Moving Data

Much has been made of Steve Jobs's still-heralded iPhone. Edited by Snickars (head of research, Swedish National Lib.) and Vonderau (media studies, Ruhr Univ., Germany), who also coedited The YouTube Reader, this book is not quite a paean to the-little-black-smartphone-that-could, but its 22 essays do spend a lot of time analyzing the device's high points and its contributions to global culture. The authors present the iPhone as artwork (created by "artists" and also a platform to create art); near human; and a tool to encourage good citizenship and civic responsibility. There is less on the specifics of how the iPhone uses data and more about what the device makes possible in general, though a chapter titled "The iPhone's Failure: Protests and Resistance" raises critical questions about Apple's proprietary control over essentially all communication and content used under its umbrella.