access, 84, 85, 132–34, 137; hackers and, 161; memory and, 210, 212; mirrors and, 218, 220; open access, 167, 169, 189; sharing as form of, 273
action: algorithm as network of, 22; communication as shared, 203; forum as sphere of, 133, 134, 138n5; game as rule-bound, 143, 144; infrastructure as enabling, 135–37; Lacanian categories of, 94; “online connective action,” 7; participation as action, not thing, 229; “participatory action research,” 232; personalization and collective, 244; political, xxxv, 1–2, 5, 11, 166; as verb form, xii, xxv, xxx–xxxiii; as words, vii
activism, xxxv, 1–17; coffee shop as site of, 135; hacking and, 166–67; mirroring as practice of data, 218, 225
agency: algorithms and, 26; “effective agency,” 119, 120; internet and, 190, 191; participation and, 234, 236; personalization and, 242, 247–48, 250–52
algorithm, xxvii, 18–30; as material process of personalization, 249; as subject/actor, xxvii
analog, xxxii–xxxiii, 3–44; digital and analog as not equivalent, xl, 31–33, 40–42, 93, 100, 101, 106n5, 179; predigital and analog, 70
archive, xxix, 45–53; “to archive” as to reinterpret and canonize, xxix; “archive fever,” 207; as fundamental to forgetting, 207; and memory, 208–14; messiness of, 48; as text, 283
autonomy: hackers and “craft autonomy,” 164, 167; and participation, 234, 236, 238; and personalization, 242
Benjamin, Walter, 38, 283, 284
binary, 35, 95, 98, 245; and binary digits, 179; digital-analog relationship, xxxii, xxxiii, 38, 41, 42; and Morse, 182n17
Bowker, Geoffrey, xxxiv; and infrastructure, 137n2
bureaucracy, xxii, xli; algorithm as procedure, 25–27, 28; and civic activism, 5; participatory administration and expertise, 235
campaign: and activism, 2, 5; and democracy, 86, 89; hackers and DDoS, 161; “prototype campaigns,” 259–60
capitalism: geeks in, 150; industrial, in Williams, xvii; and logic of personalization, 242, 248; and prototypes, 265
Carey, James W.: on ideology and technology, 251; on transmission and ritual models, 203; and Williams, xxii
Castells, Manuel: on “culture of individualism,” 67; and flows, 118, 124
cinema: film in Kittler, 40, 58; and the imaginary in Lacan, 218; and male gaze, 222, 223; and television, 194
citizen: civic activism, 2, 5, 10, 11; and communal participation, 64, 156n36; “direct citizen involvement,” 231; identity of and the passport, xxii; Roman citizens and the Forum, 132–33
cloud, xxviii–xxix, 54–62; cloud computing, xxviii–xxix, 103, 214, 218, 220; cloud computing and data mirror, 218–21, 224; and matter, xlii
collective: “collective consciousness” and community, 64; collective memory versus individual memory, 206, 207, 210, 214; and hacker organization, 165; participation in, 236, 238
communication, 100, 173, 178; “communication revolution,” 75; “Communications Decency” Act, 189; communication technologies, xxii, 64,
communication (continued) 82, 87, 90, 270; as “nervous system,” 123; ritual and transmission models of, 203; Shannon’s “A Mathematical Theory of Communication,” 100, 179; as therapy, 273–74; and traditional communities, 64
community, xxxv, 63–69; action of in forum, 132; as constructing algorithm, 24; as constructing archive, 48; hacker organization, 166; organization and participation of, 234; and memes, 203; and sharing ethos, 275
computation: and algorithms, 19, 26; as counting, xxxiii; and culture, xxxvi, 71, 76–78; and Shannon, 100
computer: analog computer, xxxii, 31, 34–38; computer network, 6, 185, 187–89, 217; computer scientist, xxvi, 260; digital computer, 59, 93, 179, 213, 260; and recent meaning of geek, 149, 151–53; and hacker autonomy, 158, 161; personal computer, 243–45, 251
computing, xlii, 94–97, 101–5, 178; and women, 155n14, 155n33. See also cloud; mirror
control: over algorithms, 28n1; and community composition, 68n5
convergence and digital singularity, xxxiii, 97–105
corporation: and activist organizations, 6; and Brown on “social contract” with consumers, 262; and customization, interest in, 248; and data capture, 224; effects of on democracy, 86; and hackathons, organization of, 164; computer networks, role of in creating, 186, 188; and shareholder logics, 252; and worker participation, 229
corpus, 279; and algorithm training, 20–21, 24; in big data, 76
counting, 95–97, 104. See also computation; computing
craft, 161–64; “craft autonomy,” 167, 168; “craftiness” and hackers, 161–64
culture, xix, xxxvi, xl, 70–80; “algorithmic culture,” 25; as arising from play, 141–42; “coulter,” or plowshare blade, as subsidiary form of, 77; counter-culture, 160; Culture Digitally (scholarly blog), xi, xxiii, 237, 259; “culture of communalism,” 67; “culture of individualism,” 67; The Culture of the Copy, 96; digital and print, xxviii, xxxix; gaming subculture, xxxii, 145; meme as piece of digital culture, 199, 201; open-culture activism, 225; participatory culture, 228; therapeutic culture and sharing, 273; and Williams, xvii
customization, 244–49. See also personalization
cyberactivism, 6, 8. See also activism
cybernetics, 35, 180; and the “California ideology,” 160; and computer memory, 208; and computing, 95; and culture, 75; Macy Conference on Cybernetics, 95
cyberspace, 189; “Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace,” 6, 135; versus “meatspace,” 86, 208; as place, 68 (see also forum)
cyborg, 209, 214; and Haraway, 75, 208
data, xx, xxx–xxxi; analog data, 35; big data, xlii, 76, 97, 102–3; “cultural data,” 74; data center and storage, 54, 60–61 (see also mirror); metadata, xxii, 96, 99, 103; training data and algorithm, 21–22; “transborder data flow,” 122
database, xiii, xxix; and algorithm, 19; and archive, 49–50. See also corpus
Dawkins, Richard, and coining of “meme,” 197–99, 201
definition: of analog, 33–34; of communication and signal, 177; of culture, 72–73; of effigy, 282; of event, 109; of forum, 134; of geek, 149; of hack, 163; of information, 178–80; of meme, 200–202; of nerd, 154n4; of play, 142; separation of from Williams’s “keyword” concept, xx, 72, 77
Deleuze, Gilles: and “games of mirroring,” 218; on individuals and “dividuals,” 247; and rhizome concept, 50; and the self, 250
democracy, xxxiv–xxxv, 81–92; direct democracy, 12, 235–36; and internet, indirect relationship to, 193; and participation, 230, 234; “participatory democracy,” 231, 234; Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, xvii; Western democracies and contrast with China, 5, 9, 10
Derrida, Jacques, and Archive Fever, 45–46, 47, 48, 207
design: of algorithm, 21–23; of analog technology, 34–35; Burnett’s “Toward a Theory of Hypertextual Design,” 50; and flow, 123, 125
digit. See finger as digit and digital
digital, xxxii–xxxiv, 93–108; digital keyword, xx–xxi, 18; and relationship with analog, 31–32, 36–38
digital humanities, 48, 49, 76, 279
digitization, 37, 39, 245, 247–48, 294
economization of information, 177
engineer: software engineer use of “algorithm,” 19; and hackers, 158. See also computation; software
Enlightenment, xxxix; values of and political participation, 234
Ensmenger, Nathan, 151, 155n19
environment, xxix; as related to prepositions, xxv, xxxiv
ethics: of critical inquiry in Williams, xxv; “ethics of memory,” 209; hacking ethics, 164; sharing as generosity, 271
experience: of belonging in a community, 68; of belonging in participation, 237; internet as “experience of interactivity,” 189; user experience of flow, 125–26; Williams’s “undeniable experience of the present,” xli
event, 109–17, 294; Chinese term “new media events,” 9; the coining of a keyword as historical event, xvii; events as types and prototypes, 263; Malebranche’s occasionalism and “a world of events,” 233
Facebook: as algorithm, xxvii, 24–25; as movement and as platform in “networked revolution,” 12, 86; Myspace as “intentional communities,” 66; as language morph, xviii; as platform separate from internet, 192; as “sharing” platform, 200, 269, 270, 275
femininity: nature as feminine in classic acoustics, 41
finger as digit and digital, xxxiii, 93–94, 97–101; the digital “at our fingertips,” xxxix; manipulation “with a click of a finger,” 103, 200
flow, xxxi, 118–31; as action and verb, xxxi; asymmetrical control over “information flows,” 212; electronic media that render “continuous flows,” 178
Forum/forum, xxxvi, 132–39; versus community, 67; internet as spatial metaphor of, 189–90; protest forums, 9
Foucault, Michel: on community, 68n5; and discourse analysis, xix; The Order of Things, 75, 175, 181n5; and the repressive hypothesis, 195n25; on surveillance and discipline, 248; and “technologies of the self,” 250
Free and Open Source Software (F/OSS), 162, 167–68
freedom: “hacker freedom fighter,” 164; as keyword, 2, 227; play as means to, 142. See also craft: “craft autonomy”
Fuller, Matthew, Software Studies: A Lexicon, xvii–xviii
gaming, xxxi–xxxii, 140–49; gambling, 140, 141, 143; gameplay, 142–43; gamification, 143
geek, xxvi, 149–57; shifting meaning of from weakness to mastery, 149–50
gender, xxvi, 153; and cinema, male gaze in, 222; gender discrimination in gaming, 145, 146n1. See also geek; hacker
globalization, xxii; effects of on control and communication technologies, xxii; and crisis of the nation-state, 4; of financial markets, 86; and flow, 124
God: acting in the world, 232–33, 253n4; divine signs in the sky, 56, 61; Puritan predestination, 264; Puritan science and theology going hand in hand, 265; Puritan types as divine action, 263; Puritan typology, 263–66; saints and angels said to inhabit clouds, 55; separation of weather and gods, 56; sharing as relationship with others and with the divine, 274; and theology, xli
grammar: relationship of to environment concept, xxxiv; Simondon and culture as a matter of, 72
hacker, xxvi–xxvii, 158–72, 291; hacker politics, 165–66, 167, 218, 221, 223; New Hacker’s Dictionary, 149. See also geek
hand: digits “on our hands,” xxxix, 98, 103–4; “handful,” 94; hand-operated media, 98, 177; prototype as “thinking
hand (continued) with your hands,” 261. See also finger as digit and digital
Haraway, Donna: on cyborg as separate from cyberpunk, 208; on posthuman culture, 75; on “situated knowledges,” 41
Hartley, Ralph, 177–79
hashtag: as event marker, 114; “hashtag activism,” 14; as formerly “pound sign,” xviii
Hayles, N. Katherine, on posthuman culture, 75
Heidegger, Martin, xlii–xliii; on language as the “house of being,” xix
Huizinga, Johan, 141–42
humans, and nature and artifice, xl, xli
icon, 58, 98; “global iconic event,” 109, 113–15
identity, 206–7; “algorithmic identity,” 25; geek identity, 152–53, 154n5; post-1968 identity politics, 244, 252
image: “material image” and simulacrum, 282; role of in constructing an event, 115; role of in making a meme, 199
index, 58; as digit, xxxiii, 94, 98–105. See also finger as digit and digital
individual: coining of “individualism,” xvii; “culture of individualism,” 67; and the genealogy of “personal,” 243–48; individualism and hacker collectives, 163; relationship of to community concept, 64
industry: cloud computing and IT industry rhetoric, 61; file sharing and the entertainment industry, 269; SNS (social network sites) industry, 270–72; and Williams, xvii, 70
information, xxx, 173–83; “information superhighway,” 7; as key object of information age, xviii; Shannon theorizes, xxxiii, 95, 100, 173, 179–80; telegraph data transmission as “intelligence” before “information,” 176
infrastructure: as environments, xxxiv; “human-supporting infrastructure,” xxxvi, 133–37, 138n5
interaction: as character of the internet, 189, 195n21, 271; and personalization, 246, 247
interface: computer screen, 35; and internet protocol, 186; as media terminals in terminological technologies, xv
internet, xxx, 184–96; and activist hope, 6; Chinese term “internet mass incident,” 9, 11; as distinct from democratic technology, 89; reimagination of in 1990s, 188
Jenkins, Henry: on memes and “spreadable media,” 202
Jobs, Steve, death of as event, 115
Katz, Elihu, on “media events,” 9, 110
Kelty, Chris, on “recursive public,” 166
keyword, xiii–xviii, xx–xxv, xxxvii, xlii–xliv, 70–72, 294
Kittler, Friedrich A., 38–41, 56, 58, 96, 106n5, 181n4; “discourse network” concept (Aufschreibesystem), xix
Lacan, Jacques, 38–39, 94, 106n5, 218
language, xiii, xix–xx; and bibliographic code, 52n1; and grammatical categories of keyword analysis, xxv; as Burke’s “terministic screen” of reality, xv; and Williams, xiv, xvi–xvii, 18, 192
Latour, Bruno, xlvn16; and actor-network theory, xix; on “imbroglios,” 60
law, 127n4, 188, 195n25, 294; intellectual property law, 165, 168; Moore’s Law, 245; and network neutrality as a flow policy issue, 119, 120; and policy interest in statistical category design, 123; “post-human law,” 124; and Scott on “seeing like a state,” 222
libertarianism, 159–61, 165, 248
linguistics: linguistic code, 52n1; the linguistic turn, xlivn9
machine: Blackmore’s The Meme Machine, 198–99; “universal Turing machine,” 95
manipulation: as basic digital function of manual change, xxi, xxxiii, 94, 102–4, 222; time-axis manipulation, xli, 38, 58
Marx, Karl: and Foucault, 248, 254n23; on “subsumption,” 76
“material-semiotic actors,” xlivn10, xlvn16
Mayer-Schönberger, Viktor, 210
meme, xxvii, 197–205; and memory, 206; and mnemonics, 208; between ritual and transmission, 202–3
memory, xxix, 206–16; and Greek root mneme, 198, 293
metadata: as exception to exact digital copying, 96; as part of memetic propagation, 200; as violating privacy, 103; and visibility politics of data mirroring, 225
mirror, xxix, 217–26; versus Greek concept methexis, 232; and relationship to late capitalism, 252. See also cloud; computing
modernity, 291; ambivalence as condition of, 4; digital community as addressing problem of, 65; Durkheim on reclaiming collective consciousness of, 64; “modernity that forgets” in age of internet, 206; Schwartz on copying as the character of, 96, 217
Morse code, and relationship to the telegraph, 176–77, 182
movement, 295; Chinese term “online movements,” 9; Deleuze on the “double-movement of liberation and capture,” 223; “digital rights movement” and hackers, 169; “Facebook movements” as “city square movements,” 86; “networked social movements,” 7; Occupy Wall Street movement, 5, 7–8, 12–14n5, 85; “social movement societies,” 5
myth: mythologization as stage in the narration of events, 114–15; mythology of the hacker freedom fighter, 164
nature: nonrelationship of analog to, xxxviii, 32, 34, 39–40, 42; relationship of artifice and humanity to, xl. See also cloud
nerd, 149, 150, 154n4. See also geek
objects: algorithmic “disposition to objectivity,” 23; Haraway’s retheorizing of “natural objects as technological devices,” 75; information as seminal object in current digital age, xxx; prototype as object, 258; relationship of to things, xxv, xxviii–xxx, xlvn16, 284; talk about the internet “as if it were a single object,” 184
online: ambiguous divide between protests online and offline, 7; nonopposition of with offline concept, xxxv, 67; and utopianism of distributive sharing, 275
Oxford English Dictionary, xvii–xix; on analogue, 33–38; on arena, 133; on geek, 149; on internet, 194; on nerd, 154n4
participation, xxxii, 227–41; civic versus disruptive citizen participation, 5; effects of digital technologies on political participation, 85–86; in etymology of “gaming,” 140
peer-to-peer relationships: in communities, 66; in data mirroring, 220; in hacker file sharing, 165
personalization, xxxi, 242–55; versus customization, 246–49
phonograph, 101; Kittler’s phonograph versus Lacan’s real, 39, 106n5; and nineteenth-century expansion of “the realm of the recordable,” 58. See also cinema; photograph
photograph, 58; on elision of “digital” in digital photography, 93; iconic photographs as event condensers, 115; photographic negative as source and postproduction variable, 284
physics: acoustics and Newtonian physics, 41; cloud chamber role in particle physics, 59; digital physics as part of digital studies, 93; Newtonian physics meets Puritan theology, 264
Pinchevski, Amit: and Tamar Liebes on Eichmann trial as media event, 109–10; and Paul Frosh on witnessing in, by, and through media, 113
play, and gaming, 141–44; Chinese sexual innuendo “the play of clouds and rain,” 55; cosplay, xxxii, 145; medieval concept of information wherein resemblance “organized the play of symbols,” 174; replay button as time-axis manipulation, xli
policy: and flow, 119, 122–23; historical concept of activism as “advocacy of a policy,” 1
privacy, 252; “cascading collapse of privacy,” 102; and data mirroring storage, 219; hacker advocacy of, 160, 161, 165; metadata capacity to invade, 103; personalization as devaluing and shifting responsibility for to individual, 252; tension between free speech and, 214
procedure: algorithm as “the insertion of,” xxvii, 20, 25–27; as check and potential guide in representative democracy, 235; and hacker community administration, 162; and Hume and Foucault on shift from intelligible information to empiricist signs, 175
production: archive as recording and producing metanarratives, 45–46; algorithm as stand-in for “a family of systems for statistical knowledge production,” 22, 24, 210; craft autonomy in F/OSS production, 167; customization in production, 246; geek peer production, 153, 228; sharing presented as alternative model to capitalist, 275; Williams on industrial production, 71; Williams on merger of material and symbolic production, xxxix, xl
protocol as solution to institutional network problem, 186
prototype, xxvii, 256–68; as “making a possible future visible,” 256; as “plausible fiction,” 261; dual history of in software engineering and Puritan theology, 257; as pointing forward and backwards in time, 264–67
record: and analogue engineering, 34, 39–40; Brand on “the record grooves as wavy lines,” 37; Bush’s Memex II proposal as “a readily alterable record,” 209–10; cloud as record of flow and turbulence, 58; events as punctuating the historical, xl; recorded names outliving their referents, xxi; role of digital keywords in organizing, xv
religion. See God
reproduction. See surrogate
revolution: digital revolution as revolution in language, xviii; digital revolution as still to come and already past its prime, 89, 93; Foucault by analogy on “internet revolution,” 195n25; Haraway on “communications revolution,” 75; new media and the language of revolution, 12, 227; revolutionary and nonrevolutionary activisms, 1–4; Williams and The Long Revolution, 72, 119; Wired magazine and celebration of digital, 187, 190
Robinson, Derek, on analog, 31, 34, 39
search, and keywords, xiii, xxi; Chinese term “human flesh search,” 9; “search engine optimization,” xxi, 77
“selfie” and other new digital terms focused on the self, xix
Shannon, Claude, xxxiii, 100, 173, 179–80
sharing, xxxi, 269–77; file sharing, 67, 165, 220, 269, 270; government data sharing as motivation for early internet, 89; and participation, 228–29; word history of, 273, 276n3
singularity: as dated technomillennial concept, xxxiii, 94, 100; memetic mutation versus viral singularity, 202
software: free and open-source software, 152, 161–62, 165, 167, 228; Fuller’s Software Studies, xvii–xviii; Geertz on culture resembling computer software, 76; Manovich on “cultural software,” 72; software deserves free speech protections, 169; software engineers, and algorithms, 18–21, and prototypes, 256–63
sound, 294; analog recording, 37–41, 101; background noise at workplace, 138n5; nineteenth-century sound technologies, 33, 58; sound creation limned with food creation, 33
standards: and archive management, 47–49; hackers and open standards, 165; networks as response to incompatible telecommunication standards, 186; telegraph and the standardization of information concept, 175–77, 180, 182n13, 182n17
storage: cloud computing as remote, 54, 61; and memory, natural and technological, xxix, 207. See also archive; cloud; memory; mirror
subject: flows as, 121; keywords as linguistic, xxv–xxviii; subject formation, mirror and symbolic as sites of, xxix, 38, 217–18; subject position of geek, obstacles to, 153–54
surrogate, xxviii, 278–86; digital surrogate, 47; memory as surrogate, 212–14
surveillance, 103, 212, 214; Asimov on surveillance as ending autonomy, 210–11; versus censorship, 14n2; involuntary participation in, 228; and mirroring, 224; personalization aiding, xxxi, 252; and sousveillance, 105
talisman, algorithm as, xxvii, 23–25
technique: “cultural technique,” 183n21; digital as discrete signification operations, 93–94; techne and the etymology of technique and technology, 77; “theotechnical” saving techniques, xli
technology, 291–94; digital technology and democracy, 83, 85; dissolution of distinctions between humans, nature, and technology, 75; dual mediation of historical record and memory, 213; geek as technology expert, 149; historical shift away from technology-culture antithesis, xxxvi, 71–72; memory and prosthesis technology, 206–7; and personalization, 244–46, 250–52; Williams and technology keyword, 71
telegraph: as digital technique, 98; as distant writing, 176–77, 180; changed media status of, 178; and the standardization of information, xxx, 175–81n11
telephone: American Telephone and Telegraph Company, 176; Bell Telephone Laboratories, 173, 177, 179; internet and telephone as conduits, not locations, 193n4; voice conversations and information theory, 119, 178
television: Black Mirror series on dystopic connectivity, 217–18; Dayan and Katz on live televised media events, 110; “digital television” now passing as simply “television,” xxxiii, 93; male gaze in cinema and self-presentation in reality television, 223; Putnam on social isolation by television, 65; many television channels as prelude to current digital customization, 248; Williams’s Television: Technology and Cultural Form, xxxi
“terminological technology,” xv, xix, xl, xliii
typewriter, as a manually digital technology, 98
von Neumann, John: on analog-digital conversion at Macy Conference, 95, 106n4; on computing models for weather and nuclear explosion, 60; on game theory, 144
war: and cloud innovations such as “cloud-attacks” and high-altitude spy planes, 59, 61; cyberwarfare, hacking as form of, 7; Williams’s service in World War II “corps of signals,” xix, xxxvi; World War II stimulating interest in technical communication science, 178–79
Wark, McKenzie, 145, A Hacker Manifesto, 166
Wikipedia: editor gender distribution, 49; emblem of peer production, 228
Williams, Raymond, xi, 70; and English language centrism, limitations of, 8; and flow, 121; fortieth anniversary of Keywords, xiii, 272; and founding of cultural studies, xxxvi; history of Keywords, xiii, xiv, xvi–xvii, xli; and keyword analysis, xxv, 70–72, 119, 197; and keyword analysis as “necessarily unfinished and incomplete,” 70; The Long Revolution, 72; on “network of usage,” 48; on personality and personalization, 243; and production, material and symbolic, xxxix–xl; “See in Williams” sections, xxxvii; Television: Technology and Cultural Form, xxxi, 121; wartime service of, xix, xxxvi
women: as computers, 34; as computer science majors, 49; as computer scientists in Malaysia and the United States, xxvi, 153; as geeks, 152; role of women’s suffrage in rise of liberal democracy, 83