| Research Interests |
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My primary research interest is the history of the Internet as a means of communication and a medium, including archiving the Internet and websites.
My other research interest is media theory, the Internet, and the relation between the two with a view to (re)evaluating the status and relevance of existing media theories and methods.
Finally, to a lesser extent I spend time cultivating a long-time research interest: recent French philosophy, history of ideas, theories of culture, and epistemology. Of primary interest here are thinkers such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Michel Foucault, Jean-Francois Lyotard and Paul Virilio.
Throughout the years I have participated in a number of research projects which are listed below.
For more information see also my CV, list of publications, and index of lectures.
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| Research Projects |
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| LARM (Radio Culture and Auditory Resources Research Infrastructure) (2010-2013) |
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LARM is a humanities research infrastructure for radio and audio cultural heritage. The objective is to further radio and audio based research by securing a national bibliography for radio, maturing research source material with meta-data and annotations, developing tools for access, registering, indexing and dissemination. These resources will be integrated into a virtual environment for research--a researcher's digital radio archive and toolbox.
LARM is anchored in a consortium of leading humanities research and national cultural institutions.
LARM is funded by the National programme for Research infrastructure with a grant of 25 million DKK.
I participate in the following work packages: '4.1 Archives', '4.2 Users and the Public Sphere', and '5.7 Radio on new platforms'.
Project website [ in Danish ]
Old project website [ also English version ]
Complete project description
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| The history of www.dr.dk, 1996-2006 (2007-2013) |
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I have taken the initiative to launch and carry out a research project entitled "The history of dr.dk, 1996-2006". The overall aim of this project is to write the history of the first ten years of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation's (DR) website, i.e. the period from 1996 to 2006 (dr.dk has been the biggest Danish website for some years).
The project aims to answer two inter-related questions: What are the driving forces behind the creation and development of www.dr.dk from 1996 to 2006, and what are the consequences of these for the website? And what theoretical and methodological new developments are required in order to be able to analyze www.dr.dk?
The project focuses on four communicative elements: sender, text, medium and the immediate context of DR as well as their mutual relations; in terms of the period studied, the focus is on the main characteristics of the website's development as well as on selected shorter time periods including the period just prior to the launching of www.dr.dk.
The project is intended to generate new empirical and methodological research in areas that have been largely unexplored up until today. The project is expected to
- present the first historical analysis of an important piece of recent Danish cultural, media and social history and of the history of the 'Danish' internet,
- develop theories of the website as a media and textual phenomenon,
- provide considerations of the history of websites as a discipline,
- preserve www.dr.dk, 1996 to 2006, for posterity.
The project was started in July 2007 and is supported by the Danish Research Council for the Humanities in 2007-10. The development of the project website is supported by the 'Knowledge Society' research priory area of the Faculty of Humanities, University of Aarhus.
Project website
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| Method study of the integration of internet material directly received from producers (2007) |
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I took the initiative to launch "Method study of the integration of internet material directly received from producers", a project in which I also participated. The aim of the project was to analyze the archiving and research problems and possibilities in connection with the collection of internet material from the producer and the integration of these in www.netarkivet.dk (the national internet archive, which is run by the Royal Library and the State and University library). The methodological considerations and the investigations of the project were based on DR as a producer and its website, www.dr.dk
The goal was to develop strategies capable of being generalized and applied by the State and University Library/www.netarkivet.dk in connection with the collection of other relevant websites where similar problems exist. The project also constituted preparatory work towards "The history of www.dr.dk, 1996-2006" (see above).
The project was carried out in spring 2007 in collaboration with the State and University Library/www.netarkivet.dk and was supported by the research fund of the Ministry of Culture.
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| The Knowledge Society (2006-2008) |
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The Knowledge Society is a joint research priority area at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Aarhus (2006-2008)
I participate in the sub-project entitled 'The Internet — a New Medium in a New Knowledge Society?' ('Internettet — et nyt medie i et nyt videnssamfund?' [ in Danish ])
Short presentation
Project website [ in Danish ]
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| Theories of Media and Communication — Histories and Relevance (2003-2006) |
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I took the initiative to launch a research project entitled "Theories of Media and Communication: Histories and Relevance."
The two main and related objectives of the project were as follows:
- Prioritise the field of media and communication theory, its histories and relevance, as an independent field of research within media and communication studies
- Contribute to the development of media and communication theories with particular emphasis on the newest media (Internet, digital newspaper/radio/TV, cell phoning, etc.) and the interaction of these with existing media, which will largely occur in light of and through systematic and critical readings of existing theories
These goals will be met through a series of volumes, each covering a theme in the field of media theory, as well as through an encyclopedia on concepts and theoretical currents in media theory. Finally, the project is gathering references to literature in the field of media and communication theory in a regularly updated database of books. The project was launched on January 1st 2003, and from 2003 through 2006 it was funded by the Danish Research Council for the Humanities.
Project website
Project book database
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| MODINET (Media and Democracy in the Network Society) (2002-2005) |
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MODINET was an interdisciplinary research project with the aim of examining the importance of globalization and the new digital media culture in politics and democracy, in the established cultural and media institutions, and in everyday life in the information and network society of the future.
MODINET comprised about 50 researchers and PhD students from the social sciences and the humanities in public and private research settings.
MODINET was funded by the Research Councils with a grant of 23.6 million DKK under the auspices of the program for "Large Interdisciplinary Research Groups". The grant was available from April 1st 2000 through September 1st 2005.
I have been participating in this with a project entitled "The Website as Text" ("Netstedet som tekst").
Project website
Complete project description
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| netarkivet.dk (2001-2002) |
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In 2001-2002 I participated in "netarkivet.dk", a one-year collection, archiving and research project that contributed to developing a strategy for archiving Danish Internet materials.
The project was funded by the Danish Electronic Research Library and the contributing institutions: the Center for Internet Research, the Royal Danish Library, and the State and University Library.
The project formed the basis for the establishment of a national Internet archive in 2005.
Final report for the project
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