Thanks Tarelton!

I'd like to thank Tarleton again for agreeing to be a guest blogger for this week while we are reading and discussing his fantastic new book Wired Shut. Too bad he can't join us for beverages on Friday!

I am really enjoying reading the book and I particularly appreciate the wit! (I just finished the Valenti chapter)

First a compliment and then a question.

1. I'm impressed by the amount of theoretical ground you cover in Ch 3. I appreciate that you don't try to overly simplify the complexity of socio-technical theories. You succeed in explaining the various aspects of s-t approaches in a crisp coherent way.

2. Ok, now the question: As someone who studies two very complicated things in this book(law and information technologies), how do you keep up with both? In particular, how do you avoid getting bogged down in the intricacies and ambiguities of law to stay focused on the bigger socio-tech picture (of which law is one part). As someone else who has published works that require knowledge of law, I depended on a legal co-author (shout out to Anuj!) to make sure I wasn't making erroneous claims about law (in addition to Anuj's other important contributions). But you tend to solo author - so how do you manage it?

The double complexity of IT/law may make it difficult for new grad students to start studying these sorts of things. What hints would you give grad students interested in copyright/IP issues who have no legal training or background?

~Kristin