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Dear Nettimers,building on Christian Fuchs's excellent post on social media mobs, with mycolleague Paola Tubaro we have designed a social simulation experiment toshow why Internet censorship (as just proposed by David Cameron) would besuch a bad idea.The complete post (including figures, tables, and code) is available here:http://www.bodyspacesociety.eu/2011/08/11/is-a-social-media-fuelled-uprising-the-worst-case-scenario-elements-for-a-sociology-of-uk-riots/Cheers,---a------------IS A SOCIAL MEDIA-FUELLED UPRISING THE WORST CASE SCENARIO? ELEMENTS FOR ASOCIOLOGY OF UK RIOTSBy Antonio A. Casilli & Paola Tubaro“It's time we heard a little bit less about the economic and sociologicaljustifications for what is in my view nothing less than wantoncriminality”. (Boris Johnson, public speech London, Aug 9, 2011)“We are not social scientists. We have to deal with urgent situations”(Paul McKeever, Police Federation Chairman, SkyNews Aug 11, 2011)“Nowadays sabotaging the social machine involves reappropriating andreinventing the ways of interrupting its networks”. (The InvisibleCommittee, The Coming Insurrection, Semiotext(e), 2009, p. 112)--Why social media bring democracy to developing countries and anarchy torich ones?O sublime hypocrisy of European mainstream media! The same technologiesthat a few months ago were glorified for single-handedly bringing downdictators during the Arab Spring, are now at the core of an unprecedentedmoral panic for their alleged role in fuelling UK August 2011 riots. In arecent post, Christian Fuchs rightly maintains:[Quote: "Social Media and the UK Riots: “Twitter Mobs”, “Facebook Mobs”,“Blackberry Mobs” and the Structural Violence of Neoliberalism | ChristianFuchs"]And, o! exquisite refinement in the ancient art of double standard: thesame conservative press that indignantly deplored dictators’ censorship ofonline communication, now call for plain suppression of entiretelecommunication networks – as unashamedly exemplified by this piece inthe Daily Mail.Fact is, moral panic about social media is the specular reflection of theacritical enthusiasm about these very same technologies. They both springfrom the same technological determinism that acclaims new gimmicks andbuzzwords to smooth away the economic and social roots of unrest.Having said that, what can we, as social scientists, say about the role ofsocial media in assisting or even encouraging widespread politicalconflict? Very little indeed, insofar as we do not have data on actualsocial media use and traffic during riots. It would take months to gatherthat data – and who can wait for so long in a media environment that spitsout “quick and dirty” analyses by the hour?The best approach is a more innovative one, relying on social simulation.This is a new methodology that compares alternative computer-generatedsocial scenarios to detect what variables come into play in specificsocial processes1.One of these variables is the use of social media toorganize flash-mobs in order to build field-awareness in urban uprisingsettings. We aim to demonstrate that the more we repress and censor socialmedia in a situation of civil unrest, the worse the situation gets foreverybody in a given society.--Epstein’s civil violence model (revisited)Social scientists have been modelling civil violence via agent-basedsimulation for almost a decade now2. One major contribution – on which wewill build upon for our model – was presented by Josh Epstein in a 2002article3.Agent-based simulations are like games based on very simple rules – andbringing forth complex results. The model basically describes a societywhere there is only one type of social agent (represented by circles infigure 1). (Before you scream at oversimplification, just ask yourself ifyou feel more comfortable with the political characterization thatconservative media have been pushing in the last few days, where there aretwo types of citizens: “looters” and “those who are ready to defend theircommunities”. At least, Epstein’s standard social agent reminds us thatanyone can become a looter, according to the situation).The agent’s behaviour is influenced by several variables. The first one isthe agent’s personal level of political dissatisfaction (“grievance”,indicated by lighter or darker green colour in figure 1). That can leadthis person to abandon his/her expected state of quiet and become anactive protester (red coloured circles in figure 1). However, the decisionto act out – whether it is to go on a looting spree or to burn theparliament and overturn the government – is conditioned by the agent’ssocial surroundings (“neighbourhood”). Does s/he detect the presence ofpolice (blue triangles in figure 1) in the surroundings? If the answer tothis question is no, s/he will act out. If the answer is yes, anotherquestion is asked: is this police presence counterbalanced by a sufficientnumber of actively protesting citizens? If the answer to this secondquestion is yes, then the agent acts out. Sometimes, in an utterly randomway, one citizen gets caught by the police and is sent to jail for a givenperiod of time (black circles in figure 1). (Again, if you are marvellingat the simplicity of this rule, just bear in mind how tricky it is for theUK police to really distinguish who did what in a riot –and how many ofthese days’ arrests will eventually turn out to be arbitrary).[Figure 1 - Circles represent social agents, whose level of grievance isindicated by lighter or darker shades of green. Active protesters arecolored red and jailed protesters black. Blue triangles represent policeofficers.]Of course the model takes into account other mitigating factors, such asthe perceived risk of being arrested and government legitimacy. And ofcourse there is the possibility of moving from one place to another toteam up with other protesters and run havoc. We will come back to thispoint because this seems determinant for the use of social media.The main result of Epstein’s model is that, in a typical situation, civilviolence does not look like a linear process. The naïve vision ofpolitical conflict as cumulative processes where confrontation escalatesuntil the government comes tumbling down is fallacious. Civil or politicalunrest is what Epstein calls a “punctuated equilibrium”. Long periods ofstability where rebellion is smouldering are followed by short violentoutbursts.[Figure 2 - A typical civil unrest pattern: outbursts of violence (redcurve) punctuate long periods of stability when political tension isbuilding up (blue curve).]There is another variable which is, to us, crucial for understandingsocial media use to create flash mobs to deploy in a civil violencesituation: this variable is called “vision” in Epstein model. Vision is anindividual agent’s ability to scan his/her neighbourhood for signs of copsand/or active protesters. The higher the vision, the wider the agent’srange.What we have done here is to modify the consequences of “vision”. In theoriginal model4, agents and police officers move to randomly chosen placeswithin their vision range. We have introduced a new rule that makes agentsmove to places in their vision range that are surrounded by the maximumnumber of active protesters. The result of the modified simulation (if youwish to download the code, just click here) is consistent with thetactical use of mobile technologies by protesters in order to gain acognitive advantage against police forces and have a better awareness ofthe field, its resources and possible weak spots.This simple change simulates the behaviour of individuals involved incivil unrest, using BBM or Twitter to detect, and to converge in, hotspots. If the value of « vision » is higher (like in a situation whereonline networking tools are widespread and not censored), each agent hascomplete information as to what’s going on even in remote locations. Ifsocial communication is censored, the value of « vision » is lower, andagents have partial or non-existent awareness of their surroundings andtend to move randomly.--Internet censorship: a source of protracted high-level violenceOur social simulation code reproduces the functioning of a certain socialsystem (let’s say a city like London) over a significant period of time(in our case 1000 time steps), for different values of the parameter“vision” caeteris paribus (that is: while leaving the others parametersunchanged – cf. Table 2 in Annex 1 at the end of this post). Running themodel again and again and generating alternative scenarios, shows us theoutcomes of lower or higher values of “vision” – indicating the effects ofmore or less censorship of social media.Let’s have a look at the results in figure 3 (click to expand the image):[Figure 3 - Red patterns represent number of violent protesters over timewithin different levels of social media censorship: from 0 vision (totalcensorship, upper left) to 10 vision (no censorship, lower right).]As we can se, different values of “vision” generate different patterns ofcivil unrest over time. All scenarios display an initial outburst – prettymuch what we have been experiencing in the last few days. What happensnext is influenced by the level of censorship government applies. In thecase of total censorship (vision = 0) the level of violence stays at itsmaximum virtually forever. Think Egypt Internet kill switch incident inJanuary 2011 – and remember its consequences on violence escalation in thecountry and, ultimately, on Mubarak’s regime… The other cases correspondto less and less censorship. Values between 1 (almost complete censorship)and 9 (almost no censorship) correspond to different levels of protractedcivil unrest: the stronger the censorship, the higher the average level ofendemic violence over time (best linear fit represented by the black linesin figure 3).The last case, corresponding to perfect social agents’ vision (and thus tono censorship at all) deserves a little more comment. Apparently thissituation is characterized by incessant high-level outbursts of violence,with peak active levels that seem to be even more significant that inother cases. Yet, the average trend of violence over time (black fittingline) remains low. Moreover, if we want to measure the size of violentoutbursts, looking at their peak active level is not sufficient. Lookingat time intervals between outbursts, at the duration of outbursts, and atthe level of “social peace” between outbursts, help us discover that thisscenario is actually the best for everyone. In the absence of censorship,agents protest, sometimes violently, nevertheless they are able to returnto significant levels of quiet (green line in figure 4), when socialunrest is halted.[Figure 4 - In the absence of censorship, high levels of social unrest arepossible (see peaks in red line), but between uprisings social system isable to come back to significant levels of quite (green line)]This is the only scenario where active protest drops down to zero forextended and repeated periods of time (cf. Table 1 in Annex 1 at the endof this post): exactly what Epstein described as “punctuated equilibrium”in his initial model of civil violence. And although that does not seem tomatch our wildest dreams of social harmony, it still is a situation wherecitizens are free to voice their dissent on social media, to coordinatetheir efforts and act about it – albeit in confrontational ways – whilestill enjoying a higher level of quiet over time (see figure 5).[Figure 5 - Levels of civil violence over time as function of levels ofcensorship. (Higher vision means less censorship and less civilviolence).]In the absence of online censorship, social agents have vision= 10. Thiscorresponds to the lowest levels of civil violence over time.--Some concluding remarksIt is not our role to pass judgments on politicians and police officers’disapproval of “sociological justifications” of the UK riots or on theirdismissal of social sciences as – at best – a luxury we can’t afford intimes of unrests. Their shoot-first-ask-later stance, although probablymoved by good intentions, can lead to ill-advised policy choices, like inthe case of Internet censorship that we have chosen to discuss here.Of course other factors have to be taken into account to use a civilviolence model inspired by Epstein. As shown in a recent paper by Klemenset al. (2010) rebellious outbursts are more likely given increasedhardship (the recent financial crisis does seem to come into play here).Civil violence is also influenced by loss of government legitimacy – whichin this case seems consistent with the unpopular budget cuts promoted byDavid Cameron, not to mention the recent Murdoch/NoTW phone hackingscandal. Finally, protest outbursts are less likely given increasedrepressive capacity5. Which does not equate to the naïve argument that“what we need is more cops” – routinely conveyed in situations of civilunrest. Repressive capacity, in the case of UK riots, has been aboutadapting police procedures to compensate for the clear tactical advantagerioters showed over the first few days of August – an advantage thatseemed consistent with the increased level of “vision” and field awarenessallowed by mobile communications, as discussed here. The growing presenceof MET police and law enforcement initiatives on Facebook, Flickr, andGoogle groups can actually account for the subsequent limitation ofviolent outburst by reducing the rioters’ communicational advantage.Other studies have applied social simulation to censorship in situationsof civil violence. Garlick and Chli (2009), for example, insist thatrestricting social communication pacifies rebellious societies, but hasthe opposite effect on peaceful ones6. Our intention is to show that thechoice of not restricting social communication turns out to be a judiciousone in the absence of robust indicators as to the rebelliousness of agiven society.What we have tried to do is to demonstrate how, even in the absence ofempirical data, social sciences can still help us interpret how socialfactors come into play, and possibly avoid trading democratic values andfreedom of expression for an illusory sense of security.ANNEXVision levels% time spent in quiet (no civil violence)001020304050607080.3910.21032.5Table 1 – % of time without riots – corresponding to levels of vision.ParameterValuesInitial cop density4%Initial agent density70%Number of cops64Number of agents1120Government legitimacy80%Max jail term30 time stepsVision0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10Table 2 – Parameters used in the modelFOOTNOTES•1• We have presented our approach to this method in this article, incase you wanted to give it a shot. Otherwise just go on reading thispost. ↩•2• A summary if these researches is in Amblard, F, Geller, A, Neumann,M, Srbljinovic, A and Wijermans, N (2010) Analyzing social conflict viacomputational social simulation: A review of approaches. In Martinás K,Matika D, and Srbljinovic A (Eds.) Complex Societal Dynamics – SecurityChallenges and Opportunities. Amsterdam: IOS Press. pp. 126-141.http://iros.morh.hr/_download/repository/Gelleretal1.pdf ↩•3• Epstein, J. M. (2002) Modeling civil violence: an agent-basedcomputational approach. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesof the United States of America, n. 99 Suppl 3, pp. 7243-7250. ↩•4• Here we use the NetLogo version presented in Wilensky, U. (2004).NetLogo Rebellion model.http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/models/Rebellion. Center forConnected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling, Northwestern University,Evanston, IL; Id. (1999). NetLogo. http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/.Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling, NorthwesternUniversity, Evanston, IL. ↩•5• Klemens, B., Joshua M. Epstein, J. M., Hammond, R. A. & M. A. Raifman(2010) Empirical Performance of a Decentralized Civil Violence Model, TheBrookings Institution, Center on Social and Economic Dynamics WorkingPaper No. 56,http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2010/0625_empirical_performance_epstein.aspx.↩•6• Michael Garlick and Maria Chli (2009) The effect of social influenceand curfews on civil violence. Proceedings of The 8th InternationalConference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems – Volume 2, AAMAS’09, Budapest, Hungary: International Foundation for Autonomous Agentsand Multiagent Systems, pp. 1335–1336,http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1558109.1558281. ↩CITETo cite this post: Casilli, Antonio A. and Paola Tubaro (2011) Is a socialmedia-fuelled uprising the worst case scenario? Elements for a sociologyof UK riots. Joint post Bodyspacesociety/Paola Tubaro’s Blog, August 11,URL:http://www.bodyspacesociety.eu/2011/08/11/is-a-social-media-fuelled-uprising-the-worst-case-scenario-elements-for-a-sociology-of-uk-riots

Hiya,I was asked to provide an introductory piece which would be inspiredby my book 'The Class of the New' and Stanislaw Lem's 'Cyberiad' for one of the panels at the European Cultural Congress in Wroclaw on 8th-11th September. Here is my mash-up of these two texts into a summer SF tale for the readers of nettime...Richardhttp://www.culturecongress.eu/en/theme/theme_cyberiad/barbrook_davos_parallaxhttp://www.culturecongress.eu/en/event/exhibition_tomorrow_never_dies=======================The Davos Parallaxa fable inspired by Stanislaw LemRichard BarbrookAs their rocket ship raced away from the watery planet, Trurl turnedto Klapaucius and exclaimed: “That was a job very well done!”His companion laughed: “We certainly played an excellent trick onsome very unpleasant personages. Our creation has swept awaythe masters of Terra without any violence or suffering. History willrecord that the G20-CMP-MMORPG is one of our finest pieces of work! ”It was when the blue moon was rising in the third quadrant of the redsun that an urgent summons had arrived for the two constructors fromthe outer spiral of the Milky Way. A fat contract was offered for a verydelicate task. Trurl and Klapaucius - always happy to fleece an over-eagercustomer - had rushed over to the distant world of the pulpy palefaces.On their arrival, they were carefully directed to a mountain top and usheredinto the presence of the ruling elite of Terra.“Welcome to Davos, honoured guests from an alien world!” said a plumpand sleek fleshy creature in a smooth voice. “I am the chief highrepresentative of the most important movers-and-shakers on this planet.Assembled at this annual gathering are the chosen few who control thedestiny of humanity. Meet the head of the IMF and the president of theWorld Bank. Here are the leaders of the United States, the EU, China,Russia and Brazil. These are the managing directors of Goldman Sachs,Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and UBS. Say hello to the GrandMaster of the Freemasons, the Pope, the Dalai Lama and the Emir ofAl-Qaeda. Let me introduce you to the CEOs of Google, Time-Warner,Sony, News Corp, Microsoft and Facebook. Shake hands with the Kingof Saudi Arabia, the Ayatollah of Iran and the chairs of Exxon, BP, Shelland Total. Greet the bosses of the Mexican drugs cartel, the JapaneseYakuza and the Afghan opium trade. We also have the planet's topphilosophers, artists and scientists at our conference, but you can ignorethem because they're just here for decoration. The only people whocount on Terra are sitting around this table before you.”Bemused by this confusing plethora of titles and institutions, Trurl andKlapaucius cut quickly to the heart of the matter: “Why did you summonus here with such insistence? What can we do for you which requiresour specialist skills? Can you pay in a currency which is accepted acrossthe known universe?”“Excellent questions - we can do business with men who want to dobusiness!” commented a wrinkly-skinned media mogul at the back ofthe room.“We're robots not human,” Klapaucius sniffly replied.“Robots who are very good at doing business,” added Trurl diplomatically.“No offence meant,” said the chief high representative of the Terrans in asoothing voice. “Let me explain our problem and how you can help us.As for payment, our generosity in rare stones and metals will delight youif you are successful!”“Then we'll listen carefully...” said the one.“...with all of our multiple listening devices,” echoed the other.“To understand the difficult task which we want you to perform, I'll have toexplain the history of our species,” began the Terran spokesperson. “For 90%of its time on this planet, humanity lived in small groups of around 150 peoplewho survived by hunting wild animals and foraging from nature. Then, around400 generations ago, our numbers grew so large that we were forced to discovernew means of subsistence. Our ancestors soon learnt how to domesticateanimals and breed plants. From the surpluses produced by this agriculturalrevolution emerged the first class societies. While the majority of the populationworked as peasants in the fields, a privileged minority became the warriors andpriests who ruled over them. Generation after generation, kingdoms rose and fell,religions came and went, but the social system remained stable. Agriculture wasthe source of all wealth. The warriors and priests lived off the labour of thepeasantry. Then suddenly, 20 generations ago, everything began to change.Our numbers had again increased dramatically. We knew how to accomplishso much more than before. Humanity now went through another traumatic socialtransformation. Warriors and priests became capitalists and managers. Peasantswere transformed into proletarians. After much suffering and pain, a moreadvanced class society was eventually born. Around this table in Davos,you see the ruling elite of this new dispensation. Humanity began as a tribeof a 150 people and now there are 7 billion of us. We are the few who decidethe fate of the many!”“Thanks for the interesting history lesson, but we're still none the wiser to whatyou want us to do for you,” said the two constructors in unison.“Don't worry, I'm getting to the point. You do need to know this backgroundinformation to understand our current predicament,” replied the maximumleader of the Terrans. “During last five hundred of our Earth years, the capitalistmode of production has slowly but surely spread to all corners of the planet.The necessities and luxuries of life are now bought and sold in the marketplace.Everything - and everybody - has its price. For our predecessors, it was relativelyeasy to rule over this new form of class society. We were united by our desire forwealth and power. Those who we exploited were divided in so many ways: income;skills; gender; ethnicity; language; sexuality; ideology; education and religion.If the proletarians did threaten to combine against us, our forebears instinctivelyknew how to ferment wars, encourage bigotry and stoke up hatreds to keep themin their place. Unfortunately, things are much more difficult now. I'm forced toconfess that our own greed is partially to blame. We should have known betterthan to sell them cheap travel, media, computers and telecommunications. Weshould have guessed that when the same goods and services were availableeverywhere, then a common identity would emerge. Much to our horror, thosewho we once divided and kept subservient are becoming united and self-confident.They now revel in being members of a multi-cultural, poly-sexual, transnationalproletariat! Look outside the gates of this hotel. We can no longer hold our annualmeeting to decide how this planet is run without armed guards to protect us froma rabble of global justice protesters. At this very moment, in cities across the world,massive crowds are gathering to denounce politicians as thieves and bankers asfraudsters. This humiliation must be stopped - and stopped now!”After listening to the Terran leader's tirade, Trurl and Klapaucius were stillconfused.“How can two constructors from an alien world reverse the grand narrativeof human history?” asked the one.”We only know how to invent new technologies not a new species,” emphasisedthe other.Wiping moisture from his fleshy brow, the chief high representative resumed hisperoration: “There is one tried and tested stratagem which can preserve our wealthand power: the class of the new. During the birth of capitalism, its pioneers fortuitouslydiscovered this most effective way of dividing their workforce. They singled out thosewho were making new things in new ways with new technologies. They lauded thisgroup as the builders of the future in the present. For our forebears, the transformativepower of the factory was personified by its classes of the new: the Industrials; theLabour Aristocracy; the Fordist Worker. Best of all, there were iterations of this classof the new who could be co-opted into the ruling elite: the Self-Made Man; the VanguardParty; the Technocrats. When our grandparents were eventually forced to concede amore equitable partition of the rewards of the factory system, I must admit that we didexperience a brief moment of fear. There had always been the danger of the class ofthe new that wanted to reorganise society in the interests of the many not the few: theGeneral Intellect; the Labour Movement; the Engineers. With mass production providingconsumer plenty and welfare services, too many of our subordinates did become infectedwith these subversive ideas: the Hippies; the New Working Class; the Produsumers.However, we kept our nerve and realised that our salvation could be found in theconvergence of media, telecommunications and computing into the Net. We soonregained ownership over the imaginary future and the information society becameour promise of the better times to come. We could now ferment more sophisticatedcleavages within the global proletariat by identifying new classes of the new: thePost-Modernists; the Hackers; the Free Agents. We could recruit again from the ranksof the oppressed to strengthen their oppressors: the Virtual Class; the Digital Citizens;the Bobos. For decades, this clever manoeuvre has served us well. Using networktechnologies, we have constructed a financial marketplace that now rules with an ironfist over the entire planet. The masses might vote for higher wages and better welfare,but it is our money that decides the fate of their nations' economies. There is noalternative to neo-liberal capitalism!”Trurl and Klapaucius looked at each other knowingly. The rulers of Terra must bein big trouble if their leader had to shout so loud about the weakness of the opposition.“So why do you need our help if everything is going so well here?” Trurl enquireddelicately.“It seems that our journey to the far end of the Milky Way wasn't really necessary,”added Klapaucius with a hint of sarcasm.“The insurgent global proletariat are now using network technologies against us!”screamed the chief high representative with outrage. “They are organising protests,uprisings and elections which are overthrowing their rightful rulers!! Already missingfrom this year's conference at Davos are the dictators of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.Which one of us around this table might be next? By providing computers, mobilesand connectivity to the masses, we have inadvertently allowed humanity to arrive atthe imaginary future of the information society. The future is now! Worst of all, newclasses of the new are emerging which are determined to realise the Net's potentialfor participatory democracy and cybernetic communism: the Digital Artisans; theMultitude; the Precariat. We know that a small elite of bankers and bureaucrats can'tprevail against the united will of the whole of humanity. Our only hope is a technologicalfix to stave off this mortal threat to our wealth and power. We urgently require thenext upgrade of the Net which will once again endow us with ownership of theimaginary future and enable us to co-opt a privileged section of the workforce asthe class of the new. You were summoned here because we know that you havethe skills to help us in this time of crisis. Your fame has spread even to these outerreaches of the Milky Way. We have heard of how you created Gargantius,Metainformationator and the Story Telling Machines. Apply your knowledge toinventing a new generation of computer technology and you will be richly rewarded.We're confident that you can devise a new class of the new for us which will keepthe global proletariat divided against itself!”“We are scientists dedicated to the scientific method,” replied Trurl. “We must firststudy the problem in detail before coming up with a solution.”“If you want us to sow confusion amongst your mutinous employees, we will haveto examine them at close quarters,” added Klapaucius. “Careful observation is thefoundation of all learning.”“We will begin our research by going down from this mountain top and making anextensive tour of the rest of this watery world,” they both confidently declared.“Have the jewels and metals ready for collection because on our return we willmake a machine which will truly astound you and your colleagues!”With that, the two constructors took their leave of the chief high representative,picked up their official accreditation and made their way to the main gate of theconference centre. When they got there, Trurl and Klapaucius immediatelyunderstood the seriousness of the problem that they'd been asked to solve.The entrance was blocked by a large metal fence which was guarded by threerows of uniformed palefaces equipped with sticks, shields and other weaponry.A short distance away was a large crowd of boisterous protesters shouting slogansand waving banners. Trurl and Klapaucius were fascinated. Some of them weremaking reasoned demands: Don't Pay the Debt! Protect the Environment! Otherswere much more uncompromising in their attitude: Eat the Rich! Hang the Bankers!No wonder that the movers-and-shakers of Terra needed serious protection fromtheir own people.After showing their newly-acquired passports to the police chief, Trurl and Klapauciuswarily passed through the defensive line surrounding Davos and began their travelsaround Terra. In times to come, over a cup or two of electromagnetic soup, theywere given to reminiscing about the warm welcome that they were given by thestrange race of squidgy humans. Much to their surprise, the demonstrators outsideDavos had been very friendly and eager to tell them about how the social systemof their planet could be improved. From this first contact, Trurl and Klapaucius wereintroduced to a network of activists who provided invaluable assistance as theytravelled around the world. Whether in London, Cairo, Athens, Moscow, New York,Madrid, São Paulo, Shanghai or Mumbai, the two constructors kept hearing thesame insistent refrain: the monopolists of money and power were wrecking livesand destroying the planet. The ordinary Terrans had the skills and the abilitiesto run their own communities, but they were never given the opportunity to do so.The natural environment upon which everyone depended was being pillaged forshort-term gain. All that mattered to the ruling elite was its own enrichment. If onlythe bankers and bureaucrats would leave them alone, the proletarians couldmake a much better world for all.“These humans don't need a new class of the new,” said the one.“They already know how to make new things in new ways with new technologies,”agreed the other.“What our pulpy friends need is protection from our wicked employers inDavos,” they both now realised.“We must invent a solution that will solve this problem while still ensuring thatwe get handsomely paid for our efforts.”“A tricky conundrum.”“We've been in worst situations.”“Let's get back to Davos and amaze everyone with our genius includingourselves.”“What an excellent idea!”On their return to the mountain top, Trurl and Klapaucius locked themselvesinside the basement of the hotel and set to work. After nights of furiousexperimenting and loud arguments, the two constructors were finallyready. Calling together the rulers of Terra in the main conference hall,they got up on the stage and - as the music swelled and the lightsdimmed - unveiled their new invention:“Presidents, Directors and CEOs. Your Holinesses, Your Majestiesand Your Excellencies. Ladies and Gentlemen! We are proud topresent at Davos our most brilliant creation: the G20-CMP-MMORPG!!”Picked out by a single spotlight in a cloud of dry ice and swirling lasers,Trurl and Klapaucius continued:“Our assistants are now going around the room to collect your obsoletelaptops, mobiles and other computerised devices. In their place, you willreceive your own personalised holographic multi-sensory interface to accessthis next generation network technology. Once connected, you will be instantlytransported inside the G20-CMP-MMORPG and into a virtual world of neo-liberalperfection. You asked us to create a new class of the new which would divideand disorientate the rebellious global proletariat. We have studied the matterhard and have come up with a much better solution to your problem. Why notget rid of the unpleasantness of having employ workers altogether? Why notdispense with messy nature so you no longer have to worry about greenprotesters? Thanks to our excellent invention, you will never again have torisk your capital by being forced to invest in making useful goods and services.Inside the G20-CMP-MMORPG, money makes more money by itself! Marginalutility always equals marginal cost! The factors of production are Pareto optimised!Profits are constantly increasing and without limits!! It is you that are the newclass of the new - a new ruling elite dominating the friction-free and weightlessdotcom marketplace: the Digerati; the Swarm Capitalists; the Netocracy. Youare the Creative Class who owns the imaginary future of Terra in perpetuity.Inaugurate your avatars - and start accumulating wealth and power beyondyour wildest dreams!”Never had a launch of a new product on that planet had such instant success.Within minutes, the illustrious audience in the Davos conference hall wassucked one by one into the virtual trap laid by Trurl and Klapaucius.As the interfaces for the G20-CMP-MMORPG locked into the greedand pride neurones of their brains, the rulers of Terra found themselveson a virtual trading floor glowing with psychedelic colours and throbbing withthe roar of the crowd. Buy, buy, buy!! Sell, sell, sell!! Money, money, money!!Never had they been so happy as in this eternal moment when their everydeal was a winner. As the presidents, directors and CEOs slumpeddrooling in their chairs lost in reverie, Trurl and Klapaucius quicklymade their exit from the conference hall. After a brief stop to raid thehotel bar, the two constructors went to collect the generous fee in preciousstones and metals which was waiting for them in the chief high representative'soffice.“Don't disturb them whatever you do,” they told the secretary as theyleft. “Your lords and masters will be very angry if anyone returns themto the grubbiness of the real world after experiencing the marvels of theG20-CMP-MMORPG. The punishment will dire!”With this stern warning, the two friends ran to their spaceship and startedits motors to begin the long journey from the outer spiral to the centre ofthe Milky Way. When they eventually arrived home, the first thing thatTrurl and Klapaucius did was to take out their telescope to check whatwas happening back on Terra. The two constructors were delighted tosee that the panjandrums of Davos were still entranced by the thrills ofbuying and selling virtual jig-jags and digital snaffles. Commodities werebooming! Shares were on an up! Bonds were at a premium! The dollarwas strong, the euro solid and the yuan was looking good! Inside thisfinance capitalist utopia, speculators and traders no longer had to worryabout strikes, demonstrations and elections. Economic depressions andglobal warming were an impossibility. The bean-counters and influence-brokersof Davos had been completely mesmerised by the chimeric marketplace of theG20-CMP-MMORPG. The guards had slipped away and the hotel staff werelong gone, but they hadn't noticed. Pizzas, colas, leisurewear and toiletrieswere automatically delivered to maintain the elite's pudgy bodies in a minimumstate of repair. No physical necessity would distract the bankers and bureaucratsfrom their neo-liberal computerised fantasy. Trurl and Klapaucius had successfullyneutralised the evil masters of Terra - and they were determined to keep themthat way.“What an elegant solution turning the selfishness of the few into theemancipation of the many!” said the one with pride. “Those who desiredwealth and power are now kept from harming others by their avatar adventuresinside the G20-CMP-MMORPG.”“Even better, we've ensured that this time the social revolution on Terra won'tlead to the replacement of one elite by another!” declared his companionin a self-congratulatory tone. “Any paleface who harbours morbid ambitionsof leading a new class of the new will soon be seduced into the virtual delusionsof mount Davos.”Staring through their telescope, Trurl and Klapaucius felt a warm glow as theywatched the squidgy creatures who inhabited the rest of the watery worldenjoying their freedom from the dominance of finance capital and managerialauthority. Having escaped from the endless cycle of production and consumption,these Terrans now had the time to relish the sweet pleasures of creativity,conviviality and sensuality. They grew food, built cities and constructed machines.They caressed their lovers, raised their children and cared for their old folk.They made art, studied hard and played games. And how they discussed,argued and debated endlessly. The two inventors knew that they'd be entrancedby the fascinating and magical activities of these pulpy people for a long time tocome.“Maybe the invention of G20-CMP-MMORPG wasn't our greatest achievementafter all,” mused Klapaucius.“I know exactly what you mean,” agreed Trurl. “We just provided a catalyst forthe Terrans to discover how they always wanted to live. After many generationsof exploitation and oppression, our fleshy friends are now able to determine theirown future.”Opening the fiery Polish vodka that they'd purloined from the hotel bar at Davos,the two comrade-in-arms embraced, raised their glasses and made a toast: “Everyplanet celebrates this important moment in galactic history when the class of thenew was superseded by the civilisation of humanity!”Attracted by the noise, colleagues and neighbours soon began arriving to sharein the collective euphoria. It was fortunate that Trurl and Klapaucius had stolenmore than one bottle of vodka to lubricate their Terran victory party...# 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

SCEPSI IN THE INSURRECTIONFinancial capitalism is crumbling with impressive velocity, and thesocial civilization built by labour and science during the moderncenturies, is in danger. Only cognitive work, indipendent fromfinancial capitalism will be able to save it. Building autonomy ofknwoledge from financial dictatorship is our political, scientific andpoetical task.Paradoxically Europe comes back to the center of the world stagethanks to the collapse of the European Union.A decade of insurrectional conflict has began in Europe, because thisis the place where the legacy of five centuries of Humanism,Enlightenment and Socialism is at stakes. Indian and chinese workerswill join the insurrection when the emerging capitalist economies willno more find buyers, because of the Western recession.Therefore World Revolution is at hand as never before.The voluntaristic folly of Lenin's communism ended tragically as itdeserved, leaving behind cynicism and despair.But the collapse of Europe brings class back in the place where Marxoriginally plaaced it: London is burning.After preaching for twenty years competition and consumerism, massmedia are trying to discredit the young British rioters because theywant just to shop without paying. Young people have been dispossessedof everything, future included. Now they start their rebellionplundering want they need, but this is only the beginning, as they arealso cognitive workers.Now they are insurging, then they will build a new world from scratch,because only they can do it.What is happening today will change the course of our lives and thehistorical landscape. Bourgeois capitalism is over and a financialdictatorship has taken its place, bringing destruction and misery.Intellectuals are silent, unable to record and conceptualize theongoing apocalypse and imagine a future.Someone has to do it. This is why we have created a European Schoolfor Social Imagination just before the apocalypse.SCEPSI will emanate projects of knowledge and innovation at the heartof the coming insurrection.

Aksioma -- Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, and Vz(igalica gallerykindly invite you to theopening of the exhibition:*Eva and Franco Mattes aka 0100101110101101.ORG */*Fuck the Systsem*/www.aksioma.org/systsem <http://www.aksioma.org/systsem>***Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana,**Vz(igalica gallery*, Trg francoske revolucije 7, Ljubljana, SloveniaAugust 18^th -- September 9^th 2011*Opening: Thursday, August 18^th 2011 at 8pm**New publication: *Aksioma brochure #11 <http://www.aksioma.org/systsem/pdf/aks_brochure_11_fuck_the_systsem.pdf>, Ljubljana 2011"Fuck the systsem! And the illiterate! Vuk C'osic' talks to Eva andFranco Mattes aka 0100101110101101.ORG"Net art, online performances, pranks and false identities by Evaand Franco Mattes, aka 0100101110101101.ORG, reveal the hidden andrepressed characteristics of the individual hidden behind a computer.In virtual worlds and parallel realities, in the cyborg [human +computer], at the very end, they discover a ghost, which runs thesymbiotic machine and which is, after all, (nothing but) a primate= irritable, competitive, egocentric and many other things. In thepresent exhibition entitled /Fuck the Systsem/, we will be presentedwith four provocative online and public actions, whose mutual interestis the "game" as a civilisational and cultural achievement.The artistic pair has played all types of games (following RogerCaillois: competition, gambling, mimicry, excitement). In the project/Plan C*/(2010), the couple and their collaborators set up an actionin three acts: arrival in Ukraine, investigation of Chernobyl, andtransfer of material to Manchester. The game /Plan C/was ostensiblya prank; however, it was actually perfectly serious and full ofadrenalin. In the video and photo documentation of the second part ofthe action, the artists wearing white protective clothing investigatedthe abandoned remains of an amusement park with merry-go-rounds andelectric cars. According to Caillois, circuses belong to the typeof games that anticipate risk, which always entails the decisivepunishment for the acrobat -- death. In the last part of the project/Plan C/, the artists transferred a merry-go-round from Ukraine toGreat Britain; however, nobody took the potential risk of the objectseriously.The works /My Generation/(2010) and /Freedom/(2010) explore thedeterioration of the game, caused by the breaking of the rulesof the game or the player's digressions. /Freedom/is an onlineperformance, in which the Mattes entered a shoot-out videogame toengage other players in establishing a discourse about anotherreality -- contemporary art. Their attempt was a complete failure.Heavily armed commandos had erased them from the game even beforethe performance could have started. This raised the question of theidentity of the people on the other side of the screen, who controlthe avatars. Therefore, using found footage from the internet,the Mattes compiled a shocking video work /My Generation/, whichshows people during fits of rage after they have lost a game.They take games too seriously. They have lost all sense of an"extra-game" reality, and their obsession harms intimate and familialrelationships, it leads to keyboards being broken, monitors being spaton, etc.In the video work /No Fun/(2010), Franco Mattes dangled from theceiling as a suicide victim to register the reactions of casualvisitors to the website Chatroulette, that is otherwise being used forvideo chats between (often coincidental) visitors. Many interlocutorswere shocked; however, the most shocking reactions were those of thepeople who were totally indifferent. For in the field of virtualreality, there is very little awareness of death, which is a naturaland inevitable part of digital life. Death, not only as a politicalprotest against corporate web environments (YouTube banned thescreening of the video), but also as a consequence of a defect in thevital functions of a human organism or a hard drive.*Plan C is a project by Ryan C Doyle, Eva and Franco Mattes aka0100101110101101.ORG with the collaboration of film makers ToddChandler and Jeff Stark, photographer Tod Seelie and fabricator SteveValdez. Plan C was originally commissioned by Abandon Normal Devicesand Dispari&Dispari Project.*Download the full text by Ida Hirs(enfelder here <http://www.aksioma.org/systsem/pdf/ida_hirsenfelder_fuck_the_systsem_eng.pdf>.****Production: *Aksioma -- Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, 2011_www.aksioma.org <http://www.aksioma.org/>_Artistic director: Janez Jans(aExecutive producer: Marcela Okretic(Public relations: Mojca Zupanic(Technical support: Atila Bos(tjanc(ic(*Co-production:* Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana*Supported by* the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the Municipality of Ljubljana/**//Sponsor: Datacenter d.o.o./*Contact:*Marcela Okretic(, 041 250 830, aksioma4-gGgVlfcn5nU< at >public.gmane.org <mailto:aksioma4-gGgVlfcn5nU< at >public.gmane.org>*Aksioma | Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana*Neubergerjeva 25, 1000 Ljubljana, Sloveniatel.: + 386 -- (0)590 - 54360_www.aksioma.org <http://www.aksioma.org/>_

The affair DSK and the forgotten IMF self-criticism report of May 20. 2011August 16, 2011 by Tjebbe van TijenA fully documented and illustrated version is available athttp://limpingmessenger.wordpress.com/2011/08/16/the-affair-dsk-and-the-forgotten-imf-self-criticism-report-of-may-20-2011/THIS IS MY FIRST QR-CODED tableau try it:“Bonnet d’âne pour le FMI” (dunce’s cap for the IMF; literary ‘donkey’s cap’) I read in Le Monde Diplomatique of August 2011, with a sarcastic comment by Pierre Rimbert on how the arrest of Dominique Strauss Kahn for sexual assault of a hotel worker on May 15th overshadowed a self-critical report of the International Monetary Fund by its own “Independent Evaluation Office” (IEO) published on May 20. The report itself is on-line and worthwhile reading, because the ‘economic assault of international banks’ on all of us is too easily overlooked as we all like daily scandal better…These are some harsh findings in the report of the Independent Evaluation Office of the IMF:“…the relevance of research to authorities and its utilization were hampered by the lack of early consultation with country authorities on research themes and by a lack of country and institutional context.” [page 27; paragraph 75]“…there is a widely held perception that IMF research is message driven. About half of the authorities held this view, and more than half of the staff indicated that they felt pressure to align their conclusions with IMF policies and positions. Policy recommendations provided in some research publications did not follow from the research results, and a number of country authorities and researchers noted that IMF research tended to follow a pre-set view with predictable conclusions that did not allow for alternative perspectives. This detracted from the quality and credibility of studies and reduced their utilization.” [page 28; paragraph 77]“…there was no IMF-wide leadership of research. Research activities were highly decentralized, and there was very limited coordination across departments. There was no mechanism to set IMF-wide priorities or quality standards. Collaboration among staff across departments was limited and mostly based on personal relationships.” [page 28; paragraph 79][tableau picture of an iPad with the logo of the International Monetary Fund and the critical report mentioned in thsi raticle, a QR code gives for users of Android, iPhones or iPads direct access to this IMF report in PDF format]Click picture for bigger version and test the QR-code: tested with iPad 2 and 4 QR-code apps: QR HD, Scan, QRdeCode, Qrafter (the last one is the best as it zooms automatically and is a free app) It should bring you directly to the report of IEO "Research at the IMF: relevance and utilization."Reading the self-critic report of the IMF made me check its reception and how it was related to the impact of Strauss Kahn and his short lived IMF reign. It lead me to the English language Turkish newspaper ‘Today’s Zaman’ (said to be close to the Turkish Justice and Development Party) and a long comment by their columnist Asim Erdilek, from which I took this citation:What both IEO reports omit, however, is that since 2008 the IMF’s official views have been moving away from the Washington Consensus. This began under the former IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a former socialist French finance minister, who chose his compatriot MIT macroeconomist Olivier Blanchard to be the IMF economic counselor and research department director (see my columns “The IMF’s evolving policy makeover” (1) and (2), published on Feb. 22 and March 1, 2010, respectively). In several recent publications the IMF has demonstrated its tilting to the left in economic policies by calling for higher inflation rates as well as greater financial regulation in developed countries and for capital controls in developing countries. We have to wait and see whether this tilting to the left will continue, creating an opposite research bias, under the IMF’s controversial new managing director, also from France.Christine Lagarde one of the few ministers in the cabinet of Sarkozy’s UMP party that survived the frequent reshuffles of France’s president (“Le joker de Sarkozy”; Le Figaro; 2009), is a lawyer by profession and not an economist, she is known for publicly denying bad news and proposing her view of ”la vie en rose.“:Christine Lagarde estime que “le gros de la crise est derrière nous” Le Nouvel Observateur 20/8/2007 (Christine Lagarde estimates that the main part of the crisis is behind us)Christine Lagarde: conférence de presse “L’économie française repose sur des fondamentaux qui sont solides [...] Je ne conçois pas aujourd’hui de contamination à l’économie mondiale” Le Monde Blogs 17/8/2007 (Christine Lagrande during [an often cited] press conference: “French economy is put on solid fundaments [...] I do not conceive today a contamination of it by world economy”)Lagarde : “Il n’y aura pas d’éclatement de la zone euro” Le Figaro 18/11/2010 (Lagarde “the Euro zone will not be blown up”)If she will be anything more than a mouthpiece for the international banking world is doubtful, if her method of public broadcasted optimism is enough to quell the financial crisis is most unlikely.The conspiracy theories that have been circulating with Dominique Strauss Kahn as a supposed leftist belonging to the French Socialist Party, to be discredited by a schemed sexual intervention, leading to the appointment of another French director of the IMF from the right wing UMP party of Sarkozy, are grotesque. DSK is a man finding apparently pleasure in risky violent sexual behaviour. The coming-out of the lady he assaulted, did also put an end to any Hollywood movie inspired conspiracy story, with high class call girls on secret missions. It was indeed just a lady doing hotel work who befell the outrageous assault. Sarkozy may even not have been comfortable with the demise of DSK, as with DSK the interest of France in an international organisation, was some how manifest, at a level beyond national politics. That a politician like Sarkozy grabs the occasion delivered to him by DSK’s fall, is obvious, but this was first of all a improvised emergency measure. And so Christine Lagarde, promoted by France, added this “personal touch to her pitch to lead this global institution” for the board of IMF directors on on June 22, 2011:“I stand here as a woman, hoping to add to the diversity and balance of this institution. I stand here as former head of an international law firm with a dedication to integrity, to the highest moral standards and a belief in participative management. I stand here as a Finance minister who has been tested in times of crisis. I would like to put these skills and experience at work to serve the International Monetary Fund”‘Rue 89′ a daily platform for commenting the news has a comment on a radio interview with Lagarde still as the French minister of finance with ‘France Inter’ on April 11th this year, where she also has to answer questions by listeners. A pensioned lady comes in the broadcast and explains how she tries to live on 800 Euros a month and succeeds only to cover 15 days with this amount. Comes the answer of Lagrande:“Le gouvernement a tout a fait conscience de votre problème et c’est pour cela qu’il a décidé d’augmenter de 2% les pensions de minimum vieillesse.” (The government has been completely conscious of your problem and has therefore decided to augment with 2% the minimum elderly pensions)The commentator on ‘Rue 89′, the economist Jean Matouk, precises in his article (*) the actual government measures, 4,7% augmentation for the minimum elderly income and 2% for the pensions. Matouk tells us in a sarcastic tone also to what it boils down: “16 Euros more pro month. What is she moaning about?” The next question to Finance Minister Lagarde from radio listeners make her jumps from tens of Euros to milliards, as the support for Greece and other “weak economies” in Europe and its financial consequences are brought in. I will not cite the whole interview here, details are on-line in French, but what is striking, is the correlation between the way the poor pension lady is helped by Lagarde and her world of high finances and the way ‘global economy’ is handled by the same forces.[tableau that shows of Europe riding the bull in ancient version, plus a modern sculpture with the same subject and the captions reads "Christine Lagarde riding the Euro bull in front of the European Parliament Building in Strassbourg while the New York Wall Street bull is waiting her, a symbol of the recovery of the American people from the stock market crash of 1987 by the Italian-American artist Arturo Di Monica, who placed the sculpture on his own initiative at first, later integrated as a city highlight. The charging bull shows in Di Monica's words: "the energy, strength, and unpredictability of the stock market." (**)]“I stand here as a Finance minister who has been tested in times of crisis.” The pitch from Lagarde for the board of directors of the IMF and she did get the job. “Been tested” seems to be the ability of politicians to remain in the saddle during an economic rodeo, which does not mean that the bull she has been riding has been tamed. Alternative forms of domestication are needed and there seem to be no ‘alternative views’ possible with the IMF, neither with the board of directors, nor with their new head Lagarde, let me cite again IMF’s Internal Evaluation Office May 2011 report:”researchers noted that IMF research tended to follow a pre-set view with predictable conclusions that did not allow for alternative perspectives.”It is ‘alternative perspectives’ on economy we need to put an end to orchestrated ‘economic assaults’ that are at the basis of the legal system of our societies and remain thus – most of the times – unpunished—(*) Vivre avec 800 € par mois quand les banques enfument le monde (‘Living on 800 Euros a month while the banks smokes up the world’; there is a double meaning here in ‘enfumer’, one of a smoke screen, the other of something being fucked).(**) For details on the Wall Street bull of Di Monica see Wikipedia.Tjebbe van TijenImaginary Museum ProjectsDramatizing Historical Informationhttp://imaginarymuseum.orgweb-blog: The Limping Messengerhttp://limpingmessenger.wordpress.com/# 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

*I don't often dabble in net.art, but every once in a while I have tokeep my hand in -- if only for the cynical pleasure of writing my ownpress releases.brucesScience Fiction Writer Becomes Augmented Reality DeveloperArt Center College of Design, Pasadena CA, August 18, 2011Art Center "Visionary in Residence" Bruce Sterling has created his ownaugmented reality."Sometimes it's easiest to teach by doing," said the novelist anddesign critic, speaking from Art Center's "Reality Augmented" Lab inPasadena. "I used to write science fiction about Augmented Realityback when it was mostly imaginary. Now that it's become a realindustry, I had to conjure some up for myself."Sterling's new application runs on the "Layar" platform, available oniPhones, Androids and Symbian mobiles. Amsterdam-based Layar was thecorporate sponsor for the special project this summer at Art CenterCollege of Design. This was the first course in America to concentrateon the design of AR.Twenty Art Center students from various design majors have created ARapps and also prototyped ideas for new, futuristic Layar services.The AR class was co-taught by creative director Guillaume Wolf andproduced by Nikolaus Hafermaas, Art Center's Dean of Special Programs.Sterling's new Layar "layer" is titled "Dead Drops," and is aninternational collaboration with Layar coder Menno Bieringa, Germanmedia artist Aram Bartholl and Layar artist-in-residence SanderVeenhof."I wrote a contribution for a new book about Aram's artwork," saysSterling, "and I realized his 'Dead Drops' network meshes perfectlywith the Augmented Reality ideal. It's all about hidden data revealedin real-world, three-dimensional spaces. So, suddenly, I had a classproject. Now I'm a registered Layar developer."Bartholl "Dead Drops" are thumb-sized flash drives publicly hidden incities around the world. Bartholl's urban intervention features in thecurrent "Talk to Me" show at the New York Museum of Modern Art.With Sterling's "Dead Drops Layer," users can scan the horizon forhandy Dead Drops that might be lurking nearby. A few taps and clickscreate a map that will lead to the site. Network users can then plugtheir laptops directly into the "Dead Drops," which are commonlyembedded in brick walls and almost invisible.Programmer Sander Veenhof, who visited and lectured at the AR classin Pasadena, is Layar's artist-in-residence. Veenhof's own augmentedreality works include the "Infiltr.AR" invasion of the White House andthe "Battling Pavilions" exhibit at the Venice Biennale."Now that the app is launched, Menno, Sander and I have someprovocative ideas about new features," says Sterling. "Aram's networkis growing steadily. I'm writing a new work of augmented fictionspecifically created for Dead Drops."Sterling doubts that he will be the last science fiction writer toembrace "Augmented Reality.""Layar's strategy is to transform Augmented Reality into a massmedium," says Sterling. "That means a torrent of change in hardwareand software, plus new initiatives like the 'Layar Vision CreationChallenge.' AR is happening today in places with core mediacompetence. The Los Angeles basin is definitely one of those places.I'm pleased about this 'special program' -- I feel that it's openednew prospects for everyone involved. I couldn't have done it anywhereelse but at Art Center College of Design."http://www.layar.com/layers/deaddropshttp://www.layar.com/layar-creation-challenge/

*I get my share of remarkable messages apparently from "nettime-l", but this one's ultra-remarkable. What kind of weird phishing entity would watch a modest email list and then generate this faked out-of-office reply, replete with clickable mayhem? Also: how did it scan the text of my message and geolocate itself here in California?brucesFrom: nettime-l-fO7mttO5ZDI< at >public.gmane.orgSubject: Re: <nettime> Science Fiction Writer Becomes Augmented Reality DeveloperDate: 19 August 2011 01.46.47 GMT-07.00To: Bruce Sterling <bruces-bAttSoROYyI< at >public.gmane.org>I am out of office right now and will get back to you when I return. If you don't hear from me, my assistant should contact you shortly. In the meantime, check out this free phone offer that all of my co-workers have been telling me about..Click HereEnable images or click hereLet me know what you think after you have a chance to review.Cheers!If you no longer wish to receive emails, please unsubscr ibe866-288-18805150 yarmouth ave, Encino, CA 91316

What will be the last view of Gaddafi of this world?August 21, 2011 by Tjebbe van Tijen For the version with two tableau pictures and links see The Limping Messenger:http://limpingmessenger.wordpress.com/2011/08/21/what-will-be-the-last-view-of-gaddafi-of-this-world/--------[tableau: which way up?]What will be the last view of Gaddafi of this world?which way up?which way down?what will be our last view of him?the anti-colonial guerilla fighter hero he associated with Omar al Mukhtar ? Lion of the Desert ? hung in 1931 by the Italian fascist colonial regime under Benito Mussolini(Gaddafi wore the last photograph of Mukhtar alive just before his execution as a badge on his military uniformwhen visiting Berlusconi in Italy in 2009)orthe ruthless dictator Benito Mussolini, as captured by Italian Partisans in 1945, when he tried to flee to Switzerland and executed on the spot, hung by his feet?the flag of his copy cat green revolution waved four decadesthe regime he helped create repressed as many people as it did bind, to its peculiar form of common wealthdespised and embraced at the same time, by other leaders from other countrieswho drew their plans for his removal while celebrating their meetings with himthose from his own camp, who now leave him to face up to his last dayswill trample on his face to hide their own pastwill his court be in the streets or in The Hague?there will be no singular view of Gaddafias with all dictators both his faceand the way we see itare split.[tableau: which way down?]-----------Tjebbe van TijenImaginary Museum ProjectsDramatizing Historical Informationhttp://imaginarymuseum.orgweb-blog: The Limping Messengerhttp://limpingmessenger.wordpress.com/

BEHIND THE NEWS with Doug Henwood"Best Music on an Economics & Politics Radio Show"Village Voice Best of NYC 2005Freshly posted to my radio archive(actually the files have been there for a while, but the web gateway wasn't updated - if you subscribe to the podcast, you've gotten these already)<http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html>:August 20, 2011 Max Ajl, the Jewbonics blogger, on why Israelis are in the streets and how talk of the Occupation is not welcome • Yanis Varoufakisupdates the eurocrisis as it spreads westwardsit joins:---------August 13, 2011 Dacher Keltner of UC–Berkeley on the psychology of class and social interactions • David Graeber, author of Debt: The First 5,000 Years, provides an anthropologist’s POV on money and debtJuly 30, 2011 Joel Schalit on Brevik, the European right, its attitude towards Israel, and Israel’s own right • Brad DeLong on the political economy of austerityJuly 23, 2011 James Galbraith on deficit hysteria and the single-volume collection of four books by his father, John Kenneth Galbraith, published by the Library of AmercaJuly 16, 2011 Amber Hollibaugh, interim director of Queers for Economic Justice, on the limits of same-sex marriage (see here for more) • Jeff Madrick, author of The Age of Greed, on the emergence of today’s icky economic orderJuly 2, 2011 Christian Parenti, author of Tropic of Chaos, talks about the effects of climate change amidst state collapse, plentiful weaponry, and neoliberalismJune 25, 2011 Abe Sauer, writer for The Awl, on what’s been going on in Wisconsin since the great February upsurge • Abby Rapoport of The Texas Observer on Texas gov Rick Perry • Jon Bakija, co-author of this paper, on how and why the rich have gotten richerJune 18, 2011 Ken Morris, co-author of Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin, on that overexposed curiosity • Julia Ott, author of When Wall Street Met Main Street, on big finance’s attempts to appear democraticJune 11, 2011 Vincent Reinhart at the Council on Foreign Relations on Greece and the political trick of austerity (thanks to the CFR for allowing broadcast; full event here) • Greg Grandin, author of Fordlandia, on all the great political developments in South AmericaJune 4, 2011 Another Hoover interview: Morris Fiorina on American public opinion and the nonexistence of the “culture war” • And in non-Hoover content, Yanis Varoufakis updates the Greek and EU crisesMay 28, 2011 Hoover Institution special. Two interviews from my week as a Hoover media fellow. Paul Gregory on Russian politics (Putin vs. Medvedev) • Terry Moe on school “reform” (i.e., charters, testing, unionbusting, etc.)---Doug HenwoodProducer, Behind the NewsSaturdays, 10-11 AM, KPFA, Berkeley 94.1 FM"best music on a show about economics & politics" - Village Voice242 Greene Ave - #1CBrooklyn, NY 11238-1398 USA+1-347-599-2211<http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html>iTunes: <http://tinyurl.com/3bsaqb>Facebook group: <http://www.facebook.com/pages/Behind-the-News-with-Doug-Henwood/104198236341205>.

PR.ocess or PR.opaganda: a battle for the truthThe relationship between truth and lies is one we must negotiate every day. Generally, it comes down to who tells us what. The profession of Public Relations deals in truth and lies as commodities, less a set of objective parameters, more like the tradeable functions of a multi-billion dollar industry. Circling truth and lies is PR and there is good PR and there is bad PR. Knowing the difference and undermining the negatives may well define the coming period in global affairs.The good stuff we might call PR.ocess because it helps inform and enlighten by ensuring varied points in a debate are communicated. It helps develop the democratic process. Then there is the PR we might call PR.opaganda. This is the PR purveyed by those who chase dollars not values, who will communicate whatever lies their paymasters require. There are precious few of those promoting the former and far too many pushing the latter.What is to be done about the enduring power of PR.opaganda? On one level, of course, it is important to defend the truth and of those who promote it. This needs to be driven by vigilant and informed stakeholders and, as such, a free and high quality media is vital as an infrastructure to encourage those highly engaged stakeholders.

A stateless person is someone with no citizenship or nationality. An estimated 12-15 million people in the world are not citizens of any state, and are therefore inherently deprived of the right to have rights.The ?stateless plug-in? is a browser extension that intervenes in digital territory, transforming the issue of stateless people into a multifaceted digital mapping of existing knowledge and information on the Internet.By interconnecting an extensive range of positions on statelessness in an unanticipated way, the stateless plug-in generates an unpredicted non-linear and dynamic storyline with space for unanticipated thoughts and connections. This project offers a critical comment towards the lack of attention on the issue by beseeching the users attention through the infiltration of their usual browsing behaviour.To download the extension for Firefox, Chrome or Safari, or to learn more about the project, please visit: www.statelessplugin.net

----- Forwarded message from Alan Sondheim <sondheim-VmQCmMdMyN0AvxtiuMwx3w< at >public.gmane.org> -----From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim-VmQCmMdMyN0AvxtiuMwx3w< at >public.gmane.org>Subject: WHAT'S HAPPENING TO US? Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2011 01:56:07 -0400 (EDT)To: nettime-l-fO7mttO5ZDI< at >public.gmane.orgWHAT'S HAPPENING TO US?Please look at http://www.alansondheim.org/skypejunk.jpg THIS IS THE "NEW"SKYPE INTERFACE ON MY MACHINE! Note: First of all, the statement at thebottom: "Your contacts have not been very active recently..." Really? Whatbusiness is it of Skype? Maybe they haven't been active just with me?Maybe they're calling me on the phone, we're meeting for lunch? This isn'tfunny - it's a hideous invasion of privacy. It's also telling me: MY CON-TACTS SHOULD BE ACTIVE AND SHOULD BE ACTIVE WITH ME. It's social engineer-ing at it's worst. Look at the chummy slot above: "Tell your friends whatyou've been up to" - again, what business is it of theirs? And so many ofus use these applications as if they're neutral or helpful, whatever.Skype started off like a lot of these things as bare-bones (think of Fb,MySpace, etc.), and slowly began to take over our lives. And all of usgood little theorists (included) just use these things as if we're REALLYsaying something. (Don't worry, I'm not theorizing here, I'm fuckingRANTING!) On a personal level, I can't stand this presumed chumminess; I'musing the phone or IM outside of Skype when I can. But this stuff goes onand on. We can't communicate without consulting our goddamn Iphones, wecan't listen to music without ITunes maximum-prophet interface, we buyinto Fb's "friends" or +'s "circles" - and since when in the psat millionyears have we quantified or classified our friends (well maybe in gradeschool). Go back and read Sartre on seriality and authenticity - mycomplaint is nothing new here, but what surprises me is how we accept allof this along with Wired mag's hyperbole, etc. etc. PEOPLE ARE STARVING INTHE HORN OF AFRICA: MAYBE WE SHOULD FRIEND THEM!!!----- End forwarded message ---------- Forwarded message from Alan Sondheim <sondheim-VmQCmMdMyN0AvxtiuMwx3w< at >public.gmane.org> -----From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim-VmQCmMdMyN0AvxtiuMwx3w< at >public.gmane.org>Subject: The Sound of Irene Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2011 01:08:05 -0400 (EDT)To: nettime-l-fO7mttO5ZDI< at >public.gmane.orgThe Sound of Irenehttp://www.alansondheim.org/irene3.mp3http://www.alansondheim.org/irene4.mp3http://www.alansondheim.org/irene5.mp3Technique: Westinghouse vibration meter used to record from window-glass,air-conditioner surface (unit off), and wall. The meter records very lowfrequency audio, from around .4 hz to 200. The audio was raised twooctaves; the result is what you hear - the sound of things shaking, out ofcontrol. Our roof is already leaking badly and the storm's not really hereyet.----- End forwarded message -----

From.: ft.com (http://tinyurl.com/3nmn75w)August 30, 2011 8:21 pmBy Martin WolfWhat has the market turmoil of August been telling us? The answer, Isuggest, is three big things: first, the debt-encumbered economies of the high-income countries remain extremely fragile; second, investors have next to no confidence in the ability of policymakers to resolve the difficulties; and, third, in a time of high anxiety, investors prefer what are seen as the least risky assets, namely, the bonds of the most highly rated governments, regardless of their defects, together with gold. Those who fear deflation buy bonds; those who fear inflation buy gold; those who cannot decide buy both. But few investors or corporate managers wish to take on any longer-term investment risks.Welcome, then, to what Carmen Reinhart, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, and Harvard’s Kenneth Rogoff call “the second great contraction” (the Great Depression of the 1930s being the first). Those less apocalyptic might call it the “Japanese disease”.Many ask whether high-income countries are at risk of a “double dip” recession. My answer is: no, because the first one did not end. The question is, rather, how much deeper and longer this recession or “contraction” might become. The point is that, by the second quarter of 2011, none of the six largest high-income economies had surpassed output levels reached before the crisis hit, in 2008 (see chart). The US and Germany are close to their starting points, with France a little way behind. The UK, Italy and Japan are languishing far behind.The authoritative National Bureau of Economic Research of the US does define a recession as “a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months”. This is to focus on the change in output, rather than its level. Normally, that makes sense. But this recession is not normal. When economies suffer such steep collapses, as they did during the worst of the crisis (the peak to trough fall in gross domestic product having varied between 3.9 per cent in France and 9.9 per cent in Japan), an expansion that fails to return output to the starting point will not feel like recovery. This is especially true if unemployment remains high, employment low and spare capacity elevated. In the US, unemployment is still double its pre-crisis rates.The depth of the contraction and the weakness of the recovery are both result and cause of the ongoing economic fragility. They are a result, because excessive private sector debt interacts with weak asset prices, particularly of housing, to depress demand. They are a cause, because the weaker is the expected growth in demand, the smaller is the desire of companies to invest and the more subdued is the impulse to lend. This, then, is an economy that fails to achieve “escape velocity” and so is in danger of falling back to earth.Now consider, against this background of continuing fragility, how people view the political scene. In neither the US nor the eurozone, does the politician supposedly in charge – Barack Obama, the US president, and Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor – appear to be much more than a bystander of unfolding events, as my colleague, Philip Stephens, recently noted. Both are – and, to a degree, operate as – outsiders. Mr Obama wishes to be president of a country that does not exist. In his fantasy US, politicians bury differences in bipartisan harmony. In fact, he faces an opposition that would prefer their country to fail than their president to succeed. Ms Merkel, similarly, seeks a non-existent middle way between the German desire for its partners to abide by its disciplines and their inability to do any such thing. The realisation that neither the US nor the eurozone can create conditions for a speedy restoration of growth – indeed the paralysing disagreements over what those conditions might be – is scary.This leads us to the third big point: the dire consequences of soaring risk aversion, against the background of such economic fragility. In the long journey to becoming ever more like Japan, the yields on 10-year US and German government bonds are now down to where Japan’s had fallen in October 1997, at close to 2 per cent (see chart). Does deflation lie ahead in these countries, too? One big recession could surely bring about just that. That seems to me to be a more plausible danger than the hyperinflation that those fixated on fiscal deficits and central bank balance sheet find so terrifying.A shock caused by a huge fight over fiscal policy – the debate over the terms on which to raise the debt ceiling – has caused a run into, not out of, US government bonds. This is not surprising for two reasons: first, these are always the first port in a storm; second, the result will be a sharp tightening of fiscal policy. Investors guess that the outcome will be a still weaker economy, given the enfeebled state of the private sector. Again, in a still weaker eurozone, investors have run into the safe haven of German government bonds.Meanwhile, stock markets have taken a battering. Yet it is hard to argue that they have reached a point of capitulation. According to Yale’s Robert Shiller, the cyclically adjusted price-earnings ratio for the US (based on the S&P 500) is almost a quarter above its long-term average. In 1982, the valuation was a third of current levels. Will markets avoid such a collapse? That must depend on when and how the great contraction ends.Nouriel Roubini, also known as “Dr Doom”, predicts a downturn. “A stopped clock”, some will mutter. Yet he is surely right that the buffers have mostly gone: interest rates are low, fiscal deficits are huge and the eurozone is stressed. The risks of a vicious spiral from bad fundamentals to policy mistakes, a panic and back to bad fundamentals are large, with further economic contraction ahead.Yet all is not lost. In particular, the US and German governments retain substantial fiscal room for manoeuvre – and should use it. But, alas, governments that can spend more will not and those who want to spend more now cannot. Again, the central banks have not used up their ammunition. They too should dare to use it. Much more could also be done to hasten deleveraging of the private sector and strengthen the financial system. Another downturn now would surely be a disaster. The key, surely, is not to approach a situation as dangerous as this one within the boundaries of conventional thinking.What being bolder might mean and what should therefore be done will be the topic for next week’s column.# 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

*Artleaks* is collective platform initiated by an international group ofartists, curators, art historians and intellectuals in response to the abuseof their professional integrity and the open infraction of their laborrights. In the art world, such abuses usually disappear, but some eventsbring them into sharp focus and therefore deserve public scrutiny. Only bydrawing attention to concrete abuses can we underscore the precariouscondition of cultural workers and the necessity for sustained protestagainst the appropriation of politically engaged art, culture and theory byinstitutions embedded in a tight mesh of capital and power.In our case, we began collaborating as a working group who wanted topublicly bring to light Pavilion UniCredit’s consistent mistreatment ofartists, workers and even visitors to their center in Bucharest, Romania.This center is devoted to contemporary art and culture and financed by oneof the most prominent banks in Europe – UniCredit. Yet, we saw its missionto provide a space for critical thinking and dialogue compromised – throughthe management’s repressive maneuvers against those of us who problematizedtheir politics and criticized their dubious engagement with their mainsponsor. Having witnessed and experienced first-hand the exploitationsperpetrated by the management, we decided it was our collective duty toopenly speak against them, as well as warn those artists, curators andworkers collaborating with this center.Further, we regard this case to be more than a singular instance of abuse; butseek to enable other members of the community to raise similar issues -related to corporate sponsors’ co-opting of cultural activity and mis-use ofsocial credibility thus gained. We consider it unacceptable on the part ofthese so-called benefactors to refuse decent conditions for cultural workersthrough oppressive measures – the same workers whose labor makes theirsubsistence possible.In response to blacklisting and continued abuse conjoined with unbridledexploitation, it is our civic and political duty to bring to light themechanisms of corruption and inspire others to do so as well. Instead ofletting singular protests succumb to anonymity, gossip or institutionalhush-hush, we must extract from situations of inequality, general conditionsthat affect the social and political mission of workers and establishmentsfor art and culture.Implicit in this collective protest is a radical form of institutionalcritique – emphasizing the urgent need to make visible and counteract allforms of repression, abuse, mistreatment and arrogance that have beennormalized through the practices of many cultural managers. While each caseof abuse may be different, the increasing amount of power vested in artinstitutions controlled by corporate players, calls out for a collectivestruggle for equal rights and fair treatment of cultural workers.We must expose common-currency practices of slander, intimidation andblackmail as they are. We seek to enable like-minded people to standtogether against instances of mistreatment related to cultural labor,repression channeled through dishonest management or blatant censorship. Wewant to create a strong network of art systems’ whistleblowers – throughwhich we support and protect each other in critical moments as much aspossible. Through the power of facts, first-hand testimonies and visualinformation we seek to deconstruct the politics of who, what and how isinvited into the exhibition space, and most importantly the circumstancesunder which one is ousted and then blacklisted.We believe in the power of sustained artleaking to turn the tables oncorruption and exploitation, to force art and culture institutions topublicly account for their politics and their actions. To mafia tactics andauthoritarian tendencies, we answer with openness, angriness and solidarity.The tools that we continue to build together are geared towards empowering –to work with dignity and articulate our positions without obstruction and toexchange information and ideas beyond national borders.We initiate and provide the community with online tools which are open foruse by anyone ready to share this or that case. Each case will be archived,building a comprehensive index of repression. We believe retroactiveartleaking is just as important as early-warning leaking in the present.Thus, we welcome cultural workers to publish reports on the situation insideof the institution in any form. Both anonymous and signed reports arewelcome. We only ask to submit each case with collective evidence, such asfirst-hand reports and documentation such as e-mail correspondence, internalregulations and documents, video recordings and so on. We welcome thesubmission of evidence in the original language and we will do our best tomake it available to international audiences in English. Our moderators willguarantee the objectivity of each case in a wiki style of communication witheach contributor.It is time to break the silence.For more information please visit: *http://art-leaks.org/*or on facebookhttp://www.facebook.com/pages/ArtLeaks/119726398121901?sk=info#!/pages/ArtLeaks/119726398121901?sk=wall* <http://art-leaks.org/>*Email contact: *artsleaks-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w< at >public.gmane.org*

New Media and the People-Powered UprisingsSocial media is a potent tool for change, one that upends the collective action dynamics that, until now, have constrained Arab citizens.Zeynep Tufekci 08/30/2011http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/guest/27122/?p1=A3[Zeynep Tufekci is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Her main research interests are the social impacts of technology, theorizing the web, gender, research methods, inequality, and social media. Her blog: technosociology.]Hosni Mubarak ruled Egypt for 30 years while Muammar Gaddafi dominated Libya for nearly 42 years. Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali reigned Tunisia for 24 years, and the ousted, but not-yet-out Yemen leader Ali Abdullah Saleh has been in power since 1978—36 years and counting. Bashar al-Assad has ruled Syria since 2000, when he took over from his father's 30 year reign, making it 41 years of Assad rule.By all accounts, these regimes are/were deeply unpopular. While we have no reliable polls from when these autocrats were in power (because they did not allow them), a post-Mubarak poll, for example, finds, that 66 percent of Egyptians want him executed if convicted. When asked to describe his regime, the top choice of Egyptians is "Dictator" (48 percent) followed by "Corrupt" (46 percent). The real question, then, is not why Mubarak or the others faced a revolt; rather, how did these tyrants succeed in holding on to power for so long? How can one man or a very small group hold on to power over millions for decade after decade?It's certainly not for lack of bravery on the part of the citizens. As we witnessed, many people are willing to take a stand for freedom and dignity at considerable risk. And, as John Pollock's article, Streetbook, discusses, there had been demonstrations and even large labor strikes in the region-the April 6th youth movement in Egypt derives its name from the strike it was founded to support, and the Gafsa labor unrest in Tunisia was sizeable, but it lacked the national vision later protests would have. What are the mechanisms which allow for decades of "durable authoritarianism"? How does the new media ecology alter this equation?The short answer is that these regimes survive mainly by creating a "collective action" problem for their citizenry and by playing "whack-a-protest" to prevent cascades of action. (The long answer also includes networks of patronage, international power relations, sometimes natural resource wealth, and often ethnic and religious divisions)."Collective action problems" arise when a problem can be solved only through cooperation by many, but when there are strong disincentives for any one individual to participate, especially if victory is not guaranteed. These problems can be seen as a society-level version of the "prisoner's dilemma," a well-studied model in game theory where two criminals in custody are told they will be allowed to go free if they confess and their partner doesn't or if neither confesses; however, they will be punished severely if their partner confesses and they don't. The logical option would be for both to "defect" and confess for fear the other one would; this seemingly logical outcome is actually to the detriment of both, who would have been better off if neither confessed.A society-level collective action problem arises under an autocracy when costs of dissent are high for individuals and the means of organizing to overcome the dilemma are stifled. Thus, under autocracies, torture and arbitrary and lengthy prison sentences are not just expressions of capricious cruelty, but key mechanisms which allow these regimes to survive. When even a whiff of dissent is met with disproportionate response, this creates a strong disincentive for any individual to be among the first. And as Pollock's article demonstrates, "whack-a-protest," as exemplified by the Gafsa strike in Tunisia, 2008, allows these regimes to isolate and repress regions of unrest. Ben Ali's regime might have been cruel, but, like all states, it is a resource-constrained actor: it cannot be everywhere at once; it cannot arrest hundreds of thousands of people, and it cannot easily crush a mass uprising. Even if such an uprising can be crushed, often at great cost, tyrants certainly prefer a stable situation with a population that remains repressed and quiet while they plunder the country to a civil war. Thus, censorship and isolation of protests is a key mechanism of survival.Collective action problems are hardest to crack if it's difficult for citizens to coordinate and communicate. Indeed, game-theorists have long known that communication between participants dramatically alters the dynamics of these "dilemmas" which appear rigged against the interests of the individuals. Indeed, "united we stand, divided we fall" is not just a corny motto, it's what arises from game theory calculations.Another key dynamic is what's known as "preference falsification" to political scientists and "pluralistic ignorance" to social psychologists: when people privately hold a particular view but do not share it in fear of reprisal, punishment, or violating a social norm. In autocracies, this can cause a "spiral of silence" in which many wish for regime change, but are afraid to speak up outside of few trusted ties. Indeed, when I was in post-Mubarak Cairo, my hosts kept pointing in amazement to various street corners where fierce political discussions were being held and often whispered, before remembering they could now speak up and adjusting their voice, "You never saw this. Nobody ever discussed politics openly, ever." Then they would pause and add, "Well, except online, of course. We all discussed politics online." And this is exactly what these autocrats had been able to stifle for many decades: an oppositional information/action cascade.Such a cascade doesn't just mean that people learn about each other's views—it's reasonable that many knew that these regimes were unpopular. Cascades occur not just because of information, but also when people assess an opening and a reasonable chance of success—and as Pollock reports when "people realize[d] it was now or never." There are few moments more dangerous to an autocracy.It is in this context Facebook "likes" of dissident pages such as "We are All Khaled Said," sharing of videos of regime brutality, online expressions of political anger, and acceptances of Facebook "invitations" to protest all matter as they help build a visible momentum which, itself, is a condition of success. A public is not created just because everyone individually holds an opinion but because there is multi-level awareness of other people's views leading to a spiral of action and protest. (I know that you know that I know that you know that we know ...).That is why the new media ecology is a game-changer and that is exactly the process John Pollock's extensive on-the-ground reporting unravels. The new media ecology is not just the Internet but a potent combination of a politicized pan-Arab broadcast network, Al-Jazeera, mass diffusion of video and picture-capable cell phones, as well as social media—and all this in just a few years. Facebook in Arabic was introduced in March of 2009 and taken up quickly with about five million users in Egypt by the time the protests rolled around. As Pollock notes, there were only 28,000 Facebook users in Tunisia at the time of the Gafsa protests but there were more than a million when Bouazzizi committed his desperate act of self-immolation.The very features of Facebook we sometimes gripe about—that it does not make it easy to segment audiences; that it seems to be brimming with the trivial and the mundane (see Ethan Zuckerman's "Cute Cat Theory"); and that it enforces/fosters a norm of real identities—made it an ideal platform for dissident politics under an autocracy (although, it increased risks for individual activists at times as in the case of Wael Ghonim). In Tunisia, Ben Ali censored all other platforms making Facebook even more potent as it became the de facto video sharing platform—and many people in the region tend to have large social networks online and offline. In fact, during my discussions in the region, I was repeatedly told that the norm was to "Facebook friend" all your cousins, people you met at work, people you met in weddings, outings, and elsewhere.What more could a political activist wish for? Indeed, that is the ideal infrastructure to create the information/action cascade that Pollock's article so eloquently documents—especially since these regimes seemed unable to develop potent ways to deal with the political consequences of digitally enabled social networking (even at the end, all Mubarak could do was clumsily unplug the whole Internet which certainly was of fairly little importance by then: the uprising was well underway; the die was cast).There has been a false debate. Was it social media or the people? Was it social media or the labor movements? Was it social media or anti-imperialist movement? Was it social media or youth? These questions are wrong and the answer is yes. The correct question is how.These categories are not logical equivalents: people, youth, labor, and other movements can and do use social media. These uprisings are an impressive demonstration of that very fact. Social media is not a movement, it's a tool and it certainly did not jump out of the screen and cause Ben Ali to flee. However, as Pollock's extensive reporting demonstrates, it can be a potent tool for social change and as I tried to summarize here, there are strong theoretical reasons to think it alters collective action dynamics.Contrary to Malcolm Gladwell's flip assertion, repeated in the article that "surely the least interesting thing about [the protests] is that some of the protesters may (or may not) have at one point or another employed some of the tools of new media," the emergent media ecology is among the most important issues thrown up by this amazing wave of people-powered uprisings. This is not because the courage demonstrated by millions of people or the persistent efforts of activists for decades are unimportant. On the contrary, that will surely be remembered as among the most moving, amazing stories of the 21st century.The new media question is interesting and important not just because this is an intellectual curiosity (which I'll admit to finding fascinating) and not because academics (which I'll admit to being ) need a subject to study, and not just because many authoritarian regimes remain in the world (which I'll admit to believing are threatened by digitally enabled political activism), but because the most complex, the most crucial problems humanity faces are collective action problems. These range from the health of our democracies to global warming, from financial and asset bubbles to social unrest. The very survival of our species may depend on finding a way to organize our way out of situations in which there is a strong conflict between individual incentives and collective goods within our hierarchically organized societies. I think that qualifies as important, and I believe the new media ecology will be an inevitable part of the solution; that is, if there is one, and our fragile species manages to find it.# 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

<http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/k3zrz/by_request_from_the_jobs_thread_why_my_job_is_to/>I work at a real estate office. We primarily sell houses that wereforeclosed on by lenders. We aren't involved in the actual foreclosures orevictions - anonymous lawyers in the cloud somewhere is tasked with thepaperwork - we are the boots on the ground that interacts with the actualwalls, roofs and occasional bomb threat.When the lender forecloses - or is thinking of foreclosing - on a propertyone of the first things that happens is they send somebody out to see ifthere is actually a house there and if there is anybody living there whoneeds to be evicted. Lawyers are expensive so they send a real estate agentor a property preservation company out to check. There is the occasionaldiscovery of fraud where there was never a house on the parcel to beginwith, but such instances are rare. Sometimes this initial visit results indiscovering a house that has burned down or demolished, is abandoned oroccupied by somebody who has absolutely no connection with the homeowner.Sometimes the houses are discovered to be crack dens or meth labs,sometimes the sites of cock or dog fighting operations, or you might evenfind a back yard filled with a pot cultivation that can't be traced back toanybody because it was planted in yet another vacant house in a blightedneighborhood. The house could be worth less than zero - blighted to thepoint where you can't even give it away (this is a literal statement, Ihave tried to give away many houses or even vacant lots with no takers overthe years) or it could be a waterfront mansion in a gated golf communityworth well over seven figures that does not include the number "one".Sometimes they are found to have been seized by the IRS, the local taxauthority, the DEA or the US Marshal. Variety is the rule. The end resultsare the law.If the house is occupied my job is to make contact and determine who theyare: there are laws that establish what happens to a borrower as opposed toa tenant and the servicemember relief act adds an additional set ofquestions that must be answered. Some of the people have an idea of why Iam there. Some claim they never knew they were foreclosed on, or tell methat they have worked something out with their lender, some won't tell me athing and some threaten me to never return in the name of the police, theirlawyer, or the occasional "or else/if I were you". During one initial visitthe sight of 50-60 motorcycles parked on the lawn suggested that we tryagain the next day. At a couple the police had cordoned off the area and atone they were in the process of dredging the lake searching for the body ofa depressed former homeowner.If nobody is home I have to determine if they are at work, on vacation, inthe army, wintering/summering at their other home, in jail, in a nursinghome, dead or if they moved away. It isn't easy. Utilities can be left onfor months. Neighbors can be staging the yard and house to appear occupiedto prevent blight in their neighborhood. By the same token people will stopcutting the lawn for months, let trash and old phone books pile up on theirporch, lose gas and electric service and continue to live in propertiesthat have not only physically unsafe to approach but are so filthy thatwhen it comes time to clean them out the crews have to wear hazmat suits.One house had a gallon pickle jar filled with dead roaches on the porch.Somebody lived in that house and thought that was a logical thing to do.People like me are tasked with first contact.Evictions are expensive and time-consuming. Ultimately once the processgets that far there isn't much that can be done to prevent it. You didn'tpay your mortgage, the lender gets the house back. There are an infinitenumber of reasons why the mortgage couldn't be paid, some are moresympathetic than others, but in the end you will be leaving the propertywillingly or not. The lawyers handle the evictions - they churn through thepaperwork in the background, ten thousand properties at a time. They haveit down to rote function based on templates, personal experience with thevarious judges and intimate knowledge of the federal, state and municipallaws, along with dealing with the occasional sheriff who refuses to evictsomebody, the informal policies established by the local judges and amyriad of other problems that can arise. As a business decision manylenders have determined that it is cheaper to settle with the occupants -instead of going through the formal eviction they will offer cash. Inexchange for surrendering a property in reasonably clean condition with thefurnace still hooked up, the kitchen not stripped and the basement notintentionally flooded the lender will cut the occupants a check. It costsmuch less than an eviction, provides reasonable hope that the plumbingwon't freeze and can take a fraction of the time to obtain possession. Thisis where the personal element becomes real.Some people jump at the chance. They don't want to live here anymore. Theymay be getting married and moving in but couldn't sell the unneeded house.They have a new job across the country, they're moving to the other side ofthe planet. They were renting and found a better place in a neighborhoodwhere the thieves don't grin at them through the kitchen window while theydisconnect a running air conditioner knowing that the average response timefor the police is measured in weeks for a call like that. The cash is adown payment, a security deposit (since their landlord never returnstheirs), or maybe a moving van. These are the best cases. Sometimes theyare happy to hear from me. Other times, not so much.When I make first contact and explain that the lender is offering themmoney to leave sometimes they tell me that they haven't slept for months,knowing that something was going to happen but never knowing if tomorrowwas the day when somebody kicked in their door and threw their kids out onthe lawn. Their lenders won't tell them anything, they have nothing to goon but horror stories from other people that they never knew. It neveroccurred to them that they should call an attorney and ask what was goingon. I can be the first people to discuss their situation who isn't a debtcollector: you can hear the release of a massive weight in their voice. Itisn't much, but at least it is something.Or they can get angry and defensive, tell me that they were neverforeclosed on, tell me that I am trespassing and owe them $5,000 in "landuse fees" for "using" their property as I walk to the front door. Theythreaten to sue, they threaten to call the cops, they say I should lookunder my car before I start it from now on. They send letters written invarious forms of English - one time scribed in crayon - detailing theirrights and how I am violating some maritime treaty from the 1700s. In mytravels I have learned that if you copyright your name you can't be namedin any kind of legal action, if you never write down your ZIP code then youaren't a resident of the United States and that if I tell somebody thattheir lender is offering them money to vacate while leaving the staircase(yes, these get stolen) and driveway (yes, these get stolen) in place thenI am guilty of slave trading under some United Nations something or other.For those who reject the deal, nothing changes. They don't lose any rightsand it isn't counted against them in any way - neither the lawyers nor thecourts care because the lenders don't have to offer anything - the evictionprocess continues. I listen to the stories why they can't/won't take thedeal. They can't afford anything else. They don't have anywhere else to go.They want to make the eviction as expensive as possible. They're going toget "a big settlement" from some vague lawsuit any day now. They want theirkids to finish out the school year. They intend to take the furnace as soonas they find a new house. All kinds of reasons. Some are heartbreaking,others not so much.For those who do take the deal, at the appointed date and time I meet themat their former home. I walk the yard and enter every room. I open everydrawer and cupboard making sure the house is clean and doesn't have oldengines, toxic chemicals or dead dogs lingering anywhere. Sometimes thekids are there, maybe waiting in the car, maybe not. I see the marks on thewall showing how the kids grew over the years. I see the anguished poetryscribbled on the wall by stoned teenagers and the occasional hole punchedin the wall. One woman handed me the key to her reinforced bedroom door -during the divorce her now ex-husband was still living in the house and shehad to barricade herself in at night. Another said "right there is where Ifound my son - he couldn't handle losing the house".Sometimes they don't want the money and don't want to be evicted so theysign a waiver stating that everything left inside can be disposed of.Hospital beds. Oxygen tanks and wheelchairs. Hundreds of boxes of shoes. Amannequin. A 2nd grader's homework portfolio. A wedding album filled withpictures with one person torn out. Get rich quick "business plans". 40years worth of drafting documents. To the lenders and the lawyers, thesethings don't exist - they close the file and order a trashout. Sometimes Ilinger as I check the basement for mold and lead. I am the final period onso many significant chapters. To most other people it is just part of thejob but in so many other universes this is where I ended up. There is nodifference between myself and these people other than the intangible twistsof experience.And so I listen. I feign dispassion but I'm not fooling anybody. Somehowthey can tell that I care and thank me even as they admit that it isn't myfault, that it isn't my responsibility to listen. I've stood insideanother's dream for an hour as they spoke, not really to be heard but tosay goodbye - to leave the ghosts behind.They go to the car and return with the openers.The keys are peeled from a ring.They thank me. Sometimes they cry.And they're gone.I wait for their car to vanish before I put up the sign. To most everybodyelse it is just another house on just another block in just another city injust another financial catastrophe.But I was there. I saw the dream end.But at least I don't make them turn out the lights one last time as theyleave.That's my job.

http://scepsi.eu/en/kafca-at-macba/KAFCAKnowledge Against Financial CapitalismOur intellectual and political task is not to provoke the insurrection: the insurrection is provoked by the European Central Bank and by the cowardice and dogmatism of the leading class of the European countries. In the unavoidable insurrection that will mark the next decade we have to introduce a form of organization of the potency of collective intelligence, we have to connect this potency with the desire of sociality.The general intellect is looking for the erotic and social body that has been lost in the process of virtualization and precarization. And simultaneously the precarious life is looking for the collective intelligence that is fragmented and dispersed. Connecting knowledge and the social body is the task of SCEPSI (European School for Social Imagination) during the insurrection that is underway.The next SCEPSI event will beKAFCA At MacbaDecember 1, 2, BARCELONAAround September 15th there will be a new website: www.kafca.eustay tuned

Dear nettimers,as some of you may know, the call launched by Adbusters (http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/adbusters-blog/occupywallstreet.html) to Occupy Wall Street on September 17 has been transformed into a global day of action against financial capital, with demonstrations now planned in Athens, Madrid, Lisboa, Paris, London, Milan, Toronto, Frankfurt, Sydney, Tokyo and several other cities around the globe (http://takethesquare.net/17s/). New transnational alliances are shaping up. The European march of the Spanish indignados towards Bruxelles (http://bit.ly/ofQorh) is scheduled to arrive in Paris on September 17 (http://www.demosphere.eu/node/25470). The hacker network Anonymous has recently released a video in which it announces its participation to the Wall Street action (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcgRO0jYbs8). And the Economics Working Groups of Syntagma Square and Puerta del Sol have just released a joint statement (http://bit.ly/npCWkg) in which they demand the EU/IMF to withdraw the Memorandum of Understanding that has been imposed on the Greek government, nationalize the banks, make the accounting records transparent, tax the wealthy, etc.Some of these movements see September 17 only as a passage towards a new wave of street occupations set to begin on October 15 (http://www.democraciarealya.es/). Because these actions are organized through the Internet and/or by the social movements that are reclaiming "real democracy" in several countries it is impossible to predict how many people will show up on September 17. Thus if you are planning to participate or you share the same indignation for how global financial capital has taken control of the lives of billions of people it is important to circulate this information as much as possible.Here is one of the calls to action circulated by the General Assembly of New York City:Dear Friend,We are the citizens and non-citizens of the General Assembly of New York City. We come from every walk of life, a variety of cultural, political, and religious backgrounds. Yet we share the same indignation for the common wealth that has been pillaged by the global institutions of finance with the complacency of the world's governments---a looting that has led to massive unemployment, generalized cuts to public services, despair and resignation. It is the same indignation that has prompted the people of Greece and Spain to occupy streets and squares on a permanent basis, the people of Egypt and Tunisia to overthrow their governments, the people of Iceland to nationalize their bank system and rewrite the constitution.Over the past few weeks we have begun to share this indignation and listen to each other in a series of public meetings open to everyone. Freely inspired by the general assemblies that are mushrooming in every corner of the planet we have begun to bring our differences together through a consensual decision-making process. Such process does not aim at erasing differences. On the contrary it wants to multiply them so that we may begin to rebuild this nation and this world anew.One of the first concrete steps we have decided to take is to *participate in a global day of action against financial capital on September 17, 2011. We invite you to join us in this action by peacefully occupying the streets and squares surrounding the Wall Street area in New York City beginning* *on* *September 17*. At the moment we do not have a specific list of demands. However, the Assembly initiated a conversation through which a number of proposals and perspectives unfolded.Some of us think that the imposition of a Robin Hood Tax on all financial transactions, tax increases on capital gains, and the reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act are three essential measures to reestablish a minimum of fiscal sanity in the United States and abroad.Some of us think that true autonomy and independence cannot be achieved through fiscal reform. Some of us believe that we ought to reboot the system, rewrite the constitution, recuse a system of government employed by the rich for the rich.Many of us think that what truly matters at this stage is to create a shared framework which may enable everyone to speak out, be heard, co-evolve and advance with others. If you look through this framework you may not see one defined picture. If you walk through it you will be amazed at the strange world on the other side. It is time to take back our lives. We ask you to join us now in New York City or to start your own General Assembly in your own town.https://occupywallst.org/http://takethesquare.nethttp://usdayofrage.org/https://imgur.com/a/IX2F2#GnkU3 (images)

By Michael RobertsSep 05, 2011The leaked release of the European Commission's working papers on thefuture of Top Level Domains highlights the impending collision betweenadherents of the present "multistakeholder" ICANN governance model,and an ever longer list of national governments who challenge thatmodel.At the core of the controversy is the question of how ICANN can claimlegitimacy in the DNS world when none of its Directors or Officers areelected. Even worse, its only answer, when challenged legally, is thatit is responsive to its contract with an agency of the U.S.Government, which agency claims authority from the elected Congress ofthe United States through the agency's organic act, which nowherementions the Internet, ICANN, or the Domain Name System....http://www.circleid.com/posts/20110905_icanns_unelected_crisis/

Another great quote: 'Burning Man is like any other community, with "a lower class, a midle class, an upper class". Shall we say (another quote, Latin this time) "Sic transiit gloria mundi" ... ?;-)-------original to:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903895904576544981864448602.html(with pics)At Burning Man, Air-Conditioning, RVs Make Inroads(Paper edition: 'Opting Not to Rough It At Burning Man Festival')By STU WOO and JUSTIN SCHECKBLACK ROCK CITY, Nev.—The giant Burning Man art festival, in its official manifesto, calls on attendees to exhibit "radical self-reliance" as they camp and frolic on the dry lakebed here for a week every year."Radical self-reliance" are the bywords of the Burning Man art festival. But this year, some wealthy attendees are outsourcing the hard stuff -- like driving in the RVs. WSJ's Stu Woo reports.Burning Man's mantra is so compelling that some 50,000 participants have gathered in this rustic setting for the 25th annual rite. But some bourgeois Burners are calling upon more than spiritual vibes to tap their inner self. They've got hired help.Elon Musk, chief executive of electric-car maker Tesla Motors and co-founder of eBay Inc.'s PayPal unit, is among those eschewing the tent life. He is paying for an elaborate compound consisting of eight recreational vehicles and trailers stocked with food, linens, groceries and other essentials for himself and his friends and family, say employees of the outfitter, Classic Adventures RV.Burning Man is like any other community, with "a lower class, a middle class, an upper class," says Dane Johnson, a Classic manager, standing outside the Musk compound. "We cater to the upper. People with money do not wish to stay in a tent."Elsewhere on the desert grounds, Burners wear bikini tops, leather chaps, stilts, goggles—and sometimes nothing at all. They rely on canned food for meals, sleep in the open field under the stars and use portable toilets. Limbs flail at dance-till-dawn parties. People are expected to share and to give gifts to one another. Money is banned. Sort of.Classic is one of the festival's few approved vendors. It charges $5,500 to $10,000 per RV for its Camp Classic Concierge packages like Mr. Musk's. At Mr. Musk's RV enclave, the help empties septic tanks, brings water and makes sure the vehicles' electricity, refrigeration, air conditioning, televisions, DVD players and other systems are ship shape. The staff also stocked the campers with Diet Coke, Gatorade and Cruzan rum.Mr. Musk, through his assistant, confirms he hired an RV service but declines to give details or say how much he is paying.Burning Man used to be a desert tent city with a do-it-yourself ethos. But its growth—and the increasing wealth of many of its attendees—has seen an influx of cash. "Commerce around Burning Man has evolved and it's a complicated dance," says Steven T. Jones, author of "The Tribes of Burning Man."San Francisco caterer Gastronaut is one of many marketers targeting the Burning haute crowd. "People have less and less time to be radically self-reliant," says head chef Nathan Keller, whose gourmet feasts-to-go include beef bourguignon and posole. The tab: $20 to $50 per meal, which feeds five.For those who bristle at making the long pilgrimage to the desert by car, there is flytoburningman.com. Run by Centurion Flight Services, it picks up travelers in the San Francisco area and deposits them on a makeshift air strip here. The cost to avoid dusty roads: $825 per seat in a five-person Cessna, or $4,325 for the whole plane.Hairdressers are cashing in, too. Stylist Tiffani Harper of Vallejo, Calif., said three customers responded to her online braids-for-Burning Man ad. She charged $70 to $140.Even in this anything-goes atmosphere, some Burners chafe at the seeming excess. Several volunteers, who said festival rules prohibited them from giving their names, disdain the full-service RV crowd and say that Black Rock Desert was chosen in part to encourage people to weather harsh conditions."They're not being self-reliant when they're paying someone," says Eli Meyer, a 36-year-old longtime Burner from North Lake Tahoe, Calif., who is sleeping in a tent. Mr. Meyer, who is part of a Burning Man environmental group called Earth Guardians, said the RVs are also the worst way to attend an event that prides itself on being eco-friendly.Burning Man started in 1986 when founder Larry Harvey torched a wooden stick figure one night on a San Francisco beach before a few people. Four years later, the crowd grew so big that organizers moved the event to Nevada's Black Rock Desert, about two hours' drive north of Reno.The earliest event grounds resembled more of a frontier than a city, with campsites loosely organized. Now "architects" build a circular grid for the temporary metropolis, dubbed Black Rock City, which also has a weeklong post office and de facto police force.The festival remains famous for elaborate art projects—performances, sculptures and "mutant vehicles." This year, automobiles in the form of cupcakes and yellow submarines roved the desert hard pan, braving the wind storms that force attendees to carry goggles and dust masks.Not all of the art adheres to the festival's DIY philosophy.Chris Bently, a San Franciscan whose real-estate holdings include an apartment building on posh Nob Hill, this year paid a team of artists and metalworkers to build a car modeled after the "Nautilus" submarine from Jules Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea," said two people familiar with the project. Mr. Bently's assistant said he was unavailable to comment.Mr. Harvey, now chairman of the organization that runs Burning Man, says he has no problems with participants who pay for services. One of the 10 principles is "radical inclusion," meaning everyone is welcome to attend, he says. He says he is spending this week in a camper, with food cooked for him, because he is 63 years old and it allows him to do his job more easily.Some of Mr. Musk's luxury-RV-dwelling camp neighbors say critics shouldn't judge. Adam Stephenson, a 40-year-old marketing director for Symantec Corp., says that even though he is paying a premium for RV service, he put a lot of work into building a shade tent and buying costumes and supplies. And the RV isn't the Ritz. "It's not super easy," he says. "The air conditioner is not on all the time."Write to Stu Woo at Stu.Woo< at >wsj.com and Justin Scheck at justin.scheck< at >wsj.com # 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