Zoekresultaten

The Internet Revolution

Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron’s The Californian Ideology, originally published in 1995 by Mute magazine and the nettime mailinglist, is the iconic text of the first wave of Net criticism. The internet might have fundamentally changed in the last two decades, but their demolition of the neoliberal orthodoxies of Silicon Valley remains shocking and provocative. They question the cult of the dot-com entrepreneur, challenging the theory of technological determinism and refuting the myths of American history. Denounced as the work of ‘looney lefties’ by Silicon Valley’s boosters when it first appeared, The Californian Ideology has since been vindicated by the corporate take-over of the Net and the exposure of the NSA’s mass surveillance programmes.Published in 1999 at the peak of the dot-com bubble, Richard Barbrook’s Cyber-Communism offers an alternative vision of the shape of things to come, inspired by Marshall McLuhan’s paradoxical ‘thought probes’. With the Californian Ideology growing stronger, the Net was celebrated as the mechanical perfection of neoliberal economics. Barbrook shows how this futurist prophecy is borrowed from America’s defunct Cold War enemy: Stalinist Russia. Technological progress was the catalyst of social transformation. With copyright weakening, intellectual commodities were mutating into gifts. Invented in capitalist America, the Net in the late-1990s had become the first working model of communism in human history.In an introduction written specially for this 20th anniversary edition, Richard Barbrook takes a fresh look at the hippie capitalists who shaped Silicon Valley and explains how their influence continues to this day. These thought probes are still relevant in understanding the contradictory impact of ubiquitous social media within the modern world. As McLuhan had insisted, theoretical provocation creates political understanding.Richard Barbrook is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Westminster, London, England. He is a trustee of Cybersalon and a founder member of Class Wargames. He has written about the politics of the Net and gaming in his books Media Freedom: The Contradictions of Communications in the Age of Modernity; The Class of the New; Imaginary Futures: From Thinking Machines to the Global Village; and Class Wargames: Ludic Subversion Against Spectacular Capitalism.

How Silicon Valley hijacked the sharing economy (and how to take it back)

Onze online platformen

Social media and sharing economy platforms do not only disrupt industries. They also bypass democratic institutions. That’s not without risk, because the dominant Silicon Valley based online platforms are designed to create shareholder value, not to strengthen society or democracy. Which is unfortunate, because online platforms – if designed to that purpose – can be uniquely power full tools for organising our networked society.In Amsterdam over 90 neighbourhood networks use online platforms for self organisation. This development accelerated from 2010 on. The networks aim at strengthening social ties and local initiatives and are increasingly involved in some way of democratic innovation. This study is a deep dive into this urban bottom-up-movement. It puts the phenomena of online neighbourhood platforms in a broader societal and economical context. It points at the importance of user owned platforms and data. And it draws conclusions on how society and specifically municipal management can bring this movement to a next level. Ultimately with the potential of growing into an alternative for the Silicon Valley owned online platform ecosystem.

Future of cluster developments

The research explored how a Dutch energy cluster embedded within a larger context of European and global developments reflected complex dynamics due to changes in its context. The case study explored Energy Valley of the Netherlands, a peripheral region that meets the challenge of energy transition, regional development and national economic interests. The research engaged complex adaptive systems approach to gain insights into complex cluster dynamics to contribute to cluster study and policy.The research captured insights into increased complexity of an energy cluster due to energy transition and other developments in the cluster context, exacerbated by differences in perceptions and responses of stakeholders to the new challenges. Findings on cluster developments included insights into cluster context, cluster condition, cluster dynamics and cluster transformations, and the interconnectedness of such developments based on Energy Valley and supplementary cases of Karlstad and Silicon Valley. The research findings led to insights into cluster systems developments and a model capturing cluster emergence.The research contributed to cluster theory by developing a CAS approach for cluster study that developed a whole systems approach to understand cluster dynamics, offering to the field of cluster study a qualitative understanding of cluster systems developments. Insights into interconnected developments at the micro, macro and inter-systemic levels, and into energy clusters in the context of energy transition were results of the research. The broad scope and nature of the study meant limitations were inherent and therefore recommendations for future research were included. EU Cluster Policy motivated the research and hence recommendations for policy developments were also part of the research contribution

Singularity: zijn wij technologisch upgradable

1e alinea column: Ik wil een paar dingen kwijt over singularity en de hele horde van buitengewoon slimme mensen die daar vorm aan geven. Aanleiding hiervoor is de speech van Peter Diamandis, cofounder en chairman of the Singularty University, Nasa Research Park, Silicon Valley, die hij vorige week in Carré gaf. Carré zat vol.

HBO-I on tour in Silicon Valley

Wat is 'hot' en wat is 'not' in de ict? Dat was 'in a nutshell' de reden voor het HBO-I om een studiereis te maken naar het Mekka voor ict'ers: Silicon Valley. Voor VS-verhoudingen een klein gebied met relatief veel belangrijke ict-bedrijven: SUN, Intel, Oracle, Hewlett-Packard. En twee van de beste universiteiten: Berkeley en Stanford. Deny Smeets en Miranda Valkenburg geven hun persoonlijke impressie van de hbo ict-tour.