生成性的技术装置:网吧平台“顺网”的技术化封装与物质性变迁

The becoming of technological apparatus:Enveloping technology and transforming materiality of the Internet café platform“Shunwang”

顺网于2005年推出的“网维大师”只是一个辅助网吧进行信息安全维护的软件,但逐步拓展为一个“顺网云海”的泛娱乐平台,这是互联网进入中国初期时所难以预料的商业模式和技术方案。本研究以网吧演化进程中的重要平台“顺网”作为研究案例,梳理出顺网平台化过程中的技术化封装与物质性变迁:将自上而下的网吧监管和自下而上的网吧维护封装到技术平台之中,逐步将硬件封装到软件背后的黑箱,并通过捕获其他第三方技术完成了从网吧管理软件到泛娱乐平台的转化。这一过程揭示了中国互联网基础设施发展过程中虚-实、线上-线下、话语-技术、商业-公共的权力争夺和关系切换,促成网吧从实体共用空间变为了云游戏算力池,并生产出关于不断升级、持续竞演的技术修辞。本研究强调媒介物质性中的动态性、生成性和批判性,尤其是多个行动者及其目标的互动如何在管制、商业和技术形态上完成实体化,重视本土化发展脉络也可以拓展媒介物质性研究的批判维度。

Developed in 2005 by Shunwang,I-café was merely a management software for the Internet café.However,it soon became a well-known pan-entertainment platform,generating various business models and technical strategies for the access of the Internet in public space.This study choses Shunwang as an example,exploring its important role in the Internet café’s evolution.Itself also experienced a transforming materiality and enveloping technology process,in which the sociotechnical imaginary and forensic materiality were unpacked to be embedded in surveillance and maintenance contexture as well as entertainment game industry development.The desire of winning nested games and discourses about“upgrade”reconfigured by Shunwang generally changed the doings of the Internet cafés.Through the media materiality perspective,the critical moments in the history of Chinese Internet development can be witnessed,and the local contexture of Internet café governance and interplaying practices performed by multiple actors can be analyzed.