COLUMN: Letter from the editors
Impractical, impossible, and interdisciplinary: pushing the boundaries of computer science
By Okke Schrijvers
Magazine: Summer 2016 | Volume 22, No. 4
Technology is not stagnant, it moves from place to place and person to person. In this issue of XRDS, we observe what happens when computing, culture, and postcoloniality collide. A major theme of the “Cultures of Computing” issue is how dominant narratives frame technology in terms of development for the global South—as opposed to from, or of, or with the global South.
The authors in this issue address how to decolonialize computing, the participation of Africans in the global HCI community, and the ways in which the globalization has changed cultures and given rise to new identities, new practices, and new systems. You will find representation of a variety of views. Not only from cultures around the world, but from different disciplinary cultures as well. We hope this issue will spark thoughtful and reflective discussions and debates about the role of computing in these fluid times.
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COLUMN: Advice
Why you need Allies as a Ph.D.
Good research requires strong connections.
By Andrew J. Hunsucker
COLUMN: Careers
What's in the job of making music?
Harry Lachenmayer navigates the underground music world with a CS degree.
By Harry Lachenmayer
DEPARTMENT: Blogs
Is your research reproducible?
The XRDS blog highlights a range of topics from conference coverage, to security and privacy, to CS theory. Selected blog posts, edited for print, are featured in every issue. Please visit xrds.acm.org/blog to read each post in its entirety. If you are interested in joining as a student blogger, please contact us.
By Abdelrahman Hosny
SECTION: Features
A brief introduction to decolonial computing
Does computing need to be decolonized, and if so, how should such decolonization be effected? This short essay introduces a recent proposal at the fringes of computing, which attempts to engage these and other related questions.
By Syed Mustafa Ali
Decolonising HCI and interaction design discourse: some considerations in planning AfriCHI
Bringing African theorists into the construction of African identity in HCI.
By Nicola J. Bidwell
Breaking the cycle of Macondo: design and decolonial futures
How can the ideas of timelessness and anachronism contribute to the decolonization of design practices in Latin America?
By Luiza Prado de O. Martins, Pedro J. S. Vieira de Oliveira
A tale of two cities, real and imagined
How an election promise to develop India's smart cities became an urban concern.
By Rahul Bhatia
Negotiating science, technology, culture, and religion: the art and ideas of Laleh Mehran
In this interview, the artist Laleh Mehran discusses her use of interactive installations to explore the relationships between science, theology, and technology. She also shares how her experience as an Iranian-American has shaped the structure and themes of her work.
By Jennifer Jacobs
Jian Guan on design and innovation in China
Having attended universities in the U.S. and China, this educator shares his insight of the design industry and education in China.
By Ahmed Ansari, Raghavendra Kandala
Design Livre: designing locally, cannibalizing globally
Design Livre is a conversation about creative ways of resisting the bad effects of globalization, such as technological dependence. This article tells the story of how this conversation started, where is it going now, and what is the relevance of its underlying topics.
By Frederick M. C. van Amstel, Rodrigo Freese Gonzatto
SECTION: Profile
Sanny Gaddafi
Living at the forefront of Indonesia's tech emancipation
By Adrian Scoică
DEPARTMENT: Labz
Meeting point: the computer lab
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany
By Johanna Schacht
DEPARTMENT: Hello world
Convolutional neural networks: an illustration in TensorFlow
By Abhineet Saxena