[rohrpost] Cisler on World InfoCon

["Volker Grassmuck" <vgrass@rz.hu-berlin.de>]

hier Steve Cislers Bericht auf [bytesforall_readers] über die
World-Info-Con Amsterdam 2002
The Network Society of Control
Amsterdam, December 6 - 7, 2002
http://world-information.org/wio/program/amsterdam/events/1036596740



------- Forwarded message follows -------

Letter from Amsterdam: World-InfoCon
December 6-7, 2002
Steve Cisler <cisler@pobox.com>


It is exciting to return to Amsterdam. In spite of the high prices, 
there is so much to do, so many people to visit, interesting foods, 
and 
attractions for tourists, gardeners, book-lovers, artists, shoppers, 
and beer-drinkers. The narrow streets make cars unwelcome, but it is 
a 
wonderful city for walking, and there is frequent public 
transportation. For this trip I tried something different--a small 
inflatable kayak that weighed about 8 Kg. The cold overcast morning 
after I arrived, I set up the kayak on a canal walkway by the Max 
Euwe 
Plein near Stadhouderskade, dropped it in the water, and spent the 
morning touring the city from a very different vantage. It was a 
great 
way to view parts of the city. Few other boats were out, possibly 
because it is not tourist season. Later I walked around town, and 
mixed 
with the Sintklaas crowds. The walls are covered with posters 
advertising everything from anarchist meetings to sex businesses to 
sporting events, magic mushrooms, and musical groups. There is a very 

lively art scene, and I saw a number of posters for gallery openings 
and one that was somewhat sinister. It advertised the event that 
brought me to Holland.

He stands out for his blandness. Business suit, crewcut, an earpiece 
to 
keep in touch with his team leader, and an open newspaper. But he's 
looking elsewhere, over his shoulder, at a suspicious character, 
probably looking at you and listening as well. This man-in-black is 
the 
poster child for World-Information.Org's exhibit and conference in 
Amsterdam.

I arrived near the end of the month-long exhibition to attend the 
two-day conference held at De Balie, a famous hang out for artists, 
activists, and even a few information policy geeks. It hosts many art 

events and convenes meetings such as this one. In the past, Next Five 

Minutes was held here, and a small watershed event, Tulipomania.com 
took place in June 2000, just as the dot com bubble had begun to 
burst.

De Balie is located in a famous square, the Leidseplein, so it gets a 

lot of traffic, tourists, and people who just want to have a coffee, 
beer, and smoke as they talk. Every town should have a hangout like 
De 
Balie. There are free Internet access machines, a theater that seats 
about 150 people, a few meeting rooms on the side, and an open area 
on 
the floor above the bar and dining area. The walls in this area are 
covered with the most unusual wallpaper I have seen. At first it 
looks 
like an old marbling pattern or some finely rendered fractal design. 
When you pay more attention you realize it is hair and skin. In fact, 

it's the back hair of some anonymous man. The pattern repeats itself 
forming parallel lines that crawl up the wall. Very creepy.

However, the whole atmosphere of De Balie is conducive to great 
conversation, both unstructured around the tables and bar and more 
structured in the meeting hall where the two day conference was held. 

The themes of World InfoCon were "Security paranoia in the 
world-info-sphere" (surveillance technology) for day one and 
"Building 
the digital commons" and the free exchange of information on day two.

It was publicized online and on posters seen throughout Amsterdam. 
Concurrently, there was an education program for school kids, a 
temporary media lab for workshops and media discussions, and a 
month-long exhibit at De Oude Kerk, a 13th century church that housed 

projects dealing with several themes: the world info-structure, 
future 
heritage , and World-C4U, about older and current security and 
surveillance technologies. Considering the publicity, the turnout 
seemed light. Perhaps you have to have an intrinsic interest in 
information in all its mutations to be attracted to such a meeting.

The exhibits made sense if you were aware of the issues, or better 
yet, 
had attended the conference. Some artists had tended their exhibits 
and 
offered commentary to visitors, but the day I attended only Konrad 
Becker, who is the Executive Director, was at the entrance to his 
maze 
of information-rich billboards. The rest of the exhibits were not 
that 
accessible to the average person, and that was, for me, the 
underlying 
challenge. Information issues are not immediately interesting or 
compelling. They must be tied to people's work, their identity, their 

freedom, their health, and their environment. Most people do not 
think 
about information flows or intellectual property rights, and most 
information is still passed from one individual to another, and this 
is 
supplemented by media blizzard which varies in intensity depending on 

how much you watch television, how many newspapers or magazines you 
consume, or how much time on line you spend with web logs, e-zines, 
and 
all the other forms of information that make up the Web.

Eveline Lubbers, a journalist and activist, has been tracking the 
surveillance methods of police and intelligence agencies since the 
1980's. More recently she has focused on the deceptive practices of 
public relations firms, and a book she edited, "Battling Big 
Business" 
has just been translated into Dutch. We met at a small coffee shop 
near 
the Old Church where she talked about her activities and some of the 
problems publicizing a book from a small publisher. In fact, her U.S. 

publisher had been in financial trouble, and the English version came 

out in the UK. Later, during the conference session, she dissected 
the 
Greenwash campaigns of some large oil companies.

That evening we met again at the conference reception where a number 
of 
the speakers had gathered for a drink and introductions. What I value 

about the De Balie events is that I meet a few old friends and a good 

many people I would never run into in Silicon Valley or the other 
conferences and events I attend.

Opening Day

Day One opened with a talk by Chris Hables Gray, but unfortunately, I 

lost my notes on his presentation. Gray is the author of "Cyborg 
Handbook" and is in temporary exile in Montana. Next was an overview 
of 
surveillance by Konrad Becker who is executive director of 
World-Information.Org. This forty minute tour-de-force was perhaps 
the 
most interesting of the whole conference, but it is the most 
difficult 
to summarize because he packed so many quotes, facts, images, and 
observations into his talk which began with ancient Sumeria and took 
us 
through mind control techniques of intelligence agencies and the 
workings of surveillance organizations.

Brian Holmes, an "anti-capitalist theorist" has been working on some 
very interesting mapping projects with the Parisian Bureau d'Etudes 
that looked at control structures in Europe and other 
interrelationships between companies, international organizations, 
and 
governments. On the flip side there were also maps of "civil society" 

which helped activists understand their own world. Talking later with 

Brian it seemed the collaborative act of researching the links and 
alliances was a process that built community and solidarity. The 
cartographic process made use of new icons and resulted in incredibly 

detailed Illustrator files which were more legible on screen than in 
the large paper formats which were handed out in the streets and 
during 
the recent European Social Forum in Florence. As he acknowledged you 
need to look at the maps in a very good light because of the small 
fonts and black text on blue background. A further development might 
be 
a database linked to the map to provide richer information about the 
points on the map, and activist-users would supply the depth of 
knowledge about individual points. Sort of the mosaic theory of 
intelligence gathering mixed with the participatory techniques to 
involve many people.

Ryan Schoelerman, Buffalo, New York, had the most unusual story of 
anyone attending the workshop. After high school he enlisted in the 
U.S. Marines where all recruits were given batteries of tests to find 

skills and potential that may not have surfaced in civilian life. 
Ryan 
and his brother were found to have abilities to distinguish sounds 
and 
signals, so he was sent to training for 'elint" or electronic 
intelligence analysis. He was stationed, among other places, in 
Somalia, but he did not re-enlist after several years in the Corps. I 

heard that he had been in the NSA, but the program said CIA, so I 
guess 
this is the case of the truth being protected by a bodyguard of lies 
(to quote Churchill). At present he is in college and is involved in 
an 
art collective and has done some work with low power FM radio for 
community broadcasting and some interesting local hacks.

Steve Kurtz of the Critical Art Ensemble, also from Buffalo, New 
York, 
had perhaps the most unusual and ambitious project: to re-engineer 
the 
Monsanto Roundup resistant canola seed. Though he is not a biologist, 

he certainly seemed to have gained (with the help of PubMed and some 
experts) the understanding of what might be done to attack the 
central 
genetic traits of this patented and protected controversial seed. At 
the World Information exhibit he has erected a bubble, a temperature 
controlled habitat where seeds he mailed to Amsterdam have been 
planted, and over the past few weeks he has been tending them and 
answering questions at the exhibit. He says that sabotage, a la Jose 
Bove (now serving jail time in France) is counter productive and 
allows 
the media and general public to look upon anti-GMO actions as just 
the 
work of crazy fringe groups. Steve sees his work as a more acceptable 

alternative, but I can see it positioned a "bio-terrorism" in the 
current season of fear.

The afternoon sessions on public relations opened with a broad 
introduction by famed journalist academic Ben Badakian. This was 
followed by an overview of activities and trends by Sheldon Rampton 
of 
PR Watch and Eveline Lubbers. For the PR professional "communications 

is the engineering of consent." This is sometimes called the 
hypodermic 
method of PR where you inject your opinions into the minds of the 
masses. Sheldon read statements by leading PR people who stressed the 

threat of all the protest groups organizing, using the Internet, and 
undercutting the expensive work the PR firms are performing for their 

corporate clients. Both Sheldon and Lubbers explained to the group 
the 
wide range of PR tactics used by firms. These range of soft 
"reinvention" campaigns that would lead some people to think Shell is 

an environmental company not one drilling and selling petroleum 
products. Other firms offer much more aggressive services. There is 
even a service called "outrage management" where the PR firm figures 
out how much a company can do before provoking outrage on the part of 

the public.

The two speakers were generally opposed to dialog between opposition 
groups and the corporations, because it is used to divide and 
conquer. 
Public Relations people categorize the protesters and opponents in 
four 
groups: realists, opportunists, idealists, and radicals. The 
techniques 
are to isolate the radicals and co-opt the others using various 
schemes. Several examples were cited where the PR efforts helped 
split 
the opposition and turned the story from one of citizens and 
non-profits fighting a company to fighting within an organization 
(Mothers Against Drunk Drivers was one) over tactics, leadership, or 
strategy.

Each day, Eric Kluitenberg of De Balie, helped frame the day's theme 
with a short introduction. Day two focused on intellectual property 
rights and the various movements and methods of challenging the 
increasingly severe laws enacted at international, regional, and 
national levels most of which have narrowed the ability of the 
citizen 
or consumer to use, store, or manipulate the information.

Volker Grassmuck, of Humboldt University, in Berlin, gave an 
excellent 
introduction to many of the issues, and this helped me later in the 
morning when I gave my short talk. He said that Free Software is 
getting the seal of approval from some governments, and is certainly 
gathering steam in term of understanding and richness of the pool of 
code being generated. He spoke about the rebellion of thousands of 
scientists who have demanded that scientific publications be put 
online 
six months after they appear in print. As librarians are aware, the 
cost of periodicals and especially scientific journals has been 
increasing astronomically, with some costing thousands of dollars for 
a 
one year subscription. He showed a project called the Wikipedia, a 
very 
open and collaborative knowledge generating effort. Anyone can change 

or edit an encyclopedia entry, and instead of disinformation or 
incomplete entries, the number of people writing and commenting have 
made stronger and more credible entries.

Felix Stalder, one of the nettime moderators and originator of Open 
Flows, spoke about the "social dynamics of free content" which made 
me 
think about the early days of The Well where the elements he 
described 
helped make that online system a wonderful place for me to grow up, 
even though I was 42 when I started using it. Stalder said these 
systems allow different degrees of participation which blur the 
difference between creator and reader or consumer. People move in and 

out of involvement. The "space" of these content areas can be huge 
(as 
with Wikipedia. Leadership comes from contributions and acts of 
moderation and other kinds of participation.

Joost Smiers, author of the forthcoming Arts Under Pressure seemed to 

be most worried about lack of diversity, not just in content but in 
distribution, using the example of documentary films (which are not 
easily distributed over the Net) and the few people who really decide 

what movies are distributed widely (Goldmember or Die Another Day 
showing on thousands of screens at the same time). He believed that 
copyright would implode and that states had the right to act if the 
market did not protect diversity. It seemed he mainly had in mind 
"American hegemony." and that he takes the idea of the Bulgarian 
Culture Board seriously.

Bruce Girard, author of "Global Media Governance- A Beginner's Guide" 

talked about the increasing restrictions in what could be done with 
radio spectrum, and he was the only speaker who mentioned the 
upcoming 
World Summit on the Information Society (December 2003). My 
impression 
was that most people there did not have the interest or patience to 
deal with the United Nations/ITU procedural red tape. Other people I 
met said the growing influence of the corporate sector made them less 

interested in trying to influence the outcome or final statements. 
Several people who had been involved in the European Social Forum in 
Florence talked to me about the idea of a conference that would take 
place before WSIS and not oppose it but offer an alternative forum 
for 
discussion, statements, and possibly action.

Arun Mehta from India said the idea of copying is the highest 
compliment one could pay and that there was nothing wrong with doing 
that with Microsoft Office or publications or music. He felt the 
system 
that was trying to criminalize millions of people for downloading 
MP3's 
could not be sustained. He also said that the intellectual property 
laws were killing people by denying them cheap drugs for 
life-threatening illnesses such as AIDS which is ravaging the 
subcontinent now.

Darius Cuplinskas, head of the library and publishing program at Open 

Society Institute in Budapest, Hungary, showed some of the scholarly 
collaborative publishing efforts including the one OSI has 
spearheaded, 
the Budapest Open Access Initiative. He cited an interesting paper by 

Yochai Benkler, "Coase's Penguin, or Linux and the Nature of the 
Firm."

I spoke about the role of libraries in building the digital commons 
which was not just content but the access tools to acquire the 
content, 
as well as the skills to find the content. I highlighted some large 
library digitization projects around the world and said that the 
increasingly rabid statements by publisher representatives was 
forcing 
a change in the relationship between libraries and publisher. To 
express it as a dichotomy, libraries want to give everything away, 
and 
publishers want to charge. This makes libraries, which used to be 
seen 
as neutral territory, as much more radical information collectives 
which are stealing the potential profits of CD, book, and database 
publishers. However, they remain the main intermediary to the world 
of 
electronic information for who cannot afford the subscriptions or do 
not own a computer hooked to the Internet. The trouble is they are 
not 
that strong in many countries, and these services are not available 
widely.

The final open mike session was inconclusive about further action, 
though several people reacted positively to some of Arun Mehta's 
suggestions. Thanks to Eric Kluitenberg of DeBalie and to OSI, 
Budapest, in helping me attend. Other editors of the conference 
included Felix Stalder of Open Flows and Konrad Becker. There was a 
reader available of articles, papers, and interviews. Price was 7.5 
Euros.


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