Labor’s ‘deafening silence’ as web censorship trials delayed

January 31, 2009 at 9:23 pm · Filed under governance, politics

One of the largest ISPs signed up to participate in Labor’s ambitious internet censorship trials has said its application has been met with “deafening silence” from the Government, raising questions over the workability of the proposed scheme and the effectiveness of the trials.

The Government originally planned to trial the mandatory internet filters before Christmas but the timetable has been pushed back considerably and the Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, has still not released details of which ISPs have signed up to take part in the trials or when they will begin (link..the Age)

Comments

English journalist brain slows at fastest pace in 26 years

January 30, 2009 at 4:35 pm · Filed under gadfly

I am becoming frustrated by economic journalism. This article by the Guardian’s Kathryn Hopkins is misleading, inarticulate, unbalanced, and just plain negative. And i don’t understand it. The US economy hasn’t shrunk annually by 6.4%  you silly dunderhead. The US economy shrunk by 3.5% in one quarter (I think) but grew annually by 1.3%. This is hardly the end of the world. Plus what has this 3.5% figure got to do with 1982 and the hyperbole ‘worst in 26 years?’.

This is the worst headline article I have read since the 6th quarter of 1989!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jan/30/us-economy-in-recession

And what is worse than a Guardian dunderhead? A Melboure Age parrot. Here it is again in Melbourne. Monkey see monkey do. (link).

Comments

Geert Lovink: Resolution for Digital Futures

January 29, 2009 at 4:45 pm · Filed under art, politics

Subject: [-empyre-] Geert Lovink: Resolution for Digital Futures
Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2009 08:50:47 -0500
From: Timothy Murray <tcm1@cornell.edu>
Reply-To: soft_skinned_space <empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
To: soft_skinned_space <empyre@gamera.cofa.unsw.edu.au>

Geert Lovink
Seven Resolutions for 2009

1. Radical makeover of Indymedia into an irresistible network of
networks, aimed to link local initiatives, worldwide, that aim to
bring down corporate capitalism. In order to do this Indymedia needs
to go beyond the (alternative) news paradigm. This is the time to do
it. If not now, when? The debate should be about the possible
adaptation, or perhaps transcendence (think negative dialectics) of
the social networking approach. Is it enough if we all start to
twitter? Perhaps not. A lot of the online conversations at the moment
circle around these topics. There is a real momentum building up
here, and that’s exciting.

2. Renaissance of theory, radical texts that appeal to young people
and help them to dream again, aimed to develop critical concepts,
cool memes and audio-visual whispers that can feed the collective
imagination with new, powerful ideas that are capable to move people
into action. Theory, in this context, means speculative philosophies,
not academic writing or hermetic bible texts, aimed to exclude
outsiders and those with the wrong belief system. Overcoming
political correctness in the way that beats populism would be the way
to go.

3. Dismantling the academic exclusion machine. With this I mean the
hilarious peer review dramas that we see around us everywhere, aimed
to reproduce the old boys networks, excluding different voices,
discourses and networked research practices. We need to have the
civil courage to say no to these suppressive and utterly wrong
bureaucratic procedures that, in the end, result in the elimination
of quality, creativity and criticism (and, ironically, of innovation,
too). In the same way we need to unleash a social movement of those
who dare to say no to all these silly copyright contracts that we’re
forced to sign. We should stop signing away our ‘intellectual
property’ and begin to radicalize and help democratize and popularize
the creative commons and floss movements.

4. Overcoming media genres and expertise prisons in order to
productively connect our knowledge and experience. With this I do not
mean diplomatic gestures to open up token channels for
interdisciplinary dialogue. Any formal attempt to bring together
people from different backgrounds is bound to fail. What might be a
solution is to go for hybrid-pervert situations in order to
investigate the absurd edges of the knowledge universe. Again, any
model that somehow wants to move towards a synthesis (or convergence)
is doomed to be irrelevant and will only be instrumentalized in
institutional restructurings in which the creative-subversive
elements are the ones that will be excluded.

5. Squatting the overlooked ruins of the 2009 crisis. There is an
enormous economic infrastructure that is being abandoned at the
moment, ripe to be socialized. The problem, however, is that we do
not really ’see’ it, in the same way as in the 1970s and 80s many did
not see the subversive potential of squatting warehouses, factories
and old housing stock. Luckily this is merely a matter of start
wearing the right pair of glasses. Put them on and you discover an
abundance of abandoned resources, ready to be re-used.

6. Global crackdown of the corporate consultancy class. We have to
get a better understanding of the dubious role that the Ernst &
Young/PricewaterhouseCooper etc. consultants are playing, from
downsizing firms, coaching NGOs and global civil society
professionals, privatizing public infrastructure, to running entire
education sectors. Not only are they experts in cooking the books
(see the dotcom crash). Their role as (invisible) advisers, speech
writers and PR managers needs some serious investigative journalism a
la Naomi Klein.

7. Opening channels for collective imagination. It’s not enough to
say that another world is possible (we know that). Radical reform
plans are available-and are being implemented as we speak-by the
bankrupt neo-liberal elites, in a desperate attempt to somehow make
it to 2010 or 2011, when the recession will be over and old policies
can be continued again. It’s not enough to be satisfied with the
promise of a green GM car, made in the USA. We can think, and build,
so much more. For this to happen, the corporate elites need to be
dispossessed of their power. Calling for ‘change’ comes with
consequences: dethronement. Sorry, you fu*ked up badly. It’s time to
step down and move on. Exit.

–

Geert Lovink (Netherlands) is a Dutch-Australian media theorist,
author of Zero Comments, and director of the Institute of Network
Cultures in Amsterdam, where he also teaches at the new media masters
program of Mediastudies/University of Amsterdam.

Comments

Report on the working group on Virtual Reseach Communities

January 26, 2009 at 1:00 pm · Filed under Virtual Reseach Environments, collaboration, digital humanities, e-science, eresearch

This report from the OSI (Office of Science and Innovatuion) e-Infrastructure Steering Group may be of interest to punters (link).

Comments

Vacancy for Information and Knowledge Specialist at King’s College London

January 22, 2009 at 12:49 pm · Filed under collaboration, web2.0

To support its work, CeRch is now seeking to employ an Information and Knowledge Specialist to provide specialist competence across the broad range of information and knowledge management, including content development, representation in on-line systems, management, and metadata, classification and ontology development and standards, with particular reference to how these operate within a research context. The post-holder will be expected to make a significant contribution to identifying, analysing and implementing appropriate metadata standards, classification and taxonomy frameworks for the research infrastructures developed by CeRch for a variety of purposes, including the integrated research environment currently under development for King’s; and for modelling and representing digital content and knowledge to facilitate its sustainability and reuse. This may include, for example, profiles for digital content representing particular genres of digital object produced by research activities and managed in repositories, and modelling content and knowledge in a web 2.0 environment. (link)

Comments

The convention on modern liberty

January 22, 2009 at 11:40 am · Filed under political communication, politics

A CALL TO ALL CONCERNED WITH ATTACKS ON OUR FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS
UNDER PRESSURE FROM COUNTER TERRORISM, FINANCIAL BREAKDOWN AND THE DATABASE STATE

WHAT ARE THE THREATS?
What can be done about them?
Why should everyone care? (link)

Comments

Watch out Wikipedia, here comes Britannica 2.0

January 22, 2009 at 10:56 am · Filed under collaboration, social media, web2.0, wiki

In a move to take on Wikipedia, the Encyclopedia Britannica is inviting the hoi polloi to edit, enhance and contribute to its online version.

New features enabling the inclusion of this user-generated content will be rolled out on the encyclopedia’s website over the next 24 hours, Britannica’s president, Jorge Cauz, said in an interview today (link)

Comments

Creative King’s

January 22, 2009 at 10:36 am · Filed under art, collaboration

This site was developed by my collegue Torsten Reimer.

Creative King’s is a College-wide initiative exploring the notion of creativity and its place in academic life at King’s. The series invites King’s academics from across the disciplinary spectrum to discuss creativity in their own field and to explore interdisciplinary linkages.

All at King’s are warmly invited to attend and contribute to discussions, both at the events themselves and via the website (link)

Comments

DCC Digital Curation 101 Workshop

January 20, 2009 at 3:27 pm · Filed under digital humanities, e-science, humanities computing

DCC Digital Curation 101 Workshop
10-12 March 2009
London

The majority of scientific research is carried out through short-term, funded
projects. Accordingly, principle investigators and researchers must constantly
be on the lookout for new funding opportunities to continue their research
activity. This, coupled with often limited staffing resources, has meant that
data management and curation activities have not generally been given a high
priority within research projects. However, research councils and funding
bodies are becoming increasingly aware of the value of sharing and reusing
data and now require evidence of adequate and appropriate provisions for
data management and curation in new grant funding applications.

Read the rest of this entry »

Comments

TextGrid Summit and E-Humanities Workshop, January 21-22, Göttingen

January 20, 2009 at 11:33 am · Filed under conferences, digital humanities, e-science, humanities computing

TextGrid Summit, January 21 in Göttingen

At the TextGrid Summit  the developed working environment for the text sciences and applications will be demonstrated. The prospects for TextGrid will be discussed with regard to international activities and the emerging e-Humanities infrastructure. You will learn how TextGrid works practically and technologically and you will be able get acquainted with developing TextGrid tools and services in a Developers’ Workshop. The conference language will be English.

Registration and further information on the TextGrid Summit (English)

E-Humanities Completing Workshop, January 22 in Göttingen.

On the final e-humanities workshop of a DFG-project a concept for building a research infrastructure for the e-Humanities in Germany will be presented and discussed. There will be a a panel discussion with representatives of funding organizations about the future requirements of computer sciences and about sustainable infrastructure. The conference language will be German.

Registration and further information on E-Humanities Cocmpleting Workshop (German)

Comments

Digital Humanities Observatory Dublin Lecture

January 15, 2009 at 10:34 am · Filed under digital humanities, digitisation, humanities computing

The DHO announces an upcoming presentation by DHO Metadata Manager Dot Porter entitled ‘Reading, Writing, Building: the Old English Illustrated Hexateuch’. The lecture is presented as part of the Culture and Technology Seminar Series organized by Humanities Advanced Technology And Information Institute (HATII) at the University of Glasgow, and will be simultaneously webcast. Ms. Porter holds an MA from the Medieval Institute at Western Michigan University and has worked on several digital editing projects of medieval manuscripts.

Date: 26 January 2009, 15:00-16:00
Venue: Royal Irish Academy, 19 Dawson Street, Dublin 2
All Welcome

http://www.digitalhumanities.ie/node/59

Abstract:

In recent years there has been a growth amongst humanities scholars in the interest in the materiality of objects including manuscripts, printed books, and inscribed stones, as they relate to the text inscribed upon them and contained within them. This interest has shown itself in the digital humanities as well, as scholars explore how computers might be made to express the physical in the digital. This may take many forms, including 2D images, 3D images or scans, or textual descriptions of objects.

This presentation will explore how digital elements describing, expressing, or representing different aspects of a single physical object might be used to study the creation of that object. The focus will be on a manuscript commonly known as the Old English Illustrated Hexateuch (BL Cotton Claudius B.iv.), an Old English translation of the first six books of the Old Testament that includes over 400 color illustrations. In his recent book The Illustrated Old English Hexateuch, Cotton Claudius B.iv: The Frontier of Seeing and Reading in Anglo-Saxon England (British Library Press, 2007), Benjamin Withers describes a theory for how the relationship between the images and text prescribed both the layout of the content and the physical construction of the entire manuscript. How might Withers’ theory be expressed, visualized, or tested in a digital environment? This presentation is intended to be the start of a conversation, rather than the answer to a very complex and wide-ranging question.

–
Susan Schreibman, PhD
Director
Digital Humanities Observatory
Pembroke House
28-32 Upper Pembroke Street
Dublin 2, Ireland

Comments

A roadshow on e-infrastructure, ‘From motion capture to ancient manuscripts:

January 12, 2009 at 3:49 pm · Filed under digital humanities, e-science, eresearch, humanities computing

AHeSSC is organizing a roadshow about e-infrastructure at King’s on 30
January. See below for more details and the programme.
It’s free to come along and there will be lunch. To register go to the
roadshow website: www.jisc.ac.uk/kingsroadshow.

===============

A roadshow on e-infrastructure, ‘From motion capture to ancient
manuscripts: Using complex digital resources across disciplines’ is
taking place at King’s on Friday January 30th.

This event is sponsored by JISC, and facilitated and hosted by the Arts
and Humanities e-Science Support Centre (AHeSSC) based at the Centre for
e-Research. It will be of interest to staff and students from any
discipline who are interested in finding out more about digital
infrastructure and services and the new opportunities for multi-skilled,
multi-disciplinary collaboration these provide.

Speakers include representatives of the National Grid Service, the
National e-Science Centre, the University of Manchester, and the Centre
for e-Research.

The event, located in the Franklin Wilkins building on the Waterloo
campus, is free to attend and lunch will be provided. For more details
and to register, visit the roadshow website: www.jisc.ac.uk/kingsroadshow.

Programme

9.30: Arrival and coffee

10.00: Welcome: Stuart Dunn (King’s College London)

Read the rest of this entry »

Comments

Arts Birthday (and Craig’s too!)

January 12, 2009 at 1:56 pm · Filed under art

It is my birthday next weekend. And i am going to Vienna to celebrate as it is also ‘Arts Birthday‘ . Kunst Radio is holding a party in Hainsburg near Vienna where my good friend Andrew Garton will be playing a 100 year old electronic instrument. Art is 1,000, 0045 years old.  I was born on the same day; minus a million years or so.

And what is the best birthday song ever written. Changes By David Bowie

I still don’t know what I was waiting for
And my time was running wild
A million dead-end streets
Every time I thought I’d got it made
It seemed the taste was not so sweet
So I turned myself to face me
But I’ve never caught a glimpse
Of how the others must see the faker
I’m much too fast to take that test

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Don’t want to be a richer man
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Just gonna have to be a different man
Time may change me
But I can’t trace time

I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence and
So the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They’re quite aware of what they’re going through

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Don’t tell t hem to grow up and out of it
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Where’s your shame
You’ve left us up to our necks in it
Time may change me
But you can’t trace time

Strange fascination, fascinating me
Changes are taking the pace I’m going through

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Oh, look out you rock ‘n rollers
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Pretty soon you’re gonna get a little older
Time may change me
But I can’t trace time
I said that time may change me
But I can’t trace time

Comments

SENSORIUM RE-CONNECTED by Andrew Garton

January 11, 2009 at 8:29 pm · Filed under art

From 18 August through to 26 September 97, ABC Classic FM’s The Listening Room presented Sensorium Connect / Body Morph, a generative composition by composer Andrew Garton comprising of sounds sampled from performances by Stelarc.

On 11 January 2009 KunstRadio will broadcast an entirely new version of this work. Sensorium Re-Connect commemorates the work of The Listening Room and the contribution this piece made to furthering radio and sound art online in Australia (link).

Comments

The Death of Mr Practical: The Practical man and Globalisation

January 10, 2009 at 11:08 pm · Filed under gadfly, politics

This is a polemical article I wrote in 1995 and published on my blog in 2003. In reflection there is perhaps no such thing as ‘practicality’ (well there is; but it is also not value neutral).  Practicality can be a form of ‘non-thinking’; it is a thing that we do without understanding the context that we do it in.  It is the scholarly journey that is important, not just the practical outcomes.  It is more ‘useful’ to describe and discuss the skills of finding things out; not just the ‘results’.  More on this later…

>>>>>>>>

There is a prevailing historical connection between Australia’s colonial experience and our dominant intellectual tradition. Throughout the nation’s short history of settlement, most of our leading intellectuals and rulers have displayed a certain ‘practicality’ that is an Australian adaptation of a British creation. This practicality disguises its hegemony through the doctrines of ‘commonsense’ and ‘factual truth’. Practical thinking has its roots in a form of Utilitarianism that is perpetuated by and primarily beneficial to a powerful Anglo elite (link)

Comments