Radical media, politics and culture.

Analysis & Polemic

February 2, 2004 - 12:42pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Technology

hydrarchist writes:


"Economic Orthodoxy and the Information Commons:
An
Interview With Michael Perelman"

Frederick Emrich, www.info-commons.org

Economics is a social science concerned with the production,
distribution, and consumption of resources to the fulfillment of human
desires. In some estimations, economics is the most "scientific"
of the social sciences because it has constructed powerful analytical
models and tools for developing our understanding of these processes.
Economics -- or at least the appeal to the idea of economics -- plays
an important role in policymaking. This is true not only of policymaking
with respect to physical goods, but also with respect to information.


Developing a full understanding of the information commons
means understanding: how information can be seen as a distinctive resource
(or set of resources); how informational resources are produced, consumed,
and distributed; how the accessibility of information is an essential
factor in its utility; and how policymaking can help to build or to
destroy a vibrant information economy. In short, understanding the information
commons requires that we understand the information economy, in the
broadest sense of that term.

Michael Perelman is Professor of Economics at California
State University at Chico. He has spent a significant amount of energy
addressing economic issues related to information. Although he is a
professor of economics, although he teaches courses in a university
economics department, and although he holds a doctorate in economics
from a major U.S. university, Perelman has called himself a "lapsed
economist" because he questions the validity of much of what passes
for "economic orthodoxy." His most recent book, Steal This
Idea: Intellectual Property Rights and the Corporate Confiscation of
Creativity (Palgrave 2002), focuses on the destructive influence
of strong intellectual property rights in the areas of science and technology.

As part of a continuing project to build an understanding
of the information economy, info-commons.org editor Frederick Emrich
recently conducted this interview with Perelman.

January 31, 2004 - 11:19am -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Independent Media

New "Global Radio" Sound Files of Italian Autonomists

Links to mp3 files of Negri, Piperno, Revelli, Mezzadro, Roggero, Bascetta and many others (most of the latter disobbedienti)...

www.globalradio.it

January 31, 2004 - 8:44am -- hydrarchist
Analysis & Polemic
Technology

hydrarchist writes

Software (,) Politics and Indymedia
Benjamin Mako Hill mako@debian.org

Revision History Revision v0.1 (draft)11 March 2003


Introduction and History
In addition to many other milestones in the activist and
anti-globalization communities, the 1999 meeting of the
WTO in Seattle marked the birth of the
Independent Media Center, also known as Indymedia. Within a year,
Indymedia had exploded in size. With slogans like "Be your
own media" and a grass-roots publishing structure to back
them up, Indymedia's attempt to provide a non-corporate and more
democratic alternative to mainstream media struck a chord that
resonated with activist communities across the globe.

For the first year, Indymedia's face on the web was
Active, a web application written by a group
of Australian hackers for the purpose of facilitating independent
media. However, Active was unable to keep up
with the IMC's tremendous growth in size and political diversity.
There were more people interested in reading Indymedia and
interacting on the IMC websites than there was bandwidth and
computer power to support them. Users and media activists demanded
performance, internationalization, flexibility, and features;
Active and its developers were unable to
cater to all of these needs.

January 30, 2004 - 6:56am -- hydrarchist
Analysis & Polemic
Theory

This taken from the current issue of the excellent Mute Magazine....


The Packet Gang

Mute 27 :: 12.01.04

by Jamie King

Openness – as an organising principle and political ideology – has become an article of faith across networked social movements. From its role as a central tenet of free and open source software production to its current popularity within activist circles, the concept of openness is attracting enthusiastic adherence. Here, as part of our series on the politics of alternative media structures, JJ King takes a less credulous view of what lies beneath the dream of organisational horizontality

January 28, 2004 - 1:52pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Technology

"Raging Against the Machine"

Theodore Roszak, L.A. Times

[Theodore Roszak is professor emeritus of history at California State University, Hayward. His books include "The Making of a Counter Culture" and "The Cult of Information."]

In its '1984' commercial, Apple suggested that its computers would smash Big Brother. But technology gave him more control.

January 27, 2004 - 10:01am -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Work

"The Undesireables"

Pont St. Martin Parigi

There are ever increasing numbers of undesirables in
the world. There are too many men and women for whom
this society has not provided any role except that of
croaking in order to make everyone else function. Dead
to the world or to themselves: this is the only way
society wants them.

January 23, 2004 - 9:26am -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Rants

"Lincoln's Powerpoint Address"

January 23, 2004 - 9:03am -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Theory

pyrx writes

"Bewusstseinsindex oder Klassenkampf?
Bemerkungen zur Methodik einer erneuerten Klassentheorie"
Martin Birkner

Der vorliegende Text versucht eine Annäherung an die Thematik der Klassentheorie bzw. deren Methodik. Dabei soll dieser Text in dreifacher Hinsicht als unabgeschlossen gelesen werden: weder kann hier vollständig das Terrain der Auseinandersetzung abgegrenzt werden, noch die historischen Vorbedingungen zureichend vorgestellt, noch umfassend die möglicherweise produktiven Ansätze für eine erneuerte Klassentheorie dargestellt werden. Es geht vielmehr um eine Annäherung an die drei oben genannten Aspekte, eine Annäherung jedoch entgegen dreier bekannter Zugänge: „Die ArbeiterInnenklasse gibt´s nicht mehr!“, „Die ArbeiterInnenklasse war, ist und bleibt DAS revolutionäre Subjekt!“ und „Die ArbeiterInnenklasse heißt jetzt Multitude und arbeitet äußerst affektiv!“

January 22, 2004 - 8:20am -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
The State

"Does the American Election Matter?"

John Chuckman

Presidential elections in America are long, with formal campaigns lasting about a year and positioning leading to the campaigns lasting nearly three years. A President's four-year term of office leaves just enough time to dish out contracts and jobs.


There is nothing out of the ordinary in America about the length of presidential campaigns. Elections for other offices consume time pretty much in proportion to their power and importance. Senators, for example, spend about two-thirds of their six-year term just raising money for the next election.

January 20, 2004 - 10:52am -- nolympics
Analysis & Polemic
The State

"Harass the Brass"
Anonymous

A friend who was in the U.S. military during the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War told me that before President G.H.W. Bush visited the troops in Saudi Arabia, enlisted men and women who would be in Bush's immediate vicinity had their rifle and pistol ammunition taken away from them. This was supposedly done to avoid "accidents." But it was also clear to people on the scene that Bush and his corporate handlers were somewhat afraid of the enlisted people who Bush would soon be killing in his unsuccessful re-election campaign.

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