Browsers, boundaries (part 1/?): intro and roundtable discussion
Date: June 04, 2025 12-1:30pm
Session Leaders: Sidney San Martín
Format: Hybrid (In-person with online access)
Tags: #browsers • #web • #internet • #technology • #html • #philosophy • #politics

This will be the beginning of a potential deep dive into the web and web browsers focused on two questions:
How do websites create and challenge boundaries between people?
How do web browsers serve as the threshold between us, our computers, and the world?
The ultimate goal of the series will be to deeply understand how web browsers work both technically and philosophically (i.e. why they are how they are) and the economic tensions at play in both browsers and the web, and to feel empowered to participate and challenge those tensions.
This first session will start with a talk about all of the above, followed by open discussion and Q/A about the web and web browsers. The open discussion should both be a chance for us all to clarify how we feel about and understand the web, and help decide what future sessions should cover!
The framing and some slides are borrowed from a guest lecture I gave last year for Digital Love Languages at the School for Poetic Computation.
I spent a number of years working on a major (at the time) website, and a number of years working on the most widely-used web browser in the world, and since then have worked on a number of ambitious creative technical projects in web browsers, so I think I'm well positioned to lead this discussion. That said, I'm entirely open to feedback and help.