[Commlist] New book from Nordicom: "Wizards of the Web: An Outsider’s Journey into Tech Culture, Programming, and Mathemagics"

New book from Nordicom:

*Wizards of the Web: An Outsider’s Journey into Tech Culture, 
Programming, and Mathemagics***

Author: Jakob Svensson

Download thebookas open access or order a print copy 
here:https://www.nordicom.gu.se/en/publications/wizards-web 
<https://www.nordicom.gu.se/en/publications/wizards-web>

In our connected data societies, the importance of algorithms and 
automated systems is obvious. They determine search engines’ rankings, 
what driverless cars do when a child appears on the road, and stock 
market changes. Today data-driven algorithms and automated systems are 
everywhere.

While algorithms and automated systems themselves are often a topic of 
controversy and debate, this book is about the people behind them; it is 
an account of the cultures, values, and imaginations that guide 
programmers in their work designing and engineering software and digital 
technology. Technology, it is argued, is not neutral and developed free 
of context. And since algorithms and automated systems exercise power in 
connected data societies, it is pivotal to understand their creators, 
who could be labelled, it is argued in the book, Wizards of the Web.

This book is the result of an ethnographically inspired study based on 
interviews with software engineers and programmers, observations made at 
tech headquarters and conferences in Denmark, Sweden, Brazil, Germany, 
India, and the US, and a case study of the introduction of algorithmic 
automation on the front page of a Scandinavian newspaper.

The author, /Jakob Svensson/, is professor of Media and Communication 
Studies at Malmö University. The book is part of the research project 
Behind the Algorithm (funded by the Swedish Research Council, 2018–2020).


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