Reading Pia’s latest blog (Ever wondered what Jupiter sounds like?) I was pretty excited about the idea of the world-wide web facilitating off-world experiences. I was also reminded of something I came across a couple of years ago: my father is personally and professionally interested in astronomy and he told me about a piece of software called Seti@home (http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/) that he had downloaded on his computer. SETI stands for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, and this particular project enables researchers to harness the computing power of internet-connected personal computers around the world to process the huge amounts of data constantly being recorded from space.
Developed by the University of California Berkeley, Seti@home uses radio telescopes to listen for signals from space that would provide evidence of extraterrestrial technology. Anyone with an internet connection can download software which enables their computer to download and process data as it is recorded by these telescopes, and then email the results back to the SETI scientists. Because this process only happens when the computer is in screensaver mode, Seti@home effectively exploits what would otherwise be wasted computing potential without impacting on individual users.
It seems like a wonderfully utopian scenario, not only due to the brilliantly economical use of existing resources, but also the very notion of building a community through the shared act of scanning the extraterrestrial ‘horizon’ for potential friends (or foes!). In line with a common thread developing in my blog postings regarding collaborative online authorship, I was interested to see that active community participation between Seti@home volunteers is encouraged by the organising team. Staff and volunteers post personal information about themselves and chat on a number of different message boards. The enthusiastic voluntary engagement in this project by surprising numbers of people has led to the extension of the concept to other research projects, for example: “AfricaMap is a joint venture of the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana, and the University of Geneva designed to review satellite images of the African continent. Volunteers who join AfricaMap will be scanning high-resolution images of remote regions in Africa where maps either do not exist or are sadly out of date. Their job will be to mark the precise locations of roads, rivers, villages, etc., thereby assisting efforts to aid impoverished regions and documenting the effects of global warming on the continent's landscape.” David Anderson, the director of Seti@home, refers to this organised mass collaboration as ‘citizen cyberspace’.
As globalisation undermines the centrality of local communities in the lives of many millions of people worldwide, the internet, one of the tools of globalisation, also provides the opportunity to reformulate new sorts of community. A common fascination with outer space has united Seti@home volunteers from around the globe, expanding the boundaries of the ‘local’ to global proportions and consolidating a community with the shared goal of searching for an extraterrestrial other.
Developed by the University of California Berkeley, Seti@home uses radio telescopes to listen for signals from space that would provide evidence of extraterrestrial technology. Anyone with an internet connection can download software which enables their computer to download and process data as it is recorded by these telescopes, and then email the results back to the SETI scientists. Because this process only happens when the computer is in screensaver mode, Seti@home effectively exploits what would otherwise be wasted computing potential without impacting on individual users.
It seems like a wonderfully utopian scenario, not only due to the brilliantly economical use of existing resources, but also the very notion of building a community through the shared act of scanning the extraterrestrial ‘horizon’ for potential friends (or foes!). In line with a common thread developing in my blog postings regarding collaborative online authorship, I was interested to see that active community participation between Seti@home volunteers is encouraged by the organising team. Staff and volunteers post personal information about themselves and chat on a number of different message boards. The enthusiastic voluntary engagement in this project by surprising numbers of people has led to the extension of the concept to other research projects, for example: “AfricaMap is a joint venture of the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana, and the University of Geneva designed to review satellite images of the African continent. Volunteers who join AfricaMap will be scanning high-resolution images of remote regions in Africa where maps either do not exist or are sadly out of date. Their job will be to mark the precise locations of roads, rivers, villages, etc., thereby assisting efforts to aid impoverished regions and documenting the effects of global warming on the continent's landscape.” David Anderson, the director of Seti@home, refers to this organised mass collaboration as ‘citizen cyberspace’.
As globalisation undermines the centrality of local communities in the lives of many millions of people worldwide, the internet, one of the tools of globalisation, also provides the opportunity to reformulate new sorts of community. A common fascination with outer space has united Seti@home volunteers from around the globe, expanding the boundaries of the ‘local’ to global proportions and consolidating a community with the shared goal of searching for an extraterrestrial other.
2 comments:
"That's pretty far out man!"
This was a really interesting blog Anna! Who knew space had so much scope.(Ha!) Although the idea of my computer idly processing data in an effort to find extraterrestrial intellegent life while in sleepy mode makes me feel a litte uncomfortable, I think the idea of a participating in a global community, brought together by a common interest, that can only be facilitated by the net is an awesome one. I might have a look at the Africa Map project. I wonder how much of your Internet allowance it would use up each month?
Hmm I just came from Pia's blog reading about the sound of Jupiter! The internet does indeed evoke notions of space and you touch on some important points about globalization, particularly the affordances for democratic expression and creative production.
Andrea Slane (2007) puts it well when she writes,
Many of the foundational socio-spatial practices of liberal democracy are challenged by cyberspace (private property, national boundaries, authority over the individual body), and these challenges have manifested themselves in legal battles over online trading in intellectual property; in the sanctity of homes intruded upon by spam, viruses, and unsavoury images; in jurisdictional controversies across national borders; and in the upsurge of legislative activity regarding online privacy (p. 85).
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