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Fwd: <nettime> The Art of the Undercommons
by Michel Bauwens 25 Feb '11

25 Feb '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Dante-Gabryell Monson <dante.monson(a)gmail.com> Date: Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 11:37 PM Subject: Fwd: <nettime> The Art of the Undercommons To: http://eipcp.net/projects/creatingworlds/files/about "*Creating Worlds* is a multi-annual research project that investigates the relationship between art production and knowledge production in the context of the transformations and crises of contemporary capitalism. Creativity becomes an ambivalent term here, “creating worlds” meaning a modulating procedure in cognitive capitalism and societies of control, but also an emerging political dimension of creativity as political imagination and invention of new lines of flight, new struggles, new worlds. *Creating Worlds* will be developed in the years 2009 to 2012, involve research, publication and artistic projects and is structured around three thematic plateaus" ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Stevphen Shukaitis <stevphen(a)autonomedia.org> Date: Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 1:08 PM Subject: <nettime> The Art of the Undercommons To: Nettime <nettime-l(a)kein.org> > The above is some truly lovely prose and evokes (though only faintly I'm > afraid) the master of this genre to the nth degree, Konrad Becker, in > his Strategic Reality Dictionary -- which however has the immense > advantage of working back to the like of Giordano Bruno and John Dee as > the original 16th-century psychowarriors whose black arts still make the > unitiated tremble. Since Brian has mentioned the work of Konrad Becker, I'll take that as en excuse to post an essay that I just wrote about Konrad's work in relation to questions of strategy, which appeared as part of EIPCP's 'creating worlds program: http://eipcp.net/projects/creatingworlds Hopefully it is amusing and/or useful... cheers stevphen The Wisdom to Make Worlds: Strategic Reality & the Art of the Undercommons Stevphen Shukaitis http://eipcp.net/transversal/0211/shukaitis/en Walking through Vienna one night last November, I asked Konrad Becker what he meant when he used the word strategy. What indeed, for cultural politics, media arts and interventions, is strategy? To ask the question so bluntly is to walk into ‘elephant in the room’ territory, for while the question of what is to be done, how to do it, and its effectiveness (or lack of it) is a constant obsession for those involved in arts and media politics, there is also a general taboo of these discussions openly occurring. Strategy: to use the word itself perhaps carries with it too many connotations of a moribund Leninism, of an enforced separation between conceptualization and the body of social antagonism in motion. To speak of strategy carries the risk of falling back into an older style of hierarchical politics, although it is debatable whether this guilt by association is sensible. Perhaps this removal of strategic questions from open discussion itself does more harm than good to movement building and the prevention of ossified hierarchies. But I digress, for this is not Konrad’s style or his conceptualization of the political. If it were, there would be no need to discuss or rethink it, just to implement the pre-given strategic project. But if there is somewhere to turn for a fresh perspective on what strategy, then surely it would be found by asking Konrad, who has pursued this question through numerous publications and projects: the Tactical Reality Dictionary (2002), the Strategic Reality Dictionary (2009), and an edited collection-conversation based on a symposium in New York, Critical Strategies in Art and Media (2010). Having spent the earlier section of the evening in discussion around the power and limitations of the radical imagination, it was now time to cut through to the kernel of the meta-question: what is to be done with what it is to be done? Konrad paused, and then answered that by strategy he means something closer to wisdom. This was unexpected, to say the least. Discussions of wisdom within artistic-political milieus are encountered even less then of strategy. What could it mean that strategy was a question of wisdom? The more I thought about this since that night the sensible it seems, but why? Perhaps wisdom as strategy is a way to re-approach matters of understanding and discernment, distinguishing appearances from underlying situations, and how these relate to the ongoing shaping of the political. And it is through this recasting of these simple but important questions that the ongoing project of Konrad’s interventions and thinking has the potential for intervening in the broader questions of the relation between art and knowledge production: the wisdom to make worlds from within an art of the undercommons. The Avant-Garde Which is not One The history of the relations between political parties and aesthetic movements is first of all a history of a confusion… between these two ideas of the avant-garde, which are in fact two different ideas of political subjectivity… the very idea of a political avant-garde is divided between the strategic conception and the aesthetic conception of the avant-garde. – Jacques Ranciere Gazing back on the history of the avant-garde, as angels on mounting wreckage, what we find is the refuse of ruptures and manifestos. From bravado filled declarations on detached and depotentialized status of the arts that call for a merging of art with everyday life, to equally irate denunciations of when this merging takes less than ideal forms (advertising techniques, culture led gentrification, museum based legitimation for dodgy petro producers, etc.) From the first Futurist manifestos, the avant-garde style of provocation has centered on brazen interventions into the politics conjoining art and knowledge production. To use Ranciere’s wording, the avant-garde manifesto takes the form of announcing a new distribution of the sensible, the task of which the practices of the announced movement will embody (even if this is assumed to already have occurred). And thus there is a history of practices, from social sculpture to the crafting of unitary ambiances, through which these declarations about the reshaping of art-knowledge-politics proliferated. There is such a strong connection developed between the avant-garde and these public declarations it becomes difficult to conceive of it without them. What would that mean? An artistic movement dedicated to the reshaping of art, life, and politics that did not announce this to as many who would listen but rather went about affecting its method of transformation on a minor scale? The problem is that by declaring openly intents and methods to reshape art, life, and the relations of production, the avant-garde has tended to give away too much, to let its hand be shown too early. In other words, to leave it open to processes of decomposition and recuperation, where radical ideas are put to service within forms of social control and domination. If the tradition of autonomist politics and analysis shows us that it is working class insubordination and resistance to capital that is the driving factor shaping economic and social development, then an autonomist understanding of the history of the avant-garde would show us something else. What an autonomist conceptualization of these histories would uncover, rather than a disconnected series of movements and formal relations, is how the avant-garde opens up new possibilities for reshaping social relations that is then seized upon by mechanisms of control and capital accumulation. As Jacques Attali argues, music, rather than being a superstructural reflection of underlying conditions, precedes and prophesizes these broader changes in social and economic relations. Thus the avant-garde is the parrot in the mineshaft of history: its death signaling coming transformations, when submerged veins of creativity are brought to the surface. It is this history that Konrad’s work has persistently gestured towards and explored: the techniques of reality engineering, libidinal bonding, consensus construction, and infopolitical subterfuge. This is a history perhaps the psychogeographic equivalent of the Tyburn gallows, where drifts of history are marked by the bodies of dead ideas. And as Konrad observes, it was the moment before execution at Tyburn where the condemned was granted to freedom to speak whatever was on his mind, for what was there to lose? But this would not be the question of strategy, for there is always something to lose. The moment of freedom that appears before the condemned is only possible because of the structure of unfreedom, a literal thanatocracy, which underpins it, whether in the form of the gallows, or the integration of mechanisms of death, desire, and manipulation within practices of statecraft. The Situationist International was quite fond of arguing that looking back on this appropriation of the avant-garde, its rendering into corpses and fodder for the spectacular mechanisms of domination, you could detect two different methods of execution: Dada tried to negate the status art of without realizing it, while Surrealism wanted to realize art without negating it. Therefore the task of the Situationists, in a supremely Hegelian manner, would to be create tactical means for the simultaneous realization and negation of art, expressed as the “communication of incommunicable” and crafting of situations for realization of the insurgent desires and ideas they alleged were already in everyone’s heads. One might suspect that behind such paradoxical sounding and typically cavalier phrasing this is more of a triumphalist declaration (all the failures of previous avant-gardes will be solved by our intervention!) than anything else. However, this pairing together of the necessity of everyone knowing and not knowing at the same time, of communication (of the incommunicable) as the key dynamic, runs through all the work of the SI. It brings together all the strands constituting their politics of communication, of the spectacle as condition one is immersed in and struggles through. And it is at this juncture the framing of strategy as wisdom comes to make the most sense. For if it true, as Debord comments on the gypsies, that they “rightly contend that one is never compelled to speak the truth except in one’s language; in the enemy’s language, the lie must reign,” what is this other than a very direct question of strategy-as-wisdom? And in that sense also a fundamental question about the relation between art and knowledge production for subversive currents. When language and media politics become sites of informational warfare, having the the wisdom to know whether it one should be expressing one’s goals openly, in a language of lies, or an encoded and partially concealed manner… this becomes a central, if not the central question of strategy. This is what thinking about strategy as a question of wisdom opens up, and this is precisely the line of thought that Konrad has pursued through his work. Take for instance the way he describes the process of rendering dead movements and subversion into material for renewed capital accumulation: The process of cooptation, typical of art-market logic, exploits the visual alphabet and cultural codes of autonomous positions and infiltrates its agents into the parallel worlds of hidden cultural practice. Debates on strategies regarding this takeover and the mirroring of symbolic language of opposition movements have continued for generations, but concepts of authenticity do not seem to offer valid options of cultural self-defense. This reframes recuperation through a materialist politics of communication. It is recuperation through exploiting the visual codes of autonomous practices, and through that to work into the underground, submerged realm of communication and relations. Too much given away too openly. As Konrad argues, the accelerating co-optation of cultural expression creates both a market around it and “strategies dealing with this phenomenon of ever-faster appropriation of artistic expression by corporate business involve tactical invisibility and an immersion in the age of biocybernetic self-reproduction.” This is precisely why that returning to a notion of authenticity, of the collapse between the said and what is really meant, is not a valid strategy for working through, in, or against this dynamic. What is needed instead is a discerning sense of strategic, the wisdom of someone like Debord, of the gypsies, of infrapolitical communication and subterfuge: the tools to develop an art of the undercommons. What tools does a text like Strategic Reality Dictionary and Konrad’s work more generally offer us for such a task? The Place of Strategy, the Strategy of Place The artist as a reality hacker is a cultural intelligence and counterintelligence operator for what should more appropriately be considered parallel or hidden cultures instead of the common terms “underground” or “marginal”… Pre-existing elements in society can be used to evoke a meaning that was not originally intended in these elements and by transformation bring about an entirely new message that reveals the underlying absurdity of the spectacle – Konrad Becker To the degree that there has been any sustained strategic discussion within autonomous artistic-political milieus, it generally has taken a large degree of inspiration from the work of Michel de Certeau. De Certeau takes up a line of inquiry coming out of post-68 French political thinkers. His distinction between strategy and tactics in everyday life has become particularly influential, attaining an almost ubiquitous status. It is the sort of insight that informs and enriches research done within cultural studies and beyond: to take seriously these everyday interactions as sites of political contestation and tactical maneuvering. Ironically enough it is de Certeau’s distinction that makes it difficult to discuss strategy precisely because of how he identifies strategy with mechanisms of power and tactics with resistance. For de Certeau “a tactic is determined by the absence of power just as a strategy is organized by the postulation of power.” The problem is in this framework social movement politics are precluded from the formation of strategies and spaces of their own precisely because this does not fit the model. Oppositional politics, in so far as they are tactical, could not be understood to create spaces of their own or to operate on a strategic level. There are no strategies of resistance, only domination. This overstates the operations of strategic fields of power and underestimates the ability of oppositional politics and tactics to congeal a level of strategic interaction precisely because they do create strategic spaces and orientations, even if not within the sense understood by de Certeau. This framing leads to an uncritical valorization of micropolitical subversion, but one that is without any means to articulate connections between antagonisms without that articulation being viewed as an act of domination. And that is why there is very little discussion of strategy. But this does not seem at all like an orientation to strategic questions founded upon wisdom. How does does Konrad’s work approach take us somewhere else? To return to the autonomist tradition, if resistance comes first, and is a prior and determining factor of social development, then it operates precisely on a strategic field. In the ‘Copernican turn’ of understanding resistance as the prior and primary factor, the autonomist tradition recasts the strategy and tactics distinction. The approach Konrad develops brings together different insights from these approaches while discarding some of their more questionable excesses. While on one hand it is ridiculous to work from a notion of strategy where resistance is only tactical, operating from a shifting no-place never of its own, from somewhere that cannot formulate a tactical theater of operations without coalescing into a transcendent-hierarchical form of strategy as domination, the alternative of seeing all forms of social resistance as strategic likewise neglects the specificity of how these strategic operations are composed. To grasp these specificities what is needed is not reified conceptions of statecraft or assumptions of the inherently strategic nature of autonomous political-artistic activity. Konrad moves back toward a more classically oriented approach to strategy, but with a number of critical differences, perhaps akin to the way that Debord revisits the history of military strategy and thinking precisely in order to learn from it and apply it differently. Strategy becomes not the planning of operations and tactical maneuvers based on rational, abstract calculation, elaborated from a disembodied transcendent perspective. Rather it is contextual and process-based, formed around how particular strategic plans fit with and respond to their environment. Translated politically, this is a process of constantly adapting and transforming strategic planning and tactical operations in relation to changing compositions of forces, antagonisms, and subjectivities in motion at a given time, according to the shifting grounds of the situation. This adaption to and from the environment is traditionally a question of intelligence, of the military variety, an intelligence that is “necessarily incomplete and depend upon simplified descriptions of complexity.” Strategic models leave out some elements, as all models do, but the question is which elements and what effects their absence has. Or to reframe that, what are the benefits of basing an analysis from what is included? Take for instance the notion of psychogeography, which omits many aspects integral to most understandings of territory and strategic operations. What it does include, however, is closely attuned analysis of emotional and affective dynamics, which is precisely the terrain of cultural politics and infowar in cognitive capitalism. Psychogeography then in one sense is nothing more than adapting the methods and approaches of military strategy and cartography to the changing situation of spectral commodity production and state power. It is the wisdom to formulate this re-adaption, or how strategy “applies situational intelligence with available tactics and their expected effects.” Strategic frameworks and tactical maneuvers, connected through logistical webs, finds themselves bound up in what Konrad aptly describes as an “infinite spiral of reciprocal anticipation.” Or to put in autonomist terms, capital and the state work to anticipate new forms of subversion so that their energies may rendered into new mechanisms for capital accumulation and governance. Those who would sabotage that very process must likewise anticipate the coming process of decomposition and recuperation to divert and prevent it. This shielding and obfuscating of deductive decision-making, the layering and encoding of strategic operations and appearances, is the development of an art of the undercommons. It is an art that does not give away all the subversive knowledge it holds through public declaration, or declare a new regime of the sensible, as in the history of avant-garde declarations. Thus, when Brian Holmes says that when someone is talking about politics in an artistic frame they’re lying, that is in some sense not a critique, but also an admission to the potential of an artistic politics formed around those dynamics of deception. Under the Commons The first act of self-organization in the undercommons is a refusal of subjectivation through, and only through, self-organization. This disidentification through self-organization is also, for us, not a prerequisite to what Toni Negri calls the common management (gestione) of the commons, but the potential of that organization. – Stefano Harney and Fred Moten It is this strategic necessity to obfuscate and encode the intentions, knowledges, and understanding of subversive activity approaching strategy as a wisdom gestures towards. It is a necessity in particular for artistic-political-media interventions, which as we have learned all to well and paradoxically not well enough, are prime arenas for the decomposition and recuperation of subversive energies. This would be not an art of the public, of an assumed or pre-given audience, but an art of the undercommons: a strategic reframing of artistic-political interventions around taking very seriously the question of with whom and why one is communicating. One might think of it as a relational aesthetics that rather being confined to the gallery space operates through an infrapolitical and everyday realm, forming immanent points of strategic convergence through the shaping of relations in that space. Or better yet, it is the formation of the space itself. The notion of the undercommons comes out of the writing of Fred Moten and Stefano Harney, who take up the theorizing of figures such as Robin DG Kelley and James Scott on the layers of encoding, deception and evasion embedded within forms of resistance employed by peasants, escaped slaves, and other populations who cannot afford the risks with saying openly their intents or ideas. While this is indeed quite a different position then from where many political artists and media producers work (although not all) there is still something to be learned from this approach. If the problem of autonomous cultural and artistic production is that it gives away too much, inadvertently opening itself up to the process of recuperation-decomposition, then perhaps a strategic orientation to address this dynamic would learn from the encoding and obfuscating dynamics of infrapolitical intervention and the shaping of the undercommons. And while the undercommons are from capital’s perspective the unacknowledged self-organization of the despised, discounted, and anti-social, from an autonomous perspective they are something else entirely: the self-organization of the incommensurate. They embody a process of self-organized dis-identification where the knowledge of subversion is kept within the parallel-submerged terrain, rather than becoming part of enforced state hallucinatory patterns. Konrad’s approach to strategy works through, in, and against this direction, offering a few dead saints of his own crisscrossing the paths of the present European wasteland. This analysis itself is dispersed across the unfolding stream of his prose, but clearly marked at moments, for instance when he quotes the Prussian soldier and military strategist Dietrich Heinrich von Bülow when he says “a strategy is the science of military movements outside of the enemy’s field of vision; tactics is within it.” Indeed, and this makes the question of strategy reappear, literally, not as one where tactics are component parts of the formation of overarching strategy (which they in some ways are), or component parts inherently linked to dynamics of domination or resistance (whichever direction is the dominant characteristic), but a distinction rather based on fields of visibility and apprehension. A strategic approach defined through a logic of (in)visibility, of becoming imperceptible, is the condition of wisdom when, as Konrad argues, power, bound by its very visibility, provides tactical advantages to the conditions of the capacity to remain unseen. It is, as Roger Farr has explored through its manifestations in anarchist poetics, a strategy of concealment. Strategy then is not necessarily directly concerned with the use of force but rather an understanding of the force dynamics in motion, the movement of becoming and unbecoming at play, and the application of these dynamics in the immanent composition of political possibility. What Konrad’s work shows is the strategic operation of the infrapolitical is also at work in the heart of the state and within the logic of governance, in the continued attempts to shore up the infopolitical and media spectacular mechanisms holding together continued forms of domination. But these strategic forms of statecraft are themselves ephemeral and precarious, and in need of constant maintenance and shoring up through cultural engineering. Statecraft and governance constantly need to recreate their own space (and perhaps in this sense de Certeau is correct about the relation between strategy and space). And thus governance is in constant need of a new fix for this problem, whether through learning from Giordano Bruno’s techniques of libidinal bonding and information modulation, from antagonistic social movements and energies, or through the conjuring up around new conspiracy panics against those who abide within the undercommons. The Critical Art Ensemble, in their post-script to Strategic Reality Dictionary, point to this contradiction: the class of reality engineers are caught between the powers of the measurable and physical and the techniques of modulating imagination, desire, and creativity that need to be continuously controlled for apparatuses of governance to continue functioning. Today in cognitive capitalism, the disease for which it pretends to be the cure (surely the most apt characterization ever given), these mechanisms urgently desire us to give away all that we know, whether through having ‘fun at work,’ through participatory work teams, in cultural quarters, through the former radicals who have become ‘reasonable’ and given up the ghost of their former subversion, through the rendering of antagonism into imaginal capital. An art of the undercommons reorients strategies of media and cultural intervention around the wisdom to not give too much away or to open up these knowledges to harvest. The art of the undercommons is the wisdom to make worlds while obfuscating subversive knowledges from recuperation. For subversive movements to retain their potential, we can only hope that they do not fall into rituals of resistance and un-thought through gestures which “transforms ambiguous streams of social continua into discrete and processable categories.” We can only hope to develop the wisdom to know the difference. # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mail.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime(a)kein.org -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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Fwd: Call for Papers: Surviving a Cyberattack -- From Phishing to Cyberwar
by Michel Bauwens 25 Feb '11

25 Feb '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Cutter IT Journal <cgenerali(a)cutter.com> Date: Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 11:12 PM Subject: Call for Papers: Surviving a Cyberattack -- From Phishing to Cyberwar To: "michelsub2004(a)gmail.com" <michelsub2004(a)gmail.com> Call for Papers Cutter IT Journal Robert N. Charette, Guest Editor Abstract Submission Date: 2 March 2011 Articles Due: 8 April 2011 Surviving a Cyberattack: From Phishing to Cyberwar Some argue that a cyber-Armageddon -- or a "digital Pearl Harbor" -- may be just around the corner, while others counter that while cybersecurity needs to be taken seriously, the overall cyberthreat and its consequences are vastly overblown and are merely a convenient excuse to sell over-priced security software and consulting. The quotes below represent just a small range of views regarding cyber-related threats and their potential impacts on society. "America's economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cybersecurity -- it's now clear this cyberthreat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation. It's also clear that we're not as prepared as we should be, as a government or as a country." President Barack Obama, May 2009 Securing Our Nation's Cyberinfrastructure "The threat [of cyberwar] is increasing in scope and scale, and its impact is difficult to overstate. Industry estimates the production of malicious software has reached its highest level yet, with an average of 60,000 new programs or variations identified each day. Some of these are what we define as advanced persistent threats, which are difficult to detect and counter." James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence Testimony in front of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, February 2011 "We may already have seen early versions of cyberwars in Estonia and Georgia, possibly perpetrated by Russia. It's hard to know for certain, not only because such attacks are often impossible to trace, but because we have no clear definitions of what a cyberwar actually is." "Do the 2007 attacks against Estonia, traced to a young Russian man living in Tallinn and no one else, count? What about a virus from an unknown origin, possibly targeted at an Iranian nuclear complex? Or espionage from within China, but not specifically directed by its government? To such questions one must add even more basic issues, like when a cyberwar is understood to have begun, and how it ends. When even cybersecurity experts can't answer these questions, it's hard to expect much from policymakers." Bruce Schneier, Author *It Will Soon be Too Late to Stop the Cyberwars *, Financial Times of London December 2010 "It is unlikely that there will ever be a true cyberwar. The reasons are: many critical computer systems are protected against known exploits and malware so that designers of new cyberweapons have to identify new weaknesses and exploits; the effects of cyberattacks are difficult to predict -- on the one hand they may be less powerful than hoped but may also have more extensive outcomes arising from the interconnectedness of systems, resulting in unwanted damage to perpetrators and their allies. More importantly, there is no strategic reason why any aggressor would limit themselves to only one class of weaponry." *Reducing Systemic Cybersecurity Risk* OECD/IFP Project, January 2011 So what are the valid cybersecurity threats posed to individuals, businesses and governments and what strategies and approaches can be taken to mitigate these threats? The May 2011 issue of Cutter IT Journal will explore this topic and try to separate some of the wheat from the chaff as pertains to security threats from current and potential cyberweapons -- ranging from email phishing, PC viruses and botnets to targeted attacks such as that highlighted by the recent Stuxnet episode to a full-scale cyberwar -- the OECD report cited above not withstanding. Cutter IT Journal invites useful, well-reasoned debate and analysis on the risks posed by cyberweapons and how such risks can or should be identified, categorized, assessed, mitigated or "survived." We are very interested in international perspectives on this issue and we encourage those from around the globe to tell us their perspectives. As an example, the Australian government in October of 2010 warned businesses and individuals that they were going to be on their own in case of a major cyberattack; the government was going to be too busy trying to defend its own systems to help anyone else. If a cyberattack does hit Australia, what can businesses and individuals do to protect themselves? TOPICS OF INTEREST MAY INCLUDE (but are certainly NOT limited to) one of more of the following topics, which are NOT ranked in any particular order: *What are the risks from cyberweapons, and how should they be compared against other types of risks such as hurricanes, floods, blizzards or terrorist attacks? *What can or should individuals and or corporations do to protect themselves from cyberweapons, now and in the future? How does a technology like cloud computing increase or decrease the threat? * What should governments do to protect themselves from cyberweapons? Do they have an obligation to protect more than government systems? If so, where should the boundaries be drawn? *What exactly is a cyberwar? Why is cyberwar so difficult to define? What are its distinguishing characteristics? Is one likely, and if so, will its impact be devastating? Will cyberwar only occur in conjunction with "traditional" war, as the OECD report argues? *Is the cyberthreat, especially that at the "top-end," over-hyped? Why or why not? *What will the cyberweapon landscape of the future, say in 2025, look like? What types of defenses will be used against such cyberweapons and the vast increase in the number of individuals, businesses and governments capable of wielding them? What will cyberweapon targets look like (i.e., a digital system environment with the increased use of smart grids)? *How much should cybersecurity be focused on finding technology solutions vs. understanding the human side of the cyberthreat? *Is governmental focus on cyberwar distracting from what some argue are more important and realistic cyberthreats -- like the theft of corporate or governmental intellectual property or disinformation campaigns against corporate competitors? *Should software vendors be liable for the security quality of their software? Should the software be required to meet certain security standards prior to its availability? *What are the five biggest myths about cybersecurity -- e.g., the five biggest myths of the cyberthreat? *Should governments have the right to "switch-off" the Internet as a means to combat a cyberattack? How can these rights be protected from abuse? Should governments be able to "retaliate" in the event of a cyberattack? Should there be treaties defining cyberwarfare? *How does protection against cyberweapons affect civil liberties and innovation? What, if anything, should be done to ensure nothing will impinge upon civil liberties and innovation in the name of security? *How are individuals at risk in terms of cyberweapons being used against them? How much should individuals worry about phishing or virus attacks directed toward them say by cybercriminals vs. a planned attack on their country's infrastructure? Again, we are encouraging reasoned debate on these topics, and others that may not be in the above list in the cybersecurity domain. TO SUBMIT AN ARTICLE IDEA Please respond to the Guest Editor, Robert Charette at charette[at]itabhi[dot]com with a copy to itjournal[at]cutter[dot]com by 2 March 2011. Please include an extended abstract and short outline showing the major discussion points. ARTICLE DEADLINE Accepted articles are due by 8 April 2011. EDITORIAL GUIDELINES Most Cutter IT Journal articles are approximately 2,500-3,500 words long, plus whatever graphics are appropriate. If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact CITJ's Group Publisher, Christine Generali at cgenerali[at]cutter[dot]com or the Guest Editor, Robert Charette at charette[at]itabhi[dot]com. Editorial guidelines are available at << http://www.cutter.com/content-and-analysis/journals-and-reports/cutter-it-j… >> AUDIENCE Typical readers of Cutter IT Journal range from CIOs and vice presidents of software organizations to IT managers, directors, project leaders, and very senior technical staff. Most work in fairly large organizations: Fortune 500 IT shops, large computer vendors (IBM, HP, etc.), and government agencies. 48% of our readership is outside of the US (15% from Canada, 14% Europe, 5% Australia/NZ, 14% elsewhere). Please avoid introductory-level, tutorial coverage of a topic. Assume you're writing for someone who has been in the industry for 10 to 20 years, is very busy, and very impatient. Assume he or she will be asking, "What's the point? What do I do with this information?" Apply the "So what?" test to everything you write. PROMOTIONAL OPPORTUNITIES We are pleased to offer Journal authors a year's complimentary subscription and five copies of the issue in which they are published. In addition, we occasionally pull excerpts, along with the author's bio, to include in our weekly Cutter Edge e-mail bulletin, which reaches another 8,000 readers. We'd also be pleased to quote you, or passages from your article, in Cutter press releases. If you plan to be speaking at industry conferences, we can arrange to make copies of your article or the entire issue available for attendees of those speaking engagements -- furthering your own promotional efforts. ABOUT CUTTER IT JOURNAL No other journal brings together so many cutting-edge thinkers, and lets them speak so bluntly and frankly. We strive to maintain the Journal's reputation as the "Harvard Business Review of IT." Our goal is to present well-grounded opinion (based on real, accountable experiences), research, and animated debate about each topic the Journal explores. PLEASE FORWARD THIS CALL FOR PAPERS TO ANYONE WHO MIGHT HAVE AN APPROPRIATE SUBMISSION. -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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In response to rushed amendments to Irish Copyright law
by Kevin Flanagan 25 Feb '11

25 Feb '11

Hello Michel, I just posted on the Irish Copyright amendments http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/in-response-to-rushed-amendments-to-irish-cop… Many Thanks Kevin

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Fwd: Infecting Organizations with Clear Thinking
by Michel Bauwens 25 Feb '11

25 Feb '11

a little bit hyperbolic intro, but likely an interesting bk ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Michelle Smith <admin(a)triarchypress.com> Date: Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 11:30 PM Subject: Infecting Organizations with Clear Thinking To: michelsub2004(a)gmail.com Dear Michel We’ve just published a book that is so good it makes me want to cry. Which is rather unsettling. On top of which, the book is ostensibly about scenario planning. Which is doubly unsettling. Fortunately, I'm not alone. *Robert Fuller* calls *Facing the Fold* *"…a luminous distillation of philosophical wisdom and modern management theory."* It’s thirty years since I read anything this clear, compelling and inspiring. It reminds me why we mustn’t lose books in our e-frenzy and it reminds me why most of us bloggers and pamphleteers and tweeters and churners out of verbiage should stop writing and start reading again. The first 5 pages explain the history of how we think about progress, the future, Utopia and catastrophe. I think they're particularly insightful - read those 5 pages yourself<http://www.triarchypress.com/pages/pdfs/Facing-the-Fold-Sample-Pages.pdf>and see if you agree. *Paul Saffo* says *Facing the Fold* *"…will change forever the way one thinks about the future and the possibilities it holds."* *Facing the Fold*<http://www.triarchypress.com/pages/Ogilvy-Scenario-Planning.htm>demonstrates how scenario planning works as a "vector for infecting organizations with the learning bug", how it can teach optimists and pessimists the dangers of their biases and increase the likelihood of any organization creating "better futures". It starts with the nuts and bolts – how to do scenario planning (even on a tight budget) and how it fits with complexity thinking and other management styles and approaches. Then it puts scenario planning in context - looking at organizational learning, complexity theory, social anthropology, strategy-making and Bateson's thinking on ecosystems. Finally, it presents a series of case studies showing scenario planning in action. They mainly involve education, but any organisation can follow the examples and put the principles to work. *"…should be read by anyone... who is interested in taking wise action in complex and fundamentally uncertain times."* To read more about it, visit *Facing the Fold<http://www.triarchypress.com/pages/Ogilvy-Scenario-Planning.htm> * at Triarchy’s website. Save 40% if you buy it before 6th March. ------------------------------- *About Triarchy Press* Triarchy Press <http://www.triarchypress.co.uk/pages/triarchy.htm> is an independent publisher of books and pamphlets, focusing on organisations, how they work and the way we work in them. admin(a)triarchypress.com ~ www.triarchypress.com Jay Ogilvy, author of *Facing the Fold*<http://www.triarchypress.com/pages/Ogilvy-Scenario-Planning.htm>, is an acclaimed thinker and writer about business, organizations and society: *"... should be required reading for those who lead large enterprises and governments of any size, particularly those who believe they know where we are headed, and how to get there."* <http://www.triarchypress.com/pages/Ogilvy-Scenario-Planning.htm> *You probably know that*: ...scenario planning is credited with ‘saving’ Shell from the Oil Shock of 1973 ...prescient scenarios were developed for post-invasion Iraq, but the Bush administration ignored them ...by the early 2000s, scenario planning ranked as the number one planning tool among US corporations These essays tell you how to understand and use scenarios in your own organisation. *Buy the Book - Save 40% until 6th March<http://www.triarchypress.com/pages/Ogilvy-Scenario-Planning.htm> * This message was sent to michelsub2004(a)gmail.com from: Triarchy Press | Station Offices | Axminster, Devon EX13 5PF, United Kingdom Email Marketing by [image: iContact - Try It Free!]<http://www.icontact.com/a.pl/144186> Manage Your Subscription <http://app.icontact.com/icp/mmail-mprofile.pl?r=11844980&l=8220&s=CH3A&m=55…> -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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Fwd: Ecocities Illustrated Kickstarter
by Michel Bauwens 25 Feb '11

25 Feb '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Richard Register <kirstin(a)ecocitybuilders.org> Date: Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 12:05 AM Subject: Ecocities Illustrated Kickstarter To: michelsub2004(a)gmail.com Having trouble viewing this email? Click here <http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=hdosiabab&v=001bNszPz862…> <http://s.rs6.net/t?e=ZbQbw34KpHU&c=1&r=1><http://s.rs6.net/t?e=ZbQbw34KpHU&c=3&r=1><http://s.rs6.net/t?e=ZbQbw34KpHU&c=4&r=1><http://s.rs6.net/t?e=ZbQbw34KpHU&c=5&r=1><http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Ecocities-Illustrated-Kickstarter.html?s…> * ECOCITIES ILLUSTRATED THE FIRST SKETCH BOOK ON ECOCITY DESIGN * [image: ecocitiesheader1] *Dear Friends and Supporters, * * * Ecocity Builders<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hdosiabab&et=1104621554768&s=12359&e=001tKGgN…>and I (Richard Register) are collaborating with Kickstarter<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hdosiabab&et=1104621554768&s=12359&e=001tKGgN…>, an up-and-coming internet startup, to launch a community-funded educational project.<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hdosiabab&et=1104621554768&s=12359&e=001tKGgN…> We're seeking to raise funds to enable me to finish my ecocity design sketch book, *ECOCITIES ILLUSTRATED.* Kickstarter is all or nothing: If we cannot secure at least $3,500 by March 23rd, you will not be charged. *THE BOOK* I coined the term "ecocity" about 35 years ago and have been steadily amassing a repertoire of sketches that seek to explore and describe the concept and design approach. *The book will highlight about 150 of my original ecocity related drawings, both color and black and white.* The sketches are arranged according to topic, including whole cities, plazas, transport, natural features, mapping, ecocity fractals, basic principles and strategies for communicating, among others. *You can help me finish the project AND get rewards, including copies of the book once it's published (likely sometime later this year or early in 2012). * * * *Visit *http://kck.st/fpZIqi<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hdosiabab&et=1104621554768&s=12359&e=001tKGgN…>By pledging on this Kickstarter page you are giving me the support I need to complete this project, a first of its kind. The money raised will fund the time the time I need to finish the project, which includes creating the chapter text and illustrations captions and draft layout, as well as my time for working with the publisher on the final layout and ensuring that there is a good promotional plan in place once the book is published. *YOUR PART* * * By contributing<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hdosiabab&et=1104621554768&s=12359&e=001tKGgN…>, you take an active part in the book design and development process. And please help spread the word on Twitter<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hdosiabab&et=1104621554768&s=12359&e=001tKGgN…>and Facebook<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hdosiabab&et=1104621554768&s=12359&e=001tKGgN…>using this url: *http://kck.st/fpZIqi<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hdosiabab&et=1104621554768&s=12359&e=001tKGgN…> * Thank you in advance for your support. *Richard Register* Ecocity Builders PS Expect our next Ecocity Builders' newsletter soon! We've got updates on Montreal, Nepal, Berkeley, Oakland, Santa Barbara, Brazil, and more. For more information, contact Ecocity Builders <ecocity(a)igc.org>. A little more about me and my work I am Founder and President of Ecocity Builders, and a theorist and author in ecological city design and planning. I am also a practitioner with four decades of experience activating local projects, pushing establishment buttons and working with environmentalists and developers to get a better city built and running. I illustrate my own writing, and some consider my books as pleasurable for my drawings as compelling in their ecological urban philosophies and visions. I am a frequent guest of organizations and conferences large and small in my home town, the San Francisco Bay Area, and around the world. I have traveled the equivalent of 28 times around the world (as of 2010) advocating for the potential for the pedestrian city to save the world - by reducing automobile dependence, global warming, massive sprawl, ecological habitat fragmentation, air and water pollution and other harms. I hope it works. Otherwise I'll have a lot of jet fuel karma to make up for. http://www.ecocitybuilders.org/richard-register/<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hdosiabab&et=1104621554768&s=12359&e=001tKGgN…> Forward email<http://ui.constantcontact.com/sa/fwtf.jsp?llr=hdosiabab&m=1100594362471&ea=…> <http://visitor.constantcontact.com/do?p=un&m=001JCSHxBYrkkeSdnixqbRt9A%3D%3…> <http://www.constantcontact.com/index.jsp?cc=TEM_Promo_213> This email was sent to michelsub2004(a)gmail.com by kirstin(a)ecocitybuilders.org | Update Profile/Email Address<http://visitor.constantcontact.com/do?p=oo&m=001JCSHxBYrkkeSdnixqbRt9A%3D%3…> | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe<http://visitor.constantcontact.com/do?p=un&m=001JCSHxBYrkkeSdnixqbRt9A%3D%3…>™ | Privacy Policy <http://ui.constantcontact.com/roving/CCPrivacyPolicy.jsp>. Ecocity Builders | 1560 Alice Street #21 | Oakland | CA | 94612 -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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Re: [P2P-F] 12 things you need to know about protests in Wisconsin, USA + Unions and P2P alternatives
by Samuel Rose 25 Feb '11

25 Feb '11

On Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 11:00 AM, Richard Schulte <richard(a)flywheelcollective.com> wrote: > Thanks Sam for bringing this up! > > Flywheel had the pleasure of meeting with the Ohio Employee Ownership > Center several days ago. We brought up this specific concept to Roy > Messing, their Cooperative Development Program director, and he brought > up a few possible constraints, but definitely an interest in the > possibilities. > > Apparently it varies widely state by state, but laws around the use of > pension funds, 401(k) programs, health funds, and other major benefit > funds which are often held in common by workers can be somewhat > restrictive towards investment. However, he expressed that he would be > further exploring the possibilities and spreading the idea. The > additional option is that some of the companies who employ these workers > may also be interested in contributing towards these investments, and > the imagination widens when other community investment groups are > involved. > > After reflecting on that option, it seems that peer-based manufacturing > could present a very interesting opportunity for many of the extant > manufacturers to be able to assist in the 'fill-in' of their supply > chains by lending towards the creation of extensive networks of small, > agile, and lean micromanufacturing shops employing p2p methods. > Richard, thanks! Is there something that we as P2PF can do to help with this effort/initiative? Need help with research/structuring knowledge (this is all stuff P2PF does) that can help make the case. I don't speak for everyone here of course, and P2PF is an international group. But, I know many of us are interested in this, and we're already actively gathering info and synthesizing it into knowledge around some of these topics. Plus, we (P2PF and Future Forward Institute/Forward Foundation) are actively working to create and support capacity for FLOS hardware and distributed manufacturing. Maybe if you have time next week, we can talk about how we can work together on this via voice? -- -- Sam Rose Future Forward Institute and Forward Foundation Tel:+1(517) 639-1552 Cel: +1-(517)-974-6451 skype: samuelrose email: samuel.rose(a)gmail.com http://forwardfound.org http://futureforwardinstitute.org http://hollymeadcapital.com http://p2pfoundation.net http://socialmediaclassroom.com "The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition." - Carl Sagan

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Re: [P2P-F] 12 things you need to know about protests in Wisconsin, USA + Unions and P2P alternatives
by Michel Bauwens 25 Feb '11

25 Feb '11

Dear Richard, I would indeed love to publish this as a p2p blog post, thanks a lot! For the first week of March? Michel On Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 11:00 PM, Richard Schulte < richard(a)flywheelcollective.com> wrote: > Thanks Sam for bringing this up! > > Flywheel had the pleasure of meeting with the Ohio Employee Ownership > Center several days ago. We brought up this specific concept to Roy > Messing, their Cooperative Development Program director, and he brought > up a few possible constraints, but definitely an interest in the > possibilities. > > Apparently it varies widely state by state, but laws around the use of > pension funds, 401(k) programs, health funds, and other major benefit > funds which are often held in common by workers can be somewhat > restrictive towards investment. However, he expressed that he would be > further exploring the possibilities and spreading the idea. The > additional option is that some of the companies who employ these workers > may also be interested in contributing towards these investments, and > the imagination widens when other community investment groups are > involved. > > After reflecting on that option, it seems that peer-based manufacturing > could present a very interesting opportunity for many of the extant > manufacturers to be able to assist in the 'fill-in' of their supply > chains by lending towards the creation of extensive networks of small, > agile, and lean micromanufacturing shops employing p2p methods. > > Investment bodies > ----- > > Collective Assets > > - Pension Funds - these are often restricted to only 8-15% out at any > given time, especially as older generations begin to collect retirement. > However, this could change with legislation that may or may not already > be out there. > - Health benefits plans > - 401(k) Plans - many unions found their pension funds tapped out by > shoddy investment practices and switched to these plans. The issue > being that they have less control as these are often managed by more > conglomerated entities. > - Collective investment stocks such as ESOP plans and worker equity > > Community Assets > > - Credit Unions - Federal CUs are restricted to about 25% of their > assets being allocated towards business loans, however legislation is > being considered that would bump this up to 50%. Of course its on the > backburner, but with greater pressure that could change. > - Building & Loan Funds - These are co-op institutions as well that can > invest in building projects, commercial building loans, and other types > of business loans. > - Community Banks - Smallscale community banks can also put a lot of > weight behind things, and are often not as restricted as credit unions. > - Distributed Community Lending - so say you are starting a local worker > co-op, and folks all over town are excited about it. Give them the > chance to invest directly in the business, or possibly a many-to-many > RLF in your community! > > FAQ > > > Question: Why focus on such small and localized entities? Don't they > have less capital? > > Answer: There is greater reliability, especially in distressed times, as > these types of institutions are less likely to have risky investment > portfolios. They have very significant levels of capital to work with > as adoption of their services grow because of greater consumer > confidence and local identity. > > A good example of collective benefits in action was during the Hugo Boss > debacle. Remember - Hugo Boss's shareholders were getting antsy and > trying to close down a Cleveland facility to move it to Turkey. Despite > lots of great on the ground organizing, the battle was almost lost until > a very unexpected development occurred - just before the shareholders > made the decision to liquidate the assets of the Cleveland operation, > the company in Columbus that managed the pension funds, retirement > plans, and collective benefits of the Hugo Boss workers, who happened to > own 20% of the shares of the company, threatened divestment if the > operation moved overseas. The tables were turned, and the collectively > held benefits of the workers actually wielded enough weight to stop a > major company in its tracks. > > > Question: Why not target larger, more conglomerated financial entities, > venture capital funds, etc.? > > Answer: Consider their priorities- most financial entities that have > stake in wallstreet and global commerce have competitive investments > elsewhere to the united states, especially in manufacturing. They > demand faster and higher returns, and often are less likely to foster > projects that do not fit their vision. Having these kinds of investors > often leads to uncertainty and poor management of projects, as > shareholders will often not share the interests of the workers. Also, > with experience from major venture capital programs in our area such as > NorTech and JumpStart (pres. Obama just spoke with these folks), we are > WELL aware of how antsy these folks get just around open source software > - and they are IP obsessed. Presenting them with Open Hardware Licenses > would probably drive them up the wall. > > > Strategic Considerations > - - - - > > What Unions often provide in the greatest is a huge base of members, and > often a very progressive vision (take the United Steel Workers, for > example). They are motivated to get their workers on the job > (especially in manufacturing), and know how to mobilize resources around > such things as training, certifications, and institutional support. > They can attract state and federal funding for recruitment and training > programs, and help with compliance. Unions can also give a lot of > credence and credibility to any kind of campaign or concept, across many > spheres of social and political influence. > > Gap Financing - Union benefit plans and worker equity could act as a gap > financing measure, or a vote of confidence, to attract additional > funding from community financial institutions. For example, they could > cover the down payment for a building and initial equipment costs of a > new operation. This would boost confidence from, say, some local credit > unions or social investors, and they would provide investment or loans > towards further building costs, initial feedstocks and payroll. > > Revolving Loan Funds - We already have a RLF in Ohio that acts as a gap > financing program for ESOPs, Worker Co-ops and the like. You can > receive a loan of up to $15,000 from them, however they have community > partners who will match these loans up to a total of $350,000. It's > called the Commonwealth Revolving Loan Fund, and it is actually > administered by Roy Messing (who I mention above). > > RLFs are a great strategic move because they make the messiness of many > to many investment a more streamlined process. All of the financial > bodies mentioned above can invest in these funds, and with steady > returns this can lower their risk (something very important these days > for collective benefits). There is not a great amount of complexity > involved either - invest and get returns. The institutions and social > investors who are investing in these RLFs could also give guidance to > some of the folks who are seeking investment (which can be very > helpful), and possibly give additional financial support where RLFs are > acting as a gap financing measure. > > Business Incubators - The business incubator model is huge. It's what > gets politicians, unions, investors and whatnot all excited. There are > some pretty good models here - pooling costs for buildings, utility > costs, and shared financial, legal, and other helpful services. These > often receive a lot of government funding, which is often pretty > hands-off. A p2p manufacturing incubator, in a more forward thinking > area, would not be a difficult effort (should i say the Bay Area?). Then > again, it may not even be impossible in the midwest, if the right > factors come together. > > Also, combined with the concept of Business Incubators could be > EcoIndustrial Parks. Imagine the incubators above growing into > prototyping and fab shops. You would have offices where people design, > engineer, unit test, etc. They would send g-code and other designs down > to the shop floor where parts that could be printed would be printed, in > addition to those parts that could be torch cut, machined, pressed, > injection molded, etc. These prototypes could even be a side effort to > the actual production process, which could be happening in the same > shared facility! The EcoIndustrial aspect would be that the industrial > facilities would be combined - possibly through some off-grid > co-generation scheme, providing heat and electricity. The fabbed goods > would be produced using green practices, and possibly have the same > implications (OEM parts for electric vehicles, solar arrays, turbines, > biogas operatons; equipment for agroecological operations - anything > from soil blockers to remote climate sensing equipment.) Green P2P > would attract A LOT of attention, funding and subsidies. There are also > very real supply chains that such operations would easily nudge into, > even out here in the midwest. Especially when there are TONS of empty > industrial parks all throughout the rural midwest (and urban) that have > all the infrastructure in place, state and federal funding ready and > waiting to subdisize any use of them, and entire communities of folks > around them who would be glad to get to work! > > > Conclusion > ----- > > So, really, there are a lot of opportunities for unions to act as an > arbiter and confidence builder in p2p manufacturing. They have many of > the resources that are needed - and unlike venture capitalists - are not > going to consider manufacturing in "knowledge economy" nations to be > abhorrent or competitive with their investments. On the other side of > the coin, Unions are also beginning to show a lot of international > solidarity, so there would be less resistance than one might anticipate > to, say, international p2p supply chains if they were sustainable and > fostered the growth of manufacturing in NA and Europe. > > Most importantly, they offer the advantage of oversight and collective > bargaining in more tough situations. As the p2p manufacturing economy > unfolds, one must pay close attention to the treatment of workers, to > safety and to the fairness of pay and benefits. Definately the worker- > co-op model affords for some measure of workplace democracy, but when > there is no agency outside your own shop you can get stuck. This is why > our worker co-op is joining the IWW - not to mention the excitement of > being a part of an international movement of worker solidarity. > > P.S. - Michel - I can turn this into a p2p blog post here soon if you > like, with some polishing :) > > -- > Richard Schulte > > Flywheel Tech Collective > > > > > On Thu, 2011-02-24 at 15:28 +0700, Michel Bauwens wrote: > > Dear Sam, > > > > copying two more union-p2p friends on this dialogue, > > > > Michel > > > > On Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 10:35 AM, Samuel Rose <samuel.rose(a)gmail.com> > > wrote: > > Thanks Mark, > > > > This a long-term perspective/investment. Based on an ideas > > first > > articulated to me by Richard Schulte of Flywheel Tech > > Collective, who > > is copied on this email, the idea is to work with Unions to > > start > > building worker-owned cooperatives of various types, > > especially based > > around production and design of open source > > technologies/software. > > Mark, I copied you because I know that you've been in dialogue > > with > > Unions right here in Michigan for years. I wondered if you > > might know > > of some Union folks here in Michigan that might be candidates > > for this > > type of thing? > > > > > > > > On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 10:26 PM, Mark Dilley > > <markwdilley(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > > Sam - thank you for sending this out what seems so many > > days ago - I have been following this pretty keenly and am > > curious about the title of your email "+ Unions and P2P > > alternatives" > > > > > > open ears from anyone here. > > > > > > Best, Mark > > > > > > > > > On 19Feb2011, at 5:19 PM, Samuel Rose wrote: > > > > > >> "What's happening in Wisconsin is not complicated. At the > > beginning of > > >> this year, the state was on course to end 2011 with a > > budget surplus > > >> of $120 million. As Ezra Klein explained, newly elected GOP > > Governor > > >> Scott Walker then " signed two business tax breaks and a > > conservative > > >> health-care policy experiment that lowers overall tax > > revenues (among > > >> other things). The new legislation was not offset, and it > > turned a > > >> surplus into a deficit." > > >> > > >> Walker then used the deficit he'd created as the > > justification for > > >> assaulting his state's public employees. He used a law > > cooked up by a > > >> right-wing advocacy group called the American Legislative > > Exchange > > >> Council (ALEC). ALEC likes to fly beneath the radar, but I > > described > > >> the organization in a 2005 article as "the connective > > tissue that > > >> links state legislators with right-wing think tanks, > > leading anti-tax > > >> activists and corporate money." Similar laws are on the > > table in Ohio > > >> and Indiana. > > >> > > >> Walker's bill would strip public employees of the right to > > bargain > > >> collectively for anything but higher pay (and would cap the > > amount of > > >> wage hikes they might end up gaining in negotiations). His > > intentions > > >> are clear -- before assuming office, Walker threatened to > > decertify > > >> the state's employees' unions (until he discovered that the > > governor > > >> doesn't have that power)." > > >> > > >> > > > http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/479560/12_things_you_need_to_k… > > >> _______ > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> Aso worth reading: > > >> > > >> > > > http://prop-press.typepad.com/blog/2011/02/report-from-day-five-first-chanc… > > >> > > >> > > >> > > > ________________________________________________________________________ > > >> > > >> > > >> I think the time is here to start talking with people about > > >> > > > http://p2pfoundation.net/The_Political_Principles_of_Peer-to-Peer_Advocacy > > >> here, in the Industrial Midwest (which includes WI) > > >> > > >> One simple way to route around party politics is to give > > people a > > >> direct p2p way to actively reflect existing poltics as we > > saw in > > >> iceland with http://skuggathing.is/portal based on > > >> https://github.com/rbjarnason/open-active-democracy > > >> > > >> Another parallel approach is to start applying collective > > decision > > >> making and pooling of resources directly to problems people > > are > > >> addressing. In addition, creating cooperatives, supporting > > alternative > > >> currencies when appropriate. > > >> > > >> Unions in all of these states have resources, including > > pension funds, > > >> that they could invest directly in worker-owned cooperative > > companies, > > >> as has been discussed by Richard Schulte of > > flywheeltechcollective in > > >> the past. Some of them have expressed interest in doing > > this. These > > >> kinds of changes for entities like unions are long term > > changes and > > >> investments, and will take time. However, I think every > > year that goes > > >> by makes more and more on the left receptive to p2p > > alternatives. > > >> > > >> If people are interested in working on P2P political > > advocacy and > > >> approaches in 2011-2012, let's talk here and continue to > > build towards > > >> thing people can really use in places like Wisconsin, Ohio, > > Michigan, > > >> Eastern Europe, South America, etc > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> -- > > >> -- > > >> Sam Rose > > >> Future Forward Institute and Forward Foundation > > >> Tel:+1(517) 639-1552 > > >> Cel: +1-(517)-974-6451 > > >> skype: samuelrose > > >> email: samuel.rose(a)gmail.com > > >> http://forwardfound.org > > >> http://futureforwardinstitute.org > > >> http://hollymeadcapital.com > > >> http://p2pfoundation.net > > >> http://socialmediaclassroom.com > > >> > > >> "The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with > > human > > >> ambition." - Carl Sagan > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > -- > > Sam Rose > > Future Forward Institute and Forward Foundation > > Tel:+1(517) 639-1552 > > Cel: +1-(517)-974-6451 > > skype: samuelrose > > email: samuel.rose(a)gmail.com > > http://forwardfound.org > > http://futureforwardinstitute.org > > http://hollymeadcapital.com > > http://p2pfoundation.net > > http://socialmediaclassroom.com > > > > "The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with > > human > > ambition." - Carl Sagan > > > > _______________________________________________ > > P2P Foundation - Mailing list > > http://www.p2pfoundation.net > > > https://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation > > > > > > > > > > -- > > P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - > > http://blog.p2pfoundation.net > > > > Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: > > http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation > > > > Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; > > http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens > > > > > > > > > > > > -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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Fwd: <nettime> How a Library Saved My Life. (libraries as commons)
by Michel Bauwens 25 Feb '11

25 Feb '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Dante-Gabryell Monson <dante.monson(a)gmail.com> Date: Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 6:33 AM Subject: Fwd: <nettime> How a Library Saved My Life. To: Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004(a)gmail.com> loss of commons... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: marc garrett <marc.garrett(a)furtherfield.org> Date: Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 4:01 PM Subject: <nettime> How a Library Saved My Life. To: nettime-l(a)kein.org How a Library Saved My Life. By Marc Garrett. Originally posted on Furtherfield's community blog 06/02/2011. http://www.furtherfield.org/blog/marc-garrett/how-library-saved-my-life Recently I read Claire Bishop's excellent article 'Con-Demmed to the Bleakest of Futures: Report from the UK' (http://www.e-flux.com/journal/view/209) Where she argues "that in the wake of the general election in May 2010, which resulted in a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition-the UK’s first coalition government since 1945—the ensuing cuts to culture cannot be seen as separate from an assault on welfare, education, and social equality. The rhetoric of an "age of austerity" is being used as a cloak for the privatization of all public services and a reinstatement of class privilege: a sad retreat from the most civilized Keynesian initiatives of the post-war period, in which education, healthcare, and culture were understood to be a democratic right freely available to all." After reading Claire's article I thought that I'd write a little bit of personal history regarding my own experiences with early education and how a library saved my life... In the dark ages. The mid to late seventies at the age of 13, my life was a troublesome affair. Our family was constantly under seige. Life felt like a fatalistic (un)merry-go-round as we tried to deal with various, chaotic situations that occurred and impacted our relationships on a day to day basis. Whilst trying to negotiate in our own particular dysfunctional way, the onslaught of violence in a home on a council estate in Southend-on-Sea, Essex; we also had to somehow contend with intrusions from over officious social workers. Every route we took led to a different form of dis-empowerment. The formal education available to me at this time was worthless and offered no way out of poverty. The general feeling between us all was that we were caught within a hostile system. On the council estate we unknowingly made matters worse as we stole each other's toys or formed gangs. At this time when the country was almost bankrupt. The Labour government was receiving international loans of $5000 million to try and prevent the economy from collapsing. If it was not for North Sea Oil, the UK would of fallen into a state of total collapse. In 1975 UK's inflation rate peaked at 26% and unemployment reached the highest levels since the Second World War reaching hundreds and thousands. Many companies who had previously been based in the UK and investing in the economy, began moving their businesses and assets abroad where it was more profitable. Strikes spread across the land, rubbish was left outside piling up in the streets and the dead were left unburied. Very soon after this the age of Margaret Thatcher's (UK's first female Prime Minister) own brand of conservative politics and early forms of neoliberalism would begin to dominate the land. When I remember these times, my mind usually focuses on what happened to many of my peers after they had left school. A few survived the systemic challenges of bad education and social deprivation. Yet, if I use all the fingers on both hands I run out of digits to count how many of them had either committed suicide, died of drug overdoses, or gone to borstal and then to prison. Already at the age of thirteen though, I had a sense of the life that I was being set up for and growing determined not move in this direction. My heart, head and soul needed nourishment and I was not getting it. In order to change my course my behaviour needed to change. So what was I to do, what decisions should I take to change what seemed at the time a hopeless situation, especially when I was accustomed to feeling dis-empowered in the environment I was growing up in? Every morning I would leave home and pretend I was going to school. In reality, the day would begin with a long walk into the central area of Southend, where the Essex Library was and (thankfully still is to this day). For nearly a year I managed to pretend I was going to school, whilst hiding concerned letters from the headmaster sent to my parents about my regular absence. I would enter the library seeing all the different kinds of people, of all ages researching, reading the abundancy of books, accessible to anyone. It also had a small cafe then which was not much of a deal, but going there for breaks in between reading about art, technology, science, religion, sociology and politics etc, helped to create a certain sense self assuredness. Sitting in the cafe I would overhear adults discuss what they were reading. I learned a lot about the enquiring minds of other human beings and felt that I was a part of something that until then, was a hidden secret. I was so shocked that all the knowledge in this place was not being shared with me and my peers at school. It also felt as though my venture, discovering all of this information was not 'officially' allowed. Not for my kind, as in not for my class. To say that I was dragged out of the library kicking and screaming, once the local council's truant officer had heard about my (despicable) antics, would be an understatement. The library was my second home. However, the only choice given to me was to either go back to school or end up in a borstal. Knowing how bleak and violent these environments were from friends who had themselves been there, and noticing how they had changed for the worse, the choice was clear. I went back to school. Now the reason I'm sharing all of this personal history with you is because today many libraries are being closed down due to the recent cuts by the present government in power. And yes, much information can be accessed on-line. But this, in no way replaces the important experience of meeting others in a real, physical learning environment. And this also goes for education right across the board. If we are forced to rely on the Internet alone as a source for knowledge and sharing, future minds will be less informed. Market forces increasingly dominate the Internet, dictating the interfaces/portals and therefore creating bias that privileges corporate values above greater human needs. Libraries provide chance encounters in local community settings with unexpected sources of knowledge and experience. If we consider the real reasons why libraries are being closed it all begins to fit into place. The backdrop to all of these drastic cuts relate to neoliberal intentions dominating every aspect of our daily lives. Slogans such as "the big society" and "we are all in this together" are promoted by the coalition government; forcing us to conform and adapt to what has been termed as the ‘age of austerity'. This is proposed to us as a way to level out the effects of the financial crisis of 2007-09, while they themselves remain untouched due to their own privileged backgrounds and benefits gained from promoting corporate interests such as those of the media mogul Rupert Murdoch. It really does not demand too much insight or mental agility to realize we are being conned. We are being socially engineered to bear a burden of debts which are not of our own making. "The reduction of government expenditure is the most overt attack on public services, usually with the most destructive effects on the poorest. Cutbacks to public services such as the reduction or closure of public facilities, either directly through outsourcing or indirectly as providers of the next nearest alternative (the shopping centre rather than the park, the bookstore rather than the library), pushing social or non-work time and spaces into the hands of private ownership and their ‘facility charges', caps on housing subsidy, unemployment payments, disability benefits, and so on, all serve to put what were once public responsibilities and interests into the private sector whose ownership extends not just to the material facility, service or entitlement (the park, the building, the benefit) but also to the right to access it, the requirement to generate a profit." Screw (Down) the Debt: Neoliberalism and the Politics of Austerity. By Suhail Malik. Metamute. http://tinyurl.com/6z2kska Thinking back to the harsh times of my early years in contrast to where I am now, I owe much of my current state of being to that Library in Southend on Sea. What will become of those other young souls who will not have the choice themselves to experience alternative avenues out of the systemic limits of imposed poverty? The Internet is an extension to libraries not its replacement. Education and knowledge is a varied and wonderful thing. Once taken away, we are less empowered, more likely to conform to the whims of others who do not have our best interests in mind. p.s. I posted this contextual piece of writing to Nettime because of an earlier post by Goran Maric - thanks Goran :-) marc garrett www.furtherfield.org # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mail.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime(a)kein.org -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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12 things you need to know about protests in Wisconsin, USA + Unions and P2P alternatives
by Samuel Rose 24 Feb '11

24 Feb '11

"What's happening in Wisconsin is not complicated. At the beginning of this year, the state was on course to end 2011 with a budget surplus of $120 million. As Ezra Klein explained, newly elected GOP Governor Scott Walker then " signed two business tax breaks and a conservative health-care policy experiment that lowers overall tax revenues (among other things). The new legislation was not offset, and it turned a surplus into a deficit." Walker then used the deficit he'd created as the justification for assaulting his state's public employees. He used a law cooked up by a right-wing advocacy group called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC likes to fly beneath the radar, but I described the organization in a 2005 article as "the connective tissue that links state legislators with right-wing think tanks, leading anti-tax activists and corporate money." Similar laws are on the table in Ohio and Indiana. Walker's bill would strip public employees of the right to bargain collectively for anything but higher pay (and would cap the amount of wage hikes they might end up gaining in negotiations). His intentions are clear -- before assuming office, Walker threatened to decertify the state's employees' unions (until he discovered that the governor doesn't have that power)." http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/479560/12_things_you_need_to_k… _______ Aso worth reading: http://prop-press.typepad.com/blog/2011/02/report-from-day-five-first-chanc… ________________________________________________________________________ I think the time is here to start talking with people about http://p2pfoundation.net/The_Political_Principles_of_Peer-to-Peer_Advocacy here, in the Industrial Midwest (which includes WI) One simple way to route around party politics is to give people a direct p2p way to actively reflect existing poltics as we saw in iceland with http://skuggathing.is/portal based on https://github.com/rbjarnason/open-active-democracy Another parallel approach is to start applying collective decision making and pooling of resources directly to problems people are addressing. In addition, creating cooperatives, supporting alternative currencies when appropriate. Unions in all of these states have resources, including pension funds, that they could invest directly in worker-owned cooperative companies, as has been discussed by Richard Schulte of flywheeltechcollective in the past. Some of them have expressed interest in doing this. These kinds of changes for entities like unions are long term changes and investments, and will take time. However, I think every year that goes by makes more and more on the left receptive to p2p alternatives. If people are interested in working on P2P political advocacy and approaches in 2011-2012, let's talk here and continue to build towards thing people can really use in places like Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Eastern Europe, South America, etc -- -- Sam Rose Future Forward Institute and Forward Foundation Tel:+1(517) 639-1552 Cel: +1-(517)-974-6451 skype: samuelrose email: samuel.rose(a)gmail.com http://forwardfound.org http://futureforwardinstitute.org http://hollymeadcapital.com http://p2pfoundation.net http://socialmediaclassroom.com "The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition." - Carl Sagan

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ireland attempting 3 strikes
by Michel Bauwens 24 Feb '11

24 Feb '11

Hi Kevin, perhaps you can report on this for our blog? Michel -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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