Bots, bespoke, code and the materiality of software platforms

Abstract

This article introduces and discusses the role of bespoke code in Wikipedia, which is code that runs alongside a platform or system, rather than being integrated into server-side codebases by individuals with privileged access to the server. Bespoke code complicates the common metaphors of platforms and sovereignty that we typically use to discuss the governance and regulation of software systems through code. Specifically, the work of automated software agents (bots) in the operation and administration of Wikipedia is examined, with a focus on the materiality of code. As bots extend and modify the functionality of sites like Wikipedia, but must be continuously operated on computers that are independent from the servers hosting the site, they involve alternative relations of power and code. Instead of taking for granted the pre-existing stability of Wikipedia as a platform, bots and other bespoke code require that we examine not only the software code itself, but also the concrete, historically contingent material conditions under which this code is run. To this end, this article weaves a series of autobiographical vignettes about the author's experiences as a bot developer alongside more traditional academic discourse.

Keywords:

• code
• materiality
• software
• bots
• Wikipedia
• algorithms

Notes on contributor

R. Stuart Geiger is a doctoral student at the UC-Berkeley School of Information. A computational ethnographer, he studies knowledge production in distributed and decentralized organizations from a variety of methodological and theoretical approaches. Stuart's research currently focuses on the social, organizational, and epistemological roles of automated software agents in the operation and maintenance of Wikipedia and scientific research networks. [e-mail: [email protected]]