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 December 2011
VJ Um Amel from R-Shief invited activists and academics to dig deep into some 12 million tweets related to the Occupy movement. Three days teams from around the globe were participating in a concerted effort to make sense of these data. This exciting experience has been preserved eloquently in this documentation
Date October 2011
After the amazing coup of the Computer Chaos Club reverse engineering the government malware & surveillance software the German weekly Der Spiegel covers the affair for the English speaking readers
Date September 2011
Handy interface to search the most notorious Wikileaks dump and to store a choice of cables in a personal cart
Date August 2011
Auf Telepolis findet sich ein guter Artikel zu den Bestrebungen der Regierungen das Internet möglichst weitgehend zu regulieren. Während die Politik die Allianz mit den führenden Internet-Unternehmen sucht, bleibt die Zivilgesellschaft außen vor.
Date July 2011
Visualizations, infovis and infographics receive raving attention lately. The use of interactive data visualization is popular in news media and shaped the term data journalism. Stanford University hosts very informative video on the development of software applications for data visualization and how they are used as storytelling medium
Date June 2011
Abolishing the breeding ground for creativity and innovation, the Netherlands have opted out of the global knowledge economy. Bruce Sterling has a dead-on commentary on the profoundly wrong and seriously damaging decisions made by the right-wing populists irresponsibly ruling the country
Date June 2011
The World Bank provides open access to their latest data sets of world development indicators
Date June 2011
The latest edition of Policy & Internet takes an interdisciplinary approach on issues of cybercrime.
Date May 2011
The affects of information technology for the environment are a mostly neglected issue. Since a while, Greenpeace raises attention for the environmental effects of producing computer technology and disposing electronic waste. Now, Greenpeace has issued a report on the energy consumption of our 'beloved' social media, mapping the energy choices of IT companies, such as Amazon, Google, Facebook and Twitter.
Date May 2011
Slashdot features an article by Bennett Haselton content review on social media platforms. It appears that flag functions on user generated content are frequently abused. Haselton argues for a meta-moderation of content similar to Slashcode's moderation of comments
Date March 2011
Far too easy, the internet is perceived as an immaterial sphere like a large library in the sky. However, our social interaction in e-mails, chats, micro-blogging etc. runs on data carriers and our digital culture is stored on servers around the globe. PC Pro has an exciting feature on highly secured data centres harbouring websites and data bases in former nuclear bunkers or in strong rooms of banks.
Date February 2011
Groklaw responds to the question what is blocking innovation in the US. In a very informative post IP laws are identified as stifling innovation
Date January 2011
Jim Belcher over at Ars Technica walks us through the development of computer displays from white or green blinking lights to full colour and high resolution graphical user interfaces. A very brief history of computer displays.
Date December 2010
Culture Machine has a special edition on the devastating trend of economising universities and establishing a ill-conceived concept of efficiency in academic education.
Date November 2010
Recently Gizmodo investigated the case illegally stored body scans. Bruce Schneier has a follow up on the debate revolving around reliability of body scans, the services of the TSA and airport security in general.
Date November 2010
Referring to a 2008 research project that accidentally disclosed profile data from Facebook users Michael Zimmer discusses ethical issues and codes of conduct in researching social networking sites
Date November 2010
Nate Anderson over at Ars Technica hopes that the emerging 3D printing won't be stifled by intellectual property concerns. But what will happen once average consumers will be able to reproduce 3D objects with their off-the-shelf printers?
Date October 2010
John Graham-Cumming over at O'Reilly writes about Babbage's Analytical Engine, a concept of a mechanical computer, 100 years ahead of its time. Graham-Cumming wants to finish what Babbage started and aims at building a working prototype of the Analytical Engine.
Date August 2010
In a somehow polemic inspection Chris Anderson and Micheal Wolff over at Wired write about the technological changes in web applications and how it affects media practice. They argue that the application becomes the primary access point to web services. Further more they see the general openness of the web to become marginalized. However, as O'reilly points out in a commentary, recent web applications show that the new business models thrive on the back-end and the exploitation of harvested data.
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 December 2011
While some techno-optimists praise new media for liberating people from repressive regimes, dictators rely on Western technology to spy on their citizens, intercept their communication, monitor their internet traffic and block their access to information. The needed release of the Spy Files by Wikileaks identifies companies that thrive on repression.
The evidence provided on the Wikilekas platform consists of detailed brochures, price lists, manuals and presentations that clearly show that this industry is not only well aware of the way their products are used by repressive regimes but is explicitly advertising those activities.
Next step is to push for policies to outlaw the export of surveillance technology to repressive regimes.
Date October 2011
Matthew Braga at Ars Technica writes about the peril and promise of social media use in companies. He emphasizes that companies should try harder to understand the inherent risks of social media.
Date August 2011
A very informative report by the Center for American Progress reveals the funding structure of Islamophobia. Tracing various donors and cross-referencing their ties with right-wing politicians and opinion makers the CAP presents a comprehensive mapping of nationalistic ideology, Christian-fundamentalist reactionaries and the connections to media and politics.
Date July 2011
It has been frequently pointed out that software patents stifle innovation, regulate markets and help monopolists to keep competition out. This documentary investigates the legal activism that led to the emergence of software patents and how they affect software development and the wider economy.
Date July 2011
Tobias Escher over at Oxford Internet Institute has published two exciting surveys on citizen participation. His evaluation of TheyWorkForYou.com and WriteToThem.com shows how web interfaces lower the bar for interacting with public administration and how it increases citizens' engagement.
Date June 2011
Network World has a good article on the research of NYU's Finn Brunton. Brunton traces the uses and distribution of dated technologies and keeps an impressive archive on 'Dead Media'
Date June 2011
The World Bank issued a new report on global developments in economy and politics. It notes that the six emerging powerful economies Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, South Korea and Russia lead to a significant shift of economic power, constituting a global economy of multipolarity.
Date May 2011
Corporate Europe and LobbyControl map the additionally income of EU parliament members. Some of these corporate pay-checks raise concerns about possible conflicts of interest as documented in the report.
Date May 2011
A publication by the Berkman Center addresses a number of issues that concern the transformation of music, music licensing and distribution. The book is related to the Center's Rethink Music Conference.
Date April 2011
Google released a glossy publication on 'data' on Think Quarterly. Originally aimed at Google partners and advertisers the publication is a good read for anybody interested in data, data visualizations and information politics. It features interviews with people professionally working with data, such as visualization guru Hans Rosling, Vodafone CEO Guy Laurence, Google Chief economist Hal Varian and Tim Berners-Lee, and some articles on 'open data', 'data websites', 'near field communication' etc. An archived copy is accessible here
Date March 2011
Ars Technica has a brief but informative overview on the emergence of IPTV
Date January 2011
There is quite some inconsiderate commentary on the role of 'social media' in Tunisia and Egypt. Marc Lynch reminds us that Al Jazeera deserves credit for shaping a pan Arabian media space and constituting formation of opinion and a civic public sphere
Date January 2011
The NYT has a thrilling article about the Stuxnet worm, jointly developed by the US and Israel, and how it has been tested at an Israeli power plant.
Date December 2010
In The Chronicle for Higher Education, El Dante, a professional ghost writer for students and academics writes frankly about his trade. The article gives insight into the world of professional ghost writing for students who rather pay than work.
Date November 2010
Wired has an interesting article on Stuxnet, the virus that infected Iranian power plants
Date November 2010
NYT has a thrilling article on Albert Gonzalez, a hacker who recently has been sentenced to 20 years for credit card theft.
Date November 2010
The students at Utrecht University's MA programme New Media and Digital Culture created the department's new website. The site reflects more the dynamic interaction between students, alumni and staff. It features articles, events and student projects and internships in the realm of the Dutch new media scene.
Date September 2010
TechCrunch has an article on the Facebook alternative Diaspora which for the first time revealed more information on how the final application will look like.
Date August 2010
Patent Absurdity is a movie on software patents. The documentary explores the history of software patents and shows how they constitute a threat to software development, innovation and economic growth.
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.
Date October 2011
Der Beitrag der Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung zur Enttarnung des Bundestrojaners durch den Computer Chaos Club ist großartiger Journalismus. Wie kein zweites Medium in Deutschland treibt die FAZ mit Frank Schirrmacher die gesellschaftsweite Debatte zu Gesellschaft und Internet voran. Ganz in aufklärerischer Tradition fordert der Abdruck von Auszügen aus dem Programm-Code der Überwachungs-Software die bürgerliche Gesellschaft auf, sich aus der Unmündigkeit zu befreien und die Rolle von Technik in unserer Informationsgesellschaft kritisch zu hinterfragen.
Date October 2011
Wired author Noah Shachtman writes about the computer virus that has infected US Predator and Reaper drones and points out the sensitive vulnerabilities of sophisticated weapon systems
Date August 2011
Ryan Paul over at Ars Technica looks back at 20 years of Linux; what started out as the hobby of a Finnish computer science student turned into serious technology, a global community and a strong industry, and it has ideological connotations as well.
Date July 2011
Researchers at Brown University have published an extensive survey on costs & effects of the so-called War on Terror. The crushing results show that there is little or no democratic progress in the invaded countries, human rights violations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and an erosion of civil liberties in Western countries, millions of displaced persons, tremendous economic costs, and an estimate of 225,000 killed (of which the vast majority are civilians). The survey also finds poor strategic planning & a complete shortfall of the US administration to seek alternatives to military action.
Date July 2011
The McLuhan Galaxy Conference took place in May in Barcelona, focusing on questions of understanding today's media. Now, the proceedings are available for download (.pdf).
Date June 2011
Award winning documentary 'Inside Job' (by Charles Ferguson) now freely accessible at Internet Archive. It shows how the financial sector unopposed by our incompetent and/or corrupt political leaders brought the crisis upon us. The film lines out the various factors building up to the financial meltdown and shows the architects of the crisis, now serving in political administrations instead of serving time in jail. This documentary is compulsory viewing for critical citizens.
Date June 2011
Jovan Kurbalija from the Diplo Foundation provides an informative book on Internet Governance, briefly sketching the main issues from DNS to net neutrality. The book is available from the Diplo Foundation's weblog.
Date May 2011
As universities are increasingly forced to act like businesses and to recruit sponsors they learn that you have to comply to your donors wishes. This article at Bloomberg shows academia's slippery slope towards intellectual decline and loss of integrity
Date May 2011
There has been quite some debate lately on the role of humanities in 'the digital age' or rather in late capitalism. Culture Machine devotes its recent edition on issues the humanities are confront with in this day and age.
Date March 2011
With their study on Twitter feeds and Twitter follower structures Shaomei Wu et al. convincingly show that a tiny percentage of users accounts for more than 50% of attention. Further more the study shows that the distribution of communication confirms the two-step-flow of communication where messages are passed on through intermediary opinion leaders.
Date February 2011
Ars Technica's Nate Anderson tells the thrilling story of Aaron Barr, an IT security executive who tried to unmask the 'Anonymous organisation' and got totally pwned. In an update Ars presents excerpts from IRC chats Anonymous members had with Barr.
Date January 2011
Jaron Lanier provides an important critical notion on Wikileaks
Date January 2011
Technology policy think tank TechFreedom published a book with essays on the future of the Internet. The authors are known scholars, policy makers and technology experts, concerned with the implementation of technology into law, and national and international policy. The essays "address questions such as: Has the Internet been good for our culture? Is the Internet at risk from the drive to build more secure, but less 'open' systems and devices? Is the Internet really so 'exceptional?' Has it fundamentally changed economics? Who—and what ideas—will govern the Net in 2020?" The book is available as a free pdf download.
Date November 2010
Technologizer has a look back onto the operating systems that back in the days were competing with MS Windows and did not make it. A beautiful review of dead-end technology.
Date November 2010
In the recent edition of Scientific American, Tim Berners-Lee pleas for defending the web against companies and policies that threaten its basic principles. Based on egalitarian ideals, universal access, ubiquitous availability and vendor-independence made. Tim-Berners Lee calls for a civil society to defend the world's largest largest cultural resource and information infrastructure against corporate greed and repressive politics.
Date November 2010
Date October 2010
The Economic Mobility Project (affiliated with the PEW Research Center) investigated the collateral damage increased imprisonment causes for economic mobility in the USA. The figures do not only reveal the insanely high costs of prisons (requiring annual expenses of more than 50 billion US-Dollars) but also how incarceration of a family member degrades their children's future prospects significantly.
Date September 2010
Ars Technica has a read-worthy article on Thomas Edison's attacks on the young film industry. Similar to today's film, music and software industry patents and copyrights were used by Edison to regulate the market and to keep competitors out of it.
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.