Biographical Sketch
Erik Borra is an ICT and concept developer at the New Media department of the University of Amsterdam, a freelance programmer and web researcher. He is lead programmer and a researcher for
Govcom.org, a foundation dedicated to creating and hosting political tools on the Web. This work involves mapping issue networks on the Web using the
Issue Crawler software, as well as devising new tools such as the
Issue Feed (beta), the
Issue Scraper - which undertakes comparative analyses of the newssphere and the blogosphere, a surfer pathway browser, tag ecology visualizers and the
Issue Dramaturg. In addition he works at the newly found
Digital Methods Initiative of the University of Amsterdam.
The remainder of his time is spent collaborating with artists and designers, most recently on a Delicious Network Visualizer (displayed at
www.infowarroom.org), the
Oracle Machine - an interactive application connecting on- and off-line public space, and
iTea - an interactive RFID installation in the form of a coffee table.
Erik earned his BSc and MSc in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Amsterdam. He is now doing his second Master program, in New Media, to get a different angle on the same stuff he's been doing for years.
Further Info