[Air-L] New book announcement: Internet Daemons: Digital Communications Possessed

[Fenwick Mckelvey]

With apologies for cross-posting.

Hi all,
I am really happy to announce my new book Internet Daemons: Digital
Communications Possessed published by University of Minnesota Press. I've
copied details below, but the book will be of interest to those concerned
with the politics of infrastructure, algorithmic/AI accountability, piracy
and as well as network neutrality and its history. Also, it includes a
sweet drawing of Oliver Selfridge's Pandemonium architecture by
Eisner-nominated illustrator John Martz (seriously the world need a better
drawing and soon to be shared under a CC license).

I was really excited to hear all the discussion of these matters at more at
the last AOIR so I'm hoping the book inspires more discussion.

You can learn more about the book at: http://www.internetdaemons.com/
(check out the playlist)

Thanks to the awesomeness of UMP, the book is open access at:
https://manifold.umn.edu/projects/internet-daemons

Thanks again.

Best,
Fen

*Internet Daemons *

A complete history and theory of internet daemons brings these
little-known—but very consequential—programs into the spotlight.

*About Internet Daemons *

We’re used to talking about how tech giants like Google, Facebook, and
Amazon rule the internet, but what about daemons? Ubiquitous programs that
have colonized the Net’s infrastructure—as well as the devices we use to
access it—daemons are little known. Fenwick McKelvey weaves together
history, theory, and policy to give a full account of where daemons come
from and how they influence our lives—including their role in hot-button
issues like network neutrality.

Going back to Victorian times and the popular thought experiment Maxwell’s
Demon, McKelvey charts how daemons evolved from concept to reality,
eventually blossoming into the pandaemonium of code-based creatures that
today orchestrates our internet. Digging into real-life examples like
sluggish connection speeds, Comcast’s efforts to control peer-to-peer
networking, and Pirate Bay’s attempts to elude daemonic control (and skirt
copyright), McKelvey shows how daemons have been central to the internet,
greatly influencing everyday users.

Internet Daemons asks important questions about how much control is being
handed over to these automated, autonomous programs, and the consequences
for transparency and oversight.

*Endorsements *

Beneath social media, beneath search, Internet Daemons reveals another
layer of algorithms: deeper, burrowed into information networks. Fenwick
McKelvey is the best kind of intellectual spelunker, taking us deep into
the infrastructure and shining his light on these obscure but vital
mechanisms. What he has delivered is a precise and provocative rethinking
of how to conceive of power in and among networks." —Tarleton Gillespie,
author of Custodians of the Internet

"Internet Daemons is an original and important contribution to the field of
digital media studies. Fenwick McKelvey extensively maps and analyzes how
daemons influence data exchanges across Internet infrastructures. This
study insightfully demonstrates how daemons are transformative entities
that enable particular ways of transferring information and connecting up
communication, with significant social and political consequences."
—Jennifer Gabrys, author of Program Earth