As the urban grid of modernity gives way to the web, and architecture cedes to the virtual dynamics of tethered electronics, Daniel Miller cracks open the password protected ‘post-city’

I City of Zombies

When rivalry still openly reigned between the Obama and Clinton camps of the Democratic Party, Ulrich Gutmair spoke to Sci-Fi writer and pioneer of cyberpunk, William Gibson, about American politics, the online age and Voodoo

UG: You invented the term cyberspace when only a few people were online, on an early version of the Internet. What is the most fascinating thing for you on the net today?

Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody is reputed to be the best book ever written on Web 2.0. But why the strange silence on questions of copyright, privacy and ownership?

There has been a recent public outrage over anti-piracy lobbyist amendments to a European Parliament Telecom reform bill. The amendments would both implement a 'three-strikes' rule, which would cut off internet access for anyone suspected of illegal file-sharing, as well as giving government control to which internet software and services could be 'lawfully' used. On 7 July 2008, in Brussels, politicians voted in favour of the addition of these amendments to the Telecom law which will be voted on in September.

Taking issue with the argument that, after decentralisation, control is embodied within the protocols of networks, Harry Halpin gives a historical account of the all-too-human actors vying for power over the net. Not technical standards but immaterial aristocrats rule cyberspace and their seats of power are vulnerable to revolutionary attack