nettime Internet and the Intellectuals
Dear nettimers, as some of you will know this week IGF, the Internet Governance Forum (http://www.intgovforum.org/) is on in Athens. It's the forum that has been created by Kofi Annan after the the second World Summit on the Internet Society, held in Tunis, November 2005. There are over 1200 delegates from 90 countries. Even though the topics look familiar the overall tone seems somewhat less formal. The topics vary from promomoting multilingualism and local content, openness, security and access (see program: http://www.intgovforum.org/wksshop_program3.htm). One workshop clearly stood out for me, one that I had never seen in this Internet governance, namely the role of intellectuals in the IGF. As some of you might know in 1997 I wrote an essay about virtual intellectuals Below an excerpt. I associate the sudden appearance of this topic with the remark of Nitin Desai, chair of the Internet Governance Forum organising group, who said: The net has outgrown its origins as a network run by and for computer specialists. With a billion plus users world-wide it is no longer the preserve of scientists and technologists. The big expansion now is taking place in the non-English speaking developing world. It is now becoming a central part of public administration, business operations, telecommunications, news dissemination and entertainment. Geert -- http://info.intgovforum.org/wksp28.php Intellectuals in the IGF policy process: From knowledge to results The IGF is a deliberative body it thinks about the governance question, intending to move thought to action in its policy audience. This puts a premium on disciplined and methodical analysis which is the preserve of intellectuals and academics, when they hew to their core. How best can IGF engage its intellectuals, to maximize the quality of IGF output over its five years? For the first half, the workshop asks, What is the role of intellectuals? The second half of the workshop asks, How might that work? A two-panelist team provokes discussion for each segment, with brief presentations. The objective is discussion. Among the questions to be addressed: Are intellectuals wise people who guide the policy-making process, or can there be a complementary partnership between the doers and the thinkers? If intellectuals accept a place of trust, as neutral investigators, how do they keep that faith when they advocate policy? What is the place of trust, between intellectuals and policy makers? How can policy makers and intellectuals get best results for and from each other? What working methods and time frames serve best? Are there particular requirements on the intellectual community? The central objective is fruitful discussion among all who attend. Likely outputs are action items: how IGF may most effectively engage its intellectuals over five years. # 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: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and info nettime-l in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net
nettime New Electronic Blockade Of Mexican Continues as Army Attacks Oaxaca
The virtual sit-in in solidarity with oaxaca has moved because the original site hit its bandwidth limit. Please join this virtual action and pass it on. Original Message Subject: [artandd] New Electronic Blockade Of Mexican Continues as Army Attacks Oaxaca From:Ricardo Dominguez [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date:Mon, October 30, 2006 7:06 am -- PLEASE PASS FORWARD Electronic Blockade of Mexican Goverment that was started by Reclaim The Commons on Sun, October 29, 2006 continues on the Electronic Disturbance Theater site - due back end problems at mountainreble.net. SO PLEASE JOIN US IN PROTEST AGAINST THE MEXICAN GOVERMENT FOR THE ATTACKS ON THE TEACHERS OF OAXACA ORIGINAL CALL Electronic Blockade of Mexican Embassy and Consulate Websites In response to a call to action to remember Brad, show solidarity with the teachers and protesters of Oaxaca, and attempt to interrupt the invasion of Oaxaca that Fox is beginning, join this electronic blockade of the websites for all of the Mexican embassies and consulates in the United States and Canada. CLICK HERE TO JOIN http://www.thing.net/~rdom/ecd/oaxaca/Start.html Thank you Electronic Disturbance Theater UPDATES Police Storm Oaxaca to Suppress Protest By Mark Stevenson Associated Press Monday, October 30, 2006; A14 OAXACA, Mexico, Oct. 29 -- On the order of President Vicente Fox, federal police backed by armored vehicles and water cannons tore down barricades and stormed embattled Oaxaca on Sunday, seizing control of the city center from protesters who had held it for five months. A 15-year-old boy guarding one barricade was killed by a tear gas canister, said Jesica Sanchez, a human rights worker. The conflict has pitted the governor of the state of Oaxaca against a coalition of citizen groups and striking teachers demanding his ouster. With helicopters roaring overhead, police earlier entered the city, normally a picturesque tourist destination, from several sides. They marched up to a final metal barrier blocking the center, but pulled back as protesters armed with sticks attacked them from behind, hurling burning tires. The air filled with black smoke and tear gas. Some demonstrators used syringes to pierce their arms and legs, then painted signs in their own blood decrying the police. As night fell, however, protesters abandoned the center and regrouped at a local university. They pledged to continue their battle to persuade Gov. Ulises Ruiz Ortiz to resign, even as police tore down the banners and tents in the center that had served as demonstration headquarters. At least eight people have died in the unrest since August, including Brad Will, an American and volunteer correspondent for the Web site Indymedia.org who was shot dead Friday along with two Mexican protesters. Fox, who leaves office Dec. 1, had for months resisted repeated calls to send federal forces to quell the protests. In Oaxaca, the teachers protest is an annual rite that began 26 years ago. The protests are usually peaceful and generally last a week or two, but this year the teachers became infuriated when Ruiz sent police to forcefully remove demonstrators from the city's idyllic squares. Last week, teachers tentatively ratified an agreement that would allow them to return to classes at an unspecified date and receive 30 percent raises spread over six years. Their unmet central demand, Ruiz's resignation, threatened to undermine the fragile pact. CR 2006 The Washington Post Company MORE http://laluchita.blogspot.com/2006/10/oaxaca-burns-pfp-invasion-right-now.html Saturday, October 28, 2006 Oaxaca Burns: PFP invasion right now What began as an article about the murders of Oaxacan protesters and a New York journalist changed as La Jornada is reporting that the invasion of Oaxaca by Mexican Federal Preventative Police (PFP) is happening RIGHT NOW. According to Radio Universidad, (reporting live over the internet) PFP have advanced to area around the Oaxaca City center and PFP elements wearing balaclavas over their faces are invading private houses and arresting protest leaders. At 3:53 Oaxaca time, La Jornada reported that PFP elements have reached the Historic Center of Oaxaca City, while all day Oaxacans have been reporting confrontations with police and gangs loyal to (Vicente Fox). At 4:10, Radio Universidad was asking for people in Central Oaxaca to report whether the town center was occupied by Federal Police. They were also asking people at the barricades not to fall into violent provocations, and to move any non-strategic barricades around Radio Universidad to defend the voice of the people. They also said that, anyone who is willing to risk it, could put sugar in the gas tank of the PFP tanks taking down the barricades. They also said that the tires cuold be slashed on the cars carrying people, whether uniformed or not, who
nettime The 13 Scariest People in America
A reasonable look at some of the more colorful characters in rightwing America. My favorite is Arizona's Joe Arpaio - who should probably be voted a #1 reality TV show on youtube for Prison Love 'cause he's, like, really into putting webcams in prisoners cells... Paul http://www.alternet.org/story/43586/ The Thirteen Worst People in America: Scariest Cop: Joe Arpaio / Sheriff, Maricopa County, AZ by Charles M. Young A huge swath of Arizona that includes Phoenix, Tempe and Scottsdale, Maricopa County attracts journalists and politicians from around the world, all hoping to learn penal reform theory from Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who opens his gates to everyone except reporters known to be critical. He brags on the department website that he has nothing to hide and nothing to fear, and except for the occasional prisoner who gets beaten to death (R.I.P. Scott Norberg), he probably doesn't have anything to hide or to fear. Most of the press considers him a colorful character who dresses his inmates in pink underwear, feeds them $.45 meals and houses them in tents where the temperature can exceed 140 degrees and the inmates have to breath the stench from a nearby dump and animal crematorium. A true pioneer of women's liberation, he has instituted chain gangs for women as well as men. Both sexes must listen to patriotic songs, and recordings of Arpaio reading self-help books throughout the day. Although he forbids raunchy magazines (as well as coffee, cigarettes, Kool-Aid and hot meals), his recent jailcam experiment, live Web broadcasts of inmate life including toilet sessions, was a huge hit, and was quickly linked to by porn sites around the world. When inmates sued for invasion of privacy, Arpaio had to shut it down, but it was a rare setback for America's Toughest Sheriff, as he likes to bill himself. Under a novel interpretation of the state's smuggling law, his most recent stunt is arresting illegal immigrants and giving them the pink-underwear-and-patriotic-song treatment. Having been elected four times by America's scariest voters, Arpaio can (and does) intimidate anyone who objects to his Guantanamo of the Sonora. Why waste cruel and unusual punishment on mere Islamofascists when we've got all these criminals on the border and a shredded Bill of Rights? Welcome to the future of law enforcement. Scariest Presidential Candidate: Sam Brownback / Senator (R-Kansas) by Mary Reinholz Once a moderate in the Bob Dole mold, Sen. Sam Brownback has morphed into a zealous man of God intent on protecting millions of fetuses from what he calls the yearly holocaust of abortion. Brownback actually considers fetuses to be full-blown American citizens. Just another religious nut stalking the corridors of power? Well, yes, but this ambitious pol is the favored 2008 presidential candidate of the radical right. Brownback seems hell-bent on establishing not just faith-based initiatives, but faith in politics -- i.e., an authoritarian Christian theocracy. The man speaks softly but pushes the Passion of the Christ in the culture wars, blasting gay marriage, porn, stem cell re-search and, most recently, assisted suicide. One of Brown-back's glorious moments came when he proposed introducing a bill in the Senate that would compel pregnant women considering abortions to provide anesthetics for their fetuses. But no matter how over the top his political posturing, no one seems to be laughing at Brownback's bid to succeed Bush -- certainly not the influential Bible-thumpers supporting him like Pat Robertson and Chuck Colson. Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pennsylvania) sponsored Brownback's conversion to Roman Catholicism in 2002, and he was later baptized in a chapel run by the secretive lay society Opus Dei. On the economic front, the pious Senator perceived no moral quandary in accepting $42,000 from disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Along the way, Brownback apparently has had access to the deep pockets of his wife, the former Mary Stauffer, whose family used to own a media conglomerate. Brownback's 1995 bout with potentially fatal cancer intensified his right-to-life ardor, but his religious beliefs didn't stop him from living, until recently, in a $600-a-month apartment in a $1.1 million Capitol Hill townhouse owned by members of Congress and subsidized by a secretive religious organization, known variously as The Fellowship and The Foundation and registered with the IRS as a church. Brownback is a regular member of one of the group's prayer cells. Perhaps he prays for the Supreme Court to display the Ten Commandments since the courts, believes Brownback, have overstretched separation of church and state to mean removal of church from state. Scariest Judge: Edith Hollan Jones / Chief Justice of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit by Paul Drexel Imagine you're a woman working at a company where male colleagues send you X-rated notes, hit on you, and repeatedly grab your breasts -- even once pinch your
nettime Blogging... from Athens (and beyond)... APC focuses on the Internet Governance Forum http://blog.apc.org/ and genderit.org
Environment as part of internet governance By Frederic Dubois writing from ATHENS, Greece =95 30/10/2006 13:24 =95 [Environment ICTs] I just ran into Pavel Antonov from APC-member organisation BlueLink in Bulgaria. He just flew into Athens from Riga where he was giving a training to leading Latvian state-TV and national newspaper journalists in how to report on sustainable energy. Pavel is the chair of a workshop here at the IGF in Athens. It's called Greening Development through ICT and Civic Engagement and includes a brochette of five speakers. One them is Julian Casasbuenas, the director of APC-member in Colombia, Colnodo. Read more... http://blog.apc.org/en/index.shtml?x=3D5042824 The internet governance is a process By Frederic Dubois writing from ATHENS, Greece =95 30/10/2006 11:33 =95 [Internet governance] IGF is a process, said Natasha Primo during her speech at the opening ceremony of the first (of three) Internet Governance Forum. What she means by this, is that Athens will not be the a one-time show. The discussions and debates around how the internet is to be governed will continue way beyond and we don't want to have this huge down-time in between the three IGFs, later explained Avri Doria of the civil society internet governance caucus. Read more... http://blog.apc.org/en/index.shtml?x=3D5042819 The IGF is on, does that mean we'll get an internet as a free-zone? By Frederic Dubois writing from ATHENS, Greece =95 30/10/2006 10:36 =95 [E-governance] Here I am, sitting in a plenary room at the opening session of the Internet Governance Forum in Athens. This forum was set a couple of months back, in Tunisia, where the second summit on the information society (WSIS) was drawing to a close. Some of you might have noted back then that the two main issues discussed in that UN-organised summit were internet governance and ICTs for development. Well just about eleven months later, what appears to be the legitimate space for continuing the debate on the future of the internet is called the Internet Governance Forum. Read more... http://blog.apc.org/en/index.shtml?x=3D5042819 IGF... who's saying what By FN writing from GOA, India =95 28/10/2006 19:52 =95 [WSIS implementation, Communication rights, Access, Internet governance] Everyone talks, but no-one listens Spam, multilingualism, cybercrime, cybersecurity, privacy and data protection, freedom of expression, human rights, interconnection The Internet is one of the most powerful inventions of the digital age Given the huge impact of the Internet on our daily lives, states must remain the ultimate guarantors of our Internet rights and freedoms,... Reporters Without Borders will be at the Internet Governance Forum in Athens to remind participants that free expression must be at the centre A long-simmering dispute over whether the U.S. government has too much control over the Internet's underpinnings Some voices emerging prior to Athens. Read more... http://blog.apc.org/en/index.shtml?x=3D5042619 GenderIT.org @ Athens: Gender Peripheries of Internet Governance Forum 30 October 2006: IGF Opening - Setting the (Gender Disparate?) Scene It's not a huge surprise but still a big disappointment: women are a very small minority in today's opening of the first Internet Governance Forum in Athens, Greece. http://www.genderit.org/en/index.shtml?apc=3Df--e--1x=3D94975 30 October 2006: Internet Governance Forum - What is it All About? Quite a number of women --including those who have been following gender and ICT discussions--are having a difficulty understanding Internet Governance as a concept. Needless to say, we have encountered quite a number of questions on what the Internet Governance Forum is. http://www.genderit.org/en/index.shtml?apc=3Df--e--1x=3D94976 -- -- Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org 9822122436 +91-832-240-9490 http://fredericknoronha.wordpress.com http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/ Free Software gives you the freedom to run, study, copy and improve softwar= e! # 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: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and info nettime-l in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net
