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michael thevenet | 1 Apr 17:31

Re: nettime-l Digest, Vol 19, Issue 1

Hi! Patrice,

no comment about your translation, just two nanopieces of history.

1. Graph Theory encountered its first enormous burst during the  
nineteenth century when people tried to put in place the electricity  
grid.

2. Why TBL named his project WWW ? Here's his own answer:

>Q: Why did you call it WWW?
>
>A: Looking for a name for a global hypertext system, an essential  
>element I wanted to stress was its decentralized form allowing  
>anything to link to anything. This form is mathematically a graph,  
>or web.  It was designed to be global of course. (I had noticed that  
>projects find it useful to have a signature letter, as the Zebra  
>project at CERN which started all its variables with "Z".  In fact  
>by the time I had decided on WWW, I had written enough code using  
>global variables starting with "HT" for hypertext that W wasn't used  
>for that.).  Alternatives I considered were "Mine of  
>information" ("Moi", c'est un peu egoiste) and "The Information Mine  
>("Tim", even more egocentric!), and "Information Mesh" (too like  
>"Mess" though its ability to describe a mess was a requirement!).   
>Karen Sollins at MIT now has a Mesh project.

(source: http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/FAQ.html#Spelling)

Cheers,
m
(Continue reading)

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claudia bernardi | 2 Apr 22:49
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edu-factory [[[ News ]]] ..::Global Conflicts in the Universities::..

*Read more* www.edu-factory.org

*Urgent petition to keep UEL open during G20 Summit*
The University of East London (UEL) was supposed to host an alternative
summit on April 1st in
the context of the upcoming G20 meeting on April 2nd. Following the media
and police hype about
possible disruptions to the city, the University withdrew its support for
the alternative summit. [...]

*European call for a counter summit in Louvain against the Bologna process *
*? This is a crisis ?, is the most uttered sentence during these last
months. Yes, this is indeed a crisis.
An economic crisis throughout society. But this crisis is also social,
cultural and environmental,
in one word: a general or structural crisis.* [...]

*France- Give us back that which is owed! *
*Interview with Philosopher Judith Revel on the protest the 19 of March. *
Three million people in the streets against the politics of President
Sarkozy. The crisis is being felt
and the French are not remaining silent. For the second time in the space of
2 months, 219 protests
block the country. [...]
*

Student's demonstration in Barcelona *
For the second time a massive student's demonstration has crossed the
streets of Barcelona last
Thursday at night. The protest against the Bolongna process, that is the
(Continue reading)

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Geert Lovink | 3 Apr 11:05
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CopySouth Report on Horacio Potel


From: Roberto Verzola <rverzola@...>

Dear friends,

Please circulate widely this story about how a philosophy professor in  
Argentina is being persecuted for making available on his Web site  
Spanish translations of Jacques Derrida, a French philosopher who died  
in 2004.

Thanks and greetings to all,

Roberto Verzola

*Argentinean professor charged criminally for promoting access to  
knowledge*

By the CopySouth Research Group

A philosophy professor in Argentina, Horacio Potel, is facing criminal  
charges for maintaining a website devoted to translations
of works by French philosopher Jacques Derrida. His alleged crime:  
copyright infringement. Here is Professor Potel’s sad story.

“I was fascinated at the unlimited possibilities offered by the  
internet for knowledge exchange”, explains Horacio Potel, a Professor
of Philosophy at the Universidad Nacional de Lanús<http://www.unla.edu.ar/index_eng.php 
 > in Buenos Aires. In 1999, he set up a personal website to collect  
essays and other works of some well-known philosophers, starting with  
the German Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger. Potel’s websites
(Continue reading)

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marc garrett | 2 Apr 13:33
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Review of The 4th Radiator festival by Trampoline on Furtherfield.

Review of The 4th Radiator festival by Trampoline on Furtherfield.

The 4th Radiator festival. Going Underground - Surveillance and 
Sousveillance.
http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?review_id=338

Review by Marc Garrett.

Exploits in the Wireless City is the 4th Radiator festival and symposium 
to date, which lasted between 13-24 January 2009, 10 days of 
Exhibitions, Events, Screenings, Music, Artists' Talks and more. Marc 
writes about the commission for the festival 'Going Underground', 
enquiring how the works relate to the theme of Surveillance and 
Sousveillance.

In this article, you will also find reviews on work by Stanza, The 
Office of Community Sousveillance, Folke Kobberling & Martin Kaltwasser.

"A contemporary enactment of the Orwellian vision is now here and for 
real, millions of lensed spectres watch our every move around the 
country in the streets, as the constant drone of shopping serfs waddle 
around in their state imposed panopticon daze. In George Orwell's 
visionary novel Nineteen Eighty-Four the Thought Police could view and 
control citizens at any moment via a tele-screen, no one new whether 
they were being watched or not. Today, the UK Government is so rabid in 
its support of technocratic solutions to control its citizens, we are 
now the most watched soap opera by the powers that be on the planet. Us, 
who live in Britain are presently monitored by 4 million CCTV cameras, 
and if you happen to be living in London you are likely to be viewed on 
camera about 300 times a day."
(Continue reading)

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Patrice Riemens | 4 Apr 06:15
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Yann Moulier Boutang on Horatio Potel/ Derrida/ Minuit Publishers

After I reposted the nettime (and Sarai Reader List) message to the
Multitudes-Infos list, Yann Moulier Boutang had the following to say.
(translated with permission)

Dear Patrice,

Minuit Pulishing House (and more particularly in this case the widow of
Jerome Lindon, who's being advised by particularly prejudiced lawyers in
matters of intellectual property) is very principled when it comes to
putting online downloadable copyrighted material.

They do not recognise the right to private digital copy, and it's totally
useless to try to explain them that on this (Potel's -PR) site, for
instance, material would be put under Creative Commons License 2.0
(attribution, share alike, non-commercial)

Certain publishing houses and some copyright holders (authors or their
heirs or their representatives, i.e. publishers) are sometimes willing,
when asked beforehand, to reach an agreement for putting material online
under Creative Commons License 2.0., but as far as Minuit is concerned,
and to my regret, most other French publishers apart from Les Editions de
l'Eclat - well, just forget it.

It's stupid, mad, reactionary, counter-productive both for the sake of the
dissemination of the authors writings, and for the fact that the meagre
direct incomes lost that way are usually compensated by the PR such sites
generate for the paper copies, but it's like that.

But then what can you expect from a country that has just voted this
horrendous piece of legislation called HADOPI! (High Authority for the
(Continue reading)

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dmitry vilensky /chto delat?/ | 3 Apr 19:53
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Oleg Kireev commited suicide yestarday

Very important Russian activist and friend - Oleg Kireev commited suicide
yestarday in Moscow.

He was amazing person - author of 2 important books, those one who organised
several big activist campaigns (Against All, Barricade) and a trigger of many
artistic and activist movements in Moscow. Also pioner and promoter of free
soft (active participant of Next Five Minutes festival in Amsterdam) and
transform contributor

Being a good friend with Oleg I could say that he is definitely is one more
victim of new repressive climate in Russian political life that gives no way
for such a brilliant persons to realise even a small part of their dreams and
mission.

We miss him a lot - it is a big loss for the whole situation in Russia.

Dmitry Vilensky

ps - in att the photo of Oleg speaking at Russian Social Forum in 2006
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Geert Lovink | 5 Apr 09:30
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A Tribute to Oleg Kireev (Eric Kluitenberg)

http://www.debalie.nl/artikel.jsp?articleid=320778

a tribute...

On Friday April 3, 2009 we received the terribly sad news that our  
friend and ever inspiring colleague Oleg Kireev from Moscow had died,  
apparently as a result of suicide. We are left behind as friends and  
colleagues, bereaved and puzzled by this dramatic fact. Kireev was a  
prominent guest in some of the most important projects in the art /  
media / politics triangle, which we had the honour developing at De  
Balie. Kireev was a crucial figure in circles of free culture, media  
activism and the arts in Moscow, one of the most demanding  
environments for such activity one can think of.
   	
This unexpected turn of events leaves us wondering if the environment  
that Kireev was working in might have proven too demanding for this  
enigmatic personality. He will be dearly missed by his friends and  
colleagues, but his work was also too important to be interrupted so  
prematurely and in such a dreadful manner.

In 2002 Kireev executed a street performance in Amsterdam, as part of  
the Debates & Credits art project co-organised by De Balie, called  
"Militsia in Amsterdam", a study in the mechanisms of obedience - in  
his words. Kireev patrolled Amsterdam streets for several days,  
followed by a camera, dressed up as a typical Moscow Militsia officer,  
checking personal identity documents of random people on the street.  
The level of compliance he encountered was astounding. You can read  
the chilling and at times hilarious report in the web journal of  
Debates & Credits.
(Continue reading)

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the vacuum cleaner | 5 Apr 18:36
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Police 'assaulted' bystander who died during G20 protests

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/05/g20-protest-ian-tomlinson

The man who died during last week's G20 protests was "assaulted" by  
riot police shortly before he suffered a heart attack, according to  
witness statements received by the Independent Police Complaints  
Commission.

Investigators are examining a series of corroborative accounts that  
allege Ian Tomlinson, 47, was a victim of police violence in the  
moments before he collapsed near the Bank of England in the City of  
London last Wednesday evening. Three witnesses have told the Observer  
that Mr Tomlinson was attacked violently as he made his way home from  
work at a nearby newsagents. One claims he was struck on the head  
with a baton.

Photographer Anna Branthwaite said: "I can remember seeing Ian  
Tomlinson. He was rushed from behind by a riot officer with a helmet  
and shield two or three minutes before he collapsed." Branthwaite, an  
experienced press photographer, has made a statement to the IPCC.

Another independent statement supports allegations of police  
violence. Amiri Howe, 24, recalled seeing Mr Tomlinson being hit  
"near the head" with a police baton. Howe took one of a sequence of  
photographs that show a clearly dazed Mr Tomlinson being helped by a  
bystander.

A female protester, who does not want to be named but has given her  
testimony to the IPCC, said she saw a man she later recognised as  
Tomlinson being pushed aggressively from behind by officers. "I saw a  
man violently propelled forward, as though he'd been flung by the
(Continue reading)

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Patrice Riemens | 5 Apr 16:35
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Ippolita Collective: The Dark Side of Google (Chapter 5, part 2)

NB this book and translation are published under Creative Commons license
2.0 (Attribution, Non Commercial, Share Alike).
Commercial distribution requires the authorisation of the copyright
holders: Ippolita Collective and Feltrinelli Editore, Milano (.it)

Ippolita Collective

The Dark Side of Google (continued)

Chapter 5 (second part)
(continued from "Technological masturbation ...")

In May 2006 Google launched 'Google Web Toolkit' , a 'framework'  that
enables to develop Ajax applications written in Java script. Ajax (or
Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is a technique for the development of
dynamic, interactive web applications using standard HTML (or XHTML)
together with CSS for the visual part, and with JavaScript for the dynamic
display of and interaction between data. What you then get are extremely
fast-moving sites since it is no longer necessary to download all
information of the page afresh every time. GMail uses Ajax for instance.
This is an important innovation which does transform the approach to
creating web applications, as it is written in a language with high level
objects (Java), which are then paired to GWT and networks compatible with
all browsers [French text probably alludes to the "write once, run
everywhere" mantra]. But on the other hand, there is no justification for
a high-pitched announcement to the effect that an imaginary 'Web 2.0' has
now come out, revolutionising the Internet by making it 'machine
readable'. After all, multiple platform software creation for bookmark
sharing, social networking, automatic data aggregation techniques, etc.
have been there for years. And the hypocrisy of large corporations like
(Continue reading)

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nettime's_spam_kr!k!t | 5 Apr 12:36

nettime-l, Will This Bubble Burst?

         [orig From: __-Shalom <the.sneyke <at> ___.net.il>

As we have learned the hard way what goes on on Wall Street can influence
all of us directly. You may have taken some comfort from the most powerful
rally since the begining of the ninteenth century that started on March 9,
2009 (The 233th anniversary of the publication of Adam Smith Book: An
Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of the Nations. History
sometimes have its own irony.) If you still have some cash you may wonder
whether to join the party or even regret you didn't do so before; it will
be hard to resist these potentially high and quick profits.?

If I proved that rally may continue at that pace and reach highs we can't
yet imagine, we know it will necessarily stop abruptly and end in a crash
of epic proportions. Its origin comes from high excess liquidities (to the
tune of $13 trillions) and a sense of lower risk that caused lower credit
default spread, which fed into itself.

Those who believe that this crash can be anticipated, through fundamental
or technical analysis and that they will be able to get out in time will
learn that it is an illusion. We know that a moment before it will happen
the level of the market will have reached new highs as will the sense of
security.? 

"But how do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset
values, which then become subject to unexpected and prolonged contractions
as they have in Japan over the past decade? And how do we factor that
assessment into monetary policy??

We as central bankers need not be concerned if a collapsing financial asset
bubble does not threaten to impair the real economy, its production, jobs,
(Continue reading)

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Gmane