Democratizing Search

Bernhard Rieder

In the shift from a situation of information scarcity to one of sometimes overpowering abundance, the Internet clearly is the emblematic technology. As we move existing practices online and invent new forms of creation and interaction, data piles up at an always quicker pace. Most of the information we produce is messy and unorganized and the Internet itself does not provide any comprehensive features for cataloging and ordered storage. By analyzing data and its context, search technologies provide a structured view on the burgeoning chaos online and companies like Google have turned the task of filtering, evaluating and ranking information into a profitable business. Using popularity as the core measure for importance, commercial services have the tendency to direct attention to the dominant voices on the Internet, relegating alternative perspectives to the shadow zone reserved for the vast majority of sites, which rarely appear at a relevant place on a search result list. This has rightfully lead to strong criticism and the growing concern that the open spaces of the online world could be rendered invisible by corporate oligopoly. In this presentation we will therefore examine some of the strategies that have been proposed over the last years, which aim at (re)introducing a measure of plurality and inclusiveness into the search market. We will argue that such attempts can only succeed if political support, technological feasibility and economic viability can be combined in a satisfactory fashion.

back to program

RSS 2024 | World-Information Institute and World-Information.Org
are projects of the Institute for New Culture Technologies/t0, Vienna

Supported by:


In cooperation with LBI Medien.Kunst.Forschung

CURRENT EVENTS
Vergessene Zukunft (Buchpräsentation und Diskussion)
"Nach dem Ende der Politik" (Buchpräsentation)
Wikileaks - Kommt die Demokratisierung der Information? (Diskussion)
Kritische Strategien in Kunst und Medien 2010 (Diskussion und Buchpräsentation)
Conference Deep Search II (Konferenz)

Vergessene Zukunft
radikale Netzkulturen in Europa
Buchpräsentation und Diskussion

Conference 2009:
Critical Strategies in Art and Media
Presentation and Discussion with and by Stevphen Shukaitis
Critical Strategies in cultural everyday life


Book: DEEP SEARCH.
THE POLITICS OF SEARCH BEYOND GOOGLE

5.2.2010
Presentation and Panel Discussion


Conference 2008

Strategic Reality Dictionary
Strategic Reality Dictionary
Deep Infopolitics and Cultural Intelligence


WII Knowledge Engine
Projektdokumentation

After the End of Politics
After the End of Politics
Texts about Future Cultural Politics III.


Phantom Kulturstadt
Texts about Future Cultural Politics II


Deep Search II
Conference, Vienna, May 28 2010

16.4.2008
Buchpräsentation und Diskussion:
Kampfzonen
in Kunst und Medien

(Löcker Verlag Frühjahr 2008)

19.6.2008
Buchpräsentation und Diskussion:
New practices in Art and Media