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from http://bit.ly/ldvIK6Since yesterday, June 28, we live like cockroaches in Syntagma square.We are sprayed continuously with chemicals by the Greek policeregardless of what we do or what we say, but we persist. We leaveSyntagma square for a while to catch our breath and keep on comingback. We rest a bit and return to the square. Even before thechemicals began exploding yesterday morning, we were just sitting onthe pavement and the riot police stormed and arrested a person seatingnearby. When we protested against the arrest, the riot policeresponded by arresting another passerby who was just exiting a coffeeshop with a coffee in his hand. To be just standing close to Syntagmasquare seems dangerous and certainly suspicious. The arrests are beingenacted to disperse the crowds, but we keep on moving closer to thesquare instead of leaving.As we are becoming cockroaches we begin, without really realizing it,to adopt tactics of stasis, of perseverance and of endurance, thatwere previously unknown to us. Chemicals keep on flying, sound bombskeep on exploding all around us making terrible noise and the crowdsrespond by not leaving, by remaining at Syntagma square. Becomingcockroaches and growing more and more resistant to the chemicals, ourbodies begin to mutate. In gas masks, painting maalox on our faces,wearing sun glasses, we persist. The figures in gas masks recognizeeach other even when they meet further away from Syntagma square.Even now that the austerity law was approved in the Greek parliament,the crowds are not leaving, they are reinforced. “Let’s have anassembly now,” said someone in the midst of a cloud of chemicals. Likewe did when we “staged the music concert yesterday”, he explains.Yesterday, we were cleaning and washing the square with water forhours to disperse the smell of the chemicals and then from a defunctPA system the Tiger Lillies played live on Syntagma square. Chemicalsand sound bombs started to explode again all around Syntagma, buteverybody remained on the square and kept on dancing.The classic urban tactics of confrontation -like throwing marbles,stones, and molotov cocktails against the police- seem and aresecondary in face of our tactics. Cockroaches do not attack, they donot make much noise, nor do not destroy something. But, we cockroachesare far more persistent and productive than other animals that areslowly disappearing.-Police gas the infirmary < at >Syntagma metro station http://vimeo.com/25777463

Press Release. London. 30 June 2011.The P2P Gift Credit Card is a revolutionary art project that involvescounterfeited virtual money and credit cards for an equal, democraticand universal distribution of money for the common people.The project has been released on 20th December 2010 and thereare already a thousand of cardholders who joined the communityof Basic Credit Network. Hundreds of plastic cards have beendistributed through public actions and art exhibitions:http://www.paolocirio.net/work/gift-finance/p2p_gift_credit_card.phpIt's just a matter of the number of cardholders and soon the moneyissued though the program Global Basic Credit will be able to bespent, replacing the worn out money that usually private banksmonopolize. Don't hesitate, apply now for a P2P Gift Credit Card,a new economic dawn is coming: http://www.p2pgiftcredit.com If youalready have a card, don't forget to activate it.Art and Revolution are about creating new social realities throughsubverting present languages and mediums. Credit Cards and FinanceInstruments are great, they allow us to create money out of nothingand distribute it very efficiently by softwares and devices. You areprobably very furious in these days, but please don't damage cashmachines and banks, we may still need them. Don't hate the media,become the media. Well, we all hate money, it is our worst obsessivehallucination, however we should take over it before it defeats us.There is available an informative document which outlinespivotal issues about the current scarcity of money as a fraud,the history and present creation of money, credit and interestorigins and degeneracy, undemocratic and unethical consequences ofunregulated financial capitalism and what we should do to fix it:http://www.paolocirio.net/press/PDF/Slides-P2PGiftCredit-CriticalFinance2011.pdf The sources of this document come from anin depth list of recent critical finance analysis:http://www.p2pgiftcredit.com/infoshop.phpRecapitulating P2P Gift Credit Cards:- It's about creating money democratically through the technology of credit cards.- It's not an alternative currency; it's proper counterfeited virtual money (in British sterling).Why this project:- We need a new design for money.- We need to distribute this new money equally.- We need to control democratically the amount of money and inflation inside our communities.- We need to engage and inform people in this process through a viral attractive creation and regulation of our money.The idea:The project turns tools of the modern financial systems to fair use. Mainly the project exploits in a good way:- Financial instruments (the Fractional Reserve Banking).- Credit card infrastructures (the VISA networks).- Current currencies (the Pound Sterling).This is all for taking back issuing power from private financial industries and restoring it to the commons.Killer features of the P2P Gift Credit Cards:- Anyone can issue money by an email account or cell number. Special authorizations/devices/skills/power are not needed to issue money, which means that it???s a very democratic model.- The money issued is in a currency that is recognized by most of the world. And the credit card numbers arereadable by present machines and platforms.Potential new features of P2P Gift Credit Cards:- New MasterCard and American Express editions of the P2P Gift Credit Cards.- A marketplace platform where the members of Global Basic Credit can sell/buy with their card numbers, as to wire money among the accounts.- Establishment peers limits for regulating the inflation inside the nodes of the networks of the communities.- Endorsement of the P2P architecture for enabling more connectivity through the peers.P2P Gift Credit Cards in the media:"Sharing becomes the creator of value"Lib??ration - Credit revolver."Basic Credit Network, revolves around an intelligent analysis of the banking system and slightly tweaking this to reflect how public ownership of the banks could be distributed"Art Critiqued - The Art of Selling and the Selling of Art."If we all get some, we???ll create a lending system outside the current, corrupt institutions of credit"Animal New York - Peer-to-Peer Credit Cards Will Free You."It triggers a viral spread of wealth, creating an alternative credit that everyone can develop and manage by themselves"Neural - Popular born credits.P2P Gift Credit Card project will be part of Abandon Normal Devices festival in UK at end of September 2011.However before of that, I have other gigs coming up at:Networked, Centro Fundaci??n Telef??nica, Lima - PeruFile Festival, Sao Paulo - BrazilGenesis Project, Culture Push, residency, Brooklyn - U.S.Ars Electronica Festival, Origin, Linz - AustriaISEA 2011 Conference, lecture, Instanbul - TurkeyUser friendly society, Galerija Gal??enica, Velika Gorica - CroaziaRewire Conference, FACT, Liverpool - UKThanks for the attention.Paolo Cirio.http://www.paolocirio.net

(dear nettimers, anyone following this? apparently stuff happens and people couldn't wait for openleaks, which was maybe rightly so seen as yet another one man show, this time by the assange rival domscheidt- berg. ciao, geert)http://hackerleaks.tk/HACKERS HELPING HACKERS TO LEAK MATERIAL OF INTERESTYOU DOWNLOAD IT, WE'LL DISCLOSE IT FOR YOUJUNE 25, 2011Datbases - Exploits - Security Flaws - Documents - E-Mail SpoolsSAFE - SECURE - ANONYMOUS - MAXIMUM EXPOSURE & IMPACTAbout HackerLeaksThis project began as a conversation between members of the PeoplesLiberation Front during Operation Orlando in June of 2011. On June 25,2011 the PLF launched the HackerLeaks web site to try and bring thisimportant project online.In both security as well as overall strategy, HackerLeaks is closelymodeled on WikiLeaks. Our first priority is to provide a safe, secure- and anonymous way for hackers to disclose sensitive information.Our team of analysts first carefully screens each submission for anypossible trace of the senders identity. Our second commitment is toensure that each and every leak receives the maximum exposure possiblein order to achieve the most profound political impact for the riskstaken by those submitting material. To that end, we work with mediaoutlets all over the world.For technical assistance or media inquiries, write toHackerLeaks-ZJfEgrHAv/jMZxc+ao5Pwg< at >public.gmane.orgFor small disclosures, with text only or files less than 2 MB use theSecure Drop BoxFor large file disclosures, please zip the files and upload here - Secure File UploadMake note of the link generated, and then drop that link in the SecureDrop Box above.If you need technical assistance, please use a secure E-Mail and writeto HackerLeaks-ZJfEgrHAv/jMZxc+ao5Pwg< at >public.gmane.orgThis address is strictly for support requests, DO NOT SEND LEAKS TOTHIS ADDRESS.You can also get live tech support or media consultation in our IRCChannel.

This stems from a discussion on Frameworks, the long-running experimental film list, linked at the very bottom.Software of the Spectacle:Final Cut Pro X means Apple has abandoned professional artistsby Flick HarrisonVersion with inline links + comments athttp://blog.flickharrison.com/?p=678Guy Debord said that the main function of our society is now the production of spectacle. The spectacle alienates us from life and each other. Facebook, for instance, transforms our relationships into images of those relationships, mediated by Facebook’s own hidden desires.Fifteen years of engagement with the Final-Cut-Pro-using professional class is, at best, a good self-funding, street-cred foundation for the new consumer version of FCP, called FCP-X. It could be compared to the free itunes app of yesteryear which slowly led us to the Itunes Store and thence to the app store, iphone and ipad.Since Photoshop or thereabouts, the line between artist / consumer / producer has blurred for many reasons. Web 2.0 was a major result / acceleration of that, when the content between ads suddenly became user-generated instead of professionally-produced. Popping out a lower-cost, easier-to-use version of FCP should goose the whole production stream in that direction, not only helping fill the million-channel universe with consumer-produced stuff but driving the wages of pros down.Final Cut X fits perfectly into this paradigm – it’s part of Apple’s mission to stop selling software / hardware and start selling experiences. You produce video with Final Cut X / Imovie / whatever because it’s a way to keep you on the mac, where you’ll get app-store suggestions etc. and listen to Itunes where you’ll buy things.Then you’ll post your movie on Youtube so that other people will spend more time on their computer watching it, where they’ll get ads pushed at them.Professional content producers are a bit of a problem in this system because they expect to get paid for producing content, and because they have a set of specific needs. Apple is smart to abandon them because the rest of the public will buy whatever software Apple puts in front of them if it is “slick” and “fun,” and they’ll learn to accept its paradigms rather than vice-versa.Senior artists in any discipline are a problem, partly because they want to get paid, but also because they are interested in ideas and formal play rather than spectacle. They try to make work that reduces their own and their audiences’ alienation rather than increasing it, even work that exposes the spectacle itself.There is anger and dismay from professional editors who now feel they need to abandon Final Cut and the whole Apple suite of pro products. The most sophisticated, team-based and integrated-workflow tools of FCP have been dropped, as if those skills and experiences are irrelevant to the art form in which they earn their crackers.What’s left is only spectacle.Links:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_the_Spectaclehttp://minimalmac.com/post/426868529/what-apple-sellshttp://www.tuaw.com/tag/firstpersonfcpxhttp://digitalcomposting.wordpress.com/2011/06/28/x-vs-pro/https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/pipermail/frameworks/2011-June/thread.html#4237--* WHERE'S MY ARTICLE, WORLD?http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Flick_Harrison* FLICK's WEBSITE & BLOG: http://www.flickharrison.com

Octave Mirbeau and the turpitudes of Dominique Strauss-KahnJuly 3, 2011 by Tjebbe van TijenFor the illustrated version see http://limpingmessenger.wordpress.com/2011/07/03/octave-mirbeau-and-the-turpitudes-of-dominique-strauss-kahn/[détournement of a film scene of the 1964 Bunuel movie 'Diary of a chambermaid']My morning association reading the news of the release of DSK: Strauss-Kahn and Octave Mirbeau who wrote in the year 1900 the novel ‘Diary of a chambermaid’ (Le Journal d’une femme de chambre) giving voice to a maidservant: “Through her eyes, which perceive the world through keyholes, he shows us the foul-smelling hidden sides of high society, the ‘moral bumps’ of the dominating classes, and the turpitudes of the bourgeois society that he assails. Mirbeau’s story undresses the members of high society of their superficial probity, revealing them in the undergarments of their moral flaws: their hypocrisy and perversions.” (1)Here we see Strauss-Kang enacting a scene of the novel for filmmaker Bunuel together with Jeanne Moreau, if only DSK had limited himself to shoe-fetishism...---(1) citation from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diary_of_a_Chambermaid_(novel)Tjebbe van TijenImaginary Museum ProjectsDramatizing Historical Informationhttp://imaginarymuseum.orgweb-blog: The Limping Messengerhttp://limpingmessenger.wordpress.com/

//////////////////////////////////// Piksel11 November 17-20 2011 Bergen, Norway\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\Piksel is an international event for artists and developers working withFree/Libre and Open Source technologies in artistic practice. Part workshop, part festival, it is organized in Bergen, Norway,and involves participants from more than a dozen countries exchanging ideas, coding, presenting art and software projects, doing workshops, performances and discussions on the aesthetics and politics of free technologies & art.//////////////////////////////////// open CALL for PROJECTSFor the exhibition and other parts of the programme we currently seekprojects in the following categories:1. InstallationsProjects to be included in the exhibitions.The works must be realised by the use of free and open source technologies.2. Audiovisual performanceLive art realised by the use of free software and/or open/DIY hardware. 3. PresentationsInnovative DIY/open hardware and audiovisual software tools or software art released under a free/open licence. (Also includes presentations of artistic projects realised using free/open technologies.)4. WorkshopsHands on workshops utilising free software and/or open/DIY hardware forartistic use.5. Urban InterventionsPikselert NovemberNatt is a specially curated project involving visualinterventions in selected parts of the Bergen urban environment.We look for surface projections or media facade projects using video mapping or similar techniques to recontextualize the urban landscape. All parts of the projects must be realised using free and open source technologies.\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\!!!!!!!!!! Deadline - august 15. 2011 !!!!!!!!!!Please use the online submit form at:http://piksel.no/ocsor send documentation material - preferably as a URL to onlinedocumentation with images/video to piksel11 (AT) piksel.no////////////////////////////////////Piksel11 is organized in cooperation with Galleri 3,14, Bergen Kunsthall/Landmark, USF and HackBergen. Supported by the Municipality of Bergen, Arts Council Norway, Hordaland County Council, KORO and others.more info: www.piksel.no\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

(posted on nettime-nl, fwd. with permission /geert)

(Original Blogpost with links and extensive reader comments can be found athttp://wp.me/pJQl5-79)I spent the last couple of days at a fascinating (and frightening) event inBerlin-OKCon-a convention for the (in this case mostly European) uber-geekswho are in the process of recreating governments and potentially governanceitself in Western Europe (and beyond).The ideal that these nerdy revolutionaries are pursuing is not, as withprevious generations-justice, freedom, democracy-rather it is "openness" asin Open Data, Open Information, Open Government. Precisely what is meant by"openness" is never (at least certainly not in the context of thisconference) really defined in a form that an outsider could grapple with(and perhaps critique). Rather it was a pervasive and animating goodintention-a grail to be pursued by these World of Warcraft warriors off on ajoust with various governmental dragons. Their armaments in this instance(and to an outsider many of them are magical indeed) are technical skillsand zeal sufficient to slay any bureaucrat or resistant politician'srationalizations and resistances to being "open"-i.e. not turning theirinformation treasure chests into universally accessible nodes in a seamlessglobal datascape.If I seem a bit skeptical/cynical - less than true believing - its notbecause I don't believe in this goal of "openness" (who could be churlishenough to support things that are closed-closed systems, closed doors,closed minds-you get the picture), its just that I see a huge disconnectbetween the idealism and the passionate belief in the rightness of theircause and the profound failure to have any clear idea of what precisely thatcause is and where it is likely to take them (and us) in the very nearfuture.To start at the beginning. the "open data/open government" movement beginsfrom a profoundly political perspective that government is largelyineffective and inefficient (and possibly corrupt) and that it hides thatineffectiveness and inefficiency (and possible corruption) from publicscrutiny through lack of transparency in its operations and particularly indenying to the public access to information (data) about its operations. Andfurther that this access once available would give citizens the means tohold bureaucrats (and their political masters) accountable for theiractions. In doing so it would give these self-same citizens a platform onwhich to undertake (or at least collaborate with) these bureaucrats incertain key and significant activities-planning, analyzing, budgeting thatsort of thing. Moreover through the implementation of processes ofcrowdsourcing this would also provide the bureaucrats with the overwhelmingbenefits of having access to and input from the knowledge and wisdom of thebroader interested public.Put in somewhat different terms but with essentially the same meaning-it'sthe taxpayer's money and they have the right to participate in overseeinghow it is spent. Having "open" access to government's data/information givescitizens the tools to exercise that right.And (it is argued), solutions are available for putting into the hands ofthese citizens the means/technical tools for sifting and sorting and makingcritical analyses of government activities if only the key could be turnedand government data was "accessible" ("open").Through partially technical and partially political processes of persuasion,lobbying, arm twisting and ultimately policy development and intervention,governments everywhere are in the process of redeveloping internal technicalsystems so as to make at least some of their information available -openingthis to the folks such as those attending this conference to work on anddesign means to make useful and accessible.-and the conference heard fromenthusiastic young people who are effecting these changes in various partsof Europe, the US, Brazil and so on.A lot of the conference took place in specialized workshops where thetechnical details on how to link various sets of this newly available datatogether with other sets, how to structure this data so that it could servevarious purposes and perhaps most importantly how to design the architectureand ontology (ultimately the management policies and procedures) of the dataitself within government so that it is "born open" rather than onlyliberated after the fact with this latter process making the usefulness ofthe data in the larger world of open and universally accessible data muchmuch greater.Again, so far so good. But as I sat through the first day of the conferenceand as the time came for my own presentation I suddenly realized that therewas a dog, and a very large and important dog that wasn't barking. Duringthat first day and with only one or two exceptions on the second what Ididn't hear even indirectly was a discussion of who the ultimate users wouldbe of this data (the beneficiaries of this "openness") and what ultimateuses this open data was being designed towards.Some might wonder why I think that this non-barking dog is of suchsignificance-why does it matter who the user is-what is important is thatthey/we have access to the data and the best approach is to effect a designthat "anyone" can use i.e. for a universal user-the argument being that whatis being built is not a vehicle but a platform and it doesn't matter who thedrivers are as long as everyone can use the highway.So, in the absence of any articulated expression of who the (assumed) useris let's speculate a bit about who this phantom figure might (or might not)be. Given that in instances like these one tends, in the absence of otherinfluences, to default to the known and familiar. Thus here one can almostcertainly assume that the user is expected to be more or less like the folksin this room-young and bright, speaking English well, very well educated,overwhelmingly male, few or no minorities of colour or race, with firmmiddle class backgrounds, very very technically skilled and with the set ofvalues and assumptions that go with the above i.e. strongly individualistic,slightly competitive, and not suffering fools (or the non-technical) easily.My assumption then is that the anticipated user for this "open data" and forthe kind of measures (policies, procedures, programs) which are beinglobbied for and designed into government policy and practice looks very muchlike these folks at this conference-which scares me a very greatdeal.especially when combined with the VERY fragmentary evidence that iscoming out on who is actually using this "open data" (which correspondsquite closely to my assumption) and what benefits are being realized as aresult of its use.Perhaps the most significant example to date of a national "openness" policyis the Government of India's Right to Information law which by any standardis one of the strongest pieces of legislation supporting "open" governmentanywhere in the world. But it turns out that there were flaws (and itappears quite fatal flaws) in the legislation/program that are now coming tolight-the most significant of those flaws being a lack of enforcementmechanisms and perhaps most importantly the lack of a strategy forwidespread broad based implementation focused on the end user.What has happened in India is that by making the (quite false) assumptionthat the end users i.e. citizens would have the means to use this law torealize their right to information without additional support orintervention India has created a circumstance where citizens themselves needto engage in an often quite unequal struggle to access and use theinformation and the result has been a rash of murders by those wishing touse the information to expose corruption, self-dealing and misuse of pubicfunds. The legislation did not provide mechanisms for enforcement and thusindividuals and groups had to take it upon themselves to attempt to gainaccess to desired information through individual action. Thus rather thanhaving legislation that focused on the potential end user in their Indianmultitudes it simply provided for a notional "access" and left the rest tothe individual citizen with these results:First Right to Information MurderAnother Right to Information Activist Murdered in IndiaThree Right to Information (RTI) activists were murdered in this country inthree monthsBut why should this matter to these enthusiastic young people five thousandmiles away from village India. Well if we take a look at one of the veryfew detailed studies of the end users (Escher) of an "open data" project(and a project that has been reproduced in a number of other nationaljurisdictions) that of the TheyWorkForYou.com online citizen democracy toolwe begin to see a pattern:The overall demographics of these users extend the traditional biases inpolitical participation: In the "TheyWorkForYou.org audience people abovethe age of 54 tend to be over-represented, while those younger than 45 areunder-represented in comparison to the Internet population. In terms ofdemographics there is a strong male bias and a strong overrepresentation ofpeople with a university degree that also translates into strongparticipation from high income groups.One in five users (21%) of the sitehas not been politically active within the last year," This means, if I amunderstanding this that 79% of the users of this site (and the relatedexpense information) have been politically active within the last year!So this attempt to enhance democratic participation has ended up providingan additional opportunity for those who already, because of their income,education, and overall conventional characteristics of higher status (age,gender etc.) already have the means to communicate with and influencepoliticians. The additional information and an additional communicationschannel thus has the effect of reinforcing patterns of opportunity that arealready there rather than widening the base of participation and influence.Similarly with the case that I quoted in an earlier post which examined theoutcome of a program to digitize land records in Bangalore and which had thequite perverse and unanticipated effect of providing a means for thewealthier land owners to extend their holdings and thus their wealth at theexpense of the poor because they had the knowledge in how to use theinformation newly made available as well as the resources to hire theprofessionals to help them interpret the information in the way which wasmost immediately useful.Thus it matters very much who the (anticipated) user is since what is beingput in place are the frameworks for the data environment of the future andthese will include for the most part some assumptions about who the ultimateuser is or will be and whether or not a new "data divide" will emergewritten more deeply into the fabric of the Information Society than even theearlier "digital (access) divide".In each of these instances, by NOT paying attention to (and thus interveningto redefine) who the ultimate users of the "open data/information" would be,the effect has been to reinforce or even extend existing structures of powerand influence rather than to have this newly open data be the basis for moreinclusive and democratic participation. In the absence of making explicitthe model of the ultimate user and thus designing appropriate processes ofopening the data and making it available for the widest (and leastimplicitly discriminatory) range of users, the result will be as we haveseen which is a user who is already in a position to make use of theinformation because of prior existing skills, knowledge, power, or status.For these processes to NOT have these outcomes the data designer must basehis work on an implicit model of user who is NOT technically skilled, who isNOT financially well off, who does NOT have the characteristics of colour,gender or class which automatically gives them influence and power.I've dealt with the matter of how to ensure opportunities for a broader baseof effective use (and users) elsewhere but in this context as arecommendation to the folks espousing and doing Open Data could I suggestthat there be a formal commitment to devote 10% of project (and programme)resources including time and funds to ensuring Open Data use by groups andindividuals who are not technically skilled, are not middle income andabove, who are not currently active in the political process but who mightultimately make the most beneficial use of the resources now being madeavailable.For anyone interested in my thoughts on the "hot to's" of this I can referthem to the earlier blog post http://wp.me/pJQl5-3b and edited version ofwhich appeared in a recent issue of First Mondayhttp://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/.Michael GursteinVancouver, July 2, 2011

Great article Michael.This is especially interesting given our context in Canada, where "Access to Information" is one of the most contentious types of "open data" policies. It sounds like the Open Data folks you met want broad policy change, but in addition to your worries about such policies often serving the wrong stakeholders, there are serious roadblocks to enforcing policies that serve anyone else.When government has so many levers to replace watchdogs, claim executive privilege, stall requests, etc etc, it's clear that straight-up policy changes don't mean Open Data at all.http://www.hilltimes.com/page/view/accesstoinfo-07-04-2011Canada's ATI laws determine what kinds of information the government must reveal and what it may keep private when receiving a formal ATI request, for example:http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/tbsf-fsct/350-57-eng.aspThe ATI regime can be undermined by entrenched elites, event in flagrant violation of the law, when interests are at stake. Civil servants who attempt to act according to the law risk personal and career consequences, while the government which flouts the rules not only rigs a hog-tied oversight regime but faces an electorate which either doesn't know or care about the violations.The re-election of the Conservatives with a strengthened majority acts as a de facto cancellation of Access to Information law. This was supported by a corporate media that let stories die rather than snap with their sharp teeth at the fleeing buttocks of information.The Conservatives in fact eliminated a database of all ATI requests that fit the very definition of Open Data; a proactive collation that saved both researchers and civil servants time and money.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordination_of_Access_to_Information_Requests_SystemThey seemed to face no serious repercussions from this.-Flick--* WHERE'S MY ARTICLE, WORLD?http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Flick_Harrison* FLICK's WEBSITE & BLOG: http://www.flickharrison.com

Amy Goodman interview with the two of the globe's most dangerousmen (courtesy of the Frontline Club)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VdFtb4zNXE

Mocking the Arts Establishment? In Italy it can be an expensive ordeal.Article by Roberta Buiani.http://www.furtherfield.org/features/articles/mocking-arts-establishment-italy-it-can-be-expensive-ordealRoberta Buiani writes about the young artist 'Luca Lo Coco', who found himself at the center of an attack initiated by the director of Flash Art, Giancarlo Politi himself. Lo Coco critiqued the commercial artworld circus, for lacking authenticity, social values and artistic integrity. He created a pesky doppelgänger of the Flash Art website at www.ashartonline.com, replacing the original content with is own artwork. The site also existed as a platform for others to share their own critiques and observations concerning the arts establishment. This ended with Lo Coco having to close the site down after 6 months, as well as losing all of his home furniture when he had no money to pay for the hefty fine imposed on him by the courts.This David and Goliath story shows us the big divide in the art world between those powerful within the arts establishment and those existing independently trying to find a platform and representation for their own creative voice. This article also touches on issues of whether these contemporary art world gate-keepers are worthy representatives of the arts, in view of their failure to reflect the bredth of the actual contemporary art scene."Politi’s exaggerated reaction appeared to become gradually an act of intimidation directed to the whole independent arts community rather than a personal affair between him and Lo Coco. [...] the perfect scapegoat, the sacrificial lamb that would serve to re-affirm loudly and ostensively the power of BIG ART, authority, hierarchy, and institutions against the younger, subversive, independent emerging arts." Buiani.Other Info:A living - breathing - thriving networked neighbourhood - art,technology & social change - claiming it with others ;)http://identi.ca/furtherfieldhttp://twitter.com/furtherfieldOther reviews,articles,interviewshttp://www.furtherfield.org/featuresFurtherfield – online arts community, platforms for creating, viewing,discussing and learning about experimental practices at theintersections of art, technology and social change.http://www.furtherfield.orgFurtherfield Gallery – physical media arts Gallery (London).http://www.furtherfield.org/programmes/exhibitionsNetbehaviour - Networked Artists List Community.http://www.netbehaviour.org

Hello mappers etc!We've just launched the first issue of the "*Grassroots MappingForum*", our new community research journal/archive/zine/map, wherewe hope to share ideas, techniques, and stories from the GrassrootsMapping<http://grassrootsmapping.org>community. (For those of youwho don't know, we are a community of activist cartographers who useDIY tools for civic science -- we take aerial photos using kites andballoons of things like the BP oil spill.)The front of every issue, which is essentially a giant printed map,will depict a Grassroots Mapping site -- the first one is of anisland in Wilkinson Bay, Louisiana, with oil residue along a wetlandscoastline. It is printed on a single 22.75x35" sheet, folded down tojust over letter size, and includes a full color reproduction of agrassroots map along with essays, illustrated guides, and interviewson the reverse.You can find out more, and purchase the first issue here for $17 shipped:http://publiclaboratory.org/forumIf you're interested in supporting PublicLaboratory's<http://publiclaboratory.org>work, consider buying 3 or 4and giving them to your friends.The first issue of the Grassoots Mapping Forum was sponsoredby DevelopmentSeed <http://developmentseed.com>, creators ofMapBox<http://mapbox.com>, and we are looking for sponsors for futuremaps. If you're interested, please get in touch.Jeff & the Public Laboratory team

I saw this story on the BBC News iPhone App and thought you should see it.** Secret agents raid webcam artist **The US Secret Service has raided the home of an artist whocollected images f= rom webcams in a New York Apple store.<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14080438 >Kyle McDonald is said to have installed software that photographedpeople looking at laptops then uploaded the pictures to a website.Mr McDonald said he had obtained permission from a security guard totake photos inside the store.Apple declined to comment. However, the Secret Service confirmed thatits electronic crime division was involved.A spokesperson told the BBC that the investigation was taking placeunder US Code Title 18 /1030 which relates to Fraud and relatedactivity in connection with computers.Offences covered by the legislation carry a maximum penalty of 20years in prison.Writing on Twitter, Mr McDonald said: "< at >secretservice just stopped byto investigate [web address removed] and took my laptop. Please assumethey're reading any e-mails you send me."No arrests had been made in the case as of 8 July.StaringKyle McDonald's images were uploaded to a page on the blogging siteTumblr. In the description of People Staring at Computers, the projectis described as: "A photographic intervention. Custom app installedaround NYC, taking a picture every minute and uploading it if a faceis found in the image. Exhibited on site with a remotely triggered appthat displayed the photos full screen on every available computer."The site features a video and series of photographs, apparentlyshowing shoppers trying-out computers. Comments on the individuals byvisitors to the site are also attached to the images. Mr McDonald,writing on Twitter, said that he had been advised not to commenton the case by the online freedom group the Electronic FrontierFoundation.

Dear nettimers,The following short text was written together with David Garcia at theoccasion of the start of the Tactical Media Files Blog, which was launcheda short while ago. The text repositions some ideas about the Tactical Mediaphenomenon and the relevance of the term today, as well as its inherentcontradictions. We focus in particular on the aims of the Tactical MediaFiles as a documentation resource for the practices of tactical media, andthe problems this inevitably invites.The Blog can be found at:http://blog.tacticalmediafiles.netThe Tactical Media Files website can be found at:www.tacticalmediafiles.netEnjoy the read!bests,Eric------------------------Tracing the Ephemeral: Tactical Media and the Lure of the Archiveby David Garcia and Eric Kluitenberg "Tactical Media emerged when the modest goals of media artists and media activists were transformed into a movement that challenged everyone to produce their own media in support of their own political struggles. This "new media" activism was based on the insight that the long-held distinction between the 'street' (reality) and the 'media' (representation) could no longer be upheld. On the contrary, the media had come to infuse all of society. To challenge dominant (strategic) structures in society, it was necessary to develop new (tactical) means of producing and distributing media. Not a specialised task separate from the social movements, but a key activity around which social movements could coalesce." [1] (From "About the Tactical Media Files", October, 2008)In 2003 media theorist McKenzie Wark wrote ?Tactical media has been aproductive rhetoric, stimulating a lot of interesting new work. But likeall rhetorics, eventually its coherence will blur, its energy willdissipate. There's a job to do to make sure that it leaves somethingbehind, in the archive, embedded in institutions, for those who comeafter.? [2] The Tactical Media Files, operating as a repository of ?traces? ofexperience, knowledge and tactics goes some way to answering this call for?something to be left behind in the archive?. But the archival must feed aliving stream of practice. And so McKenzie Wark?s text requires somequalification, nearly two decades after its initial articulation therhetorical energy of the tactical has not entirely ?dissipated orblurred?. Though full of contradictions Tactical Media has remainedstrangely persistent. In part because it is more than a rhetoric it isabove all a practice. In the era of WikiLeaks and the Arab Spring it isclear that rumours of its passing have been greatly exaggerated. The fusionof smart encryption, smart phone movies and social networks transmittingand receiving in real-time has redefined tactical media from ?contingentand local? to being no less contingent but now, certainly global.The opening sentence of The ABC of Tactical Media (1997) remains accurate"Tactical Media are what happens when the cheap 'do it yourself' media,made possible by the revolution in consumer electronics and expanded formsof distribution (from public access cable to the internet) are exploited bygroups and individuals who feel aggrieved by or excluded from the widerculture". Tactical media is literally "what happens", it is factual,indexical, pragmatic, something that can be observed, an outcome of the waycertain processes in society and culture connect to evolving technologicalinfrastructures.Tactical Media activities have the greatest impact when two apparentlycontradictory, imperatives are, not so much resolved, as held in dynamicequilibrium. On the one hand there is the imperative to ?engage theunbreakable link between representation and politics? (CAE) and on theother hand the recognition that the politics of representation ?are badlyadapted to an understanding of the increasingly infrastructural nature ofcommunications in a world of digital media? (Matthew Fuller. Towards anEvil Media Studies). [3]As for this Tactical Media Files - it is a documentation tool for theseephemeral and fleeting processes - it is not an anthropologicalundertaking, because it participates actively in what it documents. It isnot a science, not an institution, but much more of a tool, anintervention, but one with more long-term aims. More practically we want tocreate something of a memory, however incomplete, of the practices oftactical media, knowing that these practices are always in a hurry to 'moveon'. .Tactical Media has always existed in an uncomfortable space between afluidity of practice that by its nature resisted or outright refused to benamed, and the recognition of constantly being 'saddled with designations'by those who are uncomfortable with the unnamed (CAE). More than a desirethis fluidity of practice has been recognised as a necessity to continue tobe able to deploy a nomadic practice that can engage seemingly unalterablesocial and political practices, and avoid being captured or co-opted by thevery forces that Tactical Media practitioners set out to critique andovercome. CAE observe that "traces and residues are far less problematic thanstrategic products, which come to dominate the space in which they areplaced". 'Monumental' works are for them the 'great territorialisers', thatrefuse to even surrender space. For CAE they are the 'great negaters ofgenerative difference', the 'engines of alienated separation' [4]. Theoperation of freezing living practice and everyday life in an authoritativearchive embraces the monumental to impose its reading on history. It is theembodiment of strategic power and in every aspect the very anti-thesis ofthe 'tactical operation' and hence of Tactical Media. And yet we know fromhistorical experiences that the monument can be appropriated to become akey-site for social struggle and transformative change.Our ideal has been to be able to construct a 'living archive for tacticalmedia', a task we have as yet not achieved and one we may never be able tofully live up to. With the notion of a 'Living Archive' we aim to create amodel in which documentation of living cultural processes, archivedmaterials, ephemera, and discursive practices are interwoven, drawing onthe possibilities opened up by open source on-line database and contentmanagement systems, and digital audio and video technologies. Documentingthe ephemera of Tactical Media thus becomes a dynamic open ended processthat acts upon present and future events and is simultaneously acted uponand rewritten by these events and their outcomes. The Living Archive cannever become an immutable repository creating a stable foundation for the?production of meaning, but instead acts as an active discursive principleemphasising the contingency of historical development.Based on this ambitious and probably unattainable but nonetheless necessarytheoretical starting point we accept that we can only move forward withsmall steps. We look upon the Tactical Media Files website as a inevitablyincomplete documentation resource for tactical media world-wide, not adefinite repository that crystallises or defines a field of practice. Itwas born out of the need to trace a rich interdisciplinary field ofcultural and political practice that was fading fast amidst the violence ofthe ubiquitous real-time presence of the present and its destruction of(the possibility of) memory.Creative imagination requires a degree of forgetting, but criticalawareness equally requires a degree remembering. The Tactical Media Fileshas to navigate this precarious balance.Modest steps towards an active engagementWe write this short text to mark the start of a new and rather unassumingextension to the Tactical Media Files, by starting up a Tactical MediaBlog. This blog will allow us to trace and indicate more flexibly relevantactivity that connects to the sensibilities of tactical media's evolvingpractices. The blog is also an appropriate space for commentary andpersonal observation, and perhaps for discussion.The distinctive triangulation of hacker culture, experimental art andradical politics, and its manifestation in the streets, remains theessential circuitry from which tactical media draws its energy. The factthat ?new media? are not new any more is precisely the point. Clay Shirkeywas correct in pointing out that ?Communication tools don't get sociallyinteresting until they get technologically boring.? The real politicalopportunities inherent in DIY media politics arise precisely at the momentthat they appear most banal to those always anxious to move on to the nextbig thing.The question remains how and where to construct a space for dialogue andsocial interaction, a dimension that a living archive would certainlyrequire. As much as we believe that the distinction between the street andrepresentation can no longer be upheld, we also do not believe that the'social' can emerge through the purely disembodied and mediated encounterin electronic circuitry - we need physical interaction. Scale and infrastructuresWe have to tread carefully in order to be able to move in the direction ofthe living archive - we can organise smaller scale meetings, andappropriate temporarily, in a continuous nomadic movement, existinginfrastructures, but the real challenge is to build a sustainableinfrastructure for the ephemeral.One thing that has been learned is the importance of scale, of reachingbeyond he safety of true believers. WikiLeaks has demonstrated he power ofoperating globally, and engaging uncompromisingly with mainstream media,reshaping their practices by beating them at their own game. But thesegestures remain tactical in that they are temporary, nomadic and ultimatelyfleeting.Felix Stalder has accurately described some of the inherent contradictionsof the Tactical Media concept, pointing out that ?providing infrastructurefor projects is a long-term rather than a tactical task that quicklyoverburdens loose networks.? [5] We must be aware that in tracing theephemera of tactical media practices we can never beat the 'monumental'archive at its own game, nor should we want to do so. It is necessary todevelop a sustainable space rather than a monumental one. And this wewould argue is our task, to build a strategically sustainableinfrastructure in order to remain tactical....References:1 - About the Tactical Media Files: www.tacticalmediafiles.net/article.jsp?objectnumber=38519&pagetype=about2 - McKenzie Wark, Strategies for Tactical Media (2003) www.tacticalmediafiles.net/article.jsp?objectnumber=462453 - Towards an Evil Media Studies (for The Spam Book, Jussi Parikka and Tony Sampson eds., forthcoming, Hampton Press, New Jersey) Matthew Fuller, Andrew Goffey www.spc.org/fuller/texts/towardsevil/4 - Critical Art Ensemble, Digital Resistance (2001) www.critical-art.net/books/digital/5 - Felix Stalder, 30 Years of Tactical Media (2009) www.tacticalmediafiles.net/article.jsp?objectnumber=42801

(I circulated the full text of my earlier blogpost http://wp.me/pJQl5-79 afew days ago to Nettime. Since then the extremely interestingdiscussion/comments has continued including a significant set ofinterventions from Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) Board member PeterMurray-Rust and the OKF lawyer JordonH as well as comments by a number ofleading OKF members/activists and a wide range of others (39 comments todate on the original post and 7 on the following (below)--the OKFinterventions are particularly interesting, I think. My reply to PeterMurray-Rust in a follow-on blogpost (in .txt format without the links) isbelow. The comments on this post are also very interesting.)"Open" - "Necessary" but not "Sufficient"(For this blogpost with extensive links and comments http://wp.me/pJQl5-7hMy somewhat off the cuff comments/reflections on the recent OKCon(ference),the annual event of the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) seems to have causeda bit of a stir among certain of the more senior members of the lattergroup. The result has been a series of comments on my original blog post andnow a blogpost on a separate blog by Peter Murray-Rust an OKF Board Member,taking considerable issue with my comments.Since the discussion now has moved down to #29 or so in the breadcrumb trailof comments and responses it's probably worthwhile to reprise and refocusthe discussion a bit and hence this new blogpost taking off from the endpoint of the latter discussion thread.So where are we. First let me state FWIW as clearly as possible my ownposition-I am strongly in favour of "openness" both in the somewhat trivialsense of an "open everything" meme where not being "open" is equated withsupporting the darkside AND in the rather more thoughtful and constructivedefinition given to the term by the OKF on their website "A piece of contentor data is open if anyone is free to use, reuse, and redistribute it -subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and share-alike."A wee bit of biography might be relevant here. I've spent much of the last15 years or so working in and around what has come to be known as CommunityInformatics (CI)-the use of Information and Communications Technologies(ICTs) to enable and empower communities. There are several thousand peopleworld wide who would in some way consider themselves as working within thatoverall discipline/strategy/approach. There is an open access open archivepeer reviewed journal (which I edit), a wiki, several elists, conferences,several blogs (including this one), even university courses etc.etc. Imention this because CI to some extent grew up in the broad context oflocal, technical, policy, advocacy based responses to the Digital Divide(DD)-broadly understood as the divide between those who have access to ICTsand those do not.CI however, added a key component to the mix which was that while "access"to ICTs were a "necessary" condition for over-coming the DD, access alonewas "insufficient" to make available (and operational) the range ofopportunities for economic and social advance on the broadest possible basisof which ICTs are capable and which have so massively transformed (andenabled, enriched and empowered) business and governments. Hence the needfor additional steps and interventions/supports to transform "access" intothe opportunity for what I call "effective use".I see a direct parallel between the issues that I and my colleagues (andmany many other people) have been addressing over the last 15 years or soin the context of the DD and what I am now seeing with respect to the OpenData and related movements.I most certainly am not against Open Data/Open Government (OD/OG) in thesame way as I am not (and as has been the focus of my work for much of thelast 15 years) against the broadest possible distribution of access to theInternet and all of the associated ICT tools. However, I do see Open Dataas defined above as not being sufficient to effect the positive changes ingovernment, science, democracy itself as is being indicated as the overallgoal of the OD/OG movement.In some ways the argument here is even clearer than it was concerning theefforts to overcome the DD. Egon Willighagen commenting on Peter Murray-Ruskresponse to my blogpost writes:"Open Data is *not* about how to present (governmental) data in a humanreadable way to the general public to take advantage of (though I understandwhy he got that idea), but Open Data is about making this technically andlegally *possible*. He did not get that point, unfortunately."To respond to Egon (and Peter), I did understand that very well about "OpenData"; and it is precisely that of which I am being critical. I am arguingthat "Open Data" as presented in this way is sufficient only (as argued inthe original post) to provide additional resources to the Sheriff ofNottingham rather than to Robin Hood."Open Data" as articulated above by Willighagen has the form of a privateclub-open "technically" (and "legally") to all to join but whose membershiprequires a degree of education, resources, technical skill such as to put itout of the reach of any but a very select group.Allison Powell in her thoughtful comments on my blogpost talks (in thecontext of "Open Hardware") about those who are in a position throughpre-existing conditions of wealth, technical knowledge and power to"appropriate" the outcome of "(hardware) Openness" for their own privatecorporate purposes.Parminder Jeet Singh in his own comments contrasts Open Data with PublicData-a terminology and conceptual shift with which I am coming toagree-where Public Data is data which is not only "open" but also isdesigned and structured so as to be usable by the broad "public" ("thepeople").Originally in the context of the Digital Divide I articulated notions aroundwhat I called "effective use" that is the factors that need to be in placefor "access" to be translated into "use" by those at the grassroots level.In an earlier blogpost I transferred these concepts and updated them into an"Open Data/Open Knowledge" context and I would modestly suggest that it isthrough the implementation of a strategy incorporating "effective (data)use" that the full measure and value of Open Data/Open Knowledge can beachieved and the parallel dangers of a very damaging and socially divisive"Data Divide" avoided.(For this blogpost with extensive links and comments http://wp.me/pJQl5-7h)Posted on July 6, 2011Michael GursteinVancouver, Canada

*Haunt the U.S.-Mexico Border on July 15th* [ *Border Haunt*. (www.borderhaunt.com ) ]*Border Haunt* is an attempt to bring two different databases associatedwith the U.S.-Mexico border into contact with one another for the durationof one day.This message is an invitation to join a temporary network of people fromacross the world and participate in an aesthetic and political experiment,in what I'm calling a border database collision.The first of the two databases involved in the collision acts as an archiveof migrants that have died while attempting undocumented crossings of theU.S.-Mexico border territory.The second database involved in the collision is used to police the borderand works with the help of volunteers that report suspected undocumentedborder crossings. This volunteer-database was created and is used in hopesof apprehending undocumented border-crossers.On July 15th, 2011, participants will purposefully direct the flows ofinformation and collectively migrate the data from the border death databaseinto the border policing database, haunting the servers of the U.S.-Mexicoborder security structure.For more information on the project, please visit: www.borderhaunt.com .Also, please send this along to people who you think would like toparticipate, and feel free to post this on any websites that you contributeto.I hope that you can participate in *Border Haunt *on July 15th and take partin this political and aesthetic experiment.Best, -Ian Paul ianalanpaul-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w< at >public.gmane.org

This blog post is by a guy who had a prestigious national TV gig in Canada.He quit when he realized he couldn't breathe within the closing conservative stranglehold across Canadian media.Why I quit my job:By kainagatahttp://kainagata.com/2011/07/08/why-i-quit-my-job/"Until Thursday, I was CTV?s Quebec City Bureau Chief, based at the National Assembly, mostly covering politics. It?s a fascinating beat - the most interesting provincial legislature in Canada, and the stories coming out of there lately have been huge. The near-implosion of the Parti Quebecois has kept the press gallery hopping well into summer. If you?re not from Quebec, it?s hard to explain the place the National Assembly holds in the popular imagination ? but suffice to say that within francophone journalistic circles it carries more prestige than Parliament Hill. I had the privilege to be working next to several of the sharpest reporters in the country.[...]I was a full-time employee making good money, with comprehensive benefits and retirement options (I was even lucky enough to be hired before Bell bought CTV and began clawing back some of those expensive perks.) It was what I would qualify as a ?great job,? especially for a 24-year old. Many of you told me how proud you were of my quick climb. But there was a growing gap between the reporter I played on TV, and the person I really am and want to become. I reached my breaking point suddenly, although when I look back now, the signposts were clear."[...]Consider Fox News. What the Murdoch model demonstrated was that facts and truth could be replaced by ideology, with viewership and revenue going up. Simply put, you can tell less truth and make more money. When you have to balance the interests of your shareholders against the interests of the viewers you supposedly serve, the firewall between the boardroom and the newsroom becomes a very important bulwark indeed. CTV, in my experience, maintains high standards in factual accuracy. Its editorial staff is composed of fair-minded critical thinkers. But there is an underlying tension between ?what the people want to see? and ?the important stories we should be bringing to people?. I remember as the latest takeover was all but finalized, Bellmedia executives came to talk about ?growing eyebal ls? in the ?specialty channels?. What they meant was, sports are profitable ? so as long they keep raking in cash, we can keep funding underperforming assets like our news division. (The sam e dynamic exists at the CBC, by the way.)"--* WHERE'S MY ARTICLE, WORLD?http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Flick_Harrison* FLICK's WEBSITE & BLOG: http://www.flickharrison.com

This blog post is by a guy who had a prestigious national TV gig in Canada.He quit when he realized he couldn't breathe within the closingconservative stranglehold across Canadian media.Why I quit my job:By kainagatahttp://kainagata.com/2011/07/08/why-i-quit-my-job/"Until Thursday, I was CTV?s Quebec City Bureau Chief, based at theNational Assembly, mostly covering politics. It?s a fascinating beat -the most interesting provincial legislature in Canada, and the storiescoming out of there lately have been huge. The near-implosion of theParti Quebecois has kept the press gallery hopping well into summer.If you?re not from Quebec, it?s hard to explain the place the NationalAssembly holds in the popular imagination ? but suffice to say thatwithin francophone journalistic circles it carries more prestige thanParliament Hill. I had the privilege to be working next to several ofthe sharpest reporters in the country. [...]I was a full-time employee making good money, with comprehensivebenefits and retirement options (I was even lucky enough to be hiredbefore Bell bought CTV and began clawing back some of those expensiveperks.) It was what I would qualify as a ?great job,? especially for a24-year old. Many of you told me how proud you were of my quick climb.But there was a growing gap between the reporter I played on TV, andthe person I really am and want to become. I reached my breaking pointsuddenly, although when I look back now, the signposts were clear."[...]Consider Fox News. What the Murdoch model demonstrated was thatfacts and truth could be replaced by ideology, with viewership andrevenue going up. Simply put, you can tell less truth and make moremoney. When you have to balance the interests of your shareholdersagainst the interests of the viewers you supposedly serve, thefirewall between the boardroom and the newsroom becomes a veryimportant bulwark indeed. CTV, in my experience, maintains highstandards in factual accuracy. Its editorial staff is composed offair-minded critical thinkers. But there is an underlying tensionbetween ?what the people want to see? and ?the important stories weshould be bringing to people?. I remember as the latest takeover wasall but finalized, Bellmedia executives came to talk about ?growingeyeballs? in the ?specialty channels?. What they meant was, sports areprofitable ? so as long they keep raking in cash, we can keep fundingunderperforming assets like our news division. (The same dynamicexists at the CBC, by the way.)"--* WHERE'S MY ARTICLE, WORLD?http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Flick_Harrison* FLICK's WEBSITE & BLOG: http://www.flickharrison.com

[This new tendency of dumping the full raw data onto the publicnetworks makes WikiLeaks more editorial approach to publishingmaterial seem positively reasonable and measured. I wonder if this ispreferable to those who criticize WikiLeaks for having turned intojust another information broker.]theepochtimes.com -> http://tinyurl.com/6axx57dThe “hacktivist” organization Anonymous Operations posted some 90,000 military e-mail addresses and passwords, to the Pirate Bay torrent website on July 11, in what they called “Military Meltdown Monday."The organization hacked into the networks of government contracting and consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, where they claim to have discovered “a list of roughly 90,000 military e-mails and password hashes ... 4gb of source code,” and “maps and keys for various other treasure chests buried on the islands of government agencies, federal contractors and shady whitehat companies.”Anonymous further claims that Booz Allen was involved with several government surveillance and intelligence-gathering programs “that may be deemed illegal” and insinuate that several of Booz Allen’s executives, all former members of the Nation Security Agency, garnered illegal government favor in their private business efforts.Anonymous preceded the release with multiple lead-up tweets from several of their affiliated twitter accounts. One account, “anonymouSabu,” formerly part of the LulzSec hacking group, claims that this is the first of “two of the biggest releases for Anonymous in the last 4 years,” and sent a warning to the intelligence community, stating “Everyone brace. This is literally explosive.”Another account, “YourAnonNews”, states that “today’s #AntiSec release will without any doubt be the biggest release so far.”“AntiSec” or operation Anti-Security, was a collaborative effort between hacker groups LulzSec, Anonymous, and various others to attack and steal confidential information from major governments and corporations, and expose perceived corruption and abuse of power. LulzSec disbanded in late June, its members reintegrating with their original foundations in Anonymous.The websites and networks of numerous companies and government organizations have already been attacked in the name of AntiSec. Anonymous believes that their efforts are simply a form of civil disobedience, calling their tactics “peaceful protest." The government, meanwhile, has been actively trying to track down and arrest its members.Anonymous made headlines last year when they attacked MasterCard, Visa, and PayPal after the companies had suspended payments directed to the information leaking website WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange.--- http://felix.openflows.com ----------------------- books out now:*|Deep Search.The Politics of Search Beyond Google.Studienverlag 2009*|Mediale Kunst/Media Arts Zurich.13 Positions.Scheidegger&Spiess2008*|Manuel Castells and the Theory of the Network Society. Polity, 2006 *|Open Cultures and the Nature of Networks. Ed. Futura/Revolver, 2005 # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission# <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,# collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets# more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l# archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime< at >kein.org

From: Nettime's avid reader July 12, 2011 by intelNews By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |http://intelligencenews.wordpress.com/2011/07/12/01-760/Israeli intelligence services managed to stop dozens of European pro-Palestine activists from flying to Israel, by gathering open-sourceintelligence about them on social media sites, such as Facebook.According to Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor,intelligence gathered on Facebook formed the basis of a blacklistcontaining over 300 names of European activists, who had signed up onan open-access Facebook page of a group planning nonviolent actionsin Israel this summer. Israeli intelligence agencies forwarded thenames on the lists to European airline carriers, asking them not toallow the activists onboard their flights, as they were not going tobe allowed into the country. This action prompted airline carriers toprevent over 200 activists from boarding scheduled flights to Israel.Israeli security officers detained over 310 other activists, whoarrived in Israel on several European flights last week. Of those,almost 70 were denied entry to the country, while more detentionsare expected to take place later this week, according [1] to IsraeliInterior Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Hadad. During the detentionoperation, at least two flights into Israel, from Geneva, Switzerland,and Rome, Italy, were diverted to a secluded area of the Ben GurionInternational Airport, which is located a few miles southeast ofTel Aviv. Once there, they were boarded by armed Israeli securityofficers, who detained several activists onboard the airplanes beforeallowing the remaining passengers to disembark. Witnesses alsoreported the presence of hundreds of police officers at Ben Gurionduring the detention of the activists. Characteristically, only one ofa 40-strong pro-Palestinian activist contingency onboard an EasyJetflight from London, UK, was able to enter Israel, while 39 weredetained and sent back to the UK.[1] AP Story: http://tinyurl.com/3htobbz