Biographical Sketch

Erik Borra is PhD candidate and lecturer at the University of Amsterdam's M.A. program in New Media. Erik is also the lead programmer for the Digital Methods Initiative and is currently involved in the European research project 'Electronic Maps to Assist Public Science' (EMAPS).

Erik's employment as a programmer is the continuation of his work for Govcom.org, a foundation dedicated to creating and hosting political Web tools. This work consists of mapping issue networks on the Web by using the Issue Crawler software, as well as devising new tools such as the Issue Feed (beta), Issue Scraper - which makes comparative analyses of webspheres (e.g. news spheres and blogospheres), a surfer pathway browser, and tag ecology visualizers.

Together with artists and designers Erik worked on projects such as the WEX machine - a physical website recursively connecting the on- and the offline, iTea - an interactive RFID installation designed as a coffee table, tapemixer.com - a playlist recommendation mash-up between YouTube and Last.fm, and the IP-browser - an alternative browsing experience that foregrounds the Web’s machine habitat and returns the user back to the basics of orderly Web browsing.

Erik earned his BSc and MSc in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Amsterdam.

More info in his Curriculum Vitae