Internet2 is working with Level 3 Communications to provide the U.S. research and education community with a dynamic, innovative and cost-effective hybrid optical and packet network. The new network is designed to provide next-generation production services as well as a platform for the development of new networking ideas and protocols. With community control of the fundamental networking infrastructure, the new Internet2 Network will enable a wide variety of bandwidth-intensive applications under development at campuses and research labs today. The new network is one component of Internet2’s “systems” approach to developing and deploying advanced networking for the research and education community: Network Technologies, Middleware, Security, Performance Measurement, Community Collaboration (link).

Here is an article ZDnet on how to get people to use your Web 2.0 applications. Also here is an a new system called Wikipatterns that is built on the assumption that communication is not good nor bad nor is it neutral. (Or, you have a right to be a Libertarian, but I have a right not to be killed!).

The development of automatic data processing, which enables vast quantities of data to be transmitted within seconds across national frontiers, and indeed across continents, has made it necessary to consider privacy protection in relation to personal data. Privacy protection laws have been introduced, or will be introduced shortly, in approximately one half of OECD Member countries (Austria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden and the United States have passed legislation. Belgium, Iceland, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland have prepared draft bills) to prevent what are considered to be violations of fundamental human rights, such as the unlawful storage of personal data, the storage of inaccurate personal data, or the abuse or unauthorised disclosure of such data.OnOn

On the other hand, there is a danger that disparities inationalegislationsnsns could hamper the free flow of personal data across frontiers; these flows have greatly increased in recent years and are bound to grow further with the widespread introduction of new computer and communications technology. Restrictions on these flows could cause serious disruption in important sectors of the economy, such as banking and insurance.
n OECD Member countries considered it necessary to develop Guidelines which would help to harmonise national privacy legislation and, while upholding such human rights, would at the same time prevent interruptions in international flows of data. They represent a consensus on basic principles which can be built into existing national legislation, or serve as a basis for legislation in those countries which do not yet have it.
The Guidelines, in the form of a Recommendation by the Council of the OECD, were developed by a group of government experts under the chairmanship of The Hon. Mr. Justice M.D. Kirby, Chairman of the Australian Law Reform Commission. The Recommendation was adopted and became applicable on 23rd September, 1980 (link).

(The return of cyber-punk?..sorry about this..a bit juvenile I know, but I was bored).

I am siting in a crappy bar in the outskirts of New Sydney. I feel a little tired from spending the night with the I-CAD drafter that I met the night before. Where did he learn to do these things? I have never really liked the gymnastic types; it all seems just a little theatrical. Luckily I didn’t give him my implanted IP address; I get enough hassle from that Esteem salesman I met in New-New York.

I order another psychotropic from the little number behind the bar. A sexy Parochial; he hands me a glass with a thick dollop of Empathy on the top. I have been hitting the Empathy pretty hard lately, a lack of Judgement, pity you can’t buy Judgement anymore, ever since the American network police pulled the plug on the Parochials.

I gulp a large mouthful, my first for the day, it is only 1600 beats, and I have to send that code to my editor in 150 beats time. Josh is a shit, last time I was 4 days late he pulled my Pay-Pal, couldn’t even get a cab in Bangkok, couldn’t even get my IP up to send it. Him and his fucking network discipline, such a Protestant-Network dick-wit, sometimes I wish that I was born into a religious network, or even born one of these pathetic Parochials.

I take another mouthful and the Parochial behind the bar starts to look even better. I wonder what squalor this creature lives in? He doesn’t have an IP, thankfully he can’t follow me like the Rhizomes. A quick fuck in some dorm squalid room around the corner and then I’m out of here. These creatures always fall in love quickly, but he can’t pursue me because he couldn’t get more than 3 blocks before the network police would pick him up. I suppose that someone has to do all the parochial work, like serve psychotropics,and I expect that after The Realignment that it was a good idea that the Americans didn’t give them IPs. These rats would form networks that would spread like the plague, going from server to server. Then who would do all the parochial work? They ran the show for close to two centuries, so let them wallow in their past victories. Shit, this Empathy doesn’t seem to be working. A sharp beam of light pierces the sanctity of the bar and a well-dressed Rhizome works in. He looks like one of those middle management types, a network conductor, couldn’t write code to save his arse and moves around the world like some sort of Mahatma on a long march, plugging the world into the ancient curatorial networks of the Bourgeois. He looks through the Parochial behind the bar as though he doesn’t exist and orders an juice. The Parochial swipes his IP then hands him the drink. He sips on it, and then with his great unfocused walrus eyes so typical of his network, glances my way and says ‘where’s the discourse’.

I hesitate, do I want to play Frogger with this guy; what can he offer me? All they seem to do is wander around looking for the next sizzling discourse, jumping from one ascending dissertation to the other, not staying too long in case their internationalism is exposed as a mere superficial daily conversation more in tune with the every day bowel movements of the Parochial masses, than with the libido and thrust of knowledge that is more than just missionary. I tell him to fuck off then order another drink. The Parochial looks at me suspiciously then puts an extra dollop of Empathy on my drink. I gulp it back, place the glass on the bar, then take a long hard drag on my Hash cigarette. Thanks god for the Dutch I think. All those years spent seducing the designers to design the revolution whilst the information dikes broke around them and their country disappeared. And all the Hash dealers went international and formed the global Hash network. Just like the ancient British Commonwealth I snigger to myself; all that is left of their empire is Cricket.

The Rhizome walks out without finishing his orange juice. By this time, the Parochial is looking really good. I ask him how many beats until he finishes work, and he says in 200 beats. I think great, enough to write this code for that prick Josh and send it to New-New York. I have to get this history of that server in Taiwan done in time for the next big upload in the Protestant Network, but can’t find any contextual links for the year 1996. In hate the two-dimensional Rhizomes of the past, they never thought about the third dimension of contextual time and place. So much knowledge and effort was wasted by this generation who though they lived at the end of history. This was before the Realignment I suppose and they did suffer greatly in their dark age.

I reach over the bar and lightly grab the Parochial by the left shoulder and pull him toward me. We kiss, our tongues meet and I can feel the networks undress all around me. I hear the door open behind me and again a piercing light shatters the dank refuge of the bar. I turn and I at once recognise a member of the American network police

..to be continued

There are a lot of people who benefit from the formation of networks and usually the people who benefit the most are the people who created them. The creators can define the rules of the network and have the most mobility and power within the network. The creator of a network needs to maintain their popularity to keep their power and they also need to have the economic and social capital to move around the network. They are what I term a ‘network spider’.

more to come >>>

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