{"id":166,"date":"2017-05-24T11:36:26","date_gmt":"2017-05-24T18:36:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hectorpostigo.com\/?page_id=166"},"modified":"2020-03-23T06:37:32","modified_gmt":"2020-03-23T13:37:32","slug":"home-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.hectorpostigo.com\/","title":{"rendered":"Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Hector Postigo
\nAssociate Professor, Temple University<\/em>
\n Media Studies and Production, Klein College of Communication and Media Studies<\/em>
\nPhD Science and Technology Studies Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute<\/em>
\n MS Physiology and Neurobiology. University of Connecticut<\/em>
\n email: hector [dot] postigo [at] temple [dot] edu<\/em><\/p>\n

I’ve been at Temple University since 2008, have been a visiting researcher at Microsoft Research New England, a visiting fellow at Yale University School of Law’s Information Society Project from 2015-2017, and Annenberg Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for Advanced Study of Social and Behavioral Sciences 2017-2018.<\/a><\/p>\n

My research focuses on new digital media and cultural production both large and small. \u00c2\u00a0 What counts as “new digital media” is always changing so my research and teaching are either chasing it or trying to get ahead of it.\u00c2\u00a0 Recently, using open source code and with support from Rutgers School of Law Institute for Information Policy and Law, I fine- tuned the 355M GPT-2 weights to produce AI policy narratives (see link for acknowledgments and more)<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Ironic, I know.<\/p>\n

That project led to another recent project which used another fine-tuned AI model to generate creative content. I’ve been giving talks at Philadelphia law firms about what copyright policy should look like if AI generates novel creative works based on fine-tuning from proprietary content like music, literature or code.<\/p>\n

In the past I’ve researched value generation (as in cultural and material capital) in the creative industries, driven by “free” labor or open source culture. I’ve looked at a number of case studies to ask: what kinds of value does the work of fan communities, volunteers, hackers and others add to commercial enterprises?\u00c2\u00a0 What are their (industry and user) norms, practices and values? And how do they engage with technologies\/laws\/policies that afford or frustrate participation? \u00c2\u00a0 I was one of the first researchers to study video game fan communities that make valuable modifications<\/a> to popular PC \"\"<\/a>games (modders), for example, and\u00c2\u00a0 have written on the history of AOL volunteer communities <\/a>and their labor disputes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

My second line of research focuses on technologically mediated activism.\u00c2\u00a0 I study this topic by asking how ICTs, hacks, workarounds and other circumventions might impact the role of individuals and organizations bent on social \"Origins<\/a>change.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a fan of Jennifer Earl\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/a>s work on that topic.\u00c2\u00a0 My own contributions in that vein have centered on the digital rights or free culture movement and their use of technological measures as a form of activism.\u00c2\u00a0 My book on that topic\u00c2\u00a0 came out from MIT Press<\/a>. The MIT Press also released portions of my Digital Rights Movement as a part of its MIT BIT initiative. \u00c2\u00a0That volume is titled Origins of the Digital Rights Movement and its available\u00c2\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

My third line of research focused on the US security\/privacy industry and its branding and marketing practices. \"PrivacyAccountability\"<\/a>That project was\u00c2\u00a0 funded by the European Commission 7th Programme Framework.\u00c2\u00a0 My collaborators and I published a co-edited a volume on that topic.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s available from Palgrave Macmillan Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I also study video games and scientific discovery! With the generous support of the National Science Foundation, I research how video game platforms can create creative spaces to solve long standing questions in biochemistry, engineering and physics.\u00c2\u00a0 That initial project was in collaboration with Casey O’Donnell<\/a> from Michigan State University.\u00c2\u00a0 Currently I’m using VR to explore perception and neurobiology.<\/p>\n

In 2011 Tarleton Gillespie<\/a> (from Microsoft Research and Cornell) and I received funding from the National Science Foundation for a\u00c2\u00a0 project on cultural production in the digital age.\u00c2\u00a0 We had great collaborators from all over the world join us for this project founded a blog, Culture Digitally,<\/a> and it has grown into a wonderful research community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hector Postigo Associate Professor, Temple University Media Studies and Production, Klein College of Communication and Media Studies PhD Science and Technology Studies Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute MS Physiology and Neurobiology. University of Connecticut email: hector [dot] postigo [at] temple [dot] edu I’ve been at Temple University since 2008, have been a visiting researcher at Microsoft Research […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"spay_email":""},"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P2OSbi-2G","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hectorpostigo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/166"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hectorpostigo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hectorpostigo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hectorpostigo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hectorpostigo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=166"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.hectorpostigo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":196,"href":"http:\/\/www.hectorpostigo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/166\/revisions\/196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hectorpostigo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}