Mirko Tobias Schäfer / Assistant Professor
University of Utrecht Department for Media and Culture Studies
Mirko Tobias Schäfer / Assistant Professor
University of Utrecht Department for Media and Culture Studies
Date July 2010
Evgeny Morozov has a very readable comment on Zuckerberg's naïve views on privacy. He critically reviews the fuzzy rhetoric on so-called social media.
Date June 2010
Last year I served as external respondent for a section of the broad EU survey on The Social Impact of ICT. Now the final report is available as pdf-download. The document consists of reports on participation in policy making, education and life-long learning, work, consumption, health and innovation. The various reports do not only represent the current situation of ICT in the European Union in a meta-survey but also formulate advice for future policy making. It is part of the European Commission's Digital Competitiveness Report on the social and economic impact of ICT.
Date May 2010
It is fascinating to compare the news coverage by the New York Times and the Guardian with the amazing PR spin of British Petroleum. Their website boasts of optimism, communicating a determined and efficient action against the "relatively tiny" (BP CEO Tony Hayward) oil spill.
Date May 2010
The current special issue of First Monday edited by Yong Ming Kow and Bonnie Nardithe revolves around the relations between users and corporate companies concerning their accidental or deliberate co-production of products and services.
Date April 2010
The mashup movie on mashup culture, RIP - A Remix Manifesto will be screened at Louis Hartlooper Complex, Sunday April 18th 2010. Subsequent to the screening a panel discussion will revolve around copyrights, fair use and cultural production online.
Date March 2010
Already in 2007 Molleindustria launched this game as a critical commentary to the Vatican's policies of covering up sexual harassment and abuse
Date February 2010
Over the past 20 years the Web has emerged as a crucial aspect of our everyday life. The BBC documents its profound impact on culture, social organisation and politics.
Date January 2010
Ars Technica features an article on the emergence of the Web and the many socio-political debates, the metaphors employed to constitute the utopian connotation of the Internet and the communities involved to fight for a new frontier, alternative reality and better politics. A great look back at the political and cultural battlefield of the emerging web.
Date December 2009
On its Trailblazing website, the Royal Society celebrates 350 years of modern science by showcasing over sixty most memorable and exceedingly interesting papers published between 1665 and 2010. They provide a well edited 110 pages document with introductions to each paper; it allows a time-lapse ride through the history of modern science, from blood transfusion experiments with dogs, the invention of electric batteries, to the DNA helix and concepts of geoengineering.
Date November 2009
Hosted by the Institute for Network Cultures, the conference Society of the Query critically discusses the role of search engines in digital culture and the consequences for managing and accessing information. An international cast of speakers addresses issues of civil rights and media literacy, Google and alternative search engines, as well as media art. November 13th - 14tn 2009, Trouw Amsterdan.
Date November 2009
Cory Doctorow explains why the copyright industry's quest for stopping file sharing will only result in unfair laws and a decrease of civil rights.
Date October 2009
They claim to promote free and fair trade for all, but they facillitate profits for only a few and poverty for the rest. Get some background information on the scandalous achievements of the World Trade Organization.
Date October 2009
Ars Technica looks back on 100 years of big content fearing technology
Date August 2009
The Telegraph on the lack of socio-political regulation in the military technology development of killing machines
Date July 2009
Critical texts on the changing concepts of war and the power relations involved in the reality of war
Date June 2009
Ben Goldacre on the music industry's attempt to back their case with bogus research
Date February 2009
A great paper by Christophe Prieur et al. on Flickr using an impressive sample, the entire Flickr user base, to analyze user activities and social interaction.
Date January 2009
An issue of Culture Machine on Piracy and copyright issues in cultural production, edited by Gary Hall
Date January 2009
Just in case your browser wants Tourette syndrome, or you want to experience the censored Chinese version of the Web...
Date December 2008
Talks given at the conference "Deep Search" on search engines, information management and socio-political consequences.
Date July 2010
What appears as user generated content on YouTube, Myspace, FB etc. is screened by software and content reviewers. Via Slashdot, I stumbled upon this NYT article that gives a glance on the job of content reviewers for Web 2.0 applications. It provides a to often unconsidered notion of the Web 2.0 user generated content as subject to strict review processes and corporate editing.
Date June 2010
The first international congress on Web Studies took place in March in Toluca, Mexico. Those who could not attend but are interested in the presented papers can now download the entire proceedings as well as audio recordings and presentation slides.
Date May 2010
Stanford researcher Clifford Nass and colleagues have put the persistent legend of multitasking to a test in their study Cognitive control in media multitaskers (2009). Especially those who are considered to be excellent multitaskers are particularily bad at it. They seem also to unlearn to differentiate between relevant and irrelevant getting, caught up in the multiple distractions they are trying to deal with simultaneously.
Date May 2010
This appeared already a while ago. In "My Manhattan Project. How I helped to build the bomb that blew up Wallstreet" Michael Osinski provides a thrilling first-hand report to mathematical models and software used for trading.
Date March 2010
Evgeny Morozov has second thoughts about the utopian notion of the Internet as enabling technology, spreading democracy and freedom. In this article at Wall Street Journal, he convincingly argues how the Internet can be effectively used for cracking down dissent.
Date March 2010
Ars Technica investigates the technologies in air traffic control
Date February 2010
Students at Utrecht University protest against the increasing confinement of academic freedom and quality of research and teaching.
Date January 2010
Barry Collins at PC Pro travels through Second Life wondering why he went there in the first place.
Date December 2009
cnet features a very informative interview with Last.fm's head of web development Matthew Ogle
Date November 2009
Ars Technica has a very informative review on a most promising book: "Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars" by US copyright law expert William Patry
Date November 2009
TechRadar has an article on computers and their difficulties with calculations, and how it can be a matter of life and death.
Date October 2009
If sanity and reason is not enough, here is a survey on the effects of Internet blocking, which is lately prominently promoted by copyright industry and repressive politicians. The findings show clearly that Internet blocking threatens to violate "the rights to private life, the right for freedom of expression, and the right for disabled persons to access electronic communications."
Date October 2009
Excerpt from Virilio's "Bunker Archaeology" and photo gallery.
Date July 2009
AT features an article on computerized stock markets and high frequency trading
Date May 2009
an independent monitoring website of EU politics.
Date April 2009
A great documentary on the history of the computer and the emergence of global networks
Date March 2009
Date February 2009
Beyond the realm of the established and somehow doomed music industry the netlabels flourish.
Date January 2009
Brett Gaylor's documentary on remix culture and copyright issues. Participate by remixing the online footage as you like.
Date December 2008
The first collection of critical responses to YouTube. Download from Networkcultures.
Date June 2008
Rolling Stone Magazine features an exceedingly interesting article by Naomi Klein on China's surveillance technology industry that is reaching out for markets in democratic societies. But won't we import along with the surveillance technology China's repression of civil rights as well?
Date July 2010
On the occasion of Clay Shirky's new book "Cognitive Surplus" on how to harvest collective production for a better world, Salon.com features a discussion between Shirky, Andrew Keen and James Mustich on the future of the book, mashing up issues of technological design with the usual legends from utopia to dystopia.
Date June 2010
Here (at the New Yorker) is another interesting article on Wikileaks based on an interview with Julian Assange.
Date May 2010
The Australian newspaper The Age has an article on Wikileaks' Julian Assange worth reading
Date April 2010
Frank Schirrmacher, co-publisher of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung comments on the European aircraft grounding and criticizes the premature trust in simulations.
Date March 2010
The Institute for Networkcultures is hosting a two day conference on Wikipedia. It serves as a platform for a critical reflection on Wikipedia-based knowledge processes and politics, bringing together scholars, law experts and Wikipedians. The Amsterdam conference follows up on the event WikiWars held in Bangalore in January 2010. Topics revolve around editing and community politics on Wikipedia, practices of analysing and framing Wikipedia as well as the ongoing socio-political debate on collective knowledge production. Wikipedia, A critical Point of View: March 26th-27th, Amsterdam, Public Library
Date March 2010
Rachel Dretzin and Douglas Rushkoff meet the so called 'digital natives' in this PBS Frontline documentary on media use, relationships, war and education in the 21st century.
Date January 2010
In November 2009 Trebor Scholz organized a conference where an impressive crowd of scholars, activists, programmers and artists gathered to reflect criticisms of the Web 2.0 and its media practices. Questions revolving around power structures, control, censorship and the 'unpaid' labour of users. On his website he provides a great overview of the discussion, links to presentations, interviews and other resources.
Date December 2009
Date November 2009
Neglecting the EU parliament and the European citizens, the EU justice and home affairs ministers are about to grant the USA nearly unlimited access to European banking data. Of course this deal is not mutual. European authorities won't be able to access US banking data. Giving up even more of European citizen's rights is scheduled for Monday 30th November, one day before the EU parliament will receive more power to intervene in such affairs.
Date November 2009
In this programmatic article on the digital transformation of the public sphere, Frank Hartmann argues against the reactionary attempts to stifle open access and the free flow of information. Hartmann's arguments are not only rooted in the ideals of enlightenment but profoundly based on the quality of digital technology and its media practices.
Date October 2009
EU commission funded survey on 'user created content', the use of blogs, twitter, youtube and social networking sites.
Date October 2009
Interesting research by the RAND Corporation on the implications of information warfare
Date October 2009
Edward Castronova on virtual economies in online games.
Date June 2009
A feature in The Globe and Mail on the history of downloading music
Date April 2009
Deutschland auf dem Weg zur totalen Überwachung seiner Bürger.
Date April 2009
Date March 2009
article on the decline of the music industry at Torrentfreak
Date February 2009
A survey by Rebecca MacKinnon on Chinese companies censoring bloggers.
Date January 2009
Wired magazine features an article on Microsoft's and AT&T's efforts to fight Google.
Date December 2008
Bernhard Rieder eloquently criticizes the inflationary and superficial publications on the so-called Web 2.0 and their enthusiasm for crowds, folksonomies, users as producers etc.
Date April 2008
Michael Zimmer from Yale Law School has edited a First Monday edition on the Web 2.0.