The Internet of Things' by Rob van Kranenburg out now

[Michel Bauwens]

New report:

Rob van Kranenburg, The Internet of Things. A critique of ambient
technology and the all-seeing network of RFID. Report prepared by Rob
van Kranenburg for the Institute of Network Cultures with contributions
by Sean Dodson.
64 pages, design by Léon & Loes

The Internet of Things - Network Notebook Launch
Date and time: Tuesday 28 October 2008 at 17h00
Location: Waag Society, Theatrum Anatomicum, Nieuwmarkt 4, Amsterdam
Free entrance, send an email to [e-mail] if you want to
attend the launch.

The Internet of Things is the second issue in the series of Network
Notebooks. It's a critique of ambient technology and the all-seeing
network of RFID by Rob van Kranenburg. Rob examines what impact RFID and
other systems, will have on our cities and our wider society. He
currently works at Waag Society as program leader for the Public Domain
and wrote earlier an article about this topic in the Waag magazine and
is the co-founder of the DIFR Network. The notebook features an
introduction by journalist and writer Sean Dodson.

The launch includes short presentations from Martijn de Waal, Eric
Kluitenberg and Klaas Kuitenbrouwer, and a discussion, led by Geert Lovink.

In Network Notebook #2, titled The Internet of Things, Rob van
Kranenburg outlines his vision of the future. He tells of his early
encounters with the kind of location-based technologies that will soon
become commonplace, and what they may mean for us all. He explores the
emergence of the "internet of things", tracing us through its origins in
the mundane back-end world of the international supply chain to the
domestic applications that already exist in an embryonic stage. He also
explains how the adoption of he technologies of the City Control is not
inevitable, nor something that we must kindly accept nor sleepwalk into.
In van Kranenburg's account of the creation of the international network
of Bricolabs, he also suggests how each of us can help contribute to
building technologies of trust and empower ourselves in the age of mass
surveillance and ambient technologies.

Table of Contents:

1. Forward: A tale of two cities Sean Dodson
2. Ambient Intelligence and its promises
3. Ambient Intelligence and its catches
4. Bricolabs
5. How to act

This issue is free available in print and pdf form:
http://www.networkcultures.org/_uploads/notebook2_theinternetofthings.pdf

To receive a paper copy of The Internet of Things send an email to books
(at) networkcultures.org.

The Network Notebooks series is edited by Geert Lovink and Sabine
Niederer. Network Notebooks #2 is supported by Amsterdam University of
Applied Sciences (HvA) and Waag Society.

For Network Notebooks 01 by Rosalind Gill see: Technobohemians or the
new Cybertariat? .

http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/portal/publications/network-notebooks/

Press: Please contact Rob van Kranenburg at Waag Society, email rob (at)
waag.org.