When we spend most of our lives online, connected to others – space who are "we"? Where does our sense of self stop and start? And how do mass online swarms begin and dissipate?

After four years on Twitter and more than 170'000 tweets - Asher Wolf presents her experience of plunging head-first into social media. Asher’s presentation focuses on the semiotics of hashtagging, swimming in streams of information, hive-minds, the potential for swarms, intuiting sock-puppetry and the impact of surveillance and censorship on connectedness.


Asher is a chaos magnet fascinated by the intersection of social media, journalism and hacktivism.
She has been described "one of the key activists across the world in coordinating news and information relating
to breaking the old information hegemony" (Rick Falkvinge, Founder of the Swedish Pirate Party.) Asher achieved accidental infamy when her Twitter account was subpoenaed by the Boston Police Department in an outrageous law-enforcement dragnet.

A founder of the global Cryptoparty movement, Asher is currently employed as an 'expert news gatherer' by @newspointbiz, a London-based social media content aggregation and curation organisation, sourcing and verifying news content for traditional media outlets. In her spare time, Asher enjoys reading apocalyptic fiction novels and
flying drones at the park with her 3 year old son.

Seeking extra-sentience in social media spaces: the beginning is infinitely near

Asher Wolf speaks on day 02 of NAF:TMFC
Photo: Aaron Horsley