Please welcome James Kafader to ESnet! James comes to us from Internet Archive (IA), where he worked on the Archive-It team, which develops and maintains a turnkey archiving platform. Archive-It partners with external institutions and national libraries to capture data on their behalf. It is essentially the project incubator at IA and focused on high-quality and large-scale archiving. The data collected by Archive-It represents about 30% of the available captures in the global wayback machine.

Question 1: What brought you to ESnet?

In 2020, I spent a lot of time thinking about the interconnectedness of natural systems, and how they relate to the earth’s climate. It strikes me that it’s imperative, as a planet and nation, to focus on reducing the impact of climate change in short order. This line of thinking led me to dedicate my time to science, which could have a positive impact on the global climate.

Question 2: What is the most exciting thing going on in your field right now?

This is a good question. I consider myself very much a generalist in terms of how I approach software development, as well as in my overall view of reality. My view of computational systems is very conservative as well — I like to understand the algorithms involved with any new technology as intimately as possible before selecting it for use. I’d say in many ways that the most exciting thing going on in my field is renewed interest in how large-scale systems affect equitability for their participants; that is, how the networks, systems, and structures that we build affect outcomes for each of us.

Question 3: What book would you recommend?

I recently read Breath by James Nestor. It was an engaging read and helped a lot with my mood and stability, if not the most scientifically accurate thing I’ve ever read. Another favorite is Difficult Conversations by Sheila Heen, Douglas Stone, and Bruce Patton.