Hegemony, transpatriarchies, ICTs, and virtualization

In 1991 in a Cambridge University laboratory two computer scientists, Quentin Staff ord-Fraser and Paul Jardetzky, wanted to keep their eyes on the availability of fresh coffee while they were working. Accordingly, they fixed a recycled video camera to an old computer and then a video frame-grabber on top of the coffee machine placed outside their working environment, called the “Trojan Room”. In the name of having more “control” over the coffee, they posted the very first real-time cybersurveillance recording process on the Internet:1 they could watch it from other places. This, one of many examples of the reach of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and virtualization, has led into many kinds of transnational cybersurveillance experiences that have since grabbed the attention of many Internet surfers (Campanella 2002).