His research studies the history of publishing, particularly the recent history (for the most part, post-1979) in all variety of media (including music, film, video and software distribution, as well as traditional monographs and serials). He teaches courses in rhetorical theory, multimedia production and cultural theory. He is the director of the EServer, a nonprofit online publishing venture in the arts and humanities (by some estimates, the most visited humanities website in the world), and is also the director of the ISU Studio for New Media, an interdisciplinary research institute organized to support, further, and coordinate work with digital media currently done by individuals across multiple departments at Iowa State University.