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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Fellow JoPPers. We have a new special issue cooking. Please distribute the Call for Paper to whomever you think might be interested to contribute to this theme.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">/Johan<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height:13.5pt;background:white"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Ubuntu;color:#777777">Editors: Félix Tréguer (EHESS), Panayotis Antoniadis (ETH Zurich), Johan S</span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Ubuntu;color:#777777">öderberg
(Göteborgs Universitet)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height:13.5pt;background:white"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Ubuntu;color:#777777">States are attempting to consolidate their control over the Internet, turning it into an instrument for minute surveillance, whilst a
handful of tech-corporations seek to use it as a means to manipulate human behaviour toward their own objectives and siphon off the wealth from local and national markets. In response, alternative technologies have arisen, aiming to restore the Internet’s
initial values of net neutrality, distributed control, freedom of speech, and self-organization. Community networks, offline networks, darknets, peer-to-peer systems, encryption, anonymization overlays, digital currencies, and distributed online social networks
appear today as examples of alternative technologies aiming at emancipation, redistribution, and maximal autonomy. However, these tools are as ambiguous as the contradictory values and claims that have been invested in them. We can therefore expect alternative
infrastructures to be appropriated for ends deemed illegitimate, such as tax evasion or arms trading, thus renewing the calls for restoring “law and order” on the Internet.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height:13.5pt;background:white"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Ubuntu;color:#777777">Can we learn from the past and avoid the transformation of the utopian promises of these technologies into a dystopian future as, arguably,
is happening to the promises of the early Internet? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height:13.5pt;background:white"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Ubuntu;color:#777777">In order to address such concerns, this special JoPP issue seeks to document and critically assess past and ongoing efforts to alter
the commercial development process of mainstream Internet technologies in order to build viable alternatives. What are the futures awaiting these alternatives, which contradictions and ambiguities will they undergo, and which steps can be taken today to avoid
failures and disappointments?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height:13.5pt;background:white"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Ubuntu;color:#777777">Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height:13.5pt;background:white"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Ubuntu;color:#777777">•Technical, social, political, economic and legal hurdles faced by alternative projects.<br>
•The evolution of utopian imaginaries when mediated through socio-technical artifacts and the conflicting interests of multiple stakeholders.<br>
•The strategic trade-off between “voice and exit”: going off-grid, developing offline and online alternative networks, or engaging in the public sphere on mainstream platforms.<br>
•The politics of self-organization: actors, local and global institutions, trust, design, regulation, ambiguities. What is an “alternative” imagined to be, how is it concretely realised?<br>
•Lessons learned from the history of the Internet and other communcation networks.<br>
•Utopias, dystopias, and pragmatic imaginaries of the future Internet and its role in society.<br>
•How market or state actors develop their own visions of alternative Internets to foster business interests (e.g. the proposition for a tiered Internet by dominant telecom operators) or facilitate social control (e.g. Iran’s “halalnet”).<br>
•Hijackings and détournements of existing infrastructures to serve purposes other than those first intended.<br>
•The environmental challenges raised by communications technologies and possible responses for ensuring their sustainability and resilience in the face of the mounting ecological crisis.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height:13.5pt;background:white"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Ubuntu;color:#777777">Submission abstracts of 300-500 words are due by
<strong><span style="font-family:Ubuntu">February 8, 2015 </span></strong>and should be sent to
<strong><span style="font-family:Ubuntu">alternets@peerproduction.net</span></strong>. All peer reviewed papers will be reviewed according to Journal of Peer Production guidelines. Full papers and materials (peer reviewed papers around 8,000 words; testimonies,
self-portraits and experimental formats up to 4,000 words) are due by <strong><span style="font-family:Ubuntu">June 31st, 2015
</span></strong>for review.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height:13.5pt;background:white"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Ubuntu;color:#777777">While the issue will be mainly comprised of academic papers, we also welcome 1-page poster-like “visual”, more or less artistic, submissions,
without format restrictions, on stories from the past (alternatives to the current Internet that didn’t survive), today’s alternative technologies, real-life experiences and case studies, as well as future imaginaries. These contributions which could range
from diagrams and cognitive maps to paintings, photos, installations, even poems, will be included as an appendix to the main volume. The deadline for submission is
<strong><span style="font-family:Ubuntu">June 31st, 2015</span></strong>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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