Contributing, But Not Belonging: Lab apps and the politics of exclusion from communities of expertise

The idea of instantly and efficiently sharing data amongst scientists has been promoted by Lab Management Apps (LMAs). These apps promise to recreate an idealisedface-to-facecommunity of interaction,allowing(1) moreefficient communication, and(2) virtual extension ofthe community.Against the background of this idealised image of knowledge sharing, I present ethnographic research that examines how lab members perform careful community management, to maintain the specific image of community defined by the LMA. Lab members allowed non-scientists to contribute to theirresearchnetworkbut not to jointhe imagined/imposed community. I argue thatthe politics of exclusion must be questionedin such cases.Writing an app for an imagined scientific community requires processes of in/exclusion to be codified, which can be disruptive to the community. At the same time, this can be a critically productive process that makes visible inequities that have otherwise been ideologically suppressed.