Via: Geert Lovink

[our contribution to Networked Politics, Rosa Luxembuge Fundation,
Berlin, 3-5 June, 2007
http://www.networked-politics.info/index.php/Main_Page]

Ten Theses on Non-Democratic Electronics: Organized Networks Updated

By Geert Lovink and Ned Rossiter

1. Welcome to the politics of diversion. There is a growing paradox
between the real existing looseness, the 'tyranny of structurelessness'
on the one hand, and desire to organize in familiar structures such as
the trade union, party and movement on the other. Both options are
problematic. Activists, especially those from the baby-boom generation,
do not like to speculate on the potential of networks as they fluctuate
too much -- an anxiety perhaps fuelled by the instability of their
pension funds. Networks are known for their unreliability and
unsustainability. Even though they can scale up in unprecedented ways,
and have the potential to perform real-time global politics from below,
they also disintegrate in the same speed. Like Protestant churches and
Christian sects, leftist political parties and traditional union
structures can give people a much needed structure to their life. It is
hard to argue against the healing, therapeutic value that such
organisations can have on societies and neighbourhoods that are under
severe pressure of disintegration. What we observe is that these two
strategies are diverging models. They do not compete, but they do not
necessarily overlap either.

2. Uphold the synthesis. Think Global, Act Local. It sounds obvious,
and so it should be. But what is to be done in a situation of growing
gaps, ruptures and tensions? It is nave to think that old trade union
bosses are likely to give up their positions, in the same way as
political parties will not risk their institutional commitments for
some digital hipsters. The question then becomes how to arrange
temporary coalitions, being well aware of the diverging interests and
cultures. We see this happening in unique ways amongst activist
bloggers and, for instance, the Muslim Brothers in Egypt. Instead of
'managing' disruptive technologies, it should be also taken into
consideration to radically take sides with the new generations and join
the disruption. It is high time for radical politics to take the
driver's seat and suppress the compulsive response to point at
'damaging consequences'. Let's get rid of moral pedagogies and shape
the social change we envision.

3. Applied scalability is the new technics. How to crack the mystery of
scalability and transformation of issues into a critical proliferation
of protest with revolutionary potential? With the tendency of networks
to regress into ghettoes of self-affirmation (the multitudes are all
men), we can say that in many ways networks have yet to engage 'the
political'. The coalition building that attends the process of
trans-scalar movement will by design create an immanent relation
between networks and the political. Moreover, it will greatly
facilitate the theoretical and analytical understanding of networks.
Tension precipitates the will to utterance, to express and to act. And
it is time for networks to go to work.

4. Dream up Indymedia 2.0. No more Wikipedia neutrality. Where are the
social networking sites for activists? The Internet flagship of the
'other globalization movement', Indymedia, has not changed since its
inception in late 1999. Of course the website has grown -- there are now
editions in dozens of languages, with a variety of local and national
nodes that we rarely see on the Net. But the conceptual basics are
still the same. The problems have been identified a long time ago:
there is an ongoing confusion between the alternative news agent model,
the practical community organization level and strategic debates. All
too often Indymedia is used as an 'alternative CNN'. There is nothing
wrong with that, except that the nature of the corporate news industry
itself is changing.

5. The revolution will be participatory or she will not be. It there is
no desire addressed, not much will happen. YouTube and MySpace are
fueled with no shortage of desire. Rightly or not, they are considered
the apogee of participatory media. But they are hardly hotbeds of media
activism. Linux geeks -- leave the ecosphere of servicing free software
cartels. The abbreviation policy, from G8 to WTO, has failed, precisely
because abstract complex arrangements within global capitalism do not
translate well into the messy everyday. By contrast, the NGO movements,
at their best (we won't go into a catalogue of failures here), have
proven the efficacy of situated networks. The problem of trans-scalar
movement, however, remains. This was made clear in the
multi-stakeholder governance model adopted by government, business and
civil society organizations throughout the UN's World Summit on the
Information Society (2003-2005). Here we saw a few civil society
organizations find a seat at the negotiating table, but it didn't
amount to much more than a temporary gestural economy. As civil society
participants scaled the ladder of political/discursive legitimacy, the
logic of their networks began to fade away. This is the problematic we
speak of between seemingly structureless networks and structured
organizations. The obsession with democracy provides another register
of this social-technical condition.

6. The borders of networks comprise the ''non-democratic" element of
democracy' (Balibar/Mezzadra). This insight is particularly helpful
when thinking 'the political' of networks, since it signals the fact
that networks are not by default open, horizontal and global. This is
the mistake of much of the discourse on networks. There is no politics
of networks if there are no borders of networks. Instead of forcing
'democracy' onto networks, either through policing or installed
software, we should investigate its nature. This does not mean that we
have to openly support 'benevolent dictatorships' or enlightened
totalitarian rule. Usually networks thrive on small-scale informality,
particularly in the early existence of their social-technical
structures.

7. The borders of networks are the spacings of politics. As networks
undergo the transversal process of scalar transformation, the borders
of networks are revealed as both limits and possibilities. Whereas in
Organized Networks 1 we emphasized what happened to the 'inside' of a
network, we will look here at what happens at the edges. In the process
of growth the kernel of a network crystallizes a high energy. After
some months or, for the lucky ones, a few years, there is longer an
inside of networks, only the ruins of the border. This is an enormous
challenge for networks -- how to engage the border as the condition of
transformation and renewal?

8. There are no citizens of the media. Find and replace the citizen
with users. Users have rights too. The user is not a non-historical
category but rather a system-specific actor that holds no relationship
to modernity's institutions and their corresponding discourse on
rights. What is needed, then, is total reengineering of user-rights
within the logic of networks. As much as 'citizen journalists', liberal
democratic governments, big media and global institutions are endlessly
effusive about their democratic credentials, organized networks are
equally insistent in maintaining a 'non-democratic' politics. A
politics without representation -- since how do networks represent
anything? -- and instead a non-representational politics of relations.
Non-democratic does not mean anti-democratic or elitist. It has proven
of strategic importance to loosen ties between 'democracy' and 'the
media'. Let's remember that the citizen journalist is always tied to
the media organs of the nation-state. Networks are not nations. In
times of an abundance of channels, platforms and networks, it is no
longer necessary to claim 'access'. The democratization of the media
has come to an end. People are tired of reading the same old critique
of NYT, CNN and other news outlets that are so obviously Western and
neo-liberal biased. It is time to concentrate our efforts on the
politics of filtering. What information do we want to read and pass on?
What happens when you find out that I am filtering you out? Do we only
link to 'friends'? And what to make of this obsessive compulsion to
collect 'friends'? Would it be alright if we replaced friends with
comrades? What could object against the tendency to build social
networks? Wasn't this what so many activists dreamt of?

9. Governance requires protocols of dissensus. The governance of
networks is most clearly brought into question at the borders of
networks. Control is the issue here. Borders function to at once
regulate entry, but they also invite secret societies to infiltrate by
other means. The contest between these two dynamics can be understood
as the battle between governmental regimes and non-governmental
desires. We do not have to decide here as we have split agendas: we
long for order in times of chaos and simultaneously overload and dream
of free information streams. This brings us to the related issue of
sustainability. If the borders of networks consist of governmental and
non-governmental elements (administration vs. inspired sabotage and the
will to infiltrate), then we can also say that the borders of networks
highlight their inherent fragility. How can this be turned into a
strength for the future of networks? There are always overlaps of
identity and social structures.

10. Design your education. At the current conjuncture we find
inspiration in the proliferation of education-centred networks, of
non-aligned initiatives, of militant research. Education, of course,
has always been about the cultivation of minds and bodies in order
supply capital with its required labour-power. Organized networks have
a crucial role to play in the refusal of subjugating labour and life to
the mind-numbing and life-depleting demands of post-Fordist capital.
And it is through these 'edu-networks' that we see some of the most
inspiring activities of new institutional invention. This, we believe,
is where energies can be directed that engage in practices of creative
collaboration. What we need is a conceptual push and a subsequent 'art
of translation' in order to migrate critical concepts from one context
to the next. It is time to reclaim an avant-garde position and not
leave the further development of such vital techno-social tools to the
neo-liberal corporate sector. What we say here about new media and the
Internet can also be transposed to other sectors of education and
research. Over the next decade, half of the world's population will use
a mobile phone and two billion the Internet. How are we going to use
this potential?

Via: Ana Peraica

Hello, everyone,

here is the event and my presentation for the

*Presentation on 3rd CEI Venice*

The 'Third CEI Venice Forum for Contemporary Art Curators - Continental
Breakfast. Outposts 2007', organised by the Trieste Contemporanea
Committee, will *June 7th and 8th*, at the *Palazzo Zorzi *(Castello
4930), seat of the UNESCO Office in Venice-Regional Bureau for Science
and Culture in Europe (BRESCE)
.


http://www.triestecontemporanea.it/news.php?id_news=36&l=e&id_m=2

Ana Peraica

Last years we are witnessing the appearance of bureaucratic global
cultural policies and the appearance of "creative industry" which are
defocusing, in large, our attention to the original "accident" of art.
These incomprehensible and banal approaches are actually giving a
perspective of globalization process on the art itself, as a political,
economical and market field, treating the phenomena we used to call art
as inherent to the history, groups and therefore being reduced onto pure
social epiphenomena. Besides this, actually being Marxist definition
used by market, reminding more than on any on programs of Socialist
Realism, may have some of a operative truth, they are actually having an
error of defining society in terms of groups that are consisting of same
or similar individuals. Furthermore, they are generalizing in terms
of "majority." This definition is in complete contradiction to the art,
and I intend to show -- to the public.

*Do the current overall rules of creative innovation for competitive
advantage influence the evaluating criteria of art in force?*

As advertising becomes stronger managing to sell even "what I will not
name," competing with original art's mediums, the chance of recognition
of art, as a primarily individual and isolated event (as; act,
accident), it has become hard to recognize art and to actually isolate
its phenomena outside of mess of what competes for its definition. This
would mean to distinguish "what is engineered" at arts place and "art
itself" for what methods and techniques visual studies appear
insufficient, not even speaking on the old discipline art history. What
misses is the ontological picture, rather then epistemological, that
would define art in terms of the single event, rather than analyze its
visual layout and message or define it in terms of style.

That would be hard, but one thing is clear to professionals in the
field, I assume: what fights to be defined as art is - surely not that.
Or, to be closer to disciplines; what resembles on art -- is not art. It
is a copy and in the world of copies there are also copies of art. So
the hardest choice on curators today would be to find not originality
but individuality, as originality can be industrial, it seems.

*Is it useful to consider exhibitions in terms of their contribution to
research and to understanding social transformation?*

This has become more and more important Emphasizing the individual
creation and perception, by which I also mean -- researching needs of
public not as a mass but the space or event connected group of
individuals, the research undertaken by curators previous to the
exhibition is to find all possible individual perspectives and
approaches to individual art piece and make its, lets use that terrible
word "consumption" easier.

Namely, giga exhibitions and festivals are "user unfriendly" layouts for
art. They treat the public as the background of the show at its best.
Except for the resizing for the use of individuals, not a mass -
curators should be able to find and define channels and open them up,
for different individuals, even if it is not the standpoint of a
curator, even at the cost of inner contradiction

*What is the responsible (and reliable) role played by the curator in
the era of virtual-media and market saturation?*

One is sure - both virtual media and market are dealing with copies.
Moreover, what comes with so called "virtual media" that in the newer
age of the net emphasized moreover "what is linked" is that actual
individual phenomena are staying disconnected.

We are facing the situation in which some possibly original art can be
lost behind those super-sponsored, mega-announce and extremely linked
layouts. The role of a curator would therefore be to dig behind the
surface or interface that economy and politics but especially
advertising are offering as art. This would mean firstly to clearly
distinguish art from its ontological copy as; art would appear as
something that can be approached in plurality of ways, while copies
would stand for one, usually designed by the market or political way.

*Will good information on contemporary art philosophy offer suitable
instruments for a better understanding of the individual in an extended
and mediating field of relationships?*

Yes, all but all the possible approaches should be offered in a simple
way and moreover discussions and roundtable should be opened as once
triggered the dynamics made by art will continue by itself as the goal
of curators should be to find individuals in the public to address the
individualism of art.

*Are there any exhibitions that supply, at least on a general level,
supplementary tools for the formation of the individual?*

I have curated a project, for which I am originally invited to this
meeting, named Women at the crossroad of ideologies. The program was
fully orientated to a public, including the possibility to download the
program and a reader being produced.

It was consisting of many of "entrances" for different kind of public
all addressing the same issue women's rights, so there were exhibitions,
concerts, public lectures of scientists, talks with artists, round table
discussions, but also a small library opened. An especial interest has
been given to "advertising" of the project, this one being done by an
artist Andreja Kulunc(ic', whose interactive installation in public
space has given results of anonymous voters and street passengers none
could neglect, demonstratively giving quite alarming results of the
discrimination. At the same time public was constantly invited to
interact, to help producing a reader. Given the opportunity to show they
are not "a public" but individuals they have attempted to clear up their
voices.

The most interesting interaction was done on "questions and answers"
part of the lecture and roundtable program, but also one may note
individualism has shown up in official publishing -- writing in newspaper
and new way of publishing -- blogs. I actually give a lot of hope to the
new blog phenomena that it would show up individualism and particular
view even in the most ownership censored mass society. I hope that new
public -- the one that can read about artworks, download preview movies,
but also say something about it (and the matter of curators is to listen
those historically silent voices, too), will manage to break through the
universe of adds and engineered market of art simulation.

One may give different statistics of the show, like presenting 70
presenters from 20 countries, 400 people for the opening, 300 for a
lecture, 200 people a day on the exhibition, which indeed are truth, but
I would like to say more of my public.

Rarely someone in the public knew each other before, they were rarely
communicating to each other. Mostly they were women, which was
predictable, but there were men there too, and they were brave which
after they were admitted made them proud and loud. Older women were more
able to express themselves, still younger had more vibrant voices and
they were active in publishing. Part of them wanted to educate further,
so they were following everything which was allowed by the program set
up always for 18 PM so an ordinary worker can arrive having own time
after the working day. Some of them were ashamed, probably thinking they
would be not fit there. But what was emphasized every day is -- they are
all more than welcome. Some mothers and daughters appeared together but
at the end only daughter would stay, probably to get rid of the first
sense of being lost in the group, After emancipating a public was really
consisting of individual voices; some decided to read own poem to a
small group, some have stolen the mic from presenters, having own small
talk-shows. Some were SMS-ing during round tables and these messages you
may find in the book were great. Some copied Breda Beban's video with a
mobile phone so the video doesn't run away, thought it was forbidden.
But this effect says a lots, really a lots on art. A week latter I got
the phone-call a music number from her video is a radio hit, two Gipsy
music parties were organized Some unknown people told me they want to
go to Venice to see it again. Maybe they would be there and I started
to be curious whom they are, one of them repairing motorcycles and it
was his first encounter with the video art.

This would underline my thesis -- the public of art - is not a group.

Post n www.anarchiva.blogspot.com

Via: Morlock Elloi

How is the credibility of the fiction of the government diluted by subjecting
one of its manifestations to the good will of a private corporation, whose only
motive for not flipping the switch off is accounts receivable?

Or is this just a start of the new strain of banana republics, Sweden being the
first one? We need a new name for that, for states not controlling ICANN, ARIN
and major search and social networking engines.

Browsepublics?

> The 30th of May, Sweden will be the first country in the world to
> open an official Embassy within Second Life, the online 3D multi user


end
(of original message)

Y-a*h*o-o (yes, they scan for this) spam follows:


____________________________________________________________________________________Fussy? Opinionated? Impossible to please? Perfect. Join Yahoo!'s user panel and lay it on us. http://surveylink.yahoo.com/gmrs/yahoo_panel_invite.asp?a=7

Via: "Frederick Noronha"

http://www.i4donline.net/articles/current-article.asp?articleid=1110&typ=Columns
Bytes For All...

March-2007

ICT4D

Getting a voice in cyberspace

Audio for social movements in campaign mode, everyone understands the
importance of getting a voice in the media. The problem is, the
mainstream media often trivializes or misunderstands your cause. So?
You needn't just sit back and groan. Technology is today increasingly
placing the tools in the hands of those who want to wield them. And
it's getting simpler, more affordable and freer all the time.

Concepts like 'social software' and 'participatory media' keep getting
mentioned. Can these really help to make the campaigner more effective
in computer-mediated communication? Can it enable people to
collaborate more effectively?
Social software, on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Social_software

Bangladeshi school students discuss climate change in online forum

School students throughout Bangladesh recently participated in an
online discussion on climate change. The online forum is hosted by
Relief International- Bangladesh and is a part of Global Connections
and Exchange Project which has set up Internet enabled telecenters in
Bangladeshi schools. Each month the project conducts an online
collaborative project involving students from Bangladesh and abroad.
Students did online research and discovered the concepts of climate
change and global warming and their importance. Through Internet
searches and the use of online libraries, students attempted to define
and explain climate change and global warming. In groups, students
researched their community's contribution to climate change. With this
knowledge in hand, students brainstormed a local organization or
business that they felt either a) contributes to climate change and
the greenhouse effect or b) helps to prevent climate change and the
greenhouse effect.
www.connect-bangladesh.org, www.ri.org

Defining e-Government: a citizen-centric criteria-based approach

E-governance Compendium 2007, brought out by the Department of
Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) on the occasion
of 10th National Conference on e-Governance, February 2-3, 2006,
Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, under the theme: avant-garde issues in
e-governance. The paper is available for download in the Files section
of the group:http://tech. groups.yahoo. com/group/ cyber_quiz/ .
projects. May be of interest to the members of the group.

India a 'promising' destination for community radio

One-step forward, two steps back...is this the fate of non-commercial,
non-state radio broadcasting in Asia? It would seem so, going by the
perceptions of a campaigner trying to promote community radio even as
he says India holds out hope. Community radio - also called rural
radio, cooperative radio, participatory radio, free radio,
alternative, popular or educational radio - operates out of rural or
urban areas, is broadcast to small areas and offers alternate,
non-commercial, non-state voices to a diverse set of people via the
radio. India has just opened up its 'community radio' possibilities
with a new official policy announced in mid-November 2006. Earlier,
for a couple of years, it was mostly 'campus radio' stations that were
being allowed.
http://www.hindusta ntimes.com/ news/181_ 1924420,0008.htm

Launch of Brazilian Portal to Promote National ICT Development

Telemtica e Desenvolvimento Ltda announced today the launch of the
e-Brazil portal, a bilingual portal that is part of the international
network of country gateways supported by the Development Gateway
Foundation.

The e-Brazil portal brings together information and discussions
related to the use of Information and Communications Technologies
(ICTs) to build a more equitable and more competitive Brazil.
http://www.dgfounda tion.org/ news-events/ news-releases/ view-news/
archive/2007/ february/ article/27. html

FOSS

How the net turns code into politics

The launch of Windows Vista last week was accompanied by widespread
criticism from advocates of open systems, open networks and the free
flow of information. Particular attention was lavished on the digital
rights management (DRM) features of the new operating system, the
tools that determine whether you can play or copy video or audio on
your computer. The Internet that we know today is changing, turning
from an open, enabling and profoundly public space into a
communications system which can be regulated, controlled, monitored
and - where necessary -curtailed. A regulated Internet does not have
to be a closed Internet, but the trend is clearly towards increased
control and the loss of the freedoms which the net has provided thus
far. We must understand how this is happening before we can find ways
to resist it.
http://news. bbc.co.uk/ 2/hi/technology/ 6325353.stm

New media briefing questions whether open source software can covert
the software world?

For many people in developing countries, commercial software packages
are not an option because they are expensive, do not come in local
languages and cannot be shared or adapted. Advocates of the Free and
Open Source Software (FOSS) movement argue that the tools of
information and communication should be in the public domain. But
commercial software companies say they spend huge sums of money on
research and development, and need to recoup their investments.

This latest media briefing on the information society explores how
these opposing views can be reconciled in the interests of millions of
potential software users in the developing world.
http://www.panos. org.uk/PDF/ reports/wsistool kit5.pdf

Communication and Computing

Vancouver ready to go wireless

The City of Vancouver took the first step toward establishing a
high-speed citywide wireless network Thursday, when council approved a
motion to begin looking for a private partner to provide the service.
Details at CBC website:
www.cbc. ca/canada/ british-columbia /story/2007/ 02/01/bc- wireless. html

Project 6Core (Pakistan) is now listed on www.ipv6-to-standard.org

6Core stands for 'IPv6 National Core of Pakistan' which is the First
IPv6 based project initiated by ISPs of Pakistan under the common
platform. The 6Core is a test-bed network which was formulated in 2006
by CYBERNET, SUPERNET, and DANCOM to take one step further towards
penetration of IPv6 in the economy. Another goal of the 6Core was to
test the IPv6 implementations and network services to provide feedback
to developers and protocol designers at IETF Forum.
For more information on 'IPv6 Taskforce at Pakistan' please visit
http://www.ipv6tf.org.pk, http://www.ipv6forum.pk

Cit-J sites are here to stay and for good, says study

Local news websites offering user-generated content are securing a
valuable place in the media landscape and are likely to continue as
important sources of community news, says a new report by US-based
J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism.

"Citizen sites are developing as new forms of bridge media, linking
traditional news with forms of civic participation, " said J-Lab
director, Jan Schaffer, author of the report, Citizen Media: Fad or
the Future of News: The rise and prospects of hyperlocal journalism.
Full story: http://www.newswatc h.in/?p=6521

Events

INDO ICT EXPO AND FORUM 11-13 September 2007

The Indonesian Department of Communication and Information will once
again host INDO ICT 2007, Indonesian No.1 Information Technology and
Communication Event which will be held on 11-13 September 2007 at the
Jakarta Convention Centre, Indonesia. This exposition will present
INDO WIRELESS 2007 & INDO BANKING 2007 at the same venue.

INDO ICT would like to invite your company to participate in the
exposition INDO ICT 2007 EXPO & FORUM, and convinced you will expand
the most effective market opportunity to gain access to ICT
professionals and regional top operators, regulators, vendors and
consultants. INDO ICT 2007 will also host a conference which will
feature an international panel of speakers and experts.
www.indoict.com

Call for Papers: KM4Dev Journal

The 'Knowledge Management for Development Journal' (KM4D Journal) is
an open access, peer-reviewed, community-based journal on knowledge
management in development -- for and by development practitioners and
researchers. The journal is closely related to the KM4dev community of
practice, and can be read and downloaded at: www.km4dev.org/ journal

Vol. 3, Issue 1, to be published in June 2007, will focus on
innovative practices and uses of 'technologies for knowledge sharing'.
This focus comes on the wave of new web based tools and processes
supporting knowledge sharing, knowledge management and organisational
learning that have emerged. Sometimes called 'Web 2.0' technologies,
these tools allow people to collaborate over time and distance in both
new ways and in new networked forms. It builds on previous issues on
the importance of networks, working across boundaries and even
sustainability.

News and Announcements

MobileActive Guide

MobileActive is announcing the second MobileActive Guide, profiling
strategies and civil society organisations using mobile phones in
their work to make the world a better place. The MobileActive Guide
focuses on using mobile phones in issue advocacy. It features case
studies from around the world, strategies for using mobile phones in
advocacy work, and a how-to section for advocacy organizations
considering using mobile phones to advance their causes. Call for
Papers -- Mobile Web in the Developing World MobEA V - Mobile Web in
the Developing World in Banff, Canada on May 8th 2007, co-located with
WWW2007 conference is accepting papers.
http://mobileactive.org/

Creative Commons Version 3.0 is Born

After few months of delay, Creative Commons has finally released the
Version 3.0 licenses. The key differences from Version 2.5 are:

Generic and the US licenses are now separated
International harmonisation of moral rights and collecting society
No more endorsement language
BY-SA compatibility structure is included
Clarifications negotiated with Debian and MIT
Details of the changes are described at
http://wiki. creativecommons. org/Version_ 3.

Bytes for All: www.bytesforall.org or www.bytesforall.net
Bytes for All Readers Discussion:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers
To subscribe: bytesforall_readers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Compiled by Farah Mahmood, Bytes for All, Pakistan
farah.mahmood@gmail.com

Via: onto

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: *severino de giovanni*
>
Date: May 29, 2007 1:50 PM
Subject: Prelude to the G8: Tearing it up in Hamburg
To: hateg8@lists.riseup.net

please forward!!!

Via: linda hilfling

For any reason or no reason
- on virtual (extra-)territoriality


"Second Life is an exciting development of the
virtual world. A country that wishes to show that it
at least has the ambition to be at the forefront of
development of course has to be in it"[1]
Swedish minister of foreign affairs, Carl Bildt


The 30th of May, Sweden will be the first country in the world to
open an official Embassy within Second Life, the online 3D multi user
environment owned by Linden Lab. The project is initiated by the
Swedish Institute[2](a culture and marketing department of the Swedish
ministry of foreign affairs, and according to the official blog even
Sweden's "road warrior for peace" the minister of foreign affairs as
well as former head of state, Carl Bildt, himself will attend the
opening[3]. But what happens when a specific mode of representation is
transferred to a new context? In this case a building for bilateral
governmental representation is transferred to a private corporation.

I'll use the Embassy in Second Life as a case study of mediation
between global web-based corporations and the notion of participation
in a time where privatized service platforms are becoming a standard
that most people (in this case even states!) uncritically are
subscribing to.

My starting point will be an examination of the embassy and its
representation, from an architectural perspective in relation to the
Swedish Government's Politics of Architecture on state representation
as well as from the point of view of the conflict between conventions
of diplomatic missions and the terms of use regulating the virtual
world.


P o l i t i c s o n r e p r e s e n t a t i o n

According to the Vienna Conventions on Diplomatic Missions from 1961
embassies are established on mutual consent[4]. The function of an
embassy is to represent one state in another state by negotiation
between governments and protecting the interests of the sending
state and its inhabitants within the receiving state[5]. This is
achieved through reporting on the conditions and the development of
the receiving State to the sending State and by creating friendly
relations and developing the two States economic, cultural and
scientific relations[6].

In 1998 the Swedish government adopted a new policy on architecture
politics[7]. The Proposition was the first initiative to establish
a politics of architecture with an integrated plan and law on
architecture, crafts and design. The changes touched on a variety of
levels from the establishment of infrastructure, to city planning and
individual buildings.Basically this meant the addition of strings such
as 'aesthetically shaped' and 'should be aimed' into the existing
laws[8]. One chapter, though concerned the representation of the
public sphere and the state, "Public Sphere as Exemplary - the State
as Exemplary" [9], focusing on the importance of confirming the
role of the State through its representation. This also concerned
embassies, which are representations of the State in other States.
The new architecture politics added a new aspect to the embassy.
It was not enough to be an institution with the main function to
represent the State, now the institution itself (including its
own representation) had to be representative of the State - the
representation of the representation became representative. In this
way a Swedish Embassy would have to architecturally express what
Sweden stands for[10]- or at least what Sweden would like itself to
stand for.


A H o u s e o f S w e d e n

The virtual embassy in Second Life will be a copy[11] of a real world
embassy: The House of Sweden, situated in central Washington DC next
to a big park and a river. The embassy was developed as a consequence
of the new politics on architecture. A competition was announced by
the Swedish National Property Board (SVF) in 2002 and the winning
proposal, designed by Gert Wingrdh and Thomas Hansen opened 2006[12].

House of Sweden is a concept developed in collaboration between the
Swedish National Property Board and the Swedish Ministry of Foreign
Affairs[13]. The house is a conglomerate that besides the actual
embassy consists of corporate apartments for the business industry and
an event center with conference rooms and exhibition space.

The building stands as a postmodern paraphrase of Scandinavian
modernism. It is a wooden glasshouse. Its facades consist of backlit
opaque glass with printed patterns of pressed wood and the interior a
romantic/nostalgic choice of materials associated with Swedish nature
and traditional Swedish craft like wood, granite and water[14]. The
reception desk is made of glass and a massive wooden door is opened
whenever the embassy is open for visitors[15]. Also it is possible
for 'anyone'[16] to rent the exhibition center and the conference
rooms of the house for events. As House of Sweden describes themselves
in a pamphlet with information about the building: "Some have said
that this type of open embassy is what the Americans themselves
should build, but cannot. [...] modern American embassies are instead
usually large, closed-off buildings located a safe distance from
everything else. Despite its openness, the House of Sweden has the
same level of security as other Swedish embassies, neither lower nor
higher."[17] - Open and relaxed, though under control. This is the
House of Sweden, the building as well as the concept marks itself in
opposition to the traditional embassy with openness, relaxation space
and an interweaving of the arts and the business world. Although it
is obvious the art is but a layer of the design branding the concept
of Sweden and the business environment. As a matter of fact even the
diplomatic mission itself seems to be there, in order to brand the
corporate apartments which take up most of the space in the whole
building[18], with apartments at the size of 70-250 m2 and a rent
of 40-60 USD/m2. The renters include Volvo group, Saab and Lars
Thunell, the vice president of World Bank[19]. A Swedish embassy's
original function was to take care of governmental negotiations,
official representation and the protection of Swedish people and their
interests within the USA. House of Sweden mirrors a shift in the role
of diplomatic missions, where the new embassy is rather an official
high end 'tourist bureau'. It serves the function of an exclusive
promotion platform - a show room for the darlings of the Swedish
business industry.


A S e c o n d H o u s e o f S w e d e n

The original embassy is designed for the human scale in relation to
the use of the building, the surroundings, the economical framework
and the politics of cultural representation. The final layout of
the floor plans and the materiality of the house reflect these
conditions[20]: office spaces are situated along glass facades in
order for people to enjoy the view of the park and the river, interior
stairs are covered with sound absorbent maple[21], elevators are
integrated for disabled people and things to move unhindered between
the floors, and the exhibition space is especially designed so that
big vehicles are able to enter when setting up a new exhibition[22].
In this way the entire building may be seen as a narrative product
of human scale and experience interweaved with the above mentioned
factors.

By shifting the medium or context from the real world to a 3d
simulated environment presented on a computer screen the elements are
changing. Even though the user is represented by a (if she wishes
humanlike) figure - the avatar, any navigation within the environment
is reduced to the four arrow-keys on the computer's keyboard and
the world is experienced through the screen with the image of one's
avatar's neck in the foreground[23]. One perceives the environment in
layers of resolution according to the graphic card and the capacity
of the processor of the computer that is being used. Patterns of
movements are radically different. The avatar itself doesn't get
exhausted, it is rather like a goal-less torpedo in constant pace as
long as the arrow-key is pressed down, it is only when the user behind
the screen gets tired that it stops and 'falls a sleep'. This makes
the planning of experience within the virtual embassy rather different
than from its real-world model. In the real House of Sweden, breaks
and pauses are implemented in the house according to the function. An
example is the sculpture of running water greeting you as you exit the
conference space[24], placed there in order to somehow refresh your
mind. In Second Life it is not the avatar who would be tired or need
a break after a long seminar, but rather the user behind the screen
and keyboard. An equivalent break could therefore be an interruption,
letting the screen go black and thereby forcing the user to shift
perspective from second to first life.

Compared to traditional closed off and mono functional embassies
the "real" Swedish embassy in Washington DC surprises at a first
glance by its openness allowing new activities to unfold within the
house and by being a glass house[25]. The glass house has a strong
tradition in modernism. It is an almost supposedly invisible trespass
between the outside and the inside. On the one hand it is a monument
of building technology's victory over nature's forces and modernism's
reaction against Victorian style, but on the other hand it is also
implementing an openness that paradoxically signifies control and
surveillance. The glass house offers the insider visual access and to
a certain degree the illusion of being part of the outside while at
the same time being protected from it. It gives the outsider visual
access to the inside, stating: "there is nothing to hide here". Using
the representation of glass in a virtual world though, is merely
pointless. In a virtual world there is no difference between interior
and exterior. One needs no protection from any weather situation
or nature forces and intrusion is not about closing the access by
building a wall or a window, but rather to alter and implement the
security into the code behind the representation. As a matter of fact
this is very easy in Second Life: Different security options are
incorporated into the 'land'. The land owner is able to decide which
level of security is active on her property,for instance making it
possible for the avatars to 'die', denying other users to build or
move objects on the property, or denying any access to the property
without permission. So if the owner i.e. wishes to give other users
only visual access to at part of her property she doesn't need to
build any transparent simulation of glass, but can implement this
in the code. A glass building in a 3d world is rather clumsy and
annoying: when trying to navigate through it and accessing visible
things, you constantly bump into the transparent walls.

One aspect of the original House of Sweden which might have a chance
to be more successful in a 3D online environment is concept of making
the embassy a platform for different events and activities. This
might be a case where the virtual world has an advantage since it
overcomes the difference of time-space in information technology by
allowing users who are spatially separated to experience the same
environment together in real-time. In Second Life most places give an
impression of being empty, but by establishing in-world events this
is exactly what the Swedish institute wants to avoid[26]. It is worth
noting though that the emptiness in Second Life is not only due to
a lack of visitors, but rather is connected to the scale of the 3d
environment and its relation to the capacity of the servers. Due to
server restrictions it is only possible to be 40 people at a time on
each island[27]. House of Sweden in Washington DC is 7500 m2 large.
The rooftop terrace alone is built to host 200 people at a time - just
for a cocktail party[28]. The diplomatic activities takes up 30% of
the spatial area of the house which has 50 people are working there
daily[29]. But considering the fact that only 40 people is capable of
accessing the whole island at a time, all of the employees wouldn't
even be able to meet in the virtual embassy. No wonder why SL feels
like suburbia - it is suburbia. The low density is exactly the same
problem that suburbs are struggling with. Considering the scale of the
building, no matter how many events they make the embassy will always
feel empty until a solution is found for increasing the capacity of
the servers and thereby making it possible for more people to access
it at the same time.


T h e D i p l o m a t i c B a g m a y n o t
b e o p e n e d

"The premises of the mission" are, according to article 1 of the
conventions of Diplomatic Missions" the buildings or parts of
buildings and the land ancillary thereto, irrespective of ownership,
used for the purposes of the mission including the residence of
the head of the mission"[30]. The actual premises of the Swedish
mission in Second Life will be a chunk of data stored on Linden Lab's
servers. The servers are computers physically placed in the state of
California, USA[31]. Visitors of the embassy will be able to access
the premises of the Swedish mission, the data on the servers via a
viewer (also called the client). This is a piece of software that
the users download and install on their own computers enabling them
to access data on Linden Lab's servers real time together with other
users, and thereby accessing the virtual diplomatic mission and the
rest of Second Life. But in order to access any aspect of Linden Lab's
Second Life the user has to agree with the terms of service[32] - a
virtual layer to the virtual world.

Second Life's Terms of Service consists of a 7000 words document
presented to the users as a click and agree contract after having
downloaded and installed the viewer and just before accessing the
service for the first time. The contract is un-negotiable. If you
disagree with parts of the terms you'll have to disagree with all by
clicking disagree at the end of the document. This in return means
that you are not allowed to enter the service at all. The code behind
the world is generating the environment, setting the parameters for
it and thus being the world. While the Terms of Service rather is a
regulative framework defining what-could-be or what-shouldn't-be, thus
governing the company in order not to be able to hold it responsible
for anything that might occur within its framework and giving it
absolute control of in-world decisions[33]. This is not necessarily
to be understood as a police state which wants to keep the control by
controlling anybody anytime. The control is rather latent 'in-case-of'
control, where the company in case something unexpected happens can
wash its hands saying "Oh, no! This is not our responsibility" or
"This was not our intention." The Terms of Service text is dense, the
document would take an average reader about 35 minutes to read[34],
which makes most people skip reading and just agree in order to access
the service immediately. General Director of the Swedish Institute,
Olle Wstberg describes his idea of establishing the embassy in Second
Life as the following: "I got myself a user account, this avatar as
it is called and logged in and it seemed to be a good marked place
for us. In collaboration with the ministry of foreign affairs we have
now decided to open an embassy"[35]. In the process of logging in
Olle Wstberg properly skipped reading the terms of service, because
if he would have read them he would have been aware that agreeing
with the terms of service is to violate the Vienna Conventions of
Diplomatic Missions and thus making it impossible to establish any
embassy whatsoever in Second Life.

There are three aspects of the Conventions for Diplomatic Missions
which are violated by Second Life's Terms of Service: (i) the first
regards the inviolability of the Diplomatic Mission itself, (ii) the
second is the inviolability of the premises of the Mission including
its property, furniture, archives and documents and (iii) the last
concerns the inviolability of Diplomatic Agents.

(i) A Diplomatic Mission is inviolable[36]. It means that the
receiving state is not allowed to enter the embassy without
permission. The receiving state is even obliged to protect the embassy
as best as it can. But in Second Life any kind of data stored on
Linden Lab's servers (for instance the embassy itself, accumulated
items like Linden dollars, content, scripts, objects, account history
or account names) are subject to deletion or alteration at any time
for any reason or even without a reason in the sole discretion of
Linden Lab[37].

(ii) Premises of a Mission are "immune from search, requisition,
attachment or execution"[38]. But in Second Life the user must
authorize Linden Lab to disclose any kind of information the
corporation finds "appropriate to investigate"[39] to "private
entities, law enforcement agencies or government officials"[40]
Furthermore Linden Lab has the right to follow, track and record
any of the user's activities within the service[41] this includes
activities taking place within the premises of the virtual embassy.

(iii) "The person of a diplomatic agent shall be inviolable. He shall
not be liable to any form of arrest or detention. The receiving State
shall treat him with due respect and shall take all appropriate steps
to prevent any attack on his person, freedom or dignity[42]." In
Second Life the user is represented by an account name. It is the name
of the character that represents the user and whereas the character
itself can be changed and remodeled immensely the account name is
static. The account name is equivalent to the representation of a
diplomatic agent, and "Linden Lab reserves the right to delete or
change any Account Name for any reason or no reason"[43]

By being located within the Linden Lab Corporation the Swedish embassy
in Second Life is subordinate to the terms of service conducted
by Linden Lab and thus breaking with the conventions related to
diplomatic missions. This is recursive since any future visitor of the
embassy will be forced to do the same[44]. In this way the notion of
participation in this kind of virtual world is uncritically accepted
and without getting acquainted with the conditions that the users
are agreeing with in order to be allowed to participate. There is no
consular service provided at the embassy in Second Life, instead it
will link to 'real' web-sites where you can get info about how to
obtain visa etc. But why do the users need to access second life and
subscribe to the terms of service in order to exit Second Life to get
the information that the virtual embassy provides?!


F o r a n y r e a s o n o r n o r e a s o n ?

In order " to make sure it [edit: the virtual Swedish Embassy] exudes
"Swedishness""[45] the Swedish Institute has hired the design bureau
Sderberg A/S to manage the layout of the virtual copy of House
of Sweden and its surroundings in Second Life. But is it really
possible for a design bureau "to manage the overall look and feel of
the sim (or "island")"[46]for it to signify Swedishness? According
to the architecture politics the answer seems to be yes, and the
initiators are obviously thinking of the look of the Swedish nature.
But is Swedishness only a semiotic layer wrapping up the structures
by making a realistic simulation of the Swedish landscape? Doesn't
the representation go beyond the aesthetical layer and isn't it
rather a matter of inscription into context? Let me give an example:
In the official announcement the Swedish Institute is motivating
the set-up of the virtual embassy by the following:"Reaching out
internationally, to an increasingly selective crowd, calls for an
inventive and progressive way of working with communication. It is
of great importance that we find our target groups where they are
most likely to be open to our information, in their own context."[47]
But it is certainly difficult to imagine the Swedish government
approving any kind of set-up of an embassy within a real world private
corporation - a Disney-like amusement park, no matter how well any
designers would have managed to give it an overall look and feel
of "Swedishness", or no matter how good a market any Disney world
whatsoever would be for targeting progressive individuals where they
are most likely to be open for Sweden's promotion.

It is obvious that the Swedish Institute is not familiar with the
structures they are inserting the virtual embassy into. At the
official announcement at their web-page the description of Second Life
says: "Second Life is a 3-D virtual world and is built and owned by
its residents."[48]It is an exact copy of how Linden Lab describes
themselves in "What is Second Life?" [49] on their webpage. But as we
have already seen Second Life is not owned by its inhabitants. It is a
private space owned by the corporation Linden Lab. The users are able
to create content with reserved intellectual property rights within
the environment, but any content stored on Linden Labs servers (which
every part of the users environment are) are according to the terms
of service owned by Linden Lab and subject to deletion. The empty
phrase is adopted by the Swedish Institute without reflection. The
establishing of a diplomatic mission in Second Life is a continuation
of the pattern that the House of Sweden already is a part of - an
embassy as a show case for the Swedish brand, the nation state in
competition with global corporations. So far Second Life has been the
arena of big global corporations as MTV, NIKE, Reuters, but now the
state is trying to compete with the corporations as if it itself was
a corporation - a brand. From August 2006 to January 2007 the media
coverage related to Second Life had increased by "nearly 150%"[50]
and when the Swedish Institute in the end of January announced their
intentions of opening the virtual embassy they immediately got
worldwide media coverage everywhere, from BBC News to India news[51].
But the Swedish Embassy in Second Life is a media stunt with very
little critical reflection behind it. Eventually the Swedish Institute
is surfing waves of a media attention, which finally most of all is
branding Second Life itself.

A kind of excuse for this argument is be found on the blog of Second
House of Sweden where Stefan Greens writes: "Ironically, once concern
we had was that the decision to go ahead with the project amid the
hype might make it look like we were taken in by the hype, when in
fact we were going in despite the hype, because we felt we really
wanted to figure out now how to use virtual worlds as a place to tell
people about Sweden."[52] Virtual worlds have been around for more
than 15 years. Already 7 years ago the environment Online Traveler had
sound[53], an aspect which Linden Lab is just now trying to develop.If
the Swedish Institute was interested in using virtual worlds and had
decided to take a political stand point with an awareness of the
user's position within these worlds, a non-profit open source version
as for instance Croquet[54] would have been an obvious choice. Of
course there would not be so many users or so much hype around it, but
maybe Sweden could have started a discussion related to the public
sphere of information technology. However there is no reason for
establishing embassies in an open source network.


A b r i d g e d s o f a r

Second Life is a centralized structure. It is a closed network of
servers all under the domain of Linden Lab, much like a state. Second
Life and Sweden are separated entities. The usual way for a state
to establish relations with another state is for the sending state
to create a representation of itself within the otherness of the
receiving state - the embassy. But in an open source structure where
the servers are connected in a distributed network it would not
be necessary for Sweden to enter this otherness and establish a
representation there, rather it could create its own server, with
its own set of rules interlinked with the other servers - much as a
country, but not as an embassy.

Now is a time where standards are introduced, people are inhabiting
the net. This should be done not by establishing embassies, but
through critical discussion and reflection on and understanding of the
public sphere which is possible within the information structures.
A sphere which is being hi-jacked by private corporations without
anybody noticing. The Sweden which eventually will be represented in
Second Life is a state where all critical reflection is put aside
on the behalf of elevating Sweden's profile - and no matter how
well designed it might be, it is but a brand lacking any content
- since the representation is not representing any thing but the
representation itself.


/Linda Hilfling - MA Media Design Student Piet Zwart Institute ,
Rotterdam, May 2007


R e f e r e n c e s:

Via: "Alex Foti"

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: FelS - Fr eine linke Strmung
Date: May 28, 2007 3:10 PM
Subject: Make the G8 Precarious (FelS G8 Call to Action)
To: euromayday@euromayday.org


Please forward...

Make the G8 Precarious, Flexi-Fight the New World Order
Superfluous and Superheroes of the World: Unite and Take Over!

>From 6-8 June, together with thousands of others, as part of the Block
G8 campaign, we will cut the G8 Summit in Heiligendamm off from its
infrastructure. The other world the one we say is possible will,
on ce again, be revealed as already here.

The successful blockade of the World Trade Organisation in Seattle
1999 was an important moment of rupture. Famously, the common
amongst environmentalists and trade unionists, nuns and queers,
anarchists and communists was constituted through an act a blockade
of practical delegitimation. The world wa s changed on those
teargas-filled streets. Or rather, our perception of our o wn ability
to influence the direction of the world was what underwent the grea
test transformation.

The events of Seattle found their continuation in a series of
counter-summi t mobilisations (in Washington DC, Prague, Genoa,
Cancun, Gleneagles, Hong Kong), as well as revealing a previously
hidden past; namely, the numero us revolts and rebellions against
neoliberalism, primarily in the global South : from the so-called
'IMF riots' which swept from country to country duri ng the 1980s,
the Zapatista uprising in 1994, and the struggles against employment
reforms in South Korea from 1996-7. More than history's return,
Seattle s howed that it had never gone away!

Movement of Movements With this breaking of the surface of public
consciousness, the singular nat ure of the global 'movement of
movements' became immediately apparent. Unli ke so many of the 'new
social movements' of the 1970s and 80s, the new moveme nt was a
rejection (rather than defence) of identity. It is composed of an
irreducib le multiplicity of actors. It has constantly sought
sometimes more success fully than others to address two overlapping
problematics. Firstly, how can i t move beyond a condition in which
its constituent parts simply exist indifferentl y alongside one
another? And secondly, how can it simultaneously ensure that no single
actor is able to assume the hegemonic role played by the party-form in
previous eras of struggle?

Over the eight years since Seattle, the movement has transformed.
Its composition, forms of political practice, and language have
shifted; its relation to that which is not itself (which has always
been something hard to define) in constant flux. Sometimes acting
antagonistically; sometimes find ing resonance. The declaration of war
on the body of the movement in Genoa and the onset of an open ended
global war a few months later have perhaps presented the movement
its biggest challenges yet. Meanwhile, neoliberalism 's own crisis
manifested variously by the series of electoral victories in Latin
America and beyond, won on an anti-neoliberal ticket; the rejection of
the EU constitution; and the faltering of talks in almost every round
of negotiati ons of the WTO, the FTAA, and the CAFTA since Seattle
have placed new deman ds on the movement. How does something which was
born anti-neoliberal (rather tha n anti-capitalist per se) overcome
its own internal contradictions and reject the increasingly vocal
calls from Jeffry Sachs, from Bono, from others for a 'capitalism
with a human face'? How do we respond to such efforts to tr ansform
the movement for a globalisation from below into a lobby for change
from ab ove? What are the possibilities for productive interaction,
today, between movem ents and parties and other institutions: In
Latin America? In Europe? And elsewh ere? And importantly, how does a
movement so celebratory of its diversity and wi th such porous borders
rule out influence and involvement from the political right? These
are questions as yet without definitive answers, and about whi ch we
eagerly await discussion with you in Heiligendamm.

Glocal Struggles Within and Against Neoliberalism

The complex webs of social relations which compose the capitalist mode
of (re)production today ensure that all conflicts as local as they
may at first seem are in fact immediately global. For resistance
movements, the G8 ( like the WTO, the IMF, the World Bank) function
as symbolic nodes in the netw ork of global governance and command.
Yet the mobilisation around the G8 Summit is not purely symbolic. It
serves the function of bringing together, intensifying and creating
resonance amongst the more everyday struggles against and within
globalised capitalism.

Since at least 2001, with the first EuroMayDay parade in Milan,
a shift of focus has slowly been taking place within some areas
of the global movement of movements; away from the symbols of
global rule, and in search of commonali ty amongst the various
singular subjectivities of the neoliberal era. Many hav e found this
commonality in the notion of 'precariousness'; the social te ndency
towards an increasing insecurity which in vastly different ways is
beginning to effect us all. The parades have been a conscious effort
to bri ng together these various subjectivities (and like the summit
mobilisations of Seattle, Genoa and beyond) to uncover commonality
despite and beyond differ ence through experimentation with new forms
of political practice.

Simultaneously, more territorially rooted struggles around the issues
of ac cess to social wealth and processes of inclusion/exclusion have
also erupted. In France, first in the banlieue, and then around the
CPE (First Employment La w). In Germany, around the introduction of
the Harz IV welfare reforms and the restructuring of higher education.
And in Oaxaca, Mexico, what began as a teachers' strike to highlight
their economic plight generalised, over the summer of 2006, into a
broad based, explicitly anti-capitalist struggle.

The potential of the mobilisation around this year's G8 Summit
in Heilige ndamm lies in its ability to connect these and other
struggles, making them visib le on the global stage and allowing
the space for them to interact and interpl ay with one another. Not
'Unity in Diversity'; but an open-ended search fo r commonality in the
process of us all becoming something different, together .

Block G8!

To realise their full potential, the mass blockades of this year's G8
Sum mit need to move beyond the discourse of (il)legitimacy and start
making connections to our everyday struggles against precariousness
(in all its various forms) and for the good life. We reject the G8 and
the form of glob al governance of which it makes up only one part. And
we are constantly lookin g for ways out of the capital relation for
which they stand as a symbol. Yet where we ultimately want to go, and
how we want to get there, is far more ambiguous.

The fact that there are no immediately clear solutions to the problem
of to how to constitute another possible world must not stop us from
experimenting. Tentatively, we propose a number of concrete demands
which we feel, if won and these are demands which must be fought
for would move us in the rig ht direction. They point a way out of
capitalist social relations, whilst clea rly distinguishing ourselves
from the right that tries to become a part of the movement whilst
promoting racist and nationalist ideology. The demands are for:

A universal basic income, de-linked from productivity!
Global freedom of movement and the right to remain!
Equal rights for everyone!

Through adopting the carnivalesqe form of the (Euro)MayDay parades,
through taking up the struggles of the Superfluous (see box), through
supporting th e striking Telekom workers, and through making visible
the precarious 'superheroes' who have fought against neoliberalism
over the last few y ears (see box), we hope together with you to
be able to articulate these demands through the body of the movement:
in the international demonstration on Jun e 2, in the day of action on
migration, through discussion and debate, and in th e mass disobedient
blockades of the streets around Heiligendamm on June 6.

FelS - Berlin

The following is a list of places and events in which we will be
present an d participating. We hope to see you there!

June 1: Opening of the camps! FelS will be in the Interventionist Left
barr io of the camp in Rostock (Fischereihafen, Am Grenzschlachthof 1,
Rostock). www.camping-07.de

June 2: International Demonstration. Join the Interventionist
Left's 'M ake Capitalism History' bloc where there will also be
a MayDay 'bloc wi thin a bloc'. Rostock Central Station, 12:00.
www.heiligendamm2007.de

June 3: International Networking Meetings. Convergence Centre,
Knut-Rasmussen-Strae 8, Rostock.

June 4: Day of Action on Migration. Decentralised actions
in the morning. D emo 'For Global Freedom of Movement and
Equal Rights for Everyone'. Satower Strasse, Rostock. 13:00.
http://g8-migration.net.tf/ June 6-8: Block G8! Mass blockades of the
G8 Summit, with precarious superheroes, the Superfluous and others!
Block G8 Info Line: +49 (0)381 1282702. www.block-g8.org

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Box #1

The Superfluous

The Superfluous (berflssigen) are those who, within globalised
neolib eral capitalism, have to fight for survival. Their lives
consist of unemployment , poverty, hunger and war. In the
industrialised countries, they are those excluded from social wealth.
They are the object of the class struggle from above. Superfluous, in
capitalism, are the unemployed whose rights are bein g ever-further
restricted in Germany and beyond. They are refugees, asylu m
applicants and single mothers forced into low-paid jobs. But the
Superfluou s don't allow themselves to be dispensed with as easily as
some may hope All over the world, those deemed superfluous by capital
have adorned white to symbolise their invisibility and reduction to a
faceless commodity. For the same reason, in Germany, the Superfluous
wear white masks: A face for the faceless. In reality, though, the
masks reveal far more than they conceal: commonality. It is through
the constitution of this commonality that the Superfluous are able to
go about collective re-appropriation: of life's essentials, life's
luxuries, life itself. Capitalism is superfluous! www.ueberfluessig.tk
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Box #2

Precarious Superheroes

The reproduction of neoliberal social relations demands
superheroism. Ever more mobility, flexibility, multitask-ability.
Superhero subjectivities ready fo r super-exploitation. Yet
everywhere, the figure of the superhero is becoming a symbol of
resistance. From Superbarrio, who for over a decade has fought
fo r Mexico City's poor; over the Unbeatables (like SpiderMom
and SuperFlex) o f the Milanese Euromayday; to the superheroes
of Hamburg, who redistributed luxur ies they appropriated from a
delicatessen. More and more people are discovering that with their
extra-ordinary powers, they can make another world possible .
berlin.euromayday.org // hamburg.euromayday.org // euromayday.org
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Box #3

FelS (For a Leftwing Current) is a Berlin-based group which, since
the early-1990s, has attempted to intervene in and influence the
direction of various social and political struggles in Germany and
beyond. The group see ks to articulate a radical-left politics, and
to develop new forms of politica l practice, within the context
of broad coalitions and social networks. FelS was involved with
the 2006 and 2007 Mayday Parades in Berlin, and is mobilising
to Heiligendamm against the G8 Summit. The group produces the
quarterly magazi ne arranca! and belongs to the Interventionist
Left. www.fels-berlin.de // fels@nadir.org // www.g8-2007.de
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Box #4

Useful Contacts
Rostock Camp Info Line: +49 (0) 1577 230 2168 // Reddelich Camp Info Line:
+49
(0) 1577 463 0055 // Mobile Info Point (5 and 6 June only): +49 (0) 175 892
78
68 // Medics: +49 (0)178 654 1308 // Legal Team (EA): +49 (0) 38204 768111
(www.ermittlungsausschuss.antifa.net)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Via: Jose-Carlos Mariategui

The Life of Information

Jannis Kallinikos and Jos-Carlos Maritegui

25 May 2007

English: http://www.telos-eu.com/english/2007/05/the_life_of_information.php
French: http://www.telos-eu.com/2007/05/la_societe_de_lhyperinformatio.php


In 2003, a group of economists and information theorists at the
University of Berkeley, published their study How Much Information,
one of the first systematic attempts to measure the amount of
information produced and stored in all kind of media, among which
digital media figure prominently. Their study shows that information
is growing at an accelerating pace, doubling itself in increasingly
shorter time intervals. The numbers cause dizziness and elude the
human perception of quantity. A recent study by the International Data
Corporation (IDC) provides further evidence that information growth is
a key socio-economic development at the outset of the 21st century.

The IDC study predicts that digital information will increase more
than six-fold from 161 exabytes to roughly 1000 exabytes in 2010 (1
exabyte is around 1 trillion gigabytes). There are several drivers
to this information growth, including the migration of images to
the digital realm and the transformation of analogue to digital
information, the proliferation of mobile media like cameras and
cellular phones and the spectacular circulation and duplication of
information. Over the next few years, one quarter of this expanding
digital universe will come from cameras and video recorders. Many
organizations that rely on massive amounts of video information are
trying to make it available in digital form. For example the BBC,
one of the worlds biggest broadcasting companies, is planning to
become tapeless for 2010, which means it will exclusively rely on
information available on digital storage.

The proliferation alone of devices of capturing, producing and
diffusing information does not suffice to account for the phenomenon
of information growth and its subtle implications. It is interesting
to observe that organizations, major producers and containers of
information, have less than 10% of their information classified. 95%
of the content of the internet is unstructured data. As information
grows it requires efficient ways of managing it. This is one of the
reasons why information search tools like Google become fundamental
ways, if we are to believe Googles motto, of organizing the worlds
information.

Organizing information does help people make sense of the bewildering
array of data and images populating the infospaces of contemporary
life. However, counter-intuitive as it may seem, ordering and editing
information does not reduce but rather increases information. This
happens because the organization of data items is often itself
information, produced out of the rearrangement of these items.
When your bank orders and sorts out your transactions, significant
information about your spending habits is revealed. The rearrangement
of the data items is substantially aided by the fact that digital
information is always recorded and updated while its granularity makes
it increasingly possible to recombine it with other information items,
often across data sources.

For all these reasons, digital information is frequently crossing the
boundaries of the specific domains within which it is conventionally
produced and utilized. Text, image and sound become increasingly
interoperable. Interoperability is a key motive behind the
transformation of analogue information (low granularity, low
combinability) to digital. The digital traces left out by our
internet habits (surfing and shopping on the internet) are bought by
commercial companies that recombine them into consumer profiles and
life styles to be used for targeting promotion. Insurance companies
try to combine information about individuals that is spread across
different digitized sources (e.g. banks, medical records, tax returns,
travel agencies, sport clubs etc) to produce individualized premiums
that map the risk and life profiles of individuals. Police forces
construct profiles of criminals by data mining aggregate financial
transactions and other data. Examples of this sort are encountered
across most domains of contemporary life. They attest to one of the
most interesting characteristic of current developments, that is the
production of information out of information in self-reinforcing and
expanding cycles.

Less clear is the contribution, which the short-lived character of
information makes to the phenomenon of information growth. Information
obtains its informativeness (its value or capacity to inform) due
to its adding something new to what is already known. Reciting a
statement that is already known does not qualify as information,
no matter how important such a statement may be. In order to be
informative, information has to pick up a new fact or state and convey
it. But novelty does not and cannot last. It dies out at the very
moment it is consumed. Information is today becoming perishable and
for that reason easily disposable. Market information, for instance,
that reaches stock exchanges all over the world in terms of price
changes often lasts no more than few minutes. Traffic information, so
useful in the rush hours, is of no use a little later.

Information as Niklas Luhmann suggests is no more than an event,
a semantic flash created against the background of memory and
knowledge to which it is assimilated. In so doing however the value
of information is consumed. The pending evaporation of information
triggers a complex institutional game to maintain its value through a
variety of mechanisms. Key among them is the ceaseless updatability
of technological information and the constant expansion of the data
universe it leads to. Without constant updating, stock markets, to
mention the same example, around the world would collapse or become
seriously impeded. Paradoxically, the more frequently information
is updated the faster it becomes out-dated. Thus understood, the
prevalence of information inflates the present and makes the event
and its ephemeral constitution central elements of social and
institutional life.

There is little doubt that a variety of objections could be raised as
regards the particular methodologies employed to measure and document
the growth of information. But this should not be the major point. The
recent attempts to estimate the amount of information mark the growing
awareness of which most of us bear a clear testimony: information
and the artefacts and technologies by which it is produced penetrate
deeper and deeper into the fabric of everyday life. They remake,
often quite imperceptibly, a large range of everyday tasks, redefine
the meaning of established practices and modes of doing things and
introduce new habits and activities. Looked upon at an aggregate level
and over larger time spans, these developments reshuffle the balance
between things and images, objects and representations, reality and
artifice. How many fictional or semi-fictional characters are really
created by the algorithmic techniques of data mining and profiling
(the construction of individuals out of data)? Be that as it may,
the developments underlying information growth do lend empirical
support to the speculative, albeit highly original, and dystopian
visions of Virilio, Baudrillard and others. Technological information
segments, dissolves and transposes social life to digital marks. Once
a description of reality, it is increasingly becoming reality itself.

Some of these phenomena are analyzed in significant
detail in the recent book by Jannis Kallinikos,
"http://www.e-elgar.co.uk/bookentry_main.lasso?id=3814"> The
Consequences of Information: Institutional Implications of
Technological Change, published by Elgar in 2006.

Jannis Kallinikos is Professor at the Department of Management, London
School of Economics (LSE) and leader of The Information Growth and
Internet Research (TIGAIR) project.

Jose Carlos Mariategui is an image/media art expert and member of The
Information Growth and Internet Research (TIGAIR) project at LSE.

Via: "camille pb"

Dear nettimers,

A year ago I had the opportunity to read in an original edition of
Theodor Nelson's Literary Machines, at SUNY Buffalo's Poetry Archive.
I took extensive notes and put the book back on the shelf. Now today I
am about to finish my master's thesis which deals (among other things)
with the controversies between scientists and engineers on one side
and human scientists and artists on the other, about software (and
software art, and the art of programming). I am suddenly reminded
that Nelson invented a couple of polarized and comical terms to
distinguish those two "kinds" of thinkers that he wanted to reunite in
the visionary work of Xanadu.

I am afraid I lost my notes, and I am not able to order the book
today, nor retrieve it in a library. Could someone refresh my memory
and remind me of this terminology, and maybe add a couple of quotes?

Camille P-B.
http://eduspaces.net/cpb/weblog (only Firefox until it's fixed please!)

Via: startx

Revival of No Border Camps 2007
A Tactics Laboratories Against Borders And Control

There seem to be a revival of "no border" camps this year. 5 years
after the international noborder camp in strasbourg there are camps
announced in Ukraine and Mexico this year, now the first noborder camp
in UK is announced as well, at Gatwick International Airport.

The planned new detention centre at Gatwick goes along with the plans
to tighten inner control and surveillance in the UK by introducing
(biometric) ID cards, the SIRENE infosystem (the UK extension to the
Schengen Information System), extended laws and police action against
"Anti-Social Behaviour" such as flying police drones (now on test in
Merseyside, no joke).

Here is the text of the first invitation to the camp: