Protocol: How Control Exists after Decentralization - Couverture souple

Galloway, Alexander R.

 
9780262572330: Protocol: How Control Exists after Decentralization
Couverture souple
ISBN 10 : 0262572338 ISBN 13 : 9780262572330
Editeur : MIT Press, 2006

Synopsis

How Control Exists after Decentralization

Is the Internet a vast arena of unrestricted communication and freely exchanged information or a regulated, highly structured virtual bureaucracy? In Protocol, Alexander Galloway argues that the founding principle of the Net is control, not freedom, and that the controlling power lies in the technical protocols that make network connections (and disconnections) possible. He does this by treating the computer as a textual medium that is based on a technological language, code. Code, he argues, can be subject to the same kind of cultural and literary analysis as any natural language; computer languages have their own syntax, grammar, communities, and cultures. Instead of relying on established theoretical approaches, Galloway finds a new way to write about digital media, drawing on his backgrounds in computer programming and critical theory. "Discipline-hopping is a necessity when it comes to complicated socio-technical topics like protocol," he writes in the preface.

Galloway begins by examining the types of protocols that exist, including TCP/IP, DNS, and HTML. He then looks at examples of resistance and subversion—hackers, viruses, cyberfeminism, Internet art—which he views as emblematic of the larger transformations now taking place within digital culture. Written for a nontechnical audience, Protocol serves as a necessary counterpoint to the wildly utopian visions of the Net that were so widespread in earlier days.

Les informations fournies dans la section « Synopsis » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

À propos de l?auteur

Alexander R. Galloway is Assistant Professor of Media Ecology at New York University.

Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

Éditeur
MIT Press
Date d'édition
2006
Langue
anglais
ISBN 10 
0262572338
ISBN 13 
9780262572330
Reliure
Broché
Nombre de pages
286
Coordonnées du fabricant
non disponible
Personne responsable
non disponible

Autres éditions populaires du même titre

9780262072472: Protocol: How Control Exists after Decentralization

Edition présentée

ISBN 10 :  0262072475 ISBN 13 :  9780262072472
Editeur : The MIT Press, 2004
Couverture rigide