February 2011 - P2P-Foundation - lists.ourproject.org

Fwd: [LeftLibertarian2] Ways that the Egyptians are overcoming the internet block
by Kevin Carson 02 Feb '11

02 Feb '11

Numeric IP addresses for social media sites still work, as do dialup connections. If nothing else, the catastrophic economic effects of the shutdown in Egypt are a lesson on why the power elite will probably delay such a response until -- as in Egypt -- it's too late. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: donaldm <libertree(a)gmail.com> Date: Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 7:16 PM Subject: [LeftLibertarian2] Ways that the Egyptians are overcoming the internet block To: LeftLibertarian2(a)yahoogroups.com This is from Barlow's page. I'm no techie but perhaps people here can spread this, explain how its done or write an article on survival of the internet in case it happens somewhere else, like here. RT @xenijardin RT @dylan20: 20 ways 2 circumvent the Egyptian government's internet block: http://j.mp/ffdCsa via http://j.mp/hG9I5K ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LeftLibertarian2/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LeftLibertarian2/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: LeftLibertarian2-digest(a)yahoogroups.com LeftLibertarian2-fullfeatured(a)yahoogroups.com <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: LeftLibertarian2-unsubscribe(a)yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ -- Kevin Carson Center for a Stateless Society http://c4ss.org Mutualist Blog: Free Market Anti-Capitalism http://mutualist.blogspot.com The Homebrew Industrial Revolution: A Low-Overhead Manifesto http://homebrewindustrialrevolution.wordpress.com Organization Theory: A Libertarian Perspective http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2005/12/studies-in-anarchist-theory-of.html

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new venues for mini-enterpreneurial designers
by Michel Bauwens 02 Feb '11

02 Feb '11

I'm hoping someone can mention this on our blog, see http://thinkvitamin.com/design/the-game-just-completely-changed/ James? -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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digging social media revolution text
by Michel Bauwens 02 Feb '11

02 Feb '11

Dear friends, this text here, http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/social-media-and-social-revolutions-what-is-t… had 18 facebook likes and 18 tweets in just a few hours, thanks for considering 'digging' it, since this would reach a new audience! Michel -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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Re: [P2P-F] <nettime> Dror Kamir: Egypte, brûle-t-elle?
by Michel Bauwens 02 Feb '11

02 Feb '11

thanks Dante, Michel 2011/2/2 Dante-Gabryell Monson <dante.monson(a)gmail.com> > Writing history before, or as it happens... ? > > " In the list of things that Wikipedia isn't there is a > paragraph saying "Wikipedia is not a newspaper". Indeed, Wikipedia > did not function here as a newspaper, but rather as a tool serving > the organizers of the demonstrations. " > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Geert Lovink <geert(a)xs4all.nl> > Date: 2011/2/2 > Subject: <nettime> Dror Kamir: Egypte, brûle-t-elle? > To: nettime-l(a)kein.org > > > > Dear nettimers, > > I wanted to share this story with you all. It ran on the Critical > Point of View mailinglist that belongs to the Wikiresearch network > with the same name. Dror Kamir is an Israeli Wikipedian with lots of > knowledge of the 'region', and, like many in that part of the world, a > colorful (online) personality and complex political agenda (as they > say...). > > Greetings! Geert > > PS. somewhere in March-April the CPOV reader will be out. The > publication reaches the final stage of copy-editing. > > Begin forwarded message: > > > From: Dror Kamir <dqamir(a)bezeqint.net> > > Date: 31 January 2011 7:55:41 PM > > To: cpov(a)listcultures.org > > Subject: <CPOV> Egypte, brûle-t-elle? > > > > Hi, > > > > I suppose you have all noticed that Egypt is going through rough > > time, but I wonder if you looked into the history of the article > > about the events. It almost seems as if the article preceded the > > actual events. The article on the English-language Wikipedia is > > entitled "2011 Egyptian protests". It already exists in 39 languages > > (incl. English). In Arabic and Egyptian-Arabic it is entitled "The > > Egyptian Revolution of Wrath" (the demonstrations on Friday were > > called by the organizers "Friday of Wrath"). > > > > Now to the interesting part - The demonstrations were planned via > > FaceBook for about a week, and "D-Day" was Tuesday, 25 January > > (which is a public holiday in Egypt). The first version of the > > article on the English Wikipedia has a time stamp of 13:26 25 > > January 2011 (UTC I presume). The person who initiated the article > > is nicknamed "The Egyptian Liberal" and according to his userpage he > > is an Egyptian who lives in Dubai and speaks both Arabic and English > > as mother tongues. "The Egyptian Liberal" worked very fast to enrich > > the article, and it was practically written in the course of the > > events. In the list of things that Wikipedia isn't there is a > > paragraph saying "Wikipedia is not a newspaper". Indeed, Wikipedia > > did not function here as a newspaper, but rather as a tool serving > > the organizers of the demonstrations. > > > > An equivalent article was initiated on the Arabic Wikipedia 3 and a > > half hours after its English counterpart. It was initiated by > > someone who apparently lives in Egypt, but "The Egyptian Liberal" > > joined him quite soon. The article on the Egyptian-Arabic Wikipedia > > emerged only on 28 January, two and a half days after its English > > and Arabic counterparts. It was initiated by a person who lives in > > Egypt, and he is also the main contributor, but "The Egyptian > > Liberal" had his share here too. > > > > These are just my first observation, which I find interesting > > because it is, in my opinion, another stage of Wikipedia losing its > > encyclopedic characteristics. > > > > Dror > > > > > > בתאריך 31/01/11 17:07, ציטוט Maja van der Velden: > >> Define Gender Gap? Look Up Wikipedia’s Contributor List > >> > >> In 10 short years, Wikipedia has accomplished some remarkable > >> goals. More than 3.5 million articles in English? Done. More than > >> 250 languages? Sure. But another number has proved to be an > >> intractable obstacle for the online encyclopedia: surveys suggest > >> that less than 15 percent of its hundreds of thousands of > >> contributors are women. > >> > >> More here: > >> > >> > http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/business/media/31link.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&… > >> > >> Greetings, > >> > >> Maja > >> > >> > >> _______________________________________________ > >> cpov mailing list > >> cpov(a)listcultures.org > >> http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/cpov_listcultures.org > >> > > > > _______________________________________________ > > cpov mailing list > > cpov(a)listcultures.org > > http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/cpov_listcultures.org > > > > > # 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://mail.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l > # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime(a)kein.org > > -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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Fwd: Give Thimbl The Open Web Award!
by Michel Bauwens 02 Feb '11

02 Feb '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Dmytri Kleiner/ Friends. <dk(a)telekommunisten.net> Date: Wed, Feb 2, 2011 at 7:00 PM Subject: Give Thimbl The Open Web Award! To: "Dmytri Kleiner/ Friends. Subscriber" <michelsub2004(a)gmail.com> (Mailing list information, including unsubscription instructions, is located at the end of this message.) __ //////////////////////////////////////////////// http://www.thimbl.net/award.html # Why Thimbl should win the Transmediale/Mozilla Foundation Open Web Award The Telekommunisten Collective thinks that people should finger each other often as possible. Maybe even several times a day, hell, why not once an hour? As often as you like! People thrive on interaction with other people. Mutual stimulation is a deeply felt human need, a key characteristic of what makes us human. Imagine that instead of reading your status updates on Twitter or Facebook, your friends would just finger you instead. The Finger protocol was originally developed in the 1970s as a way to publish user and status information, such as who you are, what you're working on, and what you're doing now. This is how the relatively few folks with access to networks posted pithy personal bios. From when colourful polyester pants were still groovy until the 90s people used to Finger each other all the time! Finger evolved into a completely decentralized system, where any user could finger any other user as long as they were both on the Internet. There were no big companies in the middle to control these users, or monitor them, or try to turn their personal data into money. Fingering was a personal matter between users, direct and unmediated, and nobody really knew exactly who was fingering who. Promiscuous, right? Sadly, these heady days of open relationships slowly came to an end. Finger software was developed before the Internet had many users, and before development was driven by commercial interests. The idea was bold, but the software was primitive. Capitalists and their desire for profit have no interest in such freedom and promiscuity and chose to instead fund centrally controlled systems, in which they are intermediaries. Investors wanted control, so that they can commodify and monetize these relationships. Instead of users fingering each other with reckless abandon, people are now stuck with centralized, privately owned services like Facebook; chaperoning their relationships, imposing user policies on them, and monitoring and monetizing their conversation. Back in June 2010, Telekommunisten had had enough! "People must be freed from these puritanical, controlling, consumerist, profit-seeking cults", they thought. If witchcraft, wet shaving, rocker hair and skinny jeans could make comebacks, why not Finger? The Thimbl project was born, and immediately started working on giving the project an online identity and releasing tools to create a microblogging platform built on Finger, that groovy 70s protocol. In October, Telekommunisten received the news that Thimbl was one of three projects nominated for Transmediale/Mozilla Foundation Open Web Award and almost immediately, Thimbl broke on Hacker News and the project started to attract significant interest. Thimbl started popping up all over the place: P2Pfoundation, ecopolis, alt1040, O'Reilly Radar, OneThingWell, Ecrans, reboot.fm... Evan Prodromou from competing service identi.ca even took a playful swipe at us! Finger was becoming cool again. The masses were longing to finger each other! In a few short months, without much in the way of a marketing strategy and with a budget that could be stored in a matchbox, Thimbl has managed to gather over 250 followers on Twitter - the very service it someday hopes to compete with - and has been the subject of hundreds and hundreds of tweets. Thimbl even has a small following on identi.ca, which is closer to the heart of Thimbl than the service with birds and whales. The thimbl.net website has over 300 'Likes' with its Facebook button and the Telekommunisten Facebook fan page is abuzz with talk of Thimbl. The project has even gathered over 100 votes on the Drumbeat platform. Not bad for a project that was completely unknown to all but a handful of people when the award nominations where announced! Still, the problem remains: Capital will not fund free platforms like Thimbl. Even with the buzz Thimbl has, building a community big enough to actually create a viable platform without financing is a major challenge. Wouldn't it be great if Thimbl could actually win the Open Web award? The endorsement of Transmediale and the Mozilla Foundation would be a tremendous boost for the project, perhaps enough to give the community the needed escape velocity to break free from centralized social media like Twitter and Facebook and make Finger the once and future king of personal status updates! Transmediale and The Mozilla Foundation had a great idea: instead of having a jury decide the winner of the award, present three projects to a community engaged with the open web and its technical, political and artistic dimensions. Mozilla had recently launched the Drumbeat project, just for this purpose, as a hub for projects that embrace the open web to get support and find contributors. So it made perfect sense for Drumbeat to host the voting for the award. Drumbeat is a fantastic initiative from Mozilla and has a really promising future. However, Drumbeat is a relatively new platform. As a result none of the projects received much attention from existing Drumbeat users or from the Transmediale community jumping on to Drumbeat to participate. The idea that an impartial community would consider the three projects and select a winner didn't quite work out. Instead, it has become a competition to rally the existing supporters of the three projects to sign up to Drumbeat and vote for them specifically, without genuinely considering voting for the others. This means that, honestly, the vote count is about as impartially meaningful as a Florida election run by Diebold. Thimbl is up against two cool projects as candidates for the Open Web Award; Booki, the book publishing platform behind FLOSSManuals and many great book writing sprints, and Graffiti Markup Language, a project to enable analysis and archiving of graffiti writing which has the support of many awesome, large and active communities like F.A.T. Lab and eyebeam. If the open web award is really meant to give well-earned support to existing, successful projects like Booki and GML, then we will celebrate their success with them at the award ceremony in a few days. We readily concede that Thimbl has not yet achieved anywhere near what these projects have and that our community is much, much smaller and far less known. Unless we succeed in our desperate bid to convince Lady Gaga to dump Polaroid and instead dedicate her star power to the cause of ushering in a new golden age of rampant fingering, we are very unlikely to win based on Drumbeat vote count. But if Open Web Award aspires to "clearly demonstrate the unbound potential of the open web in ways that can spark new thinking and practices," as stated, then, damn it, Thimbl is the most about the open web! We live and breathe the open web, directly addressing the technical and social issues facing the open web in every aspect of the project, in the code, and in our manifestos. We talk to anyone who will listen about how the open web is not just critical to the future of the Internet, but to society itself. And people are beginning to take notice. Selecting Thimbl for the Open Web Award at Transmediale would be one heck of a powerful spark. Igniting the new thinking and practice that led to the idea of Thimbl with a clear and bold statement of support for an open web that is truly open! The multitudes are trapped and frustrated, clinging to their social interactions within sterile, commercial platforms, longing for wanton, unbridled realms of contact. Join us in inscribing upon on our banners the revolutionary slogan, "Don't be a Twit, it feels good to be fingered!" Give Thimbl the Open Web Award! With Kind Regards, Your Telekommunisten. http://www.thimbl.net ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (psst... pass it on) -- The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription: You are subscribed to the following list: Dmytri Kleiner/ Friends. using the following email: michelsub2004(a)gmail.com You may unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting the following URL: http://freshsent.info/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/u/friends/michelsub2004/gmail.c… If the above URL is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address. Some mail readers will wrap a long URL and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism. You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen: http://freshsent.info/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/list/friends If you're still having trouble, please contact the list owner at: <mailto:[email protected]> The following physical address is associated with this mailing list: Cafe Buchhandlung Tucholskystr 32. Berlin-Mitte Amtsstunden: Jeden Deinstag, 20:00 - 24:00 http://www.telekommunisten.net -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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Fwd: YEar one of the Global Commons Movement
by Michel Bauwens 02 Feb '11

02 Feb '11

Dear Sam, I hope you can help me with this, see http://commonsblog.wordpress.com/2011/01/29/the-commons-year-one-of-the-glo… the following article contains two essential tables, which I would like to add to http://p2pfoundation.net/Category:Commmons, subsection Visualization it concerns the table, *Codex Justinianus <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_Juris_Civilis>revisted and 2) **The logic of the market versus the logic of the commons Dear Chris, I would also like to excerpt that article in a blog article, starting from the following paragraph, and including the two tables, can you help for the blog, and please postdate to Feb 7 or after ? (the title of table 2 could be the title of the article) this is the starting paragraph: "*Today, the commons are often excluded from policy discussions and commoners are often disempowered. This tendency is enforced by the dominant political thinking, which is used to *thinking in dichotomies*. Here the market, there the state, here the private, there the public, here the teacher, there the pupil, here competition, there cooperation, here the good thing, there the bad thing. As a consequence, we tend to look for Either-Or-Solutions, which leads to consider Market and State as the only two serious realms of action. The commons are usually left behind and ignored. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Silke Helfrich <Silke.Helfrich(a)gmx.de> Date: Sat, Jan 29, 2011 at 10:52 PM Subject: YEar one of the Global Commons Movement To: Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004(a)gmail.com> Hi Michel, you may want to spread this: especially the second table... http://commonsblog.wordpress.com/2011/01/29/the-commons-year-one-of-the-glo… very best Silke -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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Re: [P2P-F] Democratic technology and unintended consequences
by Michel Bauwens 02 Feb '11

02 Feb '11

great comment, thanks Chris! On Wed, Feb 2, 2011 at 1:38 PM, Chris Pinchen <chrispinchen(a)mac.com> wrote: > [image: star]O'Reilly Radar - Insight, analysis, and research about > emerging technologies. > 1 de febrero de 2011 18:00 > by Joshua-Michéle Ross > Democratic technology and unintended consequences<http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/oreilly/radar/atom/%7E3/bpfD6RBpfrE/egypt-…> > > I was struck by this photo<http://www.opposableplanets.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Egypt_NY_Times.j…>that appeared Sunday in the New York Times. It shows a crowd of Egyptian > protesters listening to a military announcement. Try to count the number of > people in the crowd who *do not* have a mobile device recording the > action. > > Expanding people's ability to communicate — from printing press to > telegraph to telephone to text messaging — is always a revolutionary act. > Communications technologies do not create the conditions for civic action > (the unrest in Egypt is due to longstanding political repression), but they > can accelerate the entire process by: > > 1. Dramatically expanding the number of people directly involved in > gathering, distributing and consuming information. > > 2. Allowing a positive feedback loop to develop where people see the > effect of their actions in real-time, which simultaneously reinforces > commitment and recruits more members into the cause. > > > We tend to think of these technologies as inherently democratic. But the > rub in all of this is that *while these technologies democratize > communications, they tend to monopolize surveillance and control*. > > So while more of us are capable of holding an open, peer-to-peer > discussion, we are doing so with the consent and under the watchful (or > subpoena-able) eye of just a handful of corporations or governments. And > when citizen calls-to-action conflict with government calls for quiet, the > government holds more of the cards. Vodafone has shut down<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/01/28/egypt_vodafone_shuts/>cell phone communications in Egypt, the Egyptian government has effectively shut > down<http://www.fastcompany.com/1721856/how-egypt-turned-off-the-internet>Internet communications, and there are now calls > for Ham radio operators <http://pastebin.com/fHHBqZ7Q> to lend assistance > as Egypt is being pushed back down the communications ladder. > > In the "rich world" our experience of technology is often Utopian and our > forecasts of negative consequences are framed only through our experience of > current circumstance; we simply can't imagine what it is like to live in a > repressive government or believe that we will ever live under one. But the > seemingly benign governments in which we reside are an historical > contingency. If the past provides any lesson it is that governments will wax > and wane in their concern for civil liberties and human rights. Yet our > digital profile (purchase history, political and personal associations etc.) > will remain. Through our participation in these technologies we are donating > our data to a vast, indelible reservoir whose future utility is unknown to > us. > > I am actually optimistic about the future of the Internet as a medium to > promote civil liberty, free expression, better government and corporate > citizenship (if one can credibly use such a phrase). However, I don't think > it happens on its own. The Internet needs an architecture (legal and > physical) to achieve such ends. Paradoxically I believe it requires some > form of regulation to maintain its dynamic, emergent and decentralized > properties so that any government or corporation has a limited ability to > act in a crisis to shut things down. > > Is access to communications a fundamental human right? If so, should a > corporation have the ability to abrogate that right at the request of a host > government? As we watch the battle between the Egyptian government's > attempts to throttle information flow (including how corporations defy or > collaborate with these attempts) and the people's struggle to maintain > access to communications, we are seeing the contours of a struggle that will > exemplify the next decades of political and policy changes as we try to > define the increasingly critical relationship between technology and civil > liberties. > <http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Eff/oreilly/radar/atom?a=bpfD6RBpfrE:6aab4PVY…> > <http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Eff/oreilly/radar/atom?a=bpfD6RBpfrE:6aab4PVY…> > <http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Eff/oreilly/radar/atom?a=bpfD6RBpfrE:6aab4PVY…> > <http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Eff/oreilly/radar/atom?a=bpfD6RBpfrE:6aab4PVY…> > > Gov 2.0 control democracy egypt technology > > > sent from my mobile device > > > -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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Social Media and Social Revolutions: what is their relationship
by Michel Bauwens 02 Feb '11

02 Feb '11

fyi, an editorial that appeared today in the p2p blog: http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/social-media-and-social-revolutions-what-is-t… <http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/if-your-government-shuts-down-the-internet-sh…> Social Media and Social Revolutions: what is their relationship?<http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/social-media-and-social-revolutions-what-is-t…> [image: photo of Michel Bauwens] Michel Bauwens 2nd February 2011 Every time we are witnessing a massive mobilization of social movements, a social uprising or even a true social revolution, we can be sure to witness a new round of debate between those that insist on the crucial role of social media, sometimes even calling it a Twitter Revolution, and those dismissing this and even warning for the dangerous role of trusting or highlighting their use. Here is my own contribution to this debate. First of all, I’d like to distinguish between two meanings of the concept of Revolution. The deep meaning of Revolution is one of phase transition from one social system to another, and it is important here to distinguish the long course of history, and its sometimes explosive accelerations, when a long term quantitative development becomes a qualitative leap. I have not the slightest doubt that the invention of peer to peer communication, i.e. the internet, the web and its social media derivatives, by allowing direct, cheap and ubiquitous communication between peers, is a true and deep social revolution, as important as the invention of writing and of print once were. Literally, as with writing and print, the change in communication infrastructures, the new socialization and balance of power it permits, changes every field of social activity, not just gradually, but eventually leading to a new social system working on different premises. But it is important to realize that such deep phase transitions take time, generally speaking more than one generation, though we do expect that one of the effects of p2p technology is undoubtedly an acceleration of historical processes. Having said this, we are not saying that technology is the only factor, but it is a major and important factor, with very deep social effects. Once print was invented, the monopoly of truth of the feudal system and the Catholic Church was broken, this is undeniable. Nevertheless, technological affordances are part of an integrated set of change factors. We are also not saying that new technology has only emancipatory and liberating effects. It has some, and they are very important for social forces seeking freedom, justice and equality, but technology is always a tool of struggle and contention, and will be used by opposing social forces, each seeking to use it to their advantage. But what is certain, is that a new communication infrastructure changes the balance of forces, and has democratising effects. If the privileged want to remain dominant, they have to seek new ways, advance a new social contract. Today, we can except that peer to peer communications, and their new forms of horizontal socialization, and the new tools it offers to citizens to organize around common value, will also have a deep seated influence on social structures, BUT, this will take time. At the P2P Foundation, we expect first a reformulation of capitalism, but we also expect, in about a generation, a fundamental phase transition towards a new form of society. Now we come to the second meaning of Revolution, as a specific political revolution or uprising leading to a change in regime. Here also, peer to peer media (a much broader category than social media), have an important enabling effect, but we must distinguish different temporalities. First of all, there is again a deep temporality, favouring horizontal socialization and the creation of a new type of affinity communities based on shared values. This socialization prepares for a stronger civil society, which gradually undermines the control of authoritarian regimes whose control is based on the use of previous forms of mass media. Yes, we do believe that in the longer term, even as authoritarian governments learn to control and use the internet to their advantage, that it does give more advantage to civil society forces, who learn to extend their own autonomy and spheres of freedom. It is this longer process which prepares the way for the open source insurgencies that we are now witnessing in Egypt and Tunisia. Based on that longer process of socialization, which happened in the preceding years, this allows at certain moment a rapid and massive mobilization of the people, who become conscious of their power and unity, and indeed, gives them the confidence to confront authoritarian regimes. But at the same time, these open source insurgencies are based on common and general demands, and they can dissolve as soon as either the goal is attained, or the battle is lost, then reverting again to the longer term socialization processes we have just described. Needless to say, don’t confuse p2p media with corporate social media (though the latter play a very important role due to their popularity), and of course, these same media can be used for identification of dissent and repressive measures, especially if the movements are defeated. Intelligent use of such media is a sine qua non, and as we have seen in Egypt, even as people learn to creatively communicate even without it, once the will to change has been established. But as we said, open source insurgencies can dissolve just as quickly once the common goal, usually general enough to unite everybody, like with the slogan, ‘the dictator must leave’, is achieved. At this point it is important that groups have used social media on a longer term basis, to establish themselves as real communities that can play a social and political role. This does not necessary have to be a traditional political organization as we have known from the previous era, but can be a movement like the April 6 Movement, who has recognized leaders that had organized themselves before. In other words, no serious social movement who wants to effect deep change, can merely rely on the quick mobilization power of social media, but needs longer term policies of socialization and of achieving consensus around common goals and values. It needs a staying power that social media alone cannot provide. Recent events around Wikileaks, Tunisia and the total shutdown in Egypt have also given us a valuable lesson into the reliability of corporate social media, and the internet, susceptible to government and corporate control around choke points. This means that at all times, serious activist will be ready not just to apply alternative digital media, but also non-digital media. But in no way am I making an appeal to abandon social media, or the public internet, indeed, this is where the people and the users are, and no social change effort can be successful, if is isolates itself from the mass of the people. Smart social change agents will have a combination of confidential media for their own longer term internal organization, and the judicious and careful use of social media to reach larger audiences. To come back to the debates we mentioned at the beginning. Yes, peer to peer and social media are deep agents of social change, and essential organizational tools, but they must be part of an integrated strategy, that uses both long term socialization and its short term power of massive and rapid social mobilization. But even if we loose a battle, the deeper social change, will continue unabated, though nobody can predict the exact balance of power, the capacity of social control, and the new social contract that will prevail. But one thing is sure, society, and its ruling classes, cannot stay the same in the context of emerging p2p media, and the larger social forces, that can benefit from further emancipation and democratisation, can also not ignore the great potential for autonomy and self-organization, and the possibilities to use these media to create a more free, just and equal society. Let’s not forget, the rulers had their own internets at least one decade before us, and didn’t need a expanded public internet. That we now have access to it, even under imperfect conditions and under their control, is a profound game changer, it represents a unique opportunity and a unique tool that we cannot dismiss and leave to our enemies. No social struggle is conceivable today, without the right usage of p2p media. Just as the Reformation crucially relied on books, and the Labour Movement crucially relied on print and newspaper, so must we also rely on peer to peer communication infrastructures as a really crucial component of any strategy for social change. -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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ANNOUNCING Tahoe, the Least-Authority File System, v1.8.2
by Zooko O'Whielacronx 02 Feb '11

02 Feb '11

ANNOUNCING Tahoe, the Least-Authority File System, v1.8.2 The Tahoe-LAFS team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of version 1.8.2 of Tahoe-LAFS, an extremely reliable distributed storage system. Get it here: http://tahoe-lafs.org/source/tahoe/trunk/docs/quickstart.html Tahoe-LAFS is the first distributed storage system to offer "provider-independent security" — meaning that not even the operators of your storage servers can read or alter your data without your consent. Here is the one-page explanation of its unique security and fault-tolerance properties: http://tahoe-lafs.org/source/tahoe/trunk/docs/about.html The previous stable release of Tahoe-LAFS was v1.8.1, which was released October 28, 2010 [1]. v1.8.2 is a stable bugfix release, adding compatibility with the recently-released Twisted-10.2, and correcting a number of minor issues. See the NEWS file [2] for details. WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR? With Tahoe-LAFS, you distribute your filesystem across multiple servers, and even if some of the servers fail or are taken over by an attacker, the entire filesystem continues to work correctly, and continues to preserve your privacy and security. You can easily share specific files and directories with other people. In addition to the core storage system itself, volunteers have built other projects on top of Tahoe-LAFS and have integrated Tahoe-LAFS with existing systems, including Windows, JavaScript, iPhone, Android, Hadoop, Flume, Django, Puppet, bzr, mercurial, perforce, duplicity, TiddlyWiki, and more. See the Related Projects page on the wiki [3]. We believe that strong cryptography, Free and Open Source Software, erasure coding, and principled engineering practices make Tahoe-LAFS safer than RAID, removable drive, tape, on-line backup or cloud storage. This software is developed under test-driven development, and there are no known bugs or security flaws which would compromise confidentiality or data integrity under recommended use. (For all important issues that we are currently aware of please see the known_issues.rst file [4].) COMPATIBILITY This release is compatible with the version 1 series of Tahoe-LAFS. Clients from this release can write files and directories in the format used by clients of all versions back to v1.0 (which was released March 25, 2008). Clients from this release can read files and directories produced by clients of all versions since v1.0. Servers from this release can serve clients of all versions back to v1.0 and clients from this release can use servers of all versions back to v1.0. This is the thirteenth release in the version 1 series. This series of Tahoe-LAFS will be actively supported and maintained for the forseeable future, and future versions of Tahoe-LAFS will retain the ability to read and write files compatible with this series. LICENCE You may use this package under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or, at your option, any later version. See the file "COPYING.GPL" [5] for the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2. You may use this package under the Transitive Grace Period Public Licence, version 1 or, at your option, any later version. (The Transitive Grace Period Public Licence has requirements similar to the GPL except that it allows you to delay for up to twelve months after you redistribute a derived work before releasing the source code of your derived work.) See the file "COPYING.TGPPL.html" [6] for the terms of the Transitive Grace Period Public Licence, version 1. (You may choose to use this package under the terms of either licence, at your option.) INSTALLATION Tahoe-LAFS works on Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, Cygwin, Solaris, *BSD, and probably most other systems. Start with "docs/quickstart.html" [7]. HACKING AND COMMUNITY Please join us on the mailing list [8]. Patches are gratefully accepted -- the RoadMap page [9] shows the next improvements that we plan to make and CREDITS [10] lists the names of people who've contributed to the project. The Dev page [11] contains resources for hackers. SPONSORSHIP Tahoe-LAFS was originally developed by Allmydata, Inc., a provider of commercial backup services. After discontinuing funding of Tahoe-LAFS R&D in early 2009, they continued to provide servers, bandwidth, small personal gifts as tokens of appreciation, and bug reports. Google, Inc. sponsored Tahoe-LAFS development as part of the Google Summer of Code 2010. They awarded four sponsorships to students from around the world to hack on Tahoe-LAFS that summer. Thank you to Allmydata and Google for their generous and public-spirited support. HACK TAHOE-LAFS! If you can find a security flaw in Tahoe-LAFS which is serious enough that we feel compelled to warn our users and issue a fix, then we will award you with a customized t-shirts with your exploit printed on it and add you to the "Hack Tahoe-LAFS Hall Of Fame" [12]. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This is the seventh release of Tahoe-LAFS to be created solely as a labor of love by volunteers. Thank you very much to the team of "hackers in the public interest" who make Tahoe-LAFS possible. Brian Warner on behalf of the Tahoe-LAFS team January 30, 2011 San Francisco, California, USA [1] http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe/browser/relnotes.txt?rev=4865 [2] http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe/browser/NEWS?rev=5000 [3] http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe/wiki/RelatedProjects [4] http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe/browser/docs/known_issues.rst [5] http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe/browser/COPYING.GPL [6] http://tahoe-lafs.org/source/tahoe/trunk/COPYING.TGPPL.html [7] http://tahoe-lafs.org/source/tahoe/trunk/docs/quickstart.html [8] http://tahoe-lafs.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tahoe-dev [9] http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe/roadmap [10] http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe/browser/CREDITS?rev=5000 [11] http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe/wiki/Dev [12] http://tahoe-lafs.org/hacktahoelafs/

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ways to achieve community wireless broadband, report
by Michel Bauwens 02 Feb '11

02 Feb '11

hi sepp, thanks for checking this out: http://mediapolicy.newamerica.net/publications/policy/from_the_digital_divi… -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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