ulises mejias

Digital Cultures and Research Practices — An Interview with Anne Beaulieu and Sally Wyatt

(Anne Beaulieu (left) and Sally Wyatt. Photo and interview: Ulises Mejias, Creative Commons 2008)
Anne Beaulieu (bio, publications) is a Senior Research Fellow at the Virtual Knowledge Studio (VKS). Sally Wyatt (bio, publications) is Professor of Digital Cultures in Development at Maastricht […]

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Who owns your social network profile? — An Interview with Marc Worrell
(photo and interview: Ulises Mejias, Creative Commons 2008)
Marc Worrell (social network profile, personal website) is software architect and partner at Mediamatic, a hybrid enterprise/cultural organization in Amsterdam engaged in developing software applications for clients as well as exploring new media, art, and society through […]

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Making Sense of Information: An Interview with Rik Maes
(photo and interview: Ulises Mejias, Creative Commons 2008)
Rik Maes (bio, personal website) is currently Dean of the Executive Master in Information Management Program and Program Director of PrimaVera at the University of Amsterdam Business School (full disclosure: my research fellowship is sponsored by this program). […]

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The networked society and its outsides: Interview with Geert Lovink
(photo and interview: Ulises Mejias, Creative Commons 2008)
Geert Lovink is a media theorist, net critic and activist (bio, blog, publications). He is the founding director of the Amsterdam-based Institute of Network Cultures, where I sat with him to chat on May 22.
SEARCH ENGINES AND […]

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(photo: CC by sandydr)
Considering that Amsterdam is situated two meters below sea level, the Dutch have really done a magnificent job not at “fighting” nature but rather incorporating it into the function and aesthetics of the city. While doing a research fellowship in this beautiful city, I decided to conduct a series of […]

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Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to travel to London to attend Politics: Web 2.0: An International Conference, hosted by the New Political Communication Unit (NPCU), Department of Politics and International Relations, Royal Holloway, University of London.
The theme of the conference was summarized as follows:
Has there been a shift in political use of the […]

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Apparently there was a revolution, and I almost missed it.
This is what happened: Somebody cracked and published the encryption key that unlocks HD DVDs, allowing for the copying of the discs. The code started appearing on various websites. The Motion Picture Association of America and the Advanced Access Content System Licensing Administrator (AACS LA) began […]

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Networks have become a powerful metaphor to explain the social realities of our times. Everywhere we look there are attempts to explain all kinds of social formations in terms of networks: citizen networks, corporate networks, gamer networks, terrorist networks, learning networks… and so on. Information and communication technologies—in particular the internet—and the structures they enable […]

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I was reading Anti-Oedipus, minding my own business, when I came across this marvelous anthropological observation describing what the chief of a tribe does with surplus food:
“The chief converts this perishable wealth into imperishable prestige through the medium of spectacular feasting. The ultimate consumers are in this way the original producers.” (Leach, 1966, p. 89; […]

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