Book ID: CBB001421288

Coding Places: Software Practice in a South American City (2012)

unapi

Takhteyev, Yuri (Author)


MIT Press


Publication Date: 2012
Physical Details: xi + 257 pp.; maps; bibl.; index
Language: English

Software development would seem to be a quintessential example of today's Internet-enabled knowledge work--a global profession not bound by the constraints of geography. In Coding Places, Yuri Takhteyev looks at the work of software developers who inhabit two contexts: a geographical area--in this case, greater Rio de Janeiro--and a world of practice, a global system of activities linked by shared meanings and joint practice. The work of the Brazilian developers, Takhteyev discovers, reveals a paradox of the world of software: it is both diffuse and sharply centralized. The world of software revolves around a handful of places--in particular, the San Francisco Bay area--that exercise substantial control over both the material and cultural elements of software production. Takhteyev shows how in this context Brazilian software developers work to find their place in the world of software and to bring its benefits to their city. Takhteyev's study closely examines Lua, an open source programming language developed in Rio but used in such internationally popular products as World of Warcraft and Angry Birds. He shows that Lua had to be separated from its local origins on the periphery in order to achieve success abroad. The developers, Portuguese speakers, used English in much of their work on Lua. By bringing to light the work that peripheral practitioners must do to give software its seeming universality, Takhteyev offers a revealing perspective on the not-so-flat world of globalization.

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Reviewed By

Review Hansen Hsu (2015) Review of "Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking". East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal (pp. 413-417). unapi

Review Nemer, David (2014) Review of "Coding Places: Software Practice in a South American City". Technology and Culture (pp. 517-518). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001421288/

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Authors & Contributors
Tozzi, Christopher
Lopes, Maria-Aparecida
Elzway, Salem
Con Diaz, Gerardo
Casey O'Donnell
Stephen D. Mikesell
Concepts
Software
Computer games
Internet
Globalization; internationalization
Computers and computing
Video games
Time Periods
21st century
20th century
20th century, late
19th century
Places
United States
India
Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
Brazil
San Francisco (California)
England
Institutions
United States. Securities and Exchange Commission
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