Welcome to Constant Etherpad!

These pads are archived each night (around 4AM CET) @ http://etherdump.constantvzw.org/
An RSS feed from the etherdump also appears on http://constantvzw.org/

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    __NOPUBLISH__

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Online:
http://pad.constantvzw.org/p/observatory.participants
http://pad.constantvzw.org/p/observatory.reader

On etherbox:
http://etherbox.local:9001/p/participants
http://etherbox.local:9001/p/reader

I. WHAT IS SOFTWARE
The first two days of The Techno-Galactic Software Observatory will be  developed in collaboration with the NAM-IP in Namur and will take place  in the surrounding of their collection of historical ’numerical  artefacts’. Viewing software in this long-term context offers the  occasion to reflect on the conditions of its appearance, and allows us  to take on current-day questions from a genealogical perspective. What  is software? How did it appear as a concept, in what industrial and  governmental circumstances? What happens to the material conditions of  its production (minerals, factory labor, hardware) when it evaporates into a cloud?

II. WHEN AND WHERE IS SOFTWARE
The second two days will focus on the space-time dimension of IT  development. The way computer programs and operating systems are  manufactured changed tremendously through time, so its production times  and places changed too. From military labs via the mega-corporation  cubicles to the open-space freelancer utopia, what ruptures and  continuities can be traced? From time-sharing to user-space partitions  and containerization, what separations were and are at work? Where and  when is software made today?



III. OBSERVATION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
The last two days at the Techno-galactic software observatory will be  dedicated to observation and its consequences. The development of  software encompasses a series of practices whose evocative names are  increasingly familiar: feedback, report, probe, audit, inspect, scan,  diagnose, explore ... What are the systems of knowledge and power within  which these activities take place, and what other types of observation  are possible? As a practical set for our investigations, we will  together set up a walk-in clinic in the basement of the World Trade Center, where users and developers can arrive on Monday with  software-questions of all kinds

INTRODUCTIONS
- theme of the block
- reader
- timing of the day; food; toilettes
- observation meets documentation (logbook/daybook + medical diagnoses)
- Techno-Galactic Guide to software observation
- Saturday: local lightenings. Proposals on pad
- Monday: Walk-in clinic

http://www.constantvzw.org/site/Open-Call-for-The-Techno-Galactic-Software-Observatory.html