We are pleased to announce that Hossein Derakhshan is going to join us for a guest lecture on March 4.

The Web We Have To Save

The Web, as envisaged by its inventors, is founded on the idea of Hyperlink. Derived from the notion of hypertext in literary theory, hyperlink is a relation rather than an object. It is a system of connections that connects distant pieces of text, resulting in a non-linear, open, active, and diverse space we call the world wide web.

But in the past few years, and with the rise of closed social networks, the hyperlink and thereby the web are in serious decline. Most social networks have created a closed, linear, sequential, passive, and homogenous space where users are encouraged to stay in all the time — a space that is more like television.

The web was imagined as an intellectual project that promoted knowledge, debate, and tolerance; as something I call books-internet. Now it has become more about entertainment and commerce; I call this tv-internet. (This is extensively articulated in ‘The Web We Have to Save‘ published in July 2015 by Matter magazine.)

Hossein Derakhshan

Hossein Derakhshan is a Canadian-Iranian author, journalist, and analyst. A pioneer of blogging in Iran, he spent six years in prison in Iran from 2008. He is the author of The Web We Have to Save (Matter, July 2015) and the creator of Link-age, an art project to promote an open and diverse internet. He shares his thoughts on Iran, media, and technology on Twitter (@h0d3r) and at hoder.ir.

March 4 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm |Elab, room 0.16 | Turfdraagsterpad 9, 1012 XT Amsterdam