September 2014 - P2P-Foundation - lists.ourproject.org

Fwd: [Networkedlabour] Social Media as The Weapon of Choice for the Oppressed? The Gaza Case
by Michel Bauwens 27 Sep '14

27 Sep '14

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: peter waterman <peterwaterman1936(a)gmail.com> Date: Sat, Sep 27, 2014 at 4:20 PM Subject: [Networkedlabour] Social Media as The Weapon of Choice for the Oppressed? The Gaza Case To: networkedlabour(a)lists.contrast.org Social Media: The weapon of choice in the Gaza-Israel Conflict #GazaUnderAttack <http://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/gazaunderattack> Palestinians using platforms like Facebook and Twitter counter the mainstream narrative of the Gaza Crisis, reaching an astonishing number of people around the world An injured Palestinian child waits at Ben Gurion Airport to be airlifted to Turkey for treatments on 20 August (AA) [image: Yousef al-Helou's picture] <http://www.middleeasteye.net/users/yousef-al-helou> Yousef al-Helou <http://www.middleeasteye.net/users/yousef-al-helou> Thursday 21 August 2014 21:19 BST Last update: Thursday 25 September 2014 18:30 BST Shares: 324 Topics: GazaUnderAttack <http://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/gazaunderattack> Tags: gaza <http://www.middleeasteye.net/tags/gaza>, Social media <http://www.middleeasteye.net/tags/social-media>, Twitter <http://www.middleeasteye.net/tags/twitter> 0 comments <http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/social-media-weapon-choice-gaza-israel-co…> When 16-year old Palestinian, Farah Baker began tweeting about the bombs falling around her, she could never have guessed that she would rise to such prominence. But in the space of just a few weeks, her followers on Twitter jumped from 800 to 207,000 with people hungry for a first-hand, personal account of what was transpiring in Gaza. Baker is just one of the few Palestinians turning to social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to share photos of the destruction in the Gaza Strip, disseminate information, updates, and posts. Even when the power was out, citizen journalists managed to post pictures of dead bodies, destroyed neighbourhoods and injured people to the outside world. Photography has always been a powerful force, but the Gaza conflict was one of the first wars to be photographed mainly by amateurs and social media platforms, allowing those images to spread far and wide at the click of a button, helping the people of Gaza win hearts and minds, and subsequently causing unprecedented outrage against Israel. In demonstrations around the world, such photos were enlarged and carried by demonstrators, demanding that their respective governments take action to halt Israel’s onslaught. “I noticed that most of the Western media supports Israel, so also some people abroad believe that we Palestinians are the murderers and that it is us who started the attacks on Israel. This is not right. I felt I had to do something to help Gaza. I used Twitter as a weapon to share what exactly happen in Gaza by posting links of recorded clips of bombs, photos of the smoke to make people who follow me feel as if they are living in Gaza. to let them know we are the victims.” Farah Baker said. No doubt reporting in a war zone like Gaza is risky, even if you take all required precautions. Of the 2016 Palestinians killed in the current Israeli assault, 14 were journalists, including a foreign reporter who worked for local and international media outlets. Simultaneously, a number of buildings housing media offices and outlets were attacked. Israel is ranked 96th in the world on the “Press Freedom Index” - a report compiled by Reporters without Borders - because of the Israeli military's targeting of Palestinian journalists in the occupied Palestinian territory. This ranking was published before the start of Israel’s 3rd war on Gaza, called “Operation Protective Edge.” “Since the start of the Gaza blockade in 2006, a new generation of Palestinians have come to prominence in Gaza. Articulating their message in fluent English through blogs and Twitter, they conveyed their message to the world as a means to break their isolation, not only from the outside world but also from the rest of the occupied territories in the West Bank and the capital of East Jerusalem,” said Abed al-Nasser Abu Oun, a TV correspondent and radio presenter at a local radio station. As the war progressed, it was an online battle of narratives - between heavily funded Israeli state media outlets, represented by Israeli spokespersons of the Israeli government and the army with decades of experience - versus Palestinian citizen journalists who only had their own laptops, smartphones and cameras. Some citizen journalists from Gaza argue that they were even able to win the cyber-war, and reach the public in the West by repackaging, commenting on, and distributing content in innovative ways, tweeting updates a lot faster than other media outlets. “Most of the Western corporations and outlets are biased in favour of Israel, so they totally mislead people by fabricating news, showing Palestinians’ destroyed homes as Israeli ones. This attitude sparked uproar and disgust toward those news channels - namely Fox News. Alternatively, Palestinian activists firmly focus in revealing the reality through social media tools,” said Maram Humaid, social media activist. The use of social media also forged connections with international media organizations, who contacted Gaza residents and citizen journalists with questions and interview requests. Twitter became a platform for tens of thousands of regular people who have an opinion to share, for those who wish to challenge someone else's point of view, or those who simply want to share updates and their own personal feelings on the human cost of Israel’s war. Many of these messages can be viewed under the hashtags #GazaUnderAttack and #PrayforGaza. “Many people - young and old alike - are using social media to report on their immediate circumstances in ways that the mainstream media cannot. We see this shifting coverage and understanding of events from Gaza to Ferguson. In both places, tweets from local residents have offered immediate news to those watching from elsewhere. In some cases, citizen journalists have greatly challenged the narratives of more established sources,” said Joe Catron, an American pro-Palestine activist in Gaza. Citizen journalists can publish their own work, analysis and breaking news in a free, un-censored and un-filtered way, unlike professional reporters of the mainstream media who have to stick to their corporations' editorial policy and guidelines. One of the motivating factors that drive more citizen journalists to volunteer dismantling information is due to what they said about the unfair media coverage of the Palestinian narrative. “The rise of the internet has helped to reconstruct the fragmentation of Palestine, as it is a way for Palestinians to reconnect and break their isolation. I think the effect of the social media boom among young Palestinian social media activists somehow succeeded in changing public perception of the Palestinian in the West,” said Majed Shuplaq, a Palestinian journalist. Citizen journalism from Palestine is especially valuable for those who are looking for information which has not been filtered through a Western agenda. Social media has definitely weakened the Israeli narrative, as Palestinians are able to connect directly with overseas audiences and tell the stories that they feel are important. Hundreds of thousands of tweets exchanged reports, opinions, and challenges to mainstream news reports and to each other. There were of course, many other tags that hosted additional discussions. In hindsight, it seems that Twitter hosted the most open and democratic discussions, compared with other social media venues. “Twitter is the fastest social media tool in disseminating information, so I found it suitable to publish my tweets about the situation in Gaza as attacks and developments happen around me. People from other countries always believe such reports coming from eyewitnesses, from people who live on the ground. Before the recent Israeli aggression on Gaza, I used to receive between 20-50 retweets on my Twitter account. But during the aggression, the number of retweets increased rapidly to reach over 1,000 retweets for each tweet I post. That has encouraged me to divide my tweets into three major categories: breaking news, full stories, and the massacre,” said Khaled Safi, blogger and social media activist. - See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/social-media-weapon-choice-gaza-israel-co… -- 1. *EBook, November 2012: Recovering Internationalism <http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/recovering_internationalism/>. [A compilation of papers from the new millenium. Now free in two download formats] <http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/world_social_forum/> <http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/world_social_forum/>* 2. *EBook (co-editor), February 2013: World Social Forum: Critical Explorations http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/world_social_forum/ <http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/world_social_forum/> * 3. *Interface Journal Special (co-editor), November 2012: For the Global Emancipation of Labour <http://www.interfacejournal.net/current/>* 4. *Blog: http://www.unionbook.org/profile/peterwaterman. <http://www.unionbook.org/profile/peterwaterman.> * 5. *Interface Journal Special (Co-Editor) Social Movement Internationalisms. See Call for Papers <http://www.interfacejournal.net/>, (Deadline: May 1, 2014). * 6. *Needed: a Global Labour Charter Movement (2005-Now!) <http://interfacejournal.nuim.ie/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Interf…>* 7. *Under, Against, Beyond: Labour and Social Movements Confront a Globalised, Informatised Capitalism <http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/under-against-beyond/>(2011) Almost 1,000 pages of Working Papers, free, from the 1980 <1980>'s-90's.* 8. *Google Scholar Citation Index:* *http://scholar.google.com.pe/citations?user=e0e6Qa4AAAAJ <http://scholar.google.com.pe/citations?user=e0e6Qa4AAAAJ> * - _______________________________________________ NetworkedLabour mailing list NetworkedLabour(a)lists.contrast.org http://lists.contrast.org/mailman/listinfo/networkedlabour -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/

1 0

Fwd: [Fwd: <nettime> Guillaume Lachenal: Ebola: a brilliantly scripted disaster movie]
by Michel Bauwens 26 Sep '14

26 Sep '14

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Patrice Riemens <patrice(a)xs4all.nl> Date: Fri, Sep 26, 2014 at 5:17 AM Subject: [Fwd: <nettime> Guillaume Lachenal: Ebola: a brilliantly scripted disaster movie] To: Michel Bauwens <michel(a)p2pfoundation.net> Cc: droth(a)xs4all.nl, uwe(a)globe-spotting.de Speaking of translations ... Good Night/ good Morning p+5D! ---------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- Subject: <nettime> Guillaume Lachenal: Ebola: a brilliantly scripted disaster movie From: "Patrice Riemens" <patrice(a)xs4all.nl> Date: Wed, September 24, 2014 19:09 To: nettime-l(a)kein.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Original (French) to: http://www.liberation.fr/monde/2014/09/18/chronique-d-un-film-catastrophe-b… Ebola: a brilliantly scripted disaster movie by Guillaume Lachenal "It is useless to laboriously interpret disaster movies in terms of their relation to an "objective" social crisis or even to an "objective" phantasm of disaster. It is in another sense that it must be said that it is the social itself that, in contemporary discourse, is organized along the lines of a disaster-movie script." wrote Jean Baudrillard in 1976. Apocalyptic movies have for some time been the object of analysis in serious publications, as they are the mirror of our societies' angst in the face of pandemics. But the Ebola epidemic ravaging West Africa calls for a more radical critique. The current crisis is not some nightmare taking place under our very eyes "just like in a disaster movie". It is not an anomaly, nor an accident taking health authorities by surprise; it is also not, to use development gobbledygook, an organizational, financial, and political 'challenge' the international community needs to rise up to. The exact reverse needs to be told in no uncertain terms: the Ebola crisis is the outcome of 20 years of political choices and deliberate policies. It is a man-made catastrophe, not only through the intentional hollowing out of African primary health care systems thanks to neo-liberal reforms (aka 'structural adjustments' -tr), but also because of the willful mobilization of all private and public health actors towards the advent of a new era of "Global Health". This mobilization, effective since 2005, has been characterized by an unheard of increase in health-directed funding for countries in the global South, which had made Africa its number one priority - for the sake of world-wide sanitary security. The glorious times of the big narrative are back: success stories about the eradication of diseases, glossy brochures with smiling children, Bill Gates and Big Pharma joining hands on the world stage are at the order of the day. We have entered a new era where nifty smartphone applications, public-private partnerships, and 'sustainable innovation' are going to work out their magic on African health issues, one at a time. Gone from the picture are the decrepit primary health centers, the continuous power outages, and depleted stocks of medicines. The world of Global Health shines like an advertisement for beauty products. The disaster unfolding under our eyes is the direct result of these security-oriented, spectacle-driven, scripted health policies, which have all ben implemented at the expense of the African health systems and the people working in them. " Pandemic Preparedness" has been the leading principle in world health, both in the Global North and the Global South since the SARS and avian flu crisis of 2003-2005. And in the slipstream of US post-September 11 mobilization, the grants earmarked for 'bio-terrorism' et 'emerging diseases' research - by definition, research on not yet existing pathogenic agents - have all but wiped out public research funding for 'ordinary' health issues, and this was especially the case during the Bush presidency. Contrarily to what has been written, Ebola has never been a neglected subject - rather the reverse: ever since the first outbreak in 1976, the virus has been knock-out argument to buttress fundamental virological research ( building high-security labs in particular, during the early eighties) while being used to talk down preventive health policies and other 'old school' social approaches. No tender, no press release on 'bio-security' would fail to mention the Ebola virus, so potent it is, and that even before the current outbreak, to conjure up the spectre of an emerging threat. For the past twenty years Ebola, together with SARS, smallpox, and the avian flu has been the true raison d'etre of governmental pandemic preparedness programs. With full-size simulated emergency drills, guarded godowns filled with surgical masks and gloves, preparedness was the political parole of the new millenium, partially inherited from the cold war military programs. The H1N1 flu pandemic of 2009 saw it come to its own, big time - indeed, one can say that never has the world been so well 'prepared'. Africa has not stayed in the margin of these endeavors. Fired up by the WHO and the American CDC (Centre for Disease Control), African state joined enthusiastically the 'preparedness' drive. And the continent did not lack experts to lead the initiative: in several African countries the 'search for emerging viruses' employs scores of international researchers and their local partners. Considerable progress has been made over the past years regarding knowledge about pathogens, among them Ebola and HIV, originating in animals such as bats and big apes. Just as in Europe did the threat of fresh pandemics, and especially flu-related ones, stimulate the set-up of preparedness action plans, all starting with the obligatory "mock-up practice drills": scripted role-plays intended to test the readiness of authorities - playing their own role - in the face of a (virtual) pandemic. All well, but for the fact that in context of the actual situation in African countries, the word 'simulation' must be taken in a very literal sense indeed. Gathering in a conference room, ministers and WHO experts plot virtual interventions, whether of the military, police, or sanitary kind - with all participants knowing full well that these are devoid of any real bearing _on the ground_ due to the woeful lack of equipment, troops, police personnel, and medical infrastructure. The very idea of _preparedness_ fulfills itself in the realm of the absurd: public health boiling down to a simulated war against an imagined threat. Africa is getting ready as never before, it does nothing else than that, so to speak. Yet another jaded tale - save that these pandemic preparedness exercises siphon off a major part of the African health authorities' energies and resources, even as these are confronted with far more urgent sanitary emergencies. Thanks to Wikileaks, we now know that the US Embassy in Sierra Leone was already worrying about this state of affairs in 2007. But the main problem with these simulation exercises is that they represent, in condensed and unadulterated form the new paradigm of Global Health, Africa style: a type of intervention where real action on real diseases has become secondary to vast, assumptive and speculative 'viral surveillance' programs. A good example of the latter is provided by the Californian 'virus hunter' Nathan Wolfe and his initiative on 'preventive treatment' of HIV, or his 'mobile health' projects whereby smartphones are supposed to abolish distances and make good for the lack of medical personnel and other failings of African health systems. The 'real economy', to borrow a term from the financial world, stands only in distant connection with the, symbolic, but also monetary, profits brought into play by the largely virtual interventions in the realm of Global Health. As the 2014 Ebola epidemic has by now killed almost as many people as September 11 it does indeed look like a crisis: namely the blowout of a speculative bubble. "Just as in a disaster movie", to quote Baudrillard again, reality and fiction have ended up in a feedback loop. This because pandemic preparedness has raised the _script_ and the _(computer) game_ to the level of a full-fledged political procedure, a method to 'organize the social', marginalizing the prevention-based approaches of 'old school' public health policies, paving the way in the process for fresh outbreaks of 'old' epidemics such as cholera (25.000 African cases in 2013 !). The advent of 'Global Health' is nothing but the last phase of a destructive historical sequence inducted by structural adjustment policies in the 1990s transforming African (public) hospital wards into a Mad Max style rust belt of squalid slums. But it marks also the triumph of _storytelling_ blossoming into a full-fledged discipline, a crucial competence, maybe even the only legit one left in the world of Global Health. The superstars of the fight against future pandemics like the US biologist Nathan Wolfe have completely blurred the line between fiction and reality, public health action and cash machines: Dr Wolfe has built his career on emerging viruses in Cameroon (Ebola among them), and then embarked on a 10 years stint of television appearances, plugging his surveillance project of African pathogens. That his efforts did not in anyway translate into substantial advances on the ground was inconsequential to him obtaining a six-digit advance on his latest book "The Viral Storm'. Wolfe morphed his research team into a start-up, financed among others by the Google Foundation dishing out $ 1m for every new virus identified. His seductively scripted TED conferences overwhelm his audiences and play in a loop on YouTube. He was also scientific advisor for the zombie film 'I am a Legend'. His little company Metabiota Inc. naturally took up pole position in the Ebola campaign. On the ground by last May, the start-up's virologists were true to their promise to save the world, with marching orders from the US Department of Defense to organize Sierra Leone's _'preparedness'_ at the moment the epidemic was devastating neighboring Guinea. _A complete success story_, Sierra Leone is now uniquely prepared"_ his team wrote on May 12. By now we know how that particular movie did end. Guillaume Lachenal is assistant professor at Paris-Diderot University and the Paris School of Political Sciences. He lectures on "Global Health in Africa, Critical perspectives". -------------- Q&D translated by yrs truly Amsterdam September 23, 2014 # 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(a)kein.org -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/

1 0

Fwd: Politics & International Affairs Conference Athens Greece
by Michel Bauwens 26 Sep '14

26 Sep '14

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Dr. Ioannis Stivachtis <info(a)athensconference.gr> Date: Fri, Sep 26, 2014 at 2:02 PM Subject: Politics & International Affairs Conference Athens Greece To: michelsub2004(a)gmail.com ATHENS INSTITUTE FOR EDUCATION AND RESEARCH *13th Annual International Conference on Politics & International Affairs, 15-18 June 2015, Athens, Greece* *Call for Papers and Participation* The Politics & International Affairs Research Unit <http://comm100edm3.com/Newsletter/Newsletter_Click.aspx?version=4&type=0&Em…> of the Athens Institute for Education and Research <http://comm100edm3.com/Newsletter/Newsletter_Click.aspx?version=4&type=0&Em…> (ATINER) will hold its *13th Annual International Conference on Politics & International Affairs, 15-18 June 2015, Athens, Greece*. For further details (including previous programs), please go to the conference website: www.atiner.com/politics.htm <http://comm100edm3.com/Newsletter/Newsletter_Click.aspx?version=4&type=0&Em…> . The aim of the conference is to bring together academics, researchers, students and professionals in private and public organizations and governments of Politics and International Affairs and other related disciplines. You may participate as panel organizer, presenter of one paper, chair a session or observer. For programs of previous conferences and other information, please visit the conference website: www.atiner.com/politics.htm <http://comm100edm3.com/Newsletter/Newsletter_Click.aspx?version=4&type=0&Em…> . Fee structure information is available on www.atiner.com/fees.htm <http://comm100edm3.com/Newsletter/Newsletter_Click.aspx?version=4&type=0&Em…> . Special arrangements will be made with a local luxury hotel for a limited number of rooms at a special conference rate. In addition, a number of special events will be organized: A Greek night of entertainment with dinner, a special one-day cruise to selected Greek islands, an archaeological tour of Athens and a one-day visit to Delphi. Details of the social program are available at http://www.atiner.com/2015/SOC-POL.htm <http://comm100edm3.com/Newsletter/Newsletter_Click.aspx?version=4&type=0&Em…> . Please submit an abstract (email only) to: atiner(a)atiner.com, using the abstract submission form available at http://www.atiner.com/2015/FORM-POL.doc <http://comm100edm3.com/Newsletter/Newsletter_Click.aspx?version=4&type=0&Em…> by the *17 November **2014 *to: *Dr. Ioannis Stivachtis, Head, Politics & International Affairs Research Unit, ATINER and Director, International Studies Program Virginia Tech - Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, USA.* Please include: Title of Paper, Full Name (s), Current Position, Institutional Affiliation, an email address and at least 3 keywords that best describe the subject of your submission. *Decisions will be reached within four weeks of your submission.* Please use the abstract submitting form available at http://www.atiner.com/2015/FORM-POL.doc <http://comm100edm3.com/Newsletter/Newsletter_Click.aspx?version=4&type=0&Em…> .If your submission is accepted, you will receive information on registration deadlines and paper submission requirements. Should you wish to participate in the Conference without presenting a paper, for example, to chair a session, to evaluate papers which are to be included in the conference proceedings or books, to contribute to the editing of a book, or any other contribution, please send an email to *Dr. Gregory T. Papanikos**, President, ATINER** & Honorary Professor, University of Stirling, UK* (*gregory.papanikos(a)stir.ac.uk <gregory.papanikos(a)stir.ac.uk>*). The Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER) was established in 1995 as an independent world association of Academics and Researchers. Its mission is to act as a forum where Academics and Researchers from all over the world can meet in Athens, in order to exchange ideas on their research, and to discuss future developments in their disciplines. Currently, ATINER is upgrading its system of mailing list. Please let us know if you want to receive emails from us. Typically, we will not send you more than 5 email alerts per year. ATINER | Solomou 14 | Athens | Greece Unsubscribe <http://comm100edm3.com/Newsletter/Newsletter_Unsubscribe.aspx?key=dEm73Ra5t…> [image: Comm100 Email Marketing] <https://comm100edm3.com/NewsletterRedirect/emailmarketingnewsletter.aspx?ke…> -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/

1 0

Fwd: ZNet Commentary: Paul Street: “Heart of Darkness”: Obama’s Orwellian Chutzpah at the United Nations
by Michel Bauwens 26 Sep '14

26 Sep '14

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: ZCommunications <no-reply(a)zcomm.org> Date: Fri, Sep 26, 2014 at 7:55 PM Subject: ZNet Commentary: Paul Street: “Heart of Darkness”: Obama’s Orwellian Chutzpah at the United Nations To: michelsub2004(a)gmail.com Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser <http://send.zcomm.org/wf/click?upn=9PHos1J7-2FD2Lw6jereECeNLGs3ocss1O2kcgD4…>. Paul Street: “Heart of Darkness”: Obama’s Orwellian Chutzpah at the United NationsZ Communications Daily Commentary *If They Were Serious* What if Barack Obama and the US foreign policy establishment and US corporate media were actually serious about ending the dire threats – real and/or merely perceived – posed by Islamist terrorism to US citizens and “interests” at home and abroad? How would they proceed? They would do five basic things. First, they would undertake a serious and public discussion about why the United States faces widespread and bitter hatred in the Middle East and Muslim world. That would mean acknowledging Washington’s longstanding murderous and petro-imperial role in the Middle East – a role that many journalist and authors (myself included) others have documented at great length over many years. It is not a pretty story. In Iraq alone, it seems likely that the number of unnatural deaths caused by US attacks and sanctions since 1990 exceeds 2 million and may go as high as 3.3 million (including 750,000 children). In his 2004 book *Imperial Hubris: Why The West is Losing the War on Terror *the CIA’s former top al Qaeda expert Michael Scheuer tried to advance the elementary observation that al Qaeda (of which the new Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] is a spin-off) hate the US not because of* who it is* (purportedly a land of freedom, democracy, religious toleration, and women’s rights) but because of *what it does in the Middle East*. Scheurer’s warning went absurdly unheeded. “Anti-American” Islamic jihad lives on, tied now to an actual territorial Middle East caliphate, and fueled by a US imperial jihad – a veritable effort to construct something like a US caliphate through sheer murderous power of force – in the region after 9/11. Once again, the US public is told that the vicious Islamist enemy is driven to “hate us” because of “who we are” (supposedly free, democratic, and tolerant) when in reality the problem factor is what “we” (US policymakers) do in and to the Middle East. It’s long past time to admit that it’s about what “we” do. Second, Washington and the Administration would very publicly acknowledge that its claims to advance democracy, freedom, and humanitarian development have always been and remain little more than deceptive cover for the real objective behind the United States’ heavy and enduring military and political presence in the Middle East: control of the region’s vast and strategically hyper-significant oil resources. Third, Washington and Obama would very publicly tell Israel that the US will no longer support its murderous, criminal, and racist policies of occupation and apartheid and that the US will take away the $3.1 billion it grants each year to the Israeli Defense Forces and invest that money instead in the reconstruction of Gaza. Fourth, the US establishment through Obama would apologize in a very public and sincere way for the many millions of Arabs and Muslims the US has murdered, tortured, crippled, displaced, orphaned, sickened and otherwise grievously injured over more than seven decades of US military and political intervention in the Middle East. Fifth, the US imperial establishment would announce that Washington’s military interventions in the Arab and Muslim worlds are coming to an end and that the US will take the taxpayer dollars saved to “pay reparations to the victims and repair the damage from the many American bombings, invasions, and sanctions.” (I quote here from William Blum. *Rogue State: A Guide to the World’s Only Superpower *[2005]). *A Darkly Flawed Call to Arms* If these things were done, the endlessly invoked Islamist terror threat would disappear. But, of course, such actions are unthinkable for the US imperial establishment, as Obama moves into his third day of air warfare in Syria. Thus the world yesterday (I am writing on the morning of Thursday 25, 2014) heard Obama at the United Nations (UN) “issue…a fervent call to arms against the Islamic State – the once reluctant warrior now apparently resolved to waging a twilight struggle against Islamic extremism for the remainder of his presidency.” (*New York Times*, 9/25/2014, A1). In order to provide a façade of legal legitimacy for his technically criminal air war, Obama has recently (just two days ago) introduced the world to a new terror cell we’d never heard of before. It’s called “the Khorason Group,” said to be based in Syria and to pose an “imminent danger” to the US and the West. What a convenient creation, transparently advanced at the last minute to make Washington’s attacks on Syrian territory appear consistent with international law. The only language the Islamic State terrorists and their “network of death” understand, Kill List Obama told UN delegates, his eyes flashing anger, is “the language of force.” The brutality of the ISIS, Obama added, “forces us to look into the heart of darkness.” An interesting choice of phrases, taken from Joseph Conrad’s racially loaded turn-of-the-20th century novel about a “civilized” white ivory trader’s trek down the Congo River into “barbarian” Central Africa. What about Israel’s recurrent slaughter (with US weapons and ordnance) of hundreds of Palestinian children in Gaza, of its regular exercises in “mowing the lawn?” Does that make us look into “the heart of darkness?” What about when the US bombs a houseful of civilians in pursuit of one presidentially targeted terrorist, killing dozens in pursuit of a single official enemy? Does that focus the world on “the heart of darkness” and “the language of force”? How about the public beheadings that are routinely carried out for even petty crimes by “our partner” in the new War on Terror Saudi Arabia? Any “heart of darkness” there? How about the death of more than 500,000 children thanks to US-led “economic sanctions” during the 1990s? That’s the number of dead Iraqi minors that CBS’s Leslie Stahl famously asked US Secretary of State Madeline Albright about in 1996. The Madame Secretary did not bother to dispute the appalling number. She said “we think the price [the giant juvenile death toll in Iraq that is] is worth it” – for the advance of inherently noble US foreign policy goals. As Albright explained three years later, “The United States is good. We try to do our best everywhere.” Talk about “the heart of darkness.” That heart finds its top global arterial pumping station in the US Pentagon, where post-9/11 planners came up years ago with an interesting term for “collaterally” killed Arab and Muslim victims of US military operations: “Bug-splat.” Want to see a “network of death” and “the language of force”? Look at a map of US military bases and forces in the Middle East and around the world. The US maintains more than 1000 military installations across more than 120 “sovereign” nations, maintained by a Pentagon budget that accounts for nearly half the world’s military spending. US Special Forces under Obama operate in 134 countries, nearly double the number under George W. Bush. *“Where Might Makes Right”* For good measure, the US President at the UN yesterday warned nuclear Russia that it “would pay for its bullying of Ukraine” (*New York Times*). Obama denounced Moscow for holding “a view of the world where might makes right.” Never mind that the West, led by the US, has provoked the dangerous “new Cold War” crisis in Eastern Europe. It has done so by violating early pledges that NATO would not expand eastward and by making bids to recruit new NATO members among former members of the Warsaw Pact and former provinces of the former Soviet Union. It seems almost redundant to add here that no nation on Earth exhibits a stronger commitment to the notion that “might makes right” than the US, with its giant global Empire and its astonishing death toll. *You’ve Got to Hand it To Him* A final insult to honesty at the UN came when Obama claimed that he and the US were in the vanguard of the global struggle against climate change – as if his administration has not greenlighted escalated oil drilling and fracking in the name of so-called national energy independence. As if the US under Obama hasn’t done everything it could to undermine international effort to develop and enforce binding global carbon emission reductions. Like I’ve always said about Obama, you’ve really got to hand it to him: he’s sure got Orwellian chutzpah. *Paul Street can be reached at **paul.street99(a)gmail.com* <http://send.zcomm.org/wf/click?upn=9PHos1J7-2FD2Lw6jereECeNLGs3ocss1O2kcgD4…> ZCommunications, 18 Millfield St., Woods Hole, MA, USA, 02543 Unsubscribe <http://send.zcomm.org/wf/click?upn=9PHos1J7-2FD2Lw6jereECeNLGs3ocss1O2kcgD4…> | Manage Subscription <http://send.zcomm.org/wf/click?upn=9PHos1J7-2FD2Lw6jereECeNLGs3ocss1O2kcgD4…> If you'd like to unsubscribe and stop receiving these emails click here <http://send.zcomm.org/wf/unsubscribe?upn=V-2FUUiW5KvBPNV-2FItFYsbuIFOqr58Na…> . -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/

1 0

Ello--An Alternative to Facebook?
by Vasilis Kostakis 26 Sep '14

26 Sep '14

An interesting discussion in the Air-List on Ello, an apparently alternative platform to Facebook: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Mathew Gagne <mathew.gagne(a)mail.utoronto.ca> Date: 25 September 2014 21:32 Subject: Re: [Air-L] Ello--An Alternative to Facebook To: Michael T Zimmer <zimmerm(a)uwm.edu>, Jill Walker Rettberg < Jill.Walker.Rettberg(a)lle.uib.no> Cc: "air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org" <air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org>, Karyn Hollis < karyn.hollis(a)villanova.edu> Dear all, Much of the hype about Ello comes partially from a queer exodus from Facebook. Recently, Facebook began deactivating accounts whose profile names do not match the owner's real name. This affect drag performers who possess Facebook accounts for their drag persona but register it under their legal names. This also affects those queer individuals who create fake profiles to conceal their sexual identities from certain social networks. This is a matter of Facebook's policy regarding the use of 'real names' by performs, artists, and others. I've posted a series of articles talking about this issue. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/24/facebook-real-name-pol… http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/09/25/social-network… http://www.businessinsider.com/drag-queens-arent-the-only-people-affected-b… http://www.queerty.com/rupaul-adds-her-name-to-drag-performers-against-face… http://www.queerty.com/is-ello-the-anti-facebook-social-network-weve-all-be… http://betabeat.com/2014/09/mysterious-social-network-ello-explodes-in-popu… Best, Mathew ***** Ph.D. Candidate Department of Anthropology University of Toronto ________________________________________ From: Air-L <air-l-bounces(a)listserv.aoir.org> on behalf of Michael T Zimmer <zimmerm(a)uwm.edu> Sent: September-25-14 2:22 PM To: Jill Walker Rettberg Cc: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org; Karyn Hollis Subject: Re: [Air-L] Ello--An Alternative to Facebook > Maybe Tumblr and other existing sites already address most of the issues Ello tries to solve? Only old people aren't on them? That made me chuckle, thanks. I don't think Ello is trying to solve any issues other than the creators' desire to attract a Yahoo/Google acquisition. -- Michael Zimmer, PhD Associate Professor, School of Information Studies Director, Center for Information Policy Research University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee e: zimmerm(a)uwm.edu w: www.michaelzimmer.org On Sep 25, 2014, at 1:07 PM, Jill Walker Rettberg < Jill.Walker.Rettberg(a)lle.uib.no> wrote: > Does anyone know why Ello suddenly has hit social media in the last couple of days? It seems to have started up in January but it's just since yesterday I've been seeing it all > over Facebook and Twitter. > > I've seen some skeptical comments. Apparently everything on Ello is open to everyone, so some people say that despite it's not requiring real names as Facebook does, it won't work for populations who are frequently harassed or abused online: > http://notyourexrotic.tumblr.com/post/98292236476/goodbye-ello-privacy-safe… > > However, they se trying to address this and do seem to be responding fast to criticism, as Flourish Klink noted on Facebook > https://ello.co/wtf/post/rules > (Flourish also shared that first tumblr post) > > Ian Bogost posted to Facebook that a friend had noted that their privacy policy states that "Ello does not have any affiliated companies right now. But if we do in the future, we may share information with them, too." That doesn't sound much better than Facebook. But a lot of their privacy statement is clearly in opposition to Facebook. > https://ello.co/wtf/post/privacy > > I'm still waiting on an invite so have no personal experience - but Diaspora* tanked. Does Ello have a better chance? Maybe Tumblr and other existing sites already address most of the issues Ello tries to solve? Only old people aren't on them? > > Jill > > Sent from my phone > > On 25. sep. 2014, at 16:44, Karyn Hollis <karyn.hollis(a)villanova.edu <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > > Hi All-- > Does anyone know anything about Ello.co<http://Ello.co> , the free, non-ad driven social media website? I've read that membership is exploding, especially among the arts and LGBTQ community. But all are invited to escape Facebook! I sure hope it is a success. > > Here's an article about it > http://betabeat.com/2014/09/mysterious-social-network-ello-explodes-in-popu… > > And here's the address to Ello.co<http://Ello.co> (not .com) itself: > https://ello.co/beta-public-profiles > > > Best, > Karyn > > -----Original Message----- > From: Air-L [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of air-l-request(a)listserv.aoir.org<mailto:[email protected]> > Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2014 6:02 PM > To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org<mailto:[email protected]> > Subject: Air-L Digest, Vol 122, Issue 27 > > Send Air-L mailing list submissions to > air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org<mailto:[email protected]> > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > air-l-request(a)listserv.aoir.org<mailto:[email protected]> > > You can reach the person managing the list at > air-l-owner(a)listserv.aoir.org<mailto:[email protected]> > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Air-L digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Big Data and Health: Tenure-Track Assistant Professor > Position at MSU (Kayla D. Hales) > 2. two new datasets - knowledge graph over academic literature > and over human rights reports (kalev leetaru) > 3. NEO UBIMEDIA MINDTREK AWARD 2014 (the ubimedia competition) - > deadline extended till the 30th September (Artur Lugmayr) > 4. Call for Full Book Chapters (30th October 2014): Information > Systems and Management in eMedia and Creative Industries: > Springer-Verlag (Artur Lugmayr) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 00:35:04 -0400 > From: "Kayla D. Hales" <haleskay(a)msu.edu<mailto:[email protected]>> > To: <air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org<mailto:[email protected]>> > Subject: [Air-L] Big Data and Health: Tenure-Track Assistant Professor > Position at MSU > Message-ID: <005f01cfd7b0$e9d107c0$bd731740$(a)msu.edu<mailto:005f01cfd7b0 $e9d107c0$bd731740$(a)msu.edu>> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > Job Opening: Tenure-System Position in Big Data and Health > > News Date: > > 09/12/2014 > > Tenure-Track Assistant Professor Position in Big Data and Health Department of Media and Information Michigan State University > > http://cas.msu.edu/job/posting-0098-tenure-track-assistant-professor-in-big- > data-and-health-department-of-media-and-information/ > > The Department of Media and Information (MI) at Michigan State University > (MSU) invites applications for a full-time, tenure system faculty position at the rank of Assistant Professor in the area of big data with a strong interest in health, health IT, e-health, and/or m-health. We seek a scholar conducting cutting-edge social and/or technical research utilizing big data approaches-including theory-building, analytics, applications, and effects. > Additional potential areas of research interest might include: mobile communications, social media, pervasive computing, predictive analytics, collective intelligence, human computation, computational social science, and network analysis. Teaching duties will include graduate and undergraduate courses on topics such as big data analytics, health IT, social network analysis, social computing, collective intelligence, human-computer interaction, and other topics related to information and communications technologies (ICTs). > > The successful candidate will participate in the Trifecta, an interdisciplinary joint initiative by the Colleges of Communication Arts and Sciences, Engineering, and Nursing with the overarching goal of using technology to improve health outcomes and health care organization and delivery. Candidates should be able to demonstrate their potential to obtain external funding to support their scholarship and to publish peer-reviewed works in respected research outlets. Candidates are expected to be excellent teachers and mentors to graduate students. We encourage individuals from a diverse range of disciplinary and methodological traditions to apply. A PhD in a relevant discipline, such as Informatics, Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, Applied Statistics, Management of Information Systems, Communication, Sociology, Economics, or other social or technical sciences with emphases on big data, should be completed prior to the start of the appointment, expected to be Augu st > 16, 2015. > > The MI department is a member of the iSchools consortium, and home to a dynamic, interdisciplinary faculty internationally renowned for their cutting-edge research on the uses and implications of ICTs. The doctoral program in Media and Information Studies, offered jointly by MI along with the Departments of Journalism and Advertising & Public Relations, was recently ranked #3 among Media Ph.D. programs in the U.S. by the National Research Council. Our curricula address both the theoretical and practical aspects of ICT and media use and production, and our alumni have achieved positions of prominence in academia, industry, and government. Projects involving cross-disciplinary teams are actively pursued and encouraged. > Current research foci of the department include social media, human computer interaction, digital games and meaningful play, ICT for development (ICT4D), health and technology, commerce, and communication economics and policy. Our faculty also engages in creative scholarship, design traditional and interactive media experiences, and develop sociotechnical systems. > > To apply, please visit the Michigan State University Employment Opportunities website ( < http://web.archive.org/web/20130109144800/https:/jobs.msu.edu/> https < http://web.archive.org/web/20130109144800/https:/jobs.msu.edu/> :// < http://web.archive.org/web/20130109144800/https:/jobs.msu.edu/> jobs < http://web.archive.org/web/20130109144800/https:/jobs.msu.edu/> . > <http://web.archive.org/web/20130109144800/https:/jobs.msu.edu/> msu < http://web.archive.org/web/20130109144800/https:/jobs.msu.edu/> . > <http://web.archive.org/web/20130109144800/https:/jobs.msu.edu/> edu), refer to Posting #0098, and complete an electronic submission. Applicants should submit the following materials electronically: (1) a cover letter indicating the position you are interested in and summarizing your qualifications for it, (2) a current vita, (3) if appropriate, the URL to an existing individual or collaborative website that conveys your current scholarship, and (4) the names and contact information for three individuals willing to serve as your recommenders to the search committee. Review of applications will begin on November 1, 2014, and continue until the position is filled. > > Please direct any questions to Dr. Steve Wildman, Search Committee Chair, Department of Media and Information at Michigan State University, at swildman(a)msu.edu<mailto:[email protected]>. > > MSU is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer. MSU is committed to achieving excellence through cultural diversity. The university actively encourages applications and/or nominations of women, persons of color, veterans and persons with disabilities. > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 13:29:27 -0400 > From: kalev leetaru <kalev.leetaru5(a)gmail.com<mailto: kalev.leetaru5(a)gmail.com>> > To: "air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org<mailto:[email protected]>" < air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org<mailto:[email protected]>> > Subject: [Air-L] two new datasets - knowledge graph over academic > literature and over human rights reports > Message-ID: > <CAHTt6HUFKoa2iW7=gfnqyxO2DxRSLN0Vq474v_SrYY4BFE=15Q(a)mail.gmail.com <mailto:CAHTt6HUFKoa2iW7=gfnqyxO2DxRSLN0Vq474v_SrYY4BFE=15Q@mail.gmail.com>> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > I thought many of you would find of great use two new GDELT Global Knowledge Graph (GKG) datasets released late yesterday. The first is the set of underlying GKG datasets behind our paper that data mined more than > 21 billion words of academic literature from JSTOR, DTIC, CORE, CiteSeerX, CIA, and the Internet Archive ( http://dlib.org/dlib/september14/leetaru/09leetaru.html) In the hopes of seeding new kinds of research that incorporate the cultural knowledge of the world's academic literature, we are making the GKG datasets behind that paper available for open research. NOTE that these do NOT contain the text of the articles themselves, only the metadata computed from each article, which includes computed metadata of the references cited in each paper, allowing applications such as identifying the most cited authors and institutions relating to specific geographies, topics, and socio-political groups. The full GKG dataset collection of around 40GB is available: > > http://blog.gdeltproject.org/announcing-the-africa-and-middle-east-global-a… > > We have also released a new Human Rights GKG, which encodes in quantitative form a cross-section of the world?s public knowledge of human rights issues across the world, scattered across the hundreds of thousands of textual reports, calls to action, alerts, field interviews, and other material published by organizations throughout the globe. This initial GKG encodes over 110,000 documents encoding a number of the major international human rights report archives, offering a computable overview of global human rights issues over the decades: > > http://blog.gdeltproject.org/announcing-the-new-human-rights-global-knowled… > > The GDELT GKG format encodes lists of social groups, organizations, locations, major themes, emotions, and a range of other metadata computed from each document, making it possible to conduct a wide array of studies that blend spatial, semantic, citation, and network analyses ( http://blog.gdeltproject.org/introducing-gkg-2-0-the-next-generation-of-the… > ). > > We're very much looking forward to seeing what you all are able to do with these new GKG collections! For more information on the GDELT Project more broadly, see the main site (http://www.gdeltproject.org/) or the blog ( http://blog.gdeltproject.org/) > > > > ~Kalev > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 21:33:45 +0300 (EEST) > From: Artur Lugmayr <artur.lugmayr(a)tut.fi<mailto:[email protected]>> > To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org<mailto:[email protected]> > Subject: [Air-L] NEO UBIMEDIA MINDTREK AWARD 2014 (the ubimedia > competition) - deadline extended till the 30th September > Message-ID: <1776957250.25.1411583625543.JavaMail.lugmayr@HLO-PC43> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > ============================================================================== > NEO UBIMEDIA MINDTREK AWARD 2014 > > CALL FOR COMPETITION ENTRIES > > THE award for the pervasive, ubiqutious, and ambient intelligent community EXTENDED Award submission DEADLINE: 30th SEPTEMBER 2014 > > 4th-6th November, Tampere Finland > http://www.numa.fi, http://www.mindtrek.org > > Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/numa.award/ > In cooperation with MindTrek Association, Internatinal Ambient Media Association (iAMEA), and the AIS SIG-eMedia ============================================================================== > > NUMA 2014 - THE award for pervasive, ubiquitous, ambient technologies, media, services, user experience, concepts, and applications. We refurbished the competition for 2014 after having received over 220 competition entries over the past seven years. We want to integrate all the latest trends in the world of smart media, as we want to see incredible re-interpretations of the original notion of ubimedia, pervasive media, and ambient media. Any new fresh idea is welcome in this area! The vision of ubimedia today spreads in smart city concepts, smart cards, and smart phones - and starts to become mainstream - there are still many more exciting, seamless, and unobtrusive experiences that need to be discovered. > We still seek for cutting edge tech innovations, and look for makers that single-handedly engineer fascinating new ubimedia services and devices on a shoestring budget. We welcome all ubimedia masterminds, pervasive computation enthusiasts, and ambient intelligent researchers to participate in writing the next chapter for the most innovative, inspiring, and sometimes slightly mad competition in ubimedia's history and seek projects, applications, services, technological solutions, concepts, or new media environment as competition entry. Note, there will be also a price sum giving to the very best three entries. > > Possible themes, topics, and areas where your application could contribute to: > - smart environments (smart cars, smart houses, smart devices, smart cities) > - cyber, social, and physical computing > - human computer interaction in the era of ubiquitous computation > - smart robots, interaction with robots, and robotic applications > - new interaction devices (Google glasses, Pebble, ?) > - big data concepts for pervasive computation > - the ?quantified? self and the digital human > - sensor data, context awareness, and intelligence > - mobile phone applications, NFC technologies, and embedded systems (e.g. Arduino) > - wearable technologies, smart watches, smart glasses, and smart gadgets > - cyber physical systems (CPS) > - urban informatics and smart transportation > - security and safety of environments > - smart saving of energy, and sustainable environments > - production and industrial applications that are smart > - information systems and management in smart environments > - entertainment applications (e.g. pervasive games, ambient television, ...) > - artisic works, apps, and creative designs > - ergonomics, human-computer interaction designs, and consumer experience > - software, hardware, and middleware frameworks > > NUMA is looking for your bold, irritating and mind-opening ideas, no matter if you are a student, seasoned researcher, entrepreneur or artist. Whether thesis, project or product - our only condition > is: you must be able to demo it, otherwise you are out! You will have to prove your idea with a working prototype, and if you are nominated you will need to demonstrate your work during MindTrek. As we are a cross-disciplinary competition, we created the following categories, to cope with all the latest trends: > > - ?NUMA-TEC? - You have been pushing the boundaries of sensors and ubiquitous computing or invented > some incredible new pervasive hardware? This award focuses on advances in ?Technology?. > > - ?NUMA-KERS? - You have mastered the odds of physical computing and rapid prototyping and want to expose > your devices beyond the maker community? This award focuses on the community of ?Makers?. > > - ?NUMA-UX? - You are an interaction, experience designer, or artist and have gone where no content > has been seen before? This award focuses on the ?Experience?. > > - ?NUMA-CONTENT? - You are a content creator, application developer, designer, artist, game designer, > or new media developer? This award focuses on new ambient, ubiquitous, and pervasive content. > > NUMA 2014 gives all of you the chance to show your work to an interdisciplinary international jury and win a the award! Winners will also be invited to become part of the great MindTrek 2014 event and community with travel costs covered. > > To submit your entry, please go to http://www.numa.fi ( http://www.numa.fi/call-open) If you would like to get more information or have questions, please send your email to: chairs(a)lists.numa.fi<mailto: chairs(a)lists.numa.fi>. > Subscribe to our email list on: http://lists.numa.fi/mailman/listinfo/numa . > > The competition is organized in cooperation with the MindTrek Association (http://www.mindtrek.org) and the International Ambient Media Association (iAMEA) (http://www.ambientmediaassociation.org) > the AIS SIG-eMedia (http://aisnet.org/group/SIG-eMedia) and part of the MindTrek Festival. > The chairs of the competition are Artur Lugmayr, Tampere Univ. of Technology (TUT), FINLAND; Bjoern Stockleben, Univ. of Applied Sciences Magdeburg-Stendal, GERMANY; and Timothy Merritt, Aarhus School of Architecture, DENMARK. > > Website: http://www.numa.fi (http://www.numa.fi/call-open) Contact Email: chairs(a)lists.numa.fi<mailto:[email protected]> EMAIL List: http://lists.numa.fi/mailman/listinfo/numa > Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/numa.award/ > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 4 > Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 22:42:21 +0300 (EEST) > From: Artur Lugmayr <artur.lugmayr(a)tut.fi<mailto:[email protected]>> > To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org<mailto:[email protected]> > Subject: [Air-L] Call for Full Book Chapters (30th October 2014): > Information Systems and Management in eMedia and Creative Industries: > Springer-Verlag > Message-ID: <1291286504.25.1411587741898.JavaMail.lugmayr@HLO-PC43> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > =============================================================================================================== > Call for Book Chapters > Information Systems and Management in eMedia and Creative Industries: > > Springer-Verlag > Artur Lugmayr, Emilija Stojmenova, Katarina Stanoevska, and Robert Wellington (Eds.) > =============================================================================================================== > > Special Focus on NEW Approaches in the eMedia Industries, or Approaches HOW eMedia Support Information Systems: > Strategic Importance of IT ans IS&M in Media, Big Data, Crowd, Open Data, Linked Data, Cloud Application, > New Business Analytics, Information Visualization, Workflow Management, IS&M as Basis of New Business Models of > New Media Products, and Global Digital Production Pipelines. > > =============================================================================================================== > > Upcoming Deadline: 30th October (manuscript), 20th Dec. (reviews) > Book Website: http://www.tut.fi/emmi/WWW/ameamain/ismemedia > Email List: https://listmail.tut.fi/mailman/listinfo/ism-emedia > Submission System: http://www.ambientmediaassociation.org/Submissions/2014ISMEMEDIA/ > Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ismemedia/ > Contact us: lartur(a)acm.org<mailto:[email protected]> or emilija.stojmenova(a)ltfe.org<mailto:[email protected]> > > =============================================================================================================== > > In the context of eMedia and creative industry: information systems, information management, knowledge management, > decision management, workflow management, electronic media, IT systems, human factors of IT systems, management > technology, digital services, big data, open data, linked data > > According to Gartner published in Techcrunch, communications media and services are the 3rd largest IT systems spenders with > a yearly growth rate of 4.4% with a share of approx. $4 billion in 2011, after banking & securities and manufacturing & > natural resources [1]. For example, the TV industry was faced with tremendous change in technologies during the past decade, > such as the digital switchover, the introduction of HDTV, or the provision of 3D content. Large scale asset repositories > and different workflows in the content production process had to be introduced. Other media industries faced similar > challenges, as the emergence of digital publishing, digital content distribution, or advancement of in-house customer > relationship management infrastructures, and the digitalization of workflows. > > This change towards digital implies a more holistic view of information systems and management in media industries to provide > optimal system solutions, and eventually cut costs. Where other industries are well researched in terms of their IT system > solutions, in media industries the discussion around content repositories, media management solutions, and digital workflows > seems to be predominant. Within the context of this publication, a more holistic view towards information systems and > management in media industries shall be introduced, and emphasize the importance of research of business information > management and systems in media industries. > > The media and entertainment industry is the third largest industry segment for investments in information systems. And this > particular industry segment is faced with tremendous challenges in terms of organizational, transformational, leadership, > customer behaviour, and technological changes. One particular challenge is the transformation of the analogue media world > into its digital counterpart. As of today, the successive research of business information management and systems focusing on > media and entertainment industries is rather fragmented and stretches over a wide area of research islands such as social > media, eCommerce, or eBusiness. > > To face this challenge, this book focuses on information management and systems for media and entertainment industries and > highlighting their particular needs in production, distribution, and consumption. The book shall gather a scientific community > around the theme of business information management and systems in the larger context of media and entertainment > industries. > > Special Focus on the Notion NEW approaches of Content and Media in Information Systems & Management Applications in > Particular in Application Areas as: Big Data, Crowd, Open Data, Linked Data, Cloud Application, New Business Analytics, > Information Visualization, Workflow Management, and Global Digital Production Pipelines. > > =============================================================================================================== > Topics of Interest > =============================================================================================================== > > =============================================================================================================== > Management, Marketing, Business Aspects and Strategic > Importance of IT and IS&M in Creative eMedia Industries > =============================================================================================================== > o IS as basis of new business models/new media products > o business process modelling > o customer intelligence either in real-time / non-real-time > o enterprise systems and project management > o subscriber management & marketing > o business model innovations and analytics > o personalized and individualized offerings to increase consumer loyalty > o increase revenue from intellectual property (IP) rights and royalties > o financial performance management > o marketing and targeted marketing for media services and consumer feedback management > o subscriber management & marketing > o target niche groups and create new revenue streams > o increase revenue from intellectual property (IP) rights and royalties > o financial performance management > > =============================================================================================================== > Consumer, Audience, Human-Computer-Interaction, and > User Viewpoints > =============================================================================================================== > * perception of media content in systems > * understanding audiences, advertisement statistics, audience trends, and audience preferences > * social media analysis and marketing > * collaborative productions > * customer intelligence either in real-time / non- real-time > * marketing and targeted marketing for media services and consumer feedback management > * target niche groups and create new revenue streams > * personalized and individualized offerings to increase consumer loyalty > * the behavioural, cognitive, motivational and affective aspects of human and technology interaction in media > and content production > * digital documents/genres; human information seeking and web navigation behaviours; human information > interaction; information visualization in media industries > * behavioural information security and information assurance; privacy and trust in human technology > interaction > * user interface design and evaluation for various applications in business, managerial, organizational > domains in media > * integrated and/or innovative approaches, guidelines, and standards or metrics for human centred analysis, > design, construction, evaluation, and use of interactive devices and information systems > * information systems usability engineering; universal usability > * the impact of interfaces/information technology on people's attitude, behaviour, performance, perception, > and productivity > * the elderly, the young, and special needs populations for new applications, modalities, and multimedia > interaction in content/media industry > * user-centred/participatory/informed design and evaluation for different types of applications in a > variety of contexts in the media and content industries. > > =============================================================================================================== > Technology Perspective of the Usage of Media in IS&M in Media Industry and the Application of Media in IS&M > across Domains: Technology, Processes, Workflows, Infrastructures and Global Production Pipelines > =============================================================================================================== > o digital content End-to-End > o data warehousing; digital archiving & asset management > o data warehousing > o digital archiving & asset management > o digital workflows and workflow management > o workflow management applications > o process automation > o IT supporting new services: cloud, big data, crowd, linked data, and open data > o Decision making systems using media content > o ? > > =============================================================================================================== > Methods, Approaches, and Importance of IT and > Information Systems and Management in Media - Media > and Content as Part of IS&M across Application Domains > =============================================================================================================== > o impact of media in IS&M (e.g. business case calculation) > o information systems research methods > o system analysis and design > o design methods and approaches, including visual design > o methods in human-computer-interaction and IS&M > o information quality and measurement > o evaluation of the impact of IS in media > o methods for performance management, business model innovations, and analytics > o ? > > =============================================================================================================== > Content, Service, Application, and Artistic Viewpoint on IS&M in Media and Creativity Industries > =============================================================================================================== > > o IS & media services targeted to the end consumer > o open data and linked data applications > o Big Data related to media industry and for vertical industries (government, healthcare, ?) > o crowd-funding and crowd-sourcing applications and for market research and innovation > o media for/media industry and cloud applications > o digital production management applications > o knowledge visualization & management > o digital storytelling (serious and entertainment contexts) > o ? > > We strongly welcome other topic suggestions dealing with the topic matter. Please feel free to submit. However, we > do NOT want chapters outside the information systems & management context. > > > =============================================================================================================== > 30th October 2014 > submission of full book chapters > =============================================================================================================== > > * please follow the manuscript formatting guidelines below, and only submit the original version (in Microsoft Word) > * each final manuscript should be 15-17 pages long (depending on the number of submissions longer manuscripts will also be > accepted) and follow the guidelines on http://www.springer.com/authors/book+authors?SGWID=0-154102-12-417900-0 > * Manuscript submission website: http://www.ambientmediaassociation.org/Submissions/2014ISMEMEDIA/ > > > ------------------------------ > > Subject: Digest Footer > > _______________________________________________ > The Air-L(a)listserv.aoir.org<mailto:[email protected]> mailing list > is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org > Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org > > Join the Association of Internet Researchers: > http://www.aoir.org/ > > ------------------------------ > > End of Air-L Digest, Vol 122, Issue 27 > ************************************** > > _______________________________________________ > The Air-L(a)listserv.aoir.org mailing list > is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org > Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org > > Join the Association of Internet Researchers: > http://www.aoir.org/ _______________________________________________ The Air-L(a)listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/ _______________________________________________ The Air-L(a)listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/ -- Dr. Vasilis Kostakis Research Fellow Ragnar Nurkse School of Innovation and Governance Research Director P2P Lab: http://p2plab.org

2 2

Fwd: Fast Lane, Slow Lane -- "No Lane" -- End Game in Telecommunications
by Michel Bauwens 26 Sep '14

26 Sep '14

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Bruce Kushnick <bruce(a)newnetworks.com> Date: Fri, Sep 26, 2014 at 12:04 PM Subject: Fast Lane, Slow Lane -- "No Lane" -- End Game in Telecommunications To: (Excerpted from the new book: *The Book of Broken Promises: $400 Billion Broadband Scandal and Free the Net <http://newnetworks.com/bookofbrokenpromises.htm>**) * * Fast Lane, Slow Lane -- "No Lane" -- End Game in Telecommunications* http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-kushnick/fast-lane-slow-lane--no-l_b_58… Forget about Net Neutrality's fast lane vs slow lane. We are at the end game in telecommunications and we should all be talking about the "No Lane". Net Neutrality is like one of those Rorschach Tests used in psychological examinations where everyone sees something different in the same picture. With a record 3.7 million comments filed at the FCC in the Open Internet proceeding, <http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/16/6257887/fcc-net-neutrality-3-7-million-co…> as of September 15th, 2014, one thing is clear -- America is angst-ridden about something. The most common theme in the last round of comments filed is now the-easy-to-remember chant -- "fast lane vs slow lane", while over the last decade it has referred to the blocking or degrading of service. But the truth is -- the angst is not only from 'Net Neutrality'. According to an ACSI survey, <http://bgr.com/2014/05/20/comcast-twc-customer-satisfaction-survey-study/> in 2014, Comcast and Time Warner are leading the list as the "most hated companies in America", while "ISPs", (actually the phone and cable companies, including AT&T and Centurylink) were also at the bottom of customer satisfaction. While Net Neutrality focuses on important issues, it doesn't address or cure anything to do with stopping the "No Lane"-- the end game if AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner continue on their path. These companies are the incumbent wireline and cable companies that control most of the wires in the US and that also means that they control all wireless services. Control of the wires also gives them control over all services, including competitor services, but more importantly it gives them the ability to control who gets upgraded and who doesn't, or what prices customers' pay, or worse, who will be 'shut off' and end up in a 'Digital Dead Zone'. How bad is the broadband 'landscape'? A recent speech by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler <http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2014/db0904/DOC-329…>brings the "No Lane", filed with the "have nots", into focus. "At the low end of throughput, 4 Mbps and 10 Mbps, the majority of Americans have a choice of only two providers. That is what economists call a "duopoly", a market place that is typically characterized by less than vibrant competition." "At 25 Mbps, there is simply no competitive choice for most Americans. Stop and let that sink in...Three-quarters of American homes have no competitive choice for the essential infrastructure for 21st century economics and democracy. Included in that is almost 20 percent who have no service at all!" "Things only get worse as you move to 50 Mbps where 82 percent of consumers lack a choice." Ironically, (as we mentioned in our previous article <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-kushnick/the-book-of-broken-promis_b_58…>), America's customers have been charged about $400 billion dollars to have the entire US upgraded to fiber optic services by 2010, or there abouts, with speeds of at least 45 Mbps in both directions -- and that was the speed of broadband in 1992; by 2014, we should have been a 'gigabit nation'. Wheeler, unfortunately, appears to be in denial about the other pressing issues -- And it is going to get worse. *The "No Lane": Shutting off the Copper -- and Force-Migrating to Wireless.* At an investor meeting, a CITI Investment Research <http://seekingalpha.com/article/2162303-verizon-communications-management-d…> analyst asked Fran Shammo, Verizon's CFO, about "the homes where you don't have FiOS. I think it's... maybe roughly 8 million homes...". Fran Shammo responded <http://seekingalpha.com/article/2162303-verizon-communications-management-d…>: 'VoiceLink' and 'harvesting' are the plan. "Outside of the FiOS footprint obviously, really we are taking two measures there. One is the Wireless portfolio and replacing some of that that old voice legacy copper voice with our LTE voice product that Wireless has been selling across the nation for almost two years now called Home Phone Connect. Within Wireline, they have a very similar product called VoiceLink which in essence is the same thing. "So we will try to replace that copper legacy with those technologies. But look, I mean, outside, this is kind of where you say it's you have to nurture it and harvest what you have and we know that we are not going to be able to compete with speed in that environment and we will continue to do the best we can." Harvesting customers is essentially getting as much profits out of a customer as possible by raising rates until the customer screams uncle and leaves, or stays but is being gouged. But the primary goal is to shut off the copper, so make as much as possible until then. Meanwhile, VoiceLink caused a revolt on Fire Island <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-kushnick/fire-island-erupts-over-v_b_35…>, New York. After the Sandy Storm, Verizon's plan was to not fix the copper utility networks in various parts of New York and New Jersey and force customers onto a 2G-styled wireless service called VoiceLink. Fire Island residents attacked this plan and in 2014 they were wired with fiber optics; Mantoloking New Jersey wasn't as fortunate or vocal and is still forced onto VoiceLink. Unfortunately, AT&T has an identical plan, but they call it the "IP Transition". This chart, supplied by AT&T to the FCC, is the current and after picture about its plans for the Carbon Hill Alabama Internet Protocol (IP) transition trials, which is supposed to migrate customers from the current networks to Internet-based networks. [image: 2014-09-23-attcarbonhill.png] <http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2014-09-23-attcarbonhill.png> In this rather jaw-dropping chart we see that AT&T will shut off 60% of working wired services to be replaced with their own wireless service, while 4% can't get anything upgraded so far. And their wireless product includes a VoiceLink-like service. (I note that as of the filing, VoiceLink couldn't do data applications or Internet service.) How exactly does shutting off the working phone lines (and not upgrading the customers), or worse, replacing the line with an inferior and expensive wireless service constitute a "transition" to IP protocols exactly? *Net Neutrality's Broadband Utility Push and the Disconnect. * To read the Rest: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-kushnick/fast-lane-slow-lane--no-l_b_58… Bruce Kushnick, Executive Director New Networks Institute ------------------------------ <http://www.avast.com/> This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus <http://www.avast.com/> protection is active. -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/

1 0

Fwd: [Networkedlabour] Fwd: [transcollab] Towards the social strike, let's unite and fight! Final Statement Strike Meeting
by Michel Bauwens 25 Sep '14

25 Sep '14

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Orsan Senalp <orsan1234(a)gmail.com> Date: Fri, Sep 26, 2014 at 4:03 AM Subject: [Networkedlabour] Fwd: [transcollab] Towards the social strike, let's unite and fight! Final Statement Strike Meeting To: networkedlabour(a)lists.contrast.org Begin forwarded message: *From:* Vanessa Bilancetti <vane.bix.vb(a)gmail.com> *Date:* 25 Sep 2014 12:43:35 GMT+2 *To:* transcollab(a)lists.so36.net *Subject:* *[transcollab] Towards the social strike, let's unite and fight! Final Statement Strike Meeting* *Reply-To:* transcollab(a)lists.so36.net This is the final statement of the Strike meeting hold in ROme the last weekend, at the end of it there is also a proposal to all the European network to start and extend a discussion on a social strike and possible common actions. *Statement of the Strike Meeting assembly in Rome, 12-14 september 2014. Towards the social strike, let's unite and fight!* Let's start with a fact: during the three days of the Strike Meeting, more than 500 workers, temporary workers, students, unionists, activists of social centres and of committees who defend the commons, from all over Italy and beyond, met and discussed for hours, comparing forms of organization, programmatic claims and practices of struggle. This point is not given for granted, we are not just assuming the quantitative strength of the event, but it indicates the quality of a political process in which competition between groups is replaced by the virtuous composition of differences. We must start from here to go through the main points of the debate. In the workshops as well as in plenary assemblies, in the programmatic tables as in the round table with activists from Germany, France, Greece, Spain and Portugal, the focus of the discussion has been on the neo-liberal policies, deepened by the crisis, that are reshaping the European scenario: wages under attack, compression of trade union rights, deskilling and corporatization of education and research, privatization of public utilities, enclosure of the commons, new government of labour force, mobility, and exploitation of migrant labour force. So, after a not at all superficial definition of these phenomena, the need to go a step further in the articulation of struggles and programmatic demands emerged. It is clear to all - and it wasn't casual that we started the meeting with a round table led by European activists- that Europe is the minimum space of confrontation, the transnational level is decisive for conflicts that want to be incisive. And it is clear that without the creation of a space of permanent relationship and innovation between struggles and movements, breaking the impasse and subverting the present is unimaginable. A social strike, a strike that should be general and generalized, precarious and metropolitan, wants to be a first step, undoubtedly partial but fundamental, of this experiment. A way to begin to reverse this toxic narrative that replaces merit with equality, fierce competition with common happiness. The strike platform composes requests that come from the world of labour and of education, of non-working and of social cooperation. To refuse and reject the Jobs Act and Renzi's school reform, as well as the new era of privatization and commodification of the commons, and in general the neo-liberal transformation of the labour market and the re-nationalization of citizenship, means to fight for a new welfare, for the right to housing, for a European basic income not linked to labour performance, for a European minimum wage, for free access to education. It means to fight against the device of selection and control that, through the meritocratic rhetoric, makes schools and universities completely open to private corporations and makes knowledge a docile instrument for companies' interests. It is not only unemployment to hit the young and less young, it is not only underemployment to pierce the lives of millions of women and men. It is the new mantra of employability that pushes to accept any kind of job, with no rights, or even unpaied (see the Expo model). Claiming a basic income and a European minimum wage must, therefore, go hand in hand with the demand of freedom and union democracy, the right to coalition and to strike, inside and outside work. Again: without the defence of commons and the re-appropriation of a democratic welfare, a process of expansive conflict that knows how to corner the neo-liberal management of the crisis is unthinkable. A common platform for a social strike that knows how to combine the different forms of struggle and strike that have been experimented, and design new ones, potentially capable of extending at a European scale: general strike of dependent labour, precarious and metropolitan strike, strike for who doesn't have the right to strike, netstrike, strike in the places of education, gender strike. A kaleidoscope of practices to build patiently through territorial strike laboratories. Towards the social strike, for which we propose the date of 14th November – in order to have time to grow a real process that goes beyond the rolling evocation, and because in November the parliamentary process of the Jobs Act will be over, while it will proceed expeditiously to the approval of the Law of stability, and the day after it will end the Government's consultation on the school reform-, Meanwhile there are several important appointments that we relaunch with force: The 2nd of October in Naples, to contest the ECB board; the 10th of October the great mobilization and strike of students, teachers and school staff; the 11th and 12th of October in Milan, starting the long agenda of struggles against Expo, that will take the 1st May as a landing point; October 9th to 12th, the tag guerilla against the Internet Festival of Pisa; the 16th of October when in all probability the general strike of logistics will take form. *We also propose to all European networks to start a discussion on the extension of the transnational practice of the strike: we will be at the meeting in Brussels organised by the Blockupy coordination on 26th and 27th of September to discuss joint initiatives. We also propose for the 7th November a day of dislocated action in all the cities against the Youth Guarantee program, especially against public and private institutions (job centres, Regions, agencies, universities / foundations) that are implementing the program.* On Saturday, November 1st, and if the date of November 14th will be accepted as the best one possible for the social strike, we propose to meet again in Rome, in a meeting of the territorial strike laboratories, to go ahead with the preparation of the strike itself. From all those who participated in the Strike Meeting a warm hug to the activists still deprived of their freedom, hoping to see them soon with us again in the struggles. *We have said it is time for a social strike, today this time is starting to beat!* _______________________________________________ NetworkedLabour mailing list NetworkedLabour(a)lists.contrast.org http://lists.contrast.org/mailman/listinfo/networkedlabour -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/

1 0

CAMRI Seminar Oct 1: Jenny Chan - Dying for an iPhone: The Labour Struggle of China’s New Working Class
by Christian Fuchs 25 Sep '14

25 Sep '14

Dying for an iPhone: The Labour Struggle of China’s New Working Class Jenny Chan CAMRI Research Seminar Wednesday, October 1, 2014 University of Westminster Harrow Campus, 14:00-16:00 Room A7.01 Attendance: register per e-mail to christian.fuchs(a)uti.at until Monday, Sep 30, 20:00 http://www.westminster.ac.uk/camri/research-seminars/dying-for-an-iphone-th… CAMRI Research Seminars – Autumn 2014 programme: http://www.westminster.ac.uk/camri/research-seminars This sociological research analyzes the ways in which the integration of the electronics manufacturing industry in global supply chains has intensified labour conflicts and class antagonism. The Taiwanese transnational corporation Foxconn Technology Group holds more than 50 percent of market share in global electronics manufacturing. Its 1.4 million employees in China far exceed its combined workforce in 28 other countries that comprise its global empire. I assess the conditions of a new generation of Chinese workers on the basis of the intertwined policies and practices of Foxconn, international brands (notably Apple), and the local government, as well as the diverse forms of collective actions workers deploy to defend their rights and interests. Within the tight delivery deadlines, some Foxconn workers leveraged their power to disrupt production to demand higher pay and better conditions. While all of these labor struggles were short-lived and limited in scope to a single factory, protestors exposed the injustice of “iSlavery,” garnering wide media attention and civil society support. Contradictions of state-labor-capital relations, however, remain sharp. In the authoritarian regime, notwithstanding the resilience of the Chinese state in the face of sustained popular unrest over the last two decades, my ethnographic study highlights the unstable nature of precarious labor in its hundreds of millions. Jenny Chan was Chief Coordinator of SACOM (Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior) http://sacom.hk/ between 2006 and 2009. Educated at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the University of Hong Kong, she went on to pursue her doctorate in sociology and labour studies as a Reid Research Scholar at University of London. She was awarded the Great Britain-China Educational Trust for dissertation writing (PhD diss. 2014). On September 1 2014 she joined the University of Oxford as Departmental Lecturer in Contemporary Chinese Studies, the School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies. Her recent articles have appeared in Current Sociology, Modern China, The Asia-Pacific Journal, The South Atlantic Quarterly, Global Labour Journal, New Labor Forum, Labor Notes, New Internationalist and New Technology, Work and Employment. http://www.ccsp.ox.ac.uk/dr-jenny-chan

1 0

Fwd: sadhana forest, ong pour la reforestation des terres arides
by Michel Bauwens 25 Sep '14

25 Sep '14

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: ines bauwens <inesbauwens(a)gmail.com> Date: 2014-09-25 15:58 GMT+07:00 Subject: sadhana forest, ong pour la reforestation des terres arides To: Michel Bauwens <michel(a)p2pfoundation.net> Bonjour, L'organisateur de l'Ong dans laquelle j'ai fait du volontariat ( pour la reforestation de terres arides/desertiques) sera a Paris le 4 novembre dans la mairie du 3e arrondissement et il va presenter son projet. Si vous voulez venir ou transmettre l'information a des gens qui pourraient s'y interesser ce serait vraiment bien! Je trouve que ca vaut la peine (son Ong Sadhana Forest se trouve en Inde, en Haiti et au Kenya). Cette petite organisation est tres active dans tout ce qui est protection de l'environnement. http://www.groupe-sos.org/up-campus/evenements/voir/id/268 > > > >>> >>> >> > -- *Aviram Rozin* Sadhana Forest +91-413-2677682 +91-413-2902655 sadhanaforest(a)gmail.com *http://sadhanaforest.org <http://sadhanaforest.org>* <http://www.sadhanaforest.org>[image: Sadhana Forest Facebook] <https://www.facebook.com/sadhanaforest>[image: Sadhana Forest Vimeo Channel] <https://vimeo.com/channels/sadhanaforest>[image: Sadhana Forest Twitter] <https://twitter.com/SadhanaForest> -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/

1 0

Fwd: [opennetcoalition] France adopts anti-terror law eroding civil liberties
by Michel Bauwens 25 Sep '14

25 Sep '14

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: La Quadrature du Net <contact(a)laquadrature.net> Date: Thu, Sep 25, 2014 at 3:38 PM Subject: [opennetcoalition] France adopts anti-terror law eroding civil liberties To: opennetcoalition(a)laquadrature.net Themes: CENSORSHIP, FREE SPEECH, NET FILTERING, SURVEILLANCE, ANTI-TERROR LAW La Quadrature du Net – For immediate release Permanent link: https://www.laquadrature.net/en/france-adopts-anti-terror-law-eroding-civil… France adopts anti-terror law eroding civil liberties *** Paris, 22 September 2014 — Last week, a nearly empty French lower house (National Assembly) voted with a large majority in favour of the "bill strengthening provisions on the fight against terrorism". In an atmosphere heavy with “apocalyptic” anxiety and speeches on the terrorist threat —particularly online—, interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve and rapporteur Sébastien Pietrasanta wore down all opposition, blocking any further thought on the serious breaches of the Rule of Law contained in this bill. *** The discussion surrounding the bill was marked by a security-obsessed arms race between Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, rapporteur Pietrasanta and representatives from both the Left and the Right. While criticism on both the content and the form of the bill are growing (including from media usually moderate on such issues), many MPs proved ready to give up on fundamental freedoms in the name of the fight against terrorism. The articles most debated in the National Assembly had already been identified as problematic early on by La Quadrature du Net, they relate to: * Travel restrictions, control of freedom of movement by banning citizens from leaving the country (Article 1); * The removal of articles regarding “glorifying of terrorism” from press laws and their inclusion in the Penal Code (lesser procedural guarantees) (Article 4); * The creation of “individual terrorist enterprise” and “usually visiting terrorist websites” offenses (Article 5); * Administrative blocking of Internet websites advocating terrorism (Article 9). In addition, articles 10 to 15bis create new procedural exceptions which weaken due process for all matters of organized crime and even collective actions. They open serious risks of police incriminating any form of radical political action without proper judicial control. During the debate, Bernard Cazeneuve dodged all questions, taking refuge in half-truths, referring for example to the intervention of the administrative judge in the website blocking process and suggesting that the judge would intervene systematically as a mediator —while the text of the law says no such thing. By trying to ridicule his opponents as well as the press who had denounced the bill, he showed that his objective is mainly to pass knee-jerk legislation, to ease red tape for the police and to circumvent the judiciary, rather than adopting a proper law. Before the vote, and to encourage citizens and volunteers to take part in the debate, raise awareness and make themselves heard by members of the Parliament, La Quadrature du Net created a website, “presumes-terroristes.fr” [1] (presumed terrorists), to analyze the bill and its dangers. Many associations such as Reporters Without Borders, the Human Rights League as well as many others joined the campaign. The next step for the bill will be the debate on the Senate floor (upper house) in the coming weeks. La Quadrature du Net calls on citizens to contact their Senators to raise awareness as early as possible about the dangers of this bill. It is still possible to change the course of the legislative process. “The recent debates in the French National Assembly on the ‘Terrorism’ bill are a striking example of legislating under pressure of emotional news. The Ministry of the Interior kept instrumentalizing news about the participation of French citizens to jihadist groups in Syria, and the fear that they might engage in individual action terrorism upon their return. We thank the few MPs who had the courage to oppose the proposed dangerous bill and now call on senators to reject this text. Democratic states harming fundamental rights by adopting inefficient measures in the name of fighting the apology of terrorism is exactly what the terror groups are looking for.” said Philippe Aigrain, co-founder of La Quadrature du Net. * References * 1. https://presumes-terroristes.fr/ ** About La Quadrature du Net ** La Quadrature du Net is an advocacy group that defends the rights and freedoms of citizens on the Internet. More specifically, it advocates for the adaptation of French and European legislations to respect the founding principles of the Internet, most notably the free circulation of knowledge. In addition to its advocacy work, the group also aims to foster a better understanding of legislative processes among citizens. Through specific and pertinent information and tools, La Quadrature du Net hopes to encourage citizens' participation in the public debate on rights and freedoms in the digital age. La Quadrature du Net is supported by French, European and international NGOs including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Open Society Institute and Privacy International. List of supporting organisations: https://www.laquadrature.net/en/they-support-la-quadrature-du-net ** Press contact and press room ** contact(a)laquadrature.net, +33 (0)972 294 426 https://www.laquadrature.net/en/press-room _______________________________________________ Opennetcoalition mailing list Opennetcoalition(a)laquadrature.net https://laquadrature.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/opennetcoalition -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/

1 0