User:E.zn/txt

/////////// THE CRITICAL ENGINEERING MANIFESTO

........... https://criticalengineering.org/ce.pdf

The Critical Engineering Manifesto was devised by The Critical Engineering Working Group [Julian Oliver, Gordan Savičić, Danja Vasiliev] in 2011. It addresses the scope of impact of critical engineering and the responsibilities its implementation entails, without glorifying the latter; it seeks re-appropriation of past works from various fields.

/////////// INTERNET-HUMAN INFRASTRUCTURES: LESSONS FROM HAVANA’S STREETNET

........... https://arxiv.org/pdf/2004.12207.pdf

The paper focuses on human infrastructure of StreetNet (SNET) from ethnographic, economic and technical standpoint, which subsequently reveals structural disparity.

- Physically exposed density of the network reminds me of old landline cables hanging in the streets.

- Visible vs seamless infrastructure.

- Maintaining social ties = sustaining the network [interdependence // shaping each other]

- Abbate: “one limitation of defining the Internet as a large technological system or infrastructure is that this tends to frame the Internet as a channel for transmitting data, rather than as a field of social practice" [...] “a systems approach also privileges the role of system builders over users"

- The importance of human infrastructure in relation to the Internet becomes more apparent in the margins and failures.

- The brokers undertake important tasks either by being in charge of junctions of the network or carrying out administrative duties. They are able to exploit their position and are more likely to do so in relatively remote and scarcely populated areas. Conversely, they have less opportunities of abusing power in the outskirts since their communities are more inclined to identify them.

- SNET is not officially approved by the Cuban government, however they are not intervening. It's legally ambiguous alongside El Paquete Semanal.