TL;DR Please join us for these events, if you would like to join day 2 and/or 3, please fill-out this form: https://files.criticalinfralab.net/apps/forms/s/k6Cfsz8pQdbnYsDtkF6X2ZRW
Tickets for Day 1 at De Balie can be bought on their website: https://debalie.nl/programma/the-politics-of-the-internet-14-10-2026/

The politics of the internet

The internet is often presented as an open, distributed, and decentralized space. Yet behind the platforms, networks and digital services we use every day lies an architecture that is anything but neutral.

From social media feeds and AI systems to data centres and undersea cables, the digital world is built on infrastructures that shape how information flows, who gets heard and who holds power. Decisions made by engineers, companies and governments do not just determine how technology works; they influence how we work, communicate, participate and imagine the world around us.

Over three days, we bring together researchers, policymakers, practitioners and the public to examine these infrastructures from multiple angles: as sites of political struggle, as objects of research and policy, and as things we can build differently ourselves.

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Tuesday 14 October, evening: Public event at De Balie

To open the programme, researcher Britt Paris examines the architecture of power embedded in the internet. She will explore how digital infrastructures shape society, how technological systems reflect political and economic interests, and what happens when essential parts of public life become dependent on private platforms.

The occasion is the launch of Britt Paris’s new book, Radical Infrastructures: Building Possibilities for a People’s Internet (University of California Press, 2026), which draws on eight years of research into alternative internet infrastructure projects, from rural and Indigenous internet cooperatives to community-run networks and broad-based tech and social justice organizing, to ask what it would take to build a genuinely people-centered internet.

The evening includes an artistic intermezzo by Jen Liu, whose work investigates the ecological, social, and political implications of computing technologies and infrastructures. She is also one of the driving forces behind SwampNet in New Orleans https://swampnet.info/

Who builds our digital world? Whose interests does it serve? And what would it mean to create an internet that is organized around public values rather than private interests?

When: Evening of 14 October
Where: De Balie, Amsterdam

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Wednesday 15 October: Workshop

The day after the public event, we move from diagnosis to agenda-setting in a closed workshop with researchers, practitioners and policymakers.

Morning: A research agenda for future physical infrastructures
A discussion on the open questions that should shape research into the physical layer of the internet: the cables, data centres, spectrum and hardware that make digital life possible, and how we study them critically.

Afternoon: A policy agenda for digital infrastructure
A conversation with representatives from the City of Amsterdam and other stakeholders on what a public-values approach to digital infrastructure could look like in practice, and how research, policy and civic action can reinforce each other.

When: 15 October, morning and afternoon sessions
Where: BG1, room 0.16

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Thursday 16 October: Open hackathon at the critical infrastructure lab

We close the programme with a hands-on, open hackathon at the critical infrastructure lab. Everyone is welcome to join and work with us on a variety of hardware, software and computing projects exploring alternative internet infrastructures.

Bring your own project, or join one of the projects on offer and learn as you build. No prior experience required, just curiosity about how digital infrastructures work and a willingness to get your hands dirty.

Some examples of projects we will be working on:

• Building a battery from the mud from Amsterdam canals
• Setting up a mudbattery measurement station (Picolog)
• Building a 5G network with the RAK All-in-One 5G (M320)
• Doing AI edge computing
• Antenna building for the SbitX v3 for SW https://hermes.radio/
• Setting up Reticulum Nodes on an ESP32
• Circuit building to power an ESP32 with mud batteries

When: 16 October, all day
Where: BG1, rooms 0.12 and 0.16

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Radical Infrastructures is organized by the critical infrastructure lab, ARTES Cluster on Digital Networks, Communications, and Technologies, and the ACES Tech, Power, Policy theme group.