“Other Networks” is a cluster of projects headed up by Dr. Lori Emerson and Dr. libi striegl that document and experiment with networks outside of what’s now called “the internet.” We are invested in digging up alternative and forgotten networks to reimagine the future of the internet as the future of networks. While we publish books and articles on other networks, we also run an asynchronous book club, host events and workshops, and share “recipes” on how to build your own “other network.” These projects are run in conjunction with the Media Archaeology Lab (MAL) and they are supported by both the MAL and the College of Communication, Media, Design, and Information at the University of Colorado Boulder.
articles & books
Other Networks-related books, articles, essays, and pamphlets explore how the internet could have been and still could be otherwise explore networks before the internet:
- Other Networks: A Radical Technology Sourcebook (Anthology Editions, 2025)
- Build Your Own Mini FM Transmitter: Other Networks for Everyone Vol. 1 (Self-published, download here)
- “How To Read a Network,” The Digital Reading Condition. Eds. Maria Engberg, Iben Have, Birgitte Pedersen. London: Routledge, 2022
- “The Net Has Never Been Neutral,” August 2021
- “Alternative Internets and Their Lost Histories,” Los Angeles Review of Books. April 2021
- “‘Did We Dream Enough?’ THE THING BBS As An Experiment in Social-Cyber Sculpture,” Rhizome. New York City, NY. December 2020
- “Anarchive as Technique | The Media Archaeology Lab’s OLPC Mesh Network Project,” The International Journal of Digital Humanities (April 2019): 1-12
- “What’s Wrong With the Internet and How We Can Fix It: An Interview with Internet Pioneer John Day,” Ctrl-Z: New Media Philosophy 5 (December 2015)
book club
The Other Networks Book Club is an asynchronous reading group. Throughout 2024, we focused on a book each month and allowed readers to post their thoughts and impressions on a corresponding thread on the Media Archaeology Lab’s Mastodon, a post here, and an Instagram post. Stay tuned for future Book Club readings!
events
Other Networks events for 2024 included workshops on amateur radio, Videotex, and barbed wire fence phones. Throughout 2025, we are offering workshops on how to break up with corporate social media and how to use Meshtastic. We will also host a snail mail party and a mix-tape party.
recipes
Other Networks “recipes” reflect our belief in the importance of empowering people to imagine the future of the internet as the future of networks–partly through educating about the wild range of networks that existed before the internet and partly through educating about how to build your own network (BYON!). We have posted recipes on how to build your own mesh network, how to do short range over-air-transmission, how to build your own mini FM transmitter, and there are more planned for 2024.
other networks 