Digital Frictions

Building the People's Internet

Communities on the front lines of the climate crisis have seen the immediate benefits of locally-managed digital infrastructure. But beyond resilience, grassroots networks are a test case for a collectively-forged technological future.

Digital Frictions

Radio Past | Radio Future

Live and on-air: dispatches from a community net-worker.

Digital Frictions

Latchkey Living

An indicator species in vinyl and metal, the streetside lockbox signals the rise of a short-term city.

Digital Frictions

Tools of Collective Intelligence

As building technologies from doorbells to thermostats claim to become ever “smarter,” how do they mesh with the social life of shared spaces?

Digital Frictions

Where Code Meets Concrete

Introducing the series Digital Frictions. What happens when the “smart city” encounters other forms of urban intelligence?

Stalking the Smart City

An artist and an artificial intelligence, trained on the data of 1,000 anonymous New Yorkers, follow a path forged by no one in particular.

The Location of Justice: Systems

Where Corrections Meets Connections

People trying to stay connected to their loved ones in New York's jails and prisons must travel great distances and navigate intimidating rules and requirements.

The Location of Justice: Systems

Where School Meets Prison

As police personnel and machinery have settled into New York City schools, the line between school discipline and criminal punishment has become blurry.

The Location of Justice: Systems

Policing Is an Information Business

The NYPD vaunts crime mapping technologies from CompStat maps to a vast networked surveillance infrastructure. Who benefits?

The Location of Justice: Systems

The CompStat Evangelist Consultant World Tour

28 maps track the networks of consultancy through which CompStat's architects spread the gospel — often for a tidy fee.