politics

Platform Politics

A Multidisciplinary Conference in Cambridge, UK, 12 & 13 May, 2011
Wired recently announced the ‘death’ of the Web, based on the premise that platforms are becoming the primary mode of access to the Internet... Hence, this conference is interested in such questions as, what are the platforms on which network politics takes place and what can we think of as political ‘action’ in this context?...Speakers include: Nick Couldry (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Michael Goddard (University of Salford), Tim Jordan (King’s College, University of London), Dmytri Kleiner (Telekommunisten), Tiziana Terranova (University of Naples, L’Orientale).

The Philosophy of Software and the Ontology of Code

Simon Yuill: The Ontology of Code and the Coding of Ontology
Simon asks: What are the different processes and forms in which software and code 'come into being'?; How are the claims around such ontologies and the 'being' of code constructed?; How can this inform a political praxis of software and the modes of production under which it is created?

David Berry: The Philosophy of Software: Code and Mediation in the Digital Age
As software increasingly structures the contemporary world, curiously, it also withdraws, and becomes harder and harder for us to focus on as it is embedded, hidden, off-shored or merely forgotten about.