TITLE: How can territory inform the map

Engage SFYW
1

Call: https://www-npa.lip6.fr/gig-arts/conference/rationale/

TITLE: How can territory inform the map?

In contemporary sociology and political theory, the “global public sphere” often refers to a unified vision of “global” online public spaces, differentiated into a few major centralized brands, despite the fact that most of the time, such an approach cannot acknowledge the extend of the power of a few designable economic structures.

It is also in this context that the approach to content moderation automated content selection is most often envisioned, despite important contradiction. For example Stephen Wolfram, a respected pioneer in the development and application of computational thinking, has recently explained in a presentation at the United States Senate[1] the problems that the programming of algorithms for what he calls “automated content selection businesses” represent. Wolfram explains that centralized automated content filters carry the possibility of inescapable censorship, and he strongly advocates for a human/market-based organization for content review, that should take place in a decentralized technological environment. Current regulator’s approach seem to be blind to these views, while certain law propositions have been turned down (loi Avia in F̷̪̤̋ṟ̵͙̾͗a̷̛̩̎n̴͙͙̿́c̸̙͙̈e̵̪͒ for example), automated upload filters are still ported by the Copyright Directive currently being voted at EU parliament[2]. The regulation imposes centralized upload filters on all type of platforms, disregarding their differences, their scales, their approaches to autonomy, and most importantly the self built governance systems already in place in many of them.

This approach does not differentiate between the scale of the platforms, and brings up a unitary view that does not account for a history of community appropriation of decentralized protocols. Most often regulators do not take in account the existence of a large variety of independent practices who create different models of information exchange, based on decentralized protocols and decentralized organizational models. Following a research-action methodology, petites singularités, our independent research group[3], has decided to work at the heart of these communities. We have been characterizing this terrain as an existing third technoscape[4]. We have approached the issue from different perspectives fostering the dynamism of contemporary protocols where we actively got involved in supporting developers community organization, by hosting community forums[5], and acknowledging an decolonial history of decentralized technology[6].

In this paper, I will introduce community strategies developed by some decentralized software projects based on ActivityPub protocol, following a feminist methodology, and explain how their chosen approach diffracts (Barad) over the existing system. Secondly I will observe how these grassroots community organizations have permitted along with the use of decentralized protocols the development and support of independent journalism. Lastly, after having reviewed the capacity of existing systems, while acknowledging the limits of actual diffusion to an important public, I will demonstrate their importance as spaces of intra-action and agency (Barad, Haraway).

In definitive this paper aims to understand that while social media is a main agent in social relations, innovation, community building, dissemination of information, and even governance, it seems that mainstream platforms currently in place do not respond to the diversity of needs that social networks have, resulting in an underestimation of the large variety of initiatives and a shortfall for many initiatives.

Bibliography

Barad, Karen. (2007). ‘Meeting the universe halfway: quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning.’ Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. ISBN 9780822339175.

Braidotti, Rosi. Bio-Power and Necro-Politics, Reflections on an ethics of sustainability Bio-Power and Necro-Politics - springerin | Hefte für Gegenwartskunst Published as : (2007)‘Biomacht und nekro-Politik. Uberlegungen zu einer Ethik der Nachhaltigkeit’, in: Springerin, Hefte fur Gegenwartskunst, Band XIII Heft 2, Fruhjahr , pp 18-23

Fraser, Nancy. “Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy.” Social Text , no. 25/26 (1990): 56-80. doi:10.2307/466240.

Fuchs, Christian. 2015. Culture and Economy in the Age of Social Media . New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-13-883931-1.

Mansoux, Aymeric. Sandbox Culture, A study of the Application of Free and Open Source Software Licensing Ideas to Art and Cultural Production, Centre for Cultural Studies Goldsmith, University of London, 2017

Pohlaus, Gaile Jr. 2012 Relational Knowing and Epistemic Injustice: Toward a Theory of Willful Hermeneutical Ignorance . Hypatia Volume27, Issue4 November 2012 Pages 715-735

Rosa, Hartmund. Accélération. Une critique sociale du temps, la découverte, Paris 2010. (ISBN : 978-2-7071-7709-4)
Rosa, Hartmund. Résonance, une sociologie de la relation au monde, la découverte, Paris 2018 ISBN (ISBN : 9782707193162)

Rouvroy, Antoinette & Berns, Thomas. (2013). ‘Gouvernementalité algorithmique et perspectives d’émancipation’, Réseaux, no 177, p 163.

Toupin, Sophie & Spideralex (2018). “Radical Feminist Storytelling and Speculative Fiction: Creating new worlds by re-imagining hacking.” Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology, No. 13. 10.5399/uo/ada.2018.13.1

Senftleben, Martin and Angelopoulos, Christina and Frosio, Giancarlo and Moscon, Valentina and Peguera, Miquel and Rognstad, Ole Andreas, The Recommendation on Measures to Safeguard Fundamental Rights and the Open Internet in the Framework of the EU Copyright Reform (October 17, 2017). European Intellectual Property Review, Vol. 40, Issue 3, 2018, pp. 149-163.

The PUBLIC LOVE project will produce digital literacy instruments and tools that can be applied in a variety of contexts, using concrete methodologies, and widely supported, affordable tools based on open collaboration, ethical design, free software, open hardware, popular education and the commons. LOVE will empower a large network of volunteers to tackle the digital divide and bridge formal education facilities with grassroots networks to empower more fragile citizens.

Footnotes

The PUBLIC LOVE project will produce digital literacy instruments and tools that can be applied in a variety of contexts, using concrete methodologies, and widely supported, affordable tools based on open collaboration, ethical design, free software, open hardware, popular education and the commons. LOVE will empower a large network of volunteers to tackle the digital divide and bridge formal education facilities with grassroots networks to empower more fragile citizens.

  1. Testifying at the Senate about A.I.-Selected Content on the Internet—Stephen Wolfram Writings ↩︎

  2. Trilogues on terrorist content: Upload or re-upload filters? Eachy peachy. - European Digital Rights (EDRi) ↩︎

  3. petites singularités is currently involved in NGI0 Eu funded consortium, concentrating on supporting free software for privacy enhancing technologies and search and discovery. ↩︎

  4. Singular Technologies & the Third-TechnoScape » The Journal of Peer Production ↩︎

  5. https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/ ↩︎

  6. Taking Back the Future -- A Short History of Singular Technologies in Brazil ↩︎