[widdershins] ...still curious...

[Gmx Private 01]

Hey All...

Widdershins was one of the first Mailing Lists I was on...

It is fun to see so many people responding after such a long time : )

Cheers,

g

PS 2 Articles... as a start for a temporary reactivation...


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The Fear Factor

John Horvath   26.08.2004 
http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/te/18187/1.html

European Security Research Programme: The business side to the war on 
terror 

In the beginning of August, the Department of Homeland Security in the 
US raised its terror alert from yellow (elevated) to orange (high), 
meaning there is a high risk of a terror attack. As a result, armed 
police with machine guns stood at barricades in front of designated 
buildings in places like New York and Washington. 

Not only are many Americans confused by the alert system established in 
the wake of 9/11 -- namely the various colour schemes and what they 
entail -- but many have also grown weary of the repeated warnings. 
Indeed, the reaction to the August alert was one of skepticism, in that 
it was widely suspected that the Bush administration used the terror 
alert for political advantage. Such skepticism subsequently gained a 
measure of credibility as it later emerged that much of the 
intelligence that the terror alert was based on was dated -- up to 
three years old. Tom Ridge, the head of Homeland Security, simply 
responded by saying that although the intelligence may have been dated, 
his department only recently received it. 

A new mega-industry of fear is emerging 

While this latest political fiasco in the US can be said to be 
symptomatic of the Bush administration, it goes without saying that 
politicians the world over have been, in one way or another, also 
taking advantage of the recent wave of fear generated by the war on 
terror (as opposed to the terror itself). In many ways, it's a 
replication of the Cold War, the only exception being that the "enemy" 
isn't a recognised state power. This, in turn, makes this second Cold 
War ambiguous and one with potentially no end in sight. 

While many are aware of the political implications to the war on 
terror, few realise how governments and big business have been turning 
paranoia into profits. A new mega-industry has emerged, and many 
governments are now turning their attention -- and money -- to it. 

Because threats are supposedly very fluid and unpredictable in today's 
world, security is regarded as not purely a military matter, but one 
which requires the pooling of resources -- intelligence, police, 
judicial, economic, financial, scientific, and diplomatic -- all under 
the umbrella of modern technology. Consequently, with the increasing 
flexibility and complexity of modern technology, many new discoveries 
inevitably span both civilian and military fields. In other words, a 
device originally developed for security purposes could have commercial 
spin-offs. It's this potential for developing dual-purpose killer-apps 
which have governments and big business ploughing funds into the fear 
industry. 

European security research 

As a result, in Europe a coherent strategy has been developed to 
coordinate all military and civilian research across the European Union 
(EU). This includes a billion-euro boost in research spending for 
security-related projects. Accordingly, EU member states will have 
their their security systems harmonised to create a single EU-wide 
security structure. This means networks to exchange information and run 
EU-wide crisis-management operations will be set up in addition to the 
coordination of all military, security, and civilian research. If all 
goes according to plan, a fully-fledged European Security Research 
Programme (ESRP) should be up and running in the EU by 2007. 

Unlike other research programmes adopted by the EU, this one would see 
governments more financially involved. The rationale for this is that 
since some of this research must be geared to government requirements 
and cannot be adapted for commercial use, up to 100% government funding 
may be needed. Moreover, in order not to be left behind, the ESRP's 
budget should match that of the Department of Homeland Security in the 
US. This would necessitate giving security research in the EU a boost 
of 1 billion euro per year. 

As with the defense industry, the fear industry is generally seen by 
pundits as good for industrial growth and the economy. Not only this, 
it's one of the few avenues of corporate welfare still left open to big 
business. What is more, with the increased sense of insecurity being 
peddled by politicians, it looks set to grow even further as technology 
is relied upon to detect and "neutralise" an increasing array of 
potential security threats. For the European Commission (EC) in 
particular, it's hoped that with its research experience and expertise 
in other fields such pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and 
telecommunications, Europe will be able to soon develop a top-class 
security system that it can then sell to governments elsewhere. 

In order to get things moving for this new security programme, the EU 
General Affairs Council already agreed back in November 2003 to create 
an agency to promote research for future defense needs. Its remit was 
to set up rules and procedures and build networks between sponsors, 
companies, research centers, and "customers" in the run-up to the 
launch of the ESRP. The ultimate aim is to nurture technologies that 
could have both civilian and military uses. 

Consequently, at the end of June this year a preparatory action was 
launched by the EC, resulting in a submission of around 175 proposals. 
Just over 70% of the proposals relate to technical mission-related 
research projects, addressing a wide range of security topics such as 
situation awareness, protection of networked systems, protecting 
against terrorism, crisis management, and interoperability. The 
remaining proposals relate to supporting activities such as studies on 
security research road maps, identification of critical areas and 
understanding human factors, as well as technical feasibility studies, 
awareness, and best practice activities. 

The proposals were submitted from a variety of sources. It should come 
as no surprise that large industry was well represented (including the 
aeronautics, information and communications technology, system 
integrators, and defense sectors). Most proposals originated from the 
EU-15, but the EC also points to "important participation" from the new 
member states of Central and Eastern Europe. 

Security technology produces new problems and binds resources 

Although the EC considers the preparatory action a relative success, if 
the EU wishes to eventually fund the full version of the ESRP, many 
existing research programmes will have to pay in terms of decreased 
support and slashed budgets; others may have to be abandoned 
altogether. In order to justify such a drastic move, the EC's response 
is simple: current research planning fails to promote dual purpose 
technologies, thereby missing out on some of the potential industrial 
innovations that could bring benefits across the board. 

Despite the promises of more security, on the one hand, and economic 
growth, on the other, what is missing in the overall equation are the 
people in the middle -- the citizenry -- who are supposed to gain an 
increased sense of security. Unfortunately, much of what is proposed is 
actually quite controversial as there are unresolved issues of privacy 
and confidentiality which must be dealt with first. 

Take, for instance, the notion of "information fusion". Information 
fusion basically means the collection and collation of data from many 
sources in order to yield intelligence. Examples include gathering 
information from sources such as telephone calls, hotel registrations, 
and airline bookings to identify individuals who may pose a terrorist 
threat, or analysing hospital admissions and sales of pharmaceuticals 
to warn of an unfolding biological attack. The problem here is that the 
distinction between "work as prescribed" and "work as practised" is 
frequently overlooked. 

Another concern is that this massive security programme is being 
developed not so much as to guard against terrorist attack, but to 
suppress domestic opposition, such as the anti-globalisation movement. 
For many heads of government, there is little distinction between 
terrorism and protest. Indeed, some have even gone so far as to 
categorise protesters as terrorists. 

Rather than concentrating on the symptoms of terror using 
state-of-the-art security systems -- which in a few years will be 
redundant anyway as those bent on wreaking havoc will use either new 
technology or the innovative application of so-called "primitive" 
methods -- more effort and resources should be put into dealing with 
its underlying causes. International terrorism, organised crime, and 
the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction are the three greatest 
fears Europeans have, this according to a recent EU poll. In 
particular, the set of threats governments the world over face are 
energy insecurity, nuclear proliferation, poverty, drought, and failed 
states. 

Given this, it's quite apparent that the problems facing the world 
today have more to do with the politics of colonialism and imperialism 
than with the need for a more robust security apparatus. 

Links 

Telepolis Artikel-URL: 
http://www.telepolis.de/english/inhalt/te/18187/1.html 

--------------------
Copyright © 1996-2004. All Rights Reserved. Alle Rechte vorbehalten
Heise Zeitschriften Verlag, Hannover    



####

Culture and Technology

http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/konf/18168/1.html

On the sunny side of life?

Henrieke Schmidt   22.08.2004 

In Sweden’s sun city, Karlstad, Internet researchers from some 30 
countries surfed through the cultural specifics of the Web 

Karlstad, a idyllic small town in the Swedish Warmland (!), has the 
reputation of being the sunniest city of this Northern country: this 
makes it an especially appropriate place for a conference dedicated to 
the light and the dark sides of the global Internet. As a place in the 
virtual sun may still be considered a privilege, marginalization, 
homogenisation and hybridisation of culture(s) were at the heart of the 
debates. 

The motto of this 4th conference on  "Cultural Attitudes Towards 
Technology and Communication" [1] was "Off the shelf or up from the 
ground" – in consequence and with regard to the dissolving utopia of 
the "global village," the Internet researchers from about 30 countries 
focused on the differences, the potential conflicts and cultural 
discrepancies in cyberspace understood as a "urban metropolis" 
(Ess/Harvard). 

The tricky causalities – the complex relationship between culture and 
technology 

In correspondence to the old question of "What Came First: the Chicken 
or the Egg?" the researchers’ community set off in the quest for the 
causalities in the relationship between culture and technology. Minna 
Kamppura and Markku Tukiainen gave an overview of the definitions of 
culture used in a sample of research-papers on the topic and stated a 
remarkable deficit of adequate concepts. Nevertheless, all efforts 
taken in the first open discussion to compensate for this lack and to 
come to a precise and widely agreed on definition of "culture" turned 
out to be vain, which led to quite some frustration with the fluidity 
of the matter. Indeed, the title of the conference already reveals a 
weak point by opposing culture and technology, even though the latter 
is - at least as an artefact - always a product of culture. 

Wei Lu from China tried to offer a solution to the problem by 
presenting a "new model of technological evolution" intended to 
reconcile technological and cultural determinism in a process of 
reciprocal interaction. Even if this approach does not offer 
revolutionary insights, it nevertheless demonstrated – to the end of 
the conference – a turn away from linear explanatory models. This was 
of even more importance as throughout the conference linearity and 
causality had been the guiding principles, though already in one of the 
early presentations Maja van der Valden had postulated an equality of 
different models and patterns of knowledge. With regard to the fact 
that the conference was attended mostly by Internet researchers, this 
phenomenon is even more astonishing because the principle of linearity 
which is thought to be mainly valid for the western civilization was 
only some years ago seen to be threatened, if not simply overcome by 
hypertext! 

Logo of Karlstad University  

The same refers to the conference organization as a whole, which proved 
to be quite traditional. The presentations as well as the panels were 
characterized by a very strict and conventional structure. Likewise, 
the discussion of methodological approaches (Agourram/Saucier, Würtz) 
was largely characterized by statistical and sociological research 
methods which are very useful but do not leave much room for 
alternative forms of presentation. Perhaps the most innovative 
solutions could be found in the panels dedicated to online education 
and e-learning and which concentrated on techniques and methods 
suitable to encourage collective forms of working, teaching and 
learning on the Net. 

Carnival of Cultures – the Case Studies 

Fortunately, the participants did not resign, even though confronted 
with the lack of a consistent definition of their object, and turned – 
in best practice of cultural studies – to their case studies. With 
regard to the presented papers, it then turned out that ‘culture’ in 
most cases was understood as a conglomeration of national and ethnic 
characteristics. 

The "chineseness" of the Chinese Internet – only on first view as a 
matter of course – was discussed by H.-J. Bucher, who raised as well 
the issue of a "universalistic" versus a "particularistic perspective" 
which collide in the analysis of national and ethnic specifics in 
global media. Quite a number of papers were dedicated to the 
historically and culturally determined specifics of the adaptation of 
ICT in the post-soviet States of Middle Asia (Markova, Mei), in the 
Baltic republic Estonia (Vengerfeldt/Runnel) and in Russia 
(Voiskounsky, Schmidt). The influence of traditional patterns of 
behaviour on the political usage of the Internet in Japan (Nakada et 
al) was investigated into as well as the particular circumstances of 
ICT applications in Africa and South-America (Addison/Sirkissoon, 
Beardon, Miscione/Aizenberg, Rodrigues, et al). 

But maybe the most interesting contribution was made by a participant 
in one of the discussion sections, who expressed her concern regarding 
a possible relapse into cultural essentialism if the analysis of 
behaviour patterns in ICT were too tightly focused on an isolated 
investigation of national or ethnic groups. The idea of (re)searching 
cultural specifics on the global network is constantly threatened by 
the (re)production of cultural stereotypes. 

The Internet – technology of domination or liberation philosophy? 

A special focus was laid on the investigation of the ICT access and 
usage by indigenous peoples (Herring/Estrada, Dyson, Kampf, Radoll). 
Questions of a gender-specific usage were discussed as well, though not 
as extensively (Crump, Simon). Against this background, the still 
contentious question was put forward whether the Internet is or is not 
a technology of domination reinforcing social discrimination rather 
than smoothing over existing discrepancies. The assembled research 
community admitted in a self-critical way its own privileged situation 
of inhabiting the sunny side of (net)life. In whose name and with whose 
voices can the question of a just use of Internet technologies ever be 
discussed, if at all? Concerning the popular rhetorics of a "digital 
divide" often referred to in this regard, it was stated that even this 
seemingly political correct metaphor is no longer adequate as it 
suggests the inferiority of off-line existence and implicitly 
discriminates local knowledge which may be incompatible with standards 
and norms of the Western information society. 

The problematics of ICT, (re)presentation and power were than 
illustrated on the basis of a significant number of case studies 
accentuating the pros and cons of ‘development.’ Thus – for example - 
ritual collective artwork of Australian aborigines seems to be 
endangered by a second expropriation in the anonymous global data 
worlds (Radoll). On the other hand, a multi-lingual Internet could help 
to rescue small languages at the edge of extinction to survive in a 
kind of virtual reservoir (Herring/Estrada). The theoretical premises 
as well as some first propositions to smooth out the conflict of local 
interests and global norms were presented in different papers on the 
standardization of language, technology and jurisdiction on the 
Internet (Pargman/Palme), with a special focus on copyright (Adaime, 
Burk, Debnath/Bahl). 

"A hole in the (virtual) wall" – unconventional forms of Internet usage 

Especially exciting were those presentations paying attention to 
alternative forms of Internet usage by the seemingly unprivileged and 
marginalized cultures: these focused not only on the advantages of 
Western ICT usage, but as well on its limitations which are often due 
to the perception of the media as a "normal" one. Thus the escape from 
spatially closed Internet-environments in South America or India, where 
the individual usage of ICT corresponds neither to the economic 
situation nor to the patterns of cultural behaviour, underlined the 
potential creativity of these non-conventional solutions (Rodrigues). 

A literal "Hole in the [virtual] Wall" describes a project of the same 
name initiated in India (Cappelle/Evers/Mitra): in some rural districts 
of India, computers with Internet access are installed in alcoves in 
the wall offering the village children access throughout the day. 
Mostly without any guidance and largely in self-controlled fashion, the 
children got acquainted in a playful way with computer and Internet 
technology and proved to be quite innovative: surfing and gaming turned 
out into a collective happening with dozens of children hanging around 
the computers, typing and drawing together. 

"Just use" – a sunny vision? 

The conceptual orientation of the conference on "just use" of ICT 
resulted into a strongly normative attitude. The idea and the concept 
of "liberation philosophy" was astonishingly popular (Walker), in a 
deliberate contrast to more sceptical approaches concerning the 
emancipatory potential of ICT which were expressed even in sunny 
Karlstad. With regard to the ongoing Internet pessimism which, by 
stressing the threats of terrorism and globalisation, achieves 
sometimes of an even apocalyptic dimension – a good portion of sunny 
visions may well be a important ingredient to further Internet studies 
(McIlroy, Ess/Sudweeks). 

Further information 

The CATaC-conference series started in 1998 and are organized by 
Charles Ess (Drury University, USA) and Fay Sudweeks (Murdoch 
University, Australia). A  discussion-list [2] offers a forum for 
announcements and discussion of further activities and planned 
publications. The contributions to the actual conference are published 
in the conference proceedings: 

Ess, Charles / Sudweeks, Fay (Ed.) (2004): Cultural attitudes towards 
Technology and Communication 2004. Proceedings of the Fourth 
International Conference on Cultural Attitudes towards Technology and 
Communication, Karlstad, Sweden, 27 June – 1 July 2004. Murdoch 
University, Murdoch.       

Henrike Schmidt is a researcher at the Institute of Russian and Soviet 
Culture at the Ruhr-University, Bochum (Germany), and is currently 
working on a  joint research program [3] on "Cultural identity 
performances on the Russian Internet" (with Katy Teubener, Institute of 
sociology, University of Münster), funded by the VolkswagenStiftung 
(Germany). 

Links 

[1] http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/catac
[2] http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/catac
[3] http://www.russian-cyberspace.org

Telepolis Artikel-URL: 
http://www.telepolis.de/english/inhalt/konf/18168/1.html 

--------------------
Copyright © 1996-2004. All Rights Reserved. Alle Rechte vorbehalten
Heise Zeitschriften Verlag, Hannover