[Reader-list] Opening the Digital

[Oli]

Dear all,

as the IP-conference in Delhi is coming closer, I have been reading 
articles on the subject, like probably others on this list too. You all 
know the ambivalent term "digital divide", which is on high circuit in 
development agendas.

In opposition to a moral, paternalistic discourse backed by Microsoft and 
others, I am looking for a different perspective on the issue of 'the 
digital'. The general idea is not to fall into the trap of the discourse of 
the 'digital divide' like it is held by the UNO with its World Summit on 
Information Society (WSIS).

Not taking for granted any meaning of 'the digital' and its relations to 
societies, the term 'digital inequalities' is proposed, which is nothing 
but a container of questions, so far. With this, I tried to step back and 
look for a variety of questions, which give us an idea of the multifaceted 
thing called 'the digital'.

I invite everyone on the list to comment, add and critique. As my stay at 
sarai is connected to a work on 'digital inequalities', I would be happy to 
get some feedback. I've just started to sketch a framework of questions. 
There is no determining goal. It's supposed to be processual work.

The questions below don't cover the whole topic, and also some of them 
might be pure nonsense.

Digital Inequalities concern a wide field of consequences, that emerge when 
the Digital has become the dominant signifier for modern life and when it 
reshapes societies. But it is necessary to understand that Digital 
Inequalities are not solely, maybe even not at all, social inequalities. 
They arise within the whole spectre of the questions below. Digital 
Inequalities will not stop when everyone is connected. Digital Inequalities 
are subject to every single individual's lust, skills and curiosity to 
explore the Digital. The local dispositivs* one is related to are affected 
by and affect the Digital. Speaking of global digital inequalities does not 
make much sense. Saying that it is a digital inequality that in the U.S. 
far more connected users exist than in Angola is redundant. A digital 
inequalitiy has a wide horizon of parameters, most of them will remain 
unknown if the term is continued being used an essentialist concept, that 
leaves no space for questions. Digital Inequalities are a net of relations 
that relies on previous relations.

* Dispositiv is a concept by Foucault which -in very short- refers to the 
adjusting of power relations when any kind of change in society occurs. It 
reconnects loose threads to e.g. economy. it fills the gap, that emerged 
through e.g. technological changes. I am not sure about the english 
translation. The french word is 'dispositif'.


1. --- Changes  ----

The search for a language and concepts of the Digital era hasn't even begun.

The Digital is not the opposite or other half of a binary digital / analog, 
but a different state of things.


2. ---- Everyday life and the Digital ----

What kind of relations exist between people and the Digital exist?

What do these relations stand for?

Digital practices in everyday life

In which ways does the Digital affect your life?


3. ---- Imaginaries of the Digital ----

What are our Digital dreams?

Lust for power in the metaphors of the Digital: cyberspace, world wide web, 
...



4. ----  The Future and the Digital ----

What timeregime does the Digital impose upon users? (e.g. organism's stress 
with the Digital)

What would be a contempary usage of the Digital? (that does not just use it 
as a simulation of old media/ analog? How boring is that: using the 
computer as a telephone...)

A philosophy of Digital history. What would that be?

The Digital as a simulation machine that ends history?

Possible futures of the Digital

What is the (conceptual) relation of postmodernity and the Digital?

Future subjectivities shaped by the Digital



5. ---- Aspects of Power in the Digital era ----

Don't believe the hype! The strata of control and surveillance are much 
about the making of compatible, governable subjectivities.

Connecting everyone as a sequel of counting populations and making up 
identities.

Dispositivs of the Digital: subjectivities, relations, economics. Which 
older dispositivs take a backseat when the dispositiv of the Digital is in 
state of action?

A historical research on the shaping of contempory life that concentrates 
on the left-outs through the Digital. What have we missed because of the 
Digital?

The speed of light is not suitable for organisms: The Digital as an 
accelerator of some aspects of modern life.

Paternalistic politics: the imperative of being connected

Some languages preferred: english as a structural component of Digital 
inequalities.

Interesting: the delay of the implementation of local languages is not 
caused by technical problems. So whats the problem then?

Examples of use against intention

the 'gating' of information: the re-use of old concepts in the Digital, 
which is a field with different structures.



6. ---- Conflicts between old concepts and the Digital -----

Privacy under the Digital: In which ways does the concept of privacy 
change? (Obviously, the privacy concept, which derived from the "rights of 
the individual" in bourgeois liberalism is outdated in the digital era, as 
it is everywhere in decline)

Digital illiteracy: a concept from the enlightment needs modification in 
the Digital era.

The reign of the Digital. Are we already cyborgs and just don't know yet, 
because we are stuck to ideas of humanism?

Data is not Information. The production of meaningless data is a psychic 
affair, rooted in the modern believe of knowledge.



7. --- Micro-political steps towards the making of digital-wise relatedness 
---

The handbook for Digital independence. What could that be?

Making up tales and stories about the Digital is fighting the imperialism 
of the meaning machine

Strategies for a situated knowledge in a hyper-hysterical society: why 
shall i write an email when i can talk to the person?

Networking our ways: inequalities of participation through non-access?

Health advisories for life in the Digital era / Offline and pottery

Losing fear of the Digital technique / queering the digital.

Examples of use against intention: fooling the engineers


------------
cheers, Oli