Assembled by Ingrid Burrington
When we talk about what the web could be, it is often with nostalgia for a web that was—or a web that we think might have been, but we missed it. We tend to trip over our words whenever we talk about the web in any non-trivial way. Anything we say is so easily dated, or sound incredibly pretentious, and nothing ever is true to the whole place, because it simply can't be true to the whole place.
These are some of the writings that have shaped the way I think about and talk about the network. Some of them are kind of "weird old internet" texts of internet history and some of them are from now, and are a little bit urgent. All of them are probably important to me because they have this ideal mix of sincerity, uncertainty, and unexpected grace.
For texts that I read online, I've saved the pages as accurately as wget would allow. They're sort of like weird scrapbook objects that way.
Spend some time with them on this network and maybe they'll give you something to think about for the network.
Texts sorted by title, the original version was sorted randomly. Also, some links have been adjusted to reference public URLs.
AMC Science web talk, as written
Quinn Norton | May 2013
source: http://quinnnorton.com/
The Anxieties of Big Data
Kate Crawford | May 2014
source: http://thenewinquiry.com/
Attacking the Stream
Sydette Harry | April 2014
source: http://dissentmagazine.org/
Coding Freedom
Gabriella Coleman | 2013
source: http://gabriellacoleman.org/
A Cyborg Manifesto
Donna Haraway | 1991
original source: http://aaaaaarg.org/
The Male Gazed
Kate Losse | April 2014
source: http://modelviewculture.com/
Mother Earth Mother Board
Neal Stephenson | 1996
source: http://archive.wired.com/
Network Neutrality and Broadband Discrimination
Tim Wu | 2005
original source: http://timwu.org/
Protocol
Alex Galloway | 2004
original source: http://aaaaaarg.org/
Stealth Infrastructure
Julian Oliver | May 2014
source: http://rhizome.org/
The Entire TempleOS Website
Terry Davis | May 2013
original source: Brian House told me about this, I can't even explain.
Annotations, in italic, added by Dan Phiffer, who archived the library on September 7, 2014.
Thanks @matthewspencer! Updated.