken free of context and aggregated, strung along different threads to yireld a damning portrait of slavery written in the slaveholders own words (99). Very unconventional chapter, complex Paper as Passion: Niklas Luhmann and his Card Index by Markus Krajewski Such an inquiry ultimately allows a look at the self-representation of the system and its production aesthetic, and at the internal communications situation that figures, in turn, as the basis of the theory of self-referential systems (104). Logically, an electronic slip box allows one faster access to random terms and likewise, in combination with logical connections, to never overlookor forgetcharacter strings in the electronic sources (108). Thus, the slip box no longer provides simple the preparatory work for the text to be written, but rather always a kind of pre-form of the text itself (114). Ike hyperlinking Use cross references to trace new relationships

A reduction for construction of complexity Take away other than idea that other database systems existed? Hard to connect. But very interesting nonetheless. Stands out as weirdest chapter.

Dataveillence and Countervailance by Rita Raley The first of the books last two chapters covers something of a contemporary hot topic surveillance, but in such a way that diverts it from typical understanding. Not surveillance because you are not seen, just bits of your data. Data appreciates Weak examples of counterveillence Counter: system peer to peer rather than networks 132 Eyebrowse, surveill yourself to learn what they are learning and mess with them Art installations that teach recognition Raw data is the material for informational patterns still to come, its value unknown or uncertain until it is converted into the currency of information (123). However, our acts of participation or self-communication themselves become data, the entirety of our everyday life practices subject to, and constituted by, perpetual calculation (126). Most overtly rhetorical of chapters. Data Bite Man: The Work of Sustaining a Long-Term Study by David Ribes and Steven J. Jackson Boring ending to book though takeaway is important, extended case-study dragged on but the important idea that data needs humans to exist, though we have domesticated it such as we also need data. The work of producing, preserving, and sharing data reshapes the organizational, technological, and cultural worlds around them (147). Data increasingly domesticate us (150). Change is both a source of new knowledge and an incipient threat to the comparability of the longitudinal data (158).

Must be comparable across time to be useful Corn, flies for genetics, cooling systems in data storage areas DATA NEEDS PEOPLE TO COLELCT AGGREGATE MAKE MEANING Markedly