This week we think beyond radio waves to the networks that carry our data. How might the Internet be local, too? How might we design digital infrastructures that are accessible to — and that meet the needs of, and reflect the character of — local communities? For the final hour of this week’s class, we’ll trek across the Schuylkill to Iffy Books, a book and zine store and community tech learning space. While there, let’s consider the role of bookstores in our local media ecosystems.
Field Trip: 2:15 to 4:15: We’ll meet with Steve McLaughlin at Iffy Books, 404 South 20th Street
We’ll be joined by Alex Wermer-Colan, Executive Director of Philly Community Wireless and Interim Academic Director and Digital Scholarship Coordinator at Temple University Libraries’ Loretta C. Duckworth Scholars Studio
Reading Response: Lorelle, Madison, Lori, Danny, Liana — please post to our Reading Response Slide Deck by noon! (if you can submit by 10am, I’d be appreciative!)
To Read / Watch for Today:
- Read Greta Byrum, “Building the People’s Internet,” Urban Omnibus (October 2, 2019) [~20min]. FWIW, this piece was part of a collection of essays, “Digital Frictions,” I edited for the Architectural League of New York.
- Check out Philly Community Wireless and the People’s Tech Project.
- Listen to Cathy Hannabach and Christopher Ali, “Christopher Ali on Building a More Connected World,” Imagine Otherwise (September 29, 2021) [podcast: 16:09]. You might recall that we read some excerpts from Professor Ali’s first book earlier this semester. This podcast features his more recent book, Farm Fresh Broadband: The Politics of Rural Connectivity (MIT Press, 2021); I’m not asking you to read the book, but if this podcast piques your interest, the full text is available in PennLibraries’ digital resources!
- Watch “This Is Cuba’s Netflix, Hulu, and Spotify — All Without the Internet,” Vox (September 21, 2015) [video: 7:01] [keep in mind, some of the data here is eight years old].
- How might local topographic or climatic conditions shape the structure and function of our networks? Check out Solar.Protocol, which highlights locally-responsive sustainable computing. Relatedly, Iffy Books hosts a regular meetup on “permacomputing.”
- Read this short piece about Iffy Books at its previous location in Chinatown: Yeeun Yoo, “There’s Nothing Iffy About Iffy Books,” 34th Street ((July 7, 2023) and check out Henry Crane’s Philadelphia Bookstore Map.
Supplemental Resources:
- Christopher Ali, “Cooperatives: The Unsung Heroes of Broadband,” Benton Institute for Broadband & Society (February 22, 2021).
- Christopher Ali, Chris Beem, Candis Watts Smith, Jenna Spinelle, “Rural Broadband and the Politics of Good Enough,” Democracy Works (September 12, 2022) [podcast: 44:21].
- Jess Del Fiacc, Ry Marcattilio-McCracken, Sean Gonsalves, and Christopher Ali, “Rethinking Rural Connectivity with Christopher Ali,” Building Local Power 134 (September 2, 2021) [podcast: 38:11].
- Diagram.website [minimalweb; smolnet].
- Lori Emerson’s #othernetworks project.
- Eileen Guo, “Afghanistan’s Real Internet Lives on Its Streets,” New York (October 31, 2018).
- PhilTel.
Local Bookstores:
- Jeff Deutsch, In Praise of Good Bookstores (Princeton University Press, 2022).
- Kimberly Kinder, The Radical Bookstore: Counterspace for Social Movements (University of Minnesota Press, 2021).
Edge Data Centers:
- Jacques Fluet, “Data Centers Evolved: A Primer for Planners,” Planning Magazine (July 22, 2021) and Shawn Reichart and W. Scotte McQueen, “How Communities Can Benefit from Mixed-Use Data Center Integration,” Gensler (November 17, 2023)
Local Media + Climate:
- Branch Magazine.
- Talbot M. Andrews, Cana Kim, and Jeong Hyun Kim, “News From Home: How Local Media Shapes Climate Change Attitudes,” Public Opinion Quarterly 87:4 (2023).
- Frank Mungeam, “Launch Newsrooms Selected for LMA’s Covering Climate Collaborative,” Local Media Association (April 14, 2021).
Sneakernets:
- Nestor Siré and Julia Weist, “El Paquete Semanal: An Offline Internet in Cuba,” Artists and Hackers 5 (June 6, 2021) [podcast: 27:53]
- “What is a ‘sneakernet?’” IlluminAid.