When ‘Open’is Still Far from Good Enough: The Work of Counter-Mapping with Political Software

What does “openness” mean when it comes to crafting digital tools and infrastructures for housing justice action research? This question is particularly urgent as global internet companies unleash new geospatial technologies to track and surveil. In this article, we examine the corporate software dependencies and organizational practices that the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project (AEMP) have encountered in its counter-mapping work. Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) projects for counter-cartography have been developed to support both social research and housing justice work, but little collaboration between FOSS developers, critical cartographers, and community organizers has been fostered and sustained to date. In order to address this critical gap, we analyze project documentation alongside software development practices to discuss AEMP members’ experiences in developing open technologies for the “Covid-19 Housing Map.” We elaborate on the distinction between “political software” and “software politics” as an analytic device to describe contrasting modes of engagement with digital design. We demonstrate that FOSS adoption is not a simple matter of technological choice, but rather a complex sociotechnical process that fundamentally alters technopolitical relations and forms of political action. For the conclusion, we reflect on the broader implications of the technopolitical challenges that AEMP encountered, while also examining possibilities for creating and supporting “political software” aligned with the goals of housing action research.