Siva Vaidhyanathan: The Googlization of Everything: And Why We Should Worry (2011)

In the beginning, the World Wide Web was exciting and open to the point of anarchy, a vast and intimidating repository of unindexed confusion. Into this creative chaos came Google with its dazzling mission—“To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible”—and its much-quoted motto, “Don’t be Evil.” In this provocative book, Siva Vaidhyanathan examines the ways we have used and embraced Google—and the growing resistance to its expansion across the globe. He exposes the dark side of our Google fantasies, raising red flags about issues of intellectual property and the much-touted Google Book Search. He assesses Google’s global impact, particularly in China, and explains the insidious effect of Googlization on the way we think. Finally, Vaidhyanathan proposes the construction of an Internet ecosystem designed to benefit the whole world and keep one brilliant and powerful company from falling into the “evil” it pledged to avoid.

Publisher University of California Press, 2011
ISBN 0520258827, 9780520258822
265 pages

review (Evgeny Morozov, The New Republic)
review (Adam Thierer, The Technology Liberation Front)
review (Jack Shafer, San Francisco Chronicle)

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Constant (eds.): Tracks in Electr(on)ic Fields (2009) [English/French/Dutch]

Publication contains texts and images from Verbindingen/Jonctions 10: Tracks in electr(on)ic fields festival, organised by Constant VZW in Brussels in 2007. Its design by OSPublish won a 2009 Fernand Baudin prize.

Edited by Constant featuring Clementine Delahaut, Laurence Rassel and Emma Sidgwick
Publisher Constant, Association for Art and Media, Brussels, 2009
Free Art Licence
332 pages

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Lucas D. Introna, Helen Nissenbaum: Facial Recognition Technology. A Survey of Policy and Implementation Issues (2009)

Facial recognition technology (FRT) has emerged as an attractive solution to address many contemporary needs for identification and the verification of identity claims. It brings together the promise of other biometric systems, which attempt to tie identity to individually distinctive features of the body, and the more familiar functionality of visual surveillance systems. This report develops a socio-political analysis that bridges the technical and social-scientific literatures on FRT and addresses the unique challenges and concerns that attend its development, evaluation, and specific operational uses, contexts, and goals. It highlights the potential and limitations of the technology, noting those tasks for which it seems ready for deployment, those areas where performance obstacles may be overcome by future technological developments or sound operating procedures, and still other issues which appear intractable. Its concern with efficacy extends to ethical considerations.

Report of the Center for Catastrophe Preparedness and Response, New York University
April 2009
60 pages

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