Code/Space: Software and Everyday Life

by Rob Kitchin, Martin Dodge

An analysis of the ways that software creates new spatialities in everyday life, from supermarket checkout lines to airline flight paths.

Genres: Technology, Philosophy

305 pages, ebook

First published March 31, 2011

About the author

I'm a professor at the National University of Ireland Maynooth and the author or editor of 28 academic books and a 12 volume encyclopedia, and author of four crime novels and two collections of short stories. My passions are reading and writing crime fiction and undertaking research on social issues. I contribute to three blogs: The View From the Blue House, Ireland After NAMA, and The Programmable City.

Reviews

[William Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

At its start the text talks about code itself as opposed to software and the merit of its study, however the book is much more about software space and spaces created through the products of code than to the actual code itself. Through this lense the context of different objects and environments is explored, some more thoroughly than other.

The most valuable feature of this book is the authors' proposed taxonomy for the classification of devices based on functionality in relation to data storage, and networking. This in relation to the spaces that these objects create becomes the core focus.

I highly recommend this for anyone looking to establish a vocabulary for talking about the types of devices we interact with across spaces and the roles they play in micro-geographies.

[dasVoid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Must-read for every software developer who wants to understand the ways in which his craft forms the world around us.

The writing style is quite scientific and can be a little dull at times, which is why I only gave 4 out of 5.