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1 ' SEARCH SIGN IN JOIN HELP CONTACT About Explore Initiatives Events & Opportunities Home Groups Scholars Ch. 8: Christian Sandvig, "Connection at Ewiiaapaayp Mountain: Indigenous Internet Infrastructure" BLOG POST Ch. 8: Christian Sandvig, "Connection at Ewiiaapaayp Mountain: Indigenous Internet Infrastructure" By Iskandar Zulkarnain on March 15, 2012 # $ + & + Page Views: 188 " 96 Iskandar Zulkarnain PhD Student in Visual and Cultural Studies University of Rochester Topic Part of the Distributed Book Review of Race After the Internet, ed. by Lisa Nakamura and Peter Chow-White Social & Political Issues Review of Chapter 8, "Connection at Ewiiaapaayp Mountain: Indigenous Internet Infrastructure" by Christian Sandvig Sub Topics Race & Ethnicity What does technology infrastructure tell us about race/ethnicity? Well, according to Christian Sandvig, it could say a lot. In his chapter Connection at Ewiiaapaayp Mountain, Sandvig describes how the 1 of 6 5/16/18, 6:37 PM

2 history and politics of racial/ethnic inequality play a substantial role in the formation/construction of Internet infrastructure. Looking at Tribal Digital Village (hereafter, TDV) a multimillion dollars developmental project to build a wireless Internet network for Native American reservation lands in Southern California as his case study, Sandvig argues that providing wireless Internet infrastructure on such a place as Native American reservations is different from providing a connection in the affluent suburbs of San Diego. The difference, he adds, is not necessarily a matter of different methods of construction per se. It also reflects issues such as identity politics and technological appropriation as well as innovation. Combining communication theory with ethnographic approach, Sandvig reveals the problematic status of TDV as a developmental project. Proposed by Hans-Werner Braun a German-born engineer with a long and distinguished career in computer networking the TDV s rationales emphasize technology transfer, poverty, and cultural patrimony, elements that expertly cater to the instrumentalist demand of public policy and philanthropic subsidy. These rationales overlook the history of Native Americans forced migration, which has unfairly relocated their homes to an offline-by-design environment, i.e. inhospitable lands with extreme conditions (172-74, 183). The result of these rationales is a moral burden for the indigenous people who are using this subsidized infrastructure. They have to justify their use of the Internet as educational while for the most part what they want (and what they actually do) is to be able to use the Internet just like everyone else, such as opening up MySpace account (a case that will be discussed further in the next chapter by Danah Boyd) or playing online games. Moreover, Sandvig also describes that because of this naturally inhospitable environment, the TDV project had to design their infrastructure in a different way than what the commercial wireless infrastructures such as AT&T would do. The TDV producers had to appropriate the intended uses of such things and devices as antennas, wireless towers, and car batteries in order to build a successful wireless Internet distribution network. While this Tags race after the internet academia Groups Scholars Scholar Class 2012 Reviews of 'Race After the Internet' Welcome to our Crowdsourced Book Review on "Race After The Internet" Introduction: Nakamura and Chow-White, "Race and Digital Technology: Code, the Color Line and the Information Society Ch. 1: Tara McPherson, "U.S. Operating Systems at Mid-Century" Ch. 2: Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, "Race And/as Technology, Or How To Do Things To Race." 2 of 6 5/16/18, 6:37 PM

3 technological appropriation in the end leads to an innovative wireless system in many ways and has transformed the Native Americans involved in the project from mere users to highly skilled producers of wireless technology, Sandvig reminds us that the TDV s appropriation speaks for a very different perspective than the increasingly popular discourse of countercultural and subversive technological appropriation in cases like hackers and phreaks. Instead, it is in Sandvig s terms an appropriation toward parity, where rather than being an engine of difference, it aspires to become engines of similarity in the development of technological infrastructures (191 original italics). Just like the users, these Native American producers would rather have a normal wireless system than what they have built. Yet, they had to build an unorthodox system because they had no other choice. As Sandvig aptly puts it, [i]nnovation, in this context, is both liberating and oppressive at the same time (190). Overall, Sandvig is successful in unfolding the complexities of technological infrastructure establishment, especially in regions with specific histories of racial and ethnic injustice. While I find his division of the indigenous producers and users sometimes inflexible, I believe it is strategically necessary to point out the serious disconnect between everyday uses of the Internet and the rhetoric of subsidizing it. The division is also useful to underscore the presence of identity politics such as tribal sovereignty in the establishment of technological infrastructure, an activity that sometimes is taken for granted. In the end, I agree with Sandvig s statement that learning the case of the TDV, it provides us with a new way to think about technological change and human identity (194). " 96 2 comments thank you Ch. 3: Rayvon Fouché, "From Black Inventors to One Laptop Per Child: Exporting a Racial Politics of Technology" Ch. 4: Curtis Marez, "Cesar Chavez, the United Farm Workers, and the History of Star Wars," Ch. 5: Alexander Galloway, "Does the Whatever Speak?" Ch. 7: Anna Everett, "Have We Become Postracial Yet? Race and Media Technology in the Age of President Obama" Ch. 8: Christian Sandvig, "Connection at Ewiiaapaayp Mountain: Indigenous Internet Infrastructure" Ch. 9: danah boyd, "White Flight in Networked Publics: How Race & Class Shaped American Teen Engagement with MySpace & Facebook Ch. 10: Eszter Hargittai, "Open doors, closed spaces: differentiated adoption of social network sites by user background" 3 of 6 5/16/18, 6:37 PM

4 thank you niftyc Thank you for this review, Iskandar. I enjoyed reading it and I'm glad the chapter was useful to you. Christian " 84 6 years ago Log in or register to post comments zhoel13 Thank you for your comment, Christian. I do find useful insights from your article that I can use for a chapter in my dissertation about appropriation in the development of internet infrastructure in Indonesia. I'm happy I chose your article for the review. PS. Sorry for the long delay in responding to your comment, I was out of town and only had limited internet connection. " years ago Log in or register to post comments Ch. 11: Wilson and Costanza-Chock, "New Voices on the Net? The Digital Journalism Divide and the Costs of Network Exclusion" Ch. 12: Alondra Nelson and Jeong Won Hwang: Roots and Revelation: Genetic Ancestry Testing and the YouTube Generation Ch. 13: Peter Chow-White, "Genomic Databases And An Emerging Digital Divide In Biotechnology" Ch. 14: Troy Duster, The Combustible Intersection: Genomics, Forensics, and Race. Similar Content Welcome to our Crowdsourced Book Review on "Race After The Internet" "Statistical Significance v. Substantive Significance" Empty Spaces?: 4 of 6 5/16/18, 6:37 PM

5 Indigenous Peoples and Euro- American Maps of the Colonial Southwest Geolocating Identity: A Reconciliation Project The Four C's of the Internet Commonwealth- Part 3: Completeness By accessing this site you agree to be bound by the Legal Agreement. We respect your privacy: Read the HASTAC privacy policy. Except where otherwise noted, all content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License. 5 of 6 5/16/18, 6:37 PM

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