Minimal Computing

⊕Minimal Computing is a coinage of the Global Outlook::Digital Humanities special interest group of the Alliance of Digital Humanites Organizations and my definition is merely a restatement of theirs. Minimal Computing is the concept of computing done under some set of significant constraints; whether those constraints be hardware, software, education, network capacity, power, or other factor. Minimal computing is also an critical movement, akin to environmentalism, asking for balance between gains and costs in related areas that include social justice issues and de-manufacturing and reuse, not to mention re-thinking high-income assumptions about “e-waste” and what people do with it. Minimal computing thus relates to issues of aesthetics, culture, environment, global relationships of power and knowledge production, and other economic, infrastructural and material conditions.