Platforms in the analogue world

Platforms are well-known in the analogue world. The term literally denotes a ‘flat raised area or structure’ or ‘a raised level surface on which people or things can stand’. In practice, today platforms can best be viewed at sea: they are raised structures constructed like artificial islands, floating and visible from afar, anchored and not moving—and therefore independent and self-sufficient, but also in need of interconnection with the rest of the world. Platforms, however, can also be found on shore, for example, in the context of politics: they denote both the raised structure for a politician and his entourage to stand on so as to make a speech, as well as, metaphorically, a politician’s principles and ideas. All those who share these principles and ideas are considered to belong, politically, to the same platform, to view the world through the same political lens. Platforms, therefore, also have a metaphorical meaning in the analogue world. Both these meanings are helpful for visualising the state as an information platform.

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