The The INC Reader series of the Institute of Network Cultures was developed in 2005, a year after the founding of the institute and its website. The first one, from late 2005, not yet marked as #1, came out with a CD-ROM that contained the videos of the two-day event in June 2005 at the Post-CS building in Amsterdam. The Incommunicado conference was a global critical investigation of the ICT4D agenda of the UN World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis in 2003. After this initial publication more or less every year a INC reader was produced as the INC flagship publication.

The premise of the INC, reader is one of a fast production of critical knowledge of emerging issues in global techno-culture, distributed widely, for free. INC reader are often, but not always, connected to the existing INC research networks and related conferences, held in Amsterdam and elsewhere. Sometimes the event and the network would cater for the entire content, in other cases there would be an additional call for materials. The idea of the readers was to have an alternative to academic journals and their (anonymous) peer review system. The readers are edited, designed and printed within a year and then distributed via pdf, e-pub and printed (1000-2000 copies) for free distribution, worldwide, mainly to be used in classes. Two or three bookstores are selling the readers (in Amsterdam, Berlin and New York). Only the first VideoVortex reader has had a second print run. Most readers are available on the print-on-demand service Lulu.

Chloë Arkenbout; Laurence Scherz (2022):

Critical Meme Reader II. Memetic Tacticality (INC Readers 16)

Chloë Arkenbout; Jack Wilson; Daniel de Zeeuw (2021):

Critical Meme Reader. Global Mutations of the Viral Image (INC Readers 15)

Geert Lovink; Andreas Treske (2020):

Video Vortex Reader #3. Inside the YouTube Decade (INC Readers 14)

Miriam Rasch (2020):

Let’s Get Physical. A Sample of INC Longforms, 2015-2020 (INC Readers 13)

Loes Bogers; Letizia Chiappini (2019):

The Critical Makers Reader. (Un)learning Technology (INC Readers 12)

Inte Gloerich; Geert Lovink; Patricia de Vries (2018):

MoneyLab Reader 2. Overcoming the Hype (INC Readers 11)

Geert Lovink; Nathaniel Tkacz; Patricia de Vries (2015):

MoneyLab Reader. An Intervention in Digital Economy (INC Readers 10)

René König; Miriam Rasch (2014):

Society of the Query Reader. Reflections on Web Search (INC Readers 9)

Geert Lovink; Miriam Rasch (2013):

Unlike Us Reader. Social Media Monopolies and Their Alternatives (INC Readers 8)

Geert Lovink; Nathaniel Tkacz (2011):

Critical Point of View. A Wikipedia Reader (INC Readers 7)

Geert Lovink; Rachel Somers Miles (2011):

Video Vortex Reader II. Moving Images Beyond YouTube (INC Readers 6)

Scott McQuire; Meredith Martin; Sabine Niederer (2009):

Urban Screens Reader (INC Readers 5)

Geert Lovink; Sabine Niederer (2008):

Video Vortex Reader. Responses to YouTube (INC Readers 4)

Geert Lovink; Ned Rossiter (2007):

MyCreativity Reader. A Critique of Creative Industries (INC Readers 3)

Katrien Jacobs; Marije Janssen; Matteo Pasquinelli (2007):

C’Lick Me. A Netporn Studies Reader (INC Readers 2)

Geert Lovink; Soenke Zehle (2005):

Incommunicado Reader (INC Readers 1)