People that study technology often fail to remember
to study people. Folks get so wrapped up and enamoured with the data,
and so alienated from the people doing the work that human practice
often gets ignored. Re-inscribing the "human" into technology is
extremely important...lest we fall into the trap of "there is no
alternative."
The Sukey project speaks to a number of theoretical problems with
which we grapple when thinking about technology: the agency of software,
the production of space, the possibility of reconfiguring existing
capitalist technologies for purposes of resistance, and community
organizing through emerging media channels. Sukey is also inherently
geographic and does work to expose the often largely invisible tactics
of the state to dominate spaces of protest.
So it appears that the Sukey app and our team are
sort of a unique case.
When we bemoan and lament technology's role in oppression and governmental regimes, the question we often ask ourselves is, "How could this be done 'differently'?" Some may ask the same question regarding geoweb technology: "What could be done to make geoweb applications more egalitarian? You make it sound as though capital domination is a foregone conclusion." The first step toward changing that is imagining a different possibility.
When we bemoan and lament technology's role in oppression and governmental regimes, the question we often ask ourselves is, "How could this be done 'differently'?" Some may ask the same question regarding geoweb technology: "What could be done to make geoweb applications more egalitarian? You make it sound as though capital domination is a foregone conclusion." The first step toward changing that is imagining a different possibility.
Source: Adapted from an Email from Josef Eckert