[P2P-F] Fwd: [Networkedlabour] CfP Journal of Peer Production: Alternative Internets

Wed Dec 10 14:33:27 CET 2014

hi Kevin,

this is worth publishing on our blog as well,

Michel

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Johan Söderberg <johan.soderberg at sts.gu.se>
Date: Tue, Dec 9, 2014 at 9:48 PM
Subject: [Networkedlabour] CfP Journal of Peer Production: Alternative
Internets
To: "networkedlabour at lists.contrast.org" <networkedlabour at lists.contrast.org
>

 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.

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?

In order to address such concerns, this special Journal of Peer Production
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?

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

•Technical, social, political, economic and legal hurdles faced by
alternative projects.
•The evolution of utopian imaginaries when mediated through socio-technical
artifacts and the conflicting interests of multiple stakeholders.
•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.
•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?
•Lessons learned from the history of the Internet and other communcation
networks.
•Utopias, dystopias, and pragmatic imaginaries of the future Internet and
its role in society.
•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”).
•Hijackings and détournements of existing infrastructures to serve purposes
other than those first intended.
•The environmental challenges raised by communications technologies and
possible responses for ensuring their sustainability and resilience in the
face of the mounting ecological crisis.

Submission abstracts of 300-500 words are due by *February 8, 2015 *and
should be sent to *alternets at peerproduction.net
<alternets at peerproduction.net>*. 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 *June
31st, 2015 *for review.

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 *June 31st,
2015*

Editors: Félix Tréguer (EHESS), Panayotis Antoniadis (ETH Zurich), Johan
Söderberg (Göteborgs Universitet)

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