Now it happened – I had to install WhatsApp. I opposed the idea of using this app for a long time now, but it is the only communication channel to a new community I just “entered”. And so I complained and then complied. However, installing yet another messenger triggers many different questions in regard to that little piece of software on my phone. And I was especially wondering about the values inscribed in a communication system … especially one I so long opposed. [Read more…]
On the search for new ways to handle data
Data – being part of the constituent elements of today’s quantified society – hold myriads of promises. As manifold these promises might be however they all link back to the same basic notion: that data will be able to make things, expressions, interactions – data enthusiasts might say everything – visible and understandable, for now to a certain degree at least. While there’s ongoing work to potentiate its possibilities, new socio-technical constellations emerge that make data even more embracing and permeating. Measuring the secret fibers of our very being by us and others has become a part of data reality. Just think of Fitbits [Read more…]