Another Internet is Possible: Lori Emerson on “Other Networks”
How have people resourcefully used technology to create their own communication networks, and how can learning about this history help us reimagine the future of the internet?
Last night, I attended a lecture-performance at the Boulder Public Library by Dr. Lori Emerson, Professor of Media Studies at University of Colorado Boulder. I took notes on Lori’s introductory talk as a way to engage with her presentation and as a resource for others who were unable to attend.
Other Networks is a book that is invested in documenting and recreating networks before and outside of the internet. Lori’s work highlights the fact that the corporate-dominated internet is “not the network we want, not the network we deserve.” Therefore, the book aims to demystify how Other Networks work and make this knowledge more accessible, so that we can ask “what-if” questions about the future. It was created in collaboration with Dr. libi rose striegl, and the Media Archaeology Lab which Emerson leads at CU Boulder.
Although Emerson is only sharing a few examples today, she says the sheer volume of Other Networks is really important to show how much history is forgotten or brushed aside in the name of the new.
Stewart Brand wrote an essay in 1972 for Rolling Stone detailing convergence between researchers working at R&D labs and “computer bums” working to bring computers to the people. At this time, technology and counterculture converged in projects like the grassroots Community Memory Project, which was one of the earliest bulletin board-style networks. It provided people with computer access in public spaces — for many people, it was their first computer encounter.
Alongside these developments, ARPANET was active since 1969. Smaller alternatives to mainframe computers were becoming available. Microcomputers, and smaller and more affordable kits for hobbyists, were available in the early 1970s — a few years away from PCs. By the 1980s, there was a power struggle over whether and how to connect this wide array of computers. This resulted in the adoption of TCP/IP, which enabled interconnection of nearly any computer network. The internet then became the largest network of networks.
Control over networks moved away from government-regulated postal, telephone, and telegraph services, toward massive international conglomerates. It became hard to tell where one network ended and another began, and how to access them. During this shift, collective memory of what came before became ill-defined in the face of narratives of the internet as an apex of American innovation.
Now in 2025, misinformation is a daily norm. We’re inundated with tracking, surveillance, and monetization of scrolls and clicks. We’re living through a turning point, and our understanding depends on our values and investments. In 2023, Anil Dash penned a piece — also for Rolling Stone – arguing that with new platforms like Mastodon and Bluesky, the world is witnessing a multiplicity of the weirder open web. But, for Emerson, how weird can these platforms really be if they all use the same protocol, on the same infrastructure, owned by the same multinational conglomerates?
We’re seeing a movement toward what theorist Felix Guattari understood as centralization and oppression. But there’s also the possibility of shifting toward another of Guattari’s interests: miniaturized systems that create possibility of collective appropriation of media. For Emerson, what’s more interesting than the Fediverse is these alternate networks — zines, mail art, telex, radio networks, etc. — that have existed or are being revived.
It can be hard to tell how compelling a network can be until we see artists explore their possibilities. That’s why it’s time to excavate those Other Networks and re-enliven what we think the internet can be. It’s not enough to swap stories or marvel at “weird” experiments. In defiance of the culture of exclusivity and inaccessibility that characterizes the current state of the internet, we need to demystify how networks work. We need to lay the groundwork for anyone to pick up a soldering iron to build an FM radio transmitter. Not only is another internet possible, but we are all capable of building our own networks.
In her lecture-performance, Emerson performed an “analog-only reading” from Other Networks. It included examples from the book such as long-distance talking drums, flag semaphore, telephone networks, and FM radio. The audience was invited to participate using flags and radios scattered around the auditorium, and some audience members took home postcards that celebrate some of the sillier Other Networks: missile mail, semaphore trousers, and more.
There will be another chance to hear Dr. Emerson speak about her book online on 10/8/25!