Maik Bierwirth, Oliver Leistert, Renate Wieser (eds.): Ungeplante Strukturen: Tausch und Zirkulation (2010) [German]
Filed under book | Tags: · media theory, networks, technology
“Durch Tausch, Zirkulation und Verhandlung entstehen Strukturen, die weder geplant noch vorhergesagt werden können. Hierbei spielt eine Vielzahl von Akteuren, Ereignissen und Orten zusammen, und dennoch mündet solches heterogene, verteilte Handeln in neue Institutionen, Werthierarchien, technische Entwicklungen oder Machtkonstellationen.
Der medien- und kulturwissenschaftliche Sammelband zeichnet Spuren dieser schwer erkennbaren Abläufe nach: Die kollektive Entwicklung der Wikipedia, der wechselseitige Austausch zwischen Mäzenin und Autor, oder die diskursive Produktion nationaler Stereotype sind drei der Themen, die in Hinblick auf diese Problemstellung untersucht werden. Die Beiträge zeigen unterschiedliche Zugänge zur Rekonstruktion ungeplanter Prozesse.”
Publisher Wilhelm Fink, Munich, 2010
Automatismen series
ISBN 9783770549887
256 pages
Jon Gernter: The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation (2012)
Filed under book | Tags: · communication technology, computing, engineering, history of communications, history of computing, history of technology, networks, radio, technology, telephone
“High-handed corporate monopoly and high-minded national treasure, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) was a unique project of America’s pragmatism and for decades the envy of the world in extending low-cost local telephone service. At the heart of AT&T was its R&D unit, Bell Laboratories, the world’s greatest entity of its kind, and a giant manufacturing arm, Western Electric.
The Idea Factory is the first study of Bell Labs that puts its history in its full organizational, political, and administrative context. AT&T was a company striving to expand and maintain a privileged empire under a government that saw it alternatively as a trusted military/industrial partner and an anticompetitive threat. This ambiguous embrace, New York Times Magazine writer Jon Gertner suggests, inadvertently encouraged a culture that combined a gifted and diverse workforce with a long-term outlook, creating the foundations of a new information economy, which in turn made radical changes in the charter of the parent company inevitable.
Gertner’s story is the interaction between three leaders of Bell Labs in its critical years—Mervin Kelly, Jim Fisk, and William Oliver Baker—and three of its greatest scientific minds: William Shockley, Claude Shannon, and John Pierce.” (from a review by Edward Tenner)
Publisher The Penguin Press, New York, 2012
ISBN 1594203288, 9781594203282
422 pages
via Steve McLaughlin
review (Edward Tenner, Issues in Science and Technology)
review (Dave Tompkins, Slate)
review (Jesse Hicks, The Verge)
PDF (EPUB, updated on 2013-5-7)
PDF (MOBI, updated on 2013-5-7)
Geert Lovink, Miriam Rasch (eds.): Unlike Us Reader: Social Media Monopolies and Their Alternatives (2013)
Filed under book | Tags: · activism, art, facebook, floss, media theory, networks, open source, privacy, social media, web
The Unlike Us Reader offers a critical examination of social media, bringing together theoretical essays, personal discussions, and artistic manifestos. How can we understand the social media we use everyday, or consciously choose not to use? We know very well that monopolies control social media, but what are the alternatives? While Facebook continues to increase its user population and combines loose privacy restrictions with control over data, many researchers, programmers, and activists turn towards designing a decentralized future. Through understanding the big networks from within, be it by philosophy or art, new perspectives emerge.
Unlike Us is a research network of artists, designers, scholars, activists, and programmers, with the aim to combine a critique of the dominant social media platforms with work on ‘alternatives in social media’, through workshops, conferences, online dialogues, and publications. Everyone is invited to be a part of the public discussion on how we want to shape the network architectures and the future of social networks we are using so intensely.
Contributors: Solon Barocas, Caroline Bassett, Tatiana Bazzichelli, David Beer, David M. Berry, Mercedes Bunz, Florencio Cabello, Paolo Cirio, Joan Donovan, Louis Doulas, Leighton Evans, Marta G. Franco, Robert W. Gehl, Seda Gürses, Alexandra Haché, Harry Halpin, Mariann Hardey, Pavlos Hatzopoulos, Yuk Hui, Ippolita, Nathan Jurgenson, Nelli Kambouri, Jenny Kennedy, Ganaele Langlois, Simona Lodi, Alessandro Ludovico, Tiziana Mancinelli, Andrew McNicol, Andrea Miconi, Arvind Narayanan, Wyatt Niehaus, Korinna Patelis, PJ Rey, Sebastian Sevignani, Bernard Stiegler, Marc Stumpel, Tiziana Terranova, Vincent Toubiana, Brad Troemel, Lonneke van der Velden, Martin Warnke and D.E. Wittkower.
Publisher Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, February 2013
INC Reader #3
Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 Unported License
ISBN 9789081857529
386 pages
via Anne Helmond
book trailer
research network
next conference (22-23 March 2013, Amsterdam)
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PDF
View online (Issuu.com)