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

• Curriculum Vitae
• Universitary log whilst being a New Media student
• MSc thesis for AI
• Universitary log whilst being an AI student (in Dutch)
• Gpg key