This weekend 22.–23.3.2013 I will attend the third Unlike Us at TrouwAmsterdam and Studio HvA / MediaLAB Amsterdam statt. The aim of Unlike Us is to establish a research network of artists, designers, scholars, activists and programmers who work on ‘alternatives in social media’. For those in Berlin: the Heinrich Böll Stiftung is hosting another interesting conference on activism and forms of political participation at the same time 🙁 From the announcement: „Is the word ‘social’ hollowed out, or does it still have some meaning? How to understand the thunderous growth of mobile uses in social media? Is there really something like a Facebook riot and how do we start one? Theorists, programmers and artists alike react to the monopolies that control social media – by designing decentralized networks, creating art that’s criticizing and surprising at the same time or by trying to understand the big networks from within“. You should definetly also check the new Unlike Us Reader.