Cyberpolitics

1. Basic fact (July 2007) -the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC)

- The number of Internet users reached 162 million or 12.3% of the population
- A total of 1.3 million Chinese websites have been listed
- 19% of China’s Internet users have their own blog

2. Internet, public sphere and civil society

2.1 Background

The Co-evolution of the internet and civil society (pdf)- Yang Guobin, 2003

Civil society is here defined broadly as the intermediate public realm between the state and the private sphere. Citizens and citizen groups participate in organized or unorganized discursive or non-discursive activities in civil society.
This definition includes the public sphere, voluntary organizations, and social movements as key components of civil society. Although some scholars have argued that there is no necessary and logical link between civil society and democracy, a robust civil society is often taken as a basis for democratic politics.

2.1.1 Development of civil society in China

- background: one party domination regime, a parallel admin and party structure: Hu Jintao as party secretary, chairperson of the state and head of PLA, Wen Jiabao as the Premier of the State Council (國務院總理) of the People’s Republic of China. NGOs and grassroots organizations leaded or monitored by party.

- an emerging rights consciousness related to the notion of citizenship rights (公民維權) with the development of capitalism, e.g property rights, labour contract law.

- significant changes in China’s public sphere – commercialization and change in governance (regulation rather than direct control).

- growth of social organizations

2.1.2. Growth of E-civil society (faster than e-commerce)

- existing and dormant citizen groups and networks provide a social basis for using the Internet – e.g alumni group, fansclub.

- the internal dynamics of Chinese civil society such as the expansion of individual rights and urban public spaces, the proliferation of popular protest, the decentralization of the media, and the expansion of associational life.

- Cases: Qiangguo Luntan: expressive space within a repressive regime

2.2. 2003 – Year of internet civil rights

Ref: Mingling politics with play (pdf) – Yang Guobin

- the death of Sun Zhigang 孫志剛 and the reform in population registration system

- the death of Huang-jing 黃靜案 challenge the local police and national campaign

- SARS – mobile text message from Guangzhou

- global public sphere: e.g FoxConn case. Bridge Blog: e.g ESWN, globalvoices

2.3 Case Studies: the Chinese Blogger Conference

- 2005 Shanghai
- 2006 Hanzhou
- 2007 Beijing

3. Censorship

Ref: CHINA: Journey to the heart of Internet censorship (pdf) – Investigative report, October 2007, Reporter without frontier

3.1 Official Spervisory bodies:

1. Under Information office of the State Council 國務院 – organizes courses for ideological control

- The Internet Propaganda Administrative Bureau – license and ban

- the Centre for the Study of Public Opinion

2. Under the Publicity Department (the former Propaganda Department) 中共中央宣傳部- party body

- The Internet Bureau – created in 2006

- Bureau of Information and Public Opinion – weekly report to the central committee – publicity department chief (Liu Yunshan)and public security minister (Zhou Yongkang), and since sept 2006 to all members of the party’s political bureau. (Major monitoring sites: Sohu, Sina, Netease, QQ, Bokee, Kongzhong, Daqi, Tianya and Cat898)

3. The Ministry of Information Industry (MII)

4. The Ministry of Public Security’s Computer Monitoring and Supervision Bureau – internet crime

5. The MII’s Centre for the Registration of Illegal and Unsuitable Internet Content – pronography

6. Provincial Information office under provincial publicity department – provincial internet information administrative bureau and provincial association of online media

3.2. Means of control

Training courses – by state council and by provincial information office

Direct monitoring – phone calls, sms and RTE (real time exchange) message from provincial internet information administrative bureau to private sector; weekend gathering.

Penalties – fines, close down

Interesting case: A South Korean website polled its visitors about their nationalism in August 2006, asking them: “If you were reborn, would you want to be Korean again?” The Culture and Debate sections of the website Netease copied the idea, asking visitors if they would want to be Chinese again. The poll ran from 4 September to 11 October. Of the 10,000 people who participated, 64 per cent said they would not want to be Chinese. The main reasons identified were: “Being Chinese is not honourable,” “You cannot buy a house in China, happiness is too inaccessible,” “No reason,”“You cannot crack jokes in China” and “You cannot see good cartoons in China.” Netease had to fire Culture section editor Tang Yan and Debate section editor Liu Xianghui. And the Debate section was closed down.

3.3. Keywords censorship: A list distributed to private sector and media

3.4. Golden Shield Project and Great Fire Wall: by public security department

- IP blocking
- DNS filtering and redirecting – redirecting search engine to Baidu
- URL filtering
- Packet filtering – keywords filtering
- Connection reset

3.5 Tactics to resist censorship

- proxy
- going around provincial power
- web2.0, e.g twitter and micro contribution of news
- lawsuit against filtering: censorship is officially denied

Concluding remarks

Theoretical discussion about cyberpolitics:

- intersection of technology (material base) and politics (political system, political culture); how technology mediate individuals, economics, socials and political world.

Themes:
1. Individual and social
2. Democracy
3. Freedom
4. Knowledge
5. New media and social movement
6. Power and governance (regulation)
7. Global and local

Practical knowledge:

1. Web 2.0 and its potentials in social and political organization – how to evaluate a website project? how to make use of different tools?
2. Logics of government’s policy towards copyrights and internet governance – how to comment on government policy regarding internet regulation and e-government?

Ref: The Internet and Global Governance: Principles and Norms for a New Regime, by Milton Mueller, John Mathiason, and Hans Klein

1. Definition of Internet governance:

Internet governance is the development and application by Governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the Internet – UN WGIG (United Nation, Working group on Internet Governance)

vs.

Internet governance is collective decision making by owners, operators, developers, and users of the networks connected by Internet protocols to establish policies, rules, and dispute resolution procedures about technical standards, resource allocations, and/or the conduct of people engaged in global internet working activities. – The Internet and Global Governance: Principles and Norms for a New Regime, by Milton Mueller, John Mathiason, and Hans Klein

The rationality behind the definitions: What are the differences? Why?

2. UN Governmental approach to the Internet governance

2.1. UN process

Private sector and civil society
- the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) 1998
- the Internet Society 1992
- the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)

UN bodies:
- the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
- the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
- the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) – a working group on internet governance (WGIG) – the creation of a multistakeholder Internet Governance Forum (IGF)

Before 1998
domain and IP distribution is arranged by a computer scientist Jon Postel in University of Southern California and a company called Network Solutions (VeriSign).

Failed attempt: the the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) had worked with the Internet Society and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in an attempt to create their own privatized domain name administration regime: the Generic Top Level Domain Name Memorandum of Understanding” (gTLD-MoU)

1998
ICANN, a non-profitable public service company (private sector) – Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) – global (rather than territorial) regulation of the domain name system (DNS)

2003
the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) – Geneva Dec 2003 and Tunisia Nov 2005 – a Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG).

July 2005
the Controversial WGIG report

A. Working definition of Internet governance (ref to top quotation)

B. Identifying public policy issues that are relevant to Internet governance and assessing the adequacy of existing governance arrangements
- Administration of the root zone files and system – U.S
- Interconnection costs – uneven distribution
- Internet stability, security and cybercrime
- Spam
- Meaningful participation in global policy development – governance mechanism
- Capacity-building
- allocation of domain names
- IP addressing
- Intellectual property rights (IPR)
- Freedom of expression
- Data protection and privacy rights
- Consumer rights
- Multilingualism

C. Developing a common understanding of the respective roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders from both developed and developing countries
- Government – Private sector – civil society

D. Recommendations related to Internet governance mechanisms
- the creation of a multi-stakeholder Internet Governance Forum (IGF)
- Global public policy and oversight – 4 models
a. replace the ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) by a Global Internet Council (GIC), consisting of members from Governments with appropriate representation from each region and with involvement of other stakeholders.
b. enhance the role of ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), IGF as recommendation body.
c. set up an International Internet Council (IIC) to lead ICANN.
d. the setting up of – The Global Internet Policy Council (GIPC); – World Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (WICANN) replacing ICANN; – The Global Internet Governance Forum (GIGF).

2.2. Critique to the UN proposal and Normative approach to the Internet governance

Definition of the internet (neutrality):

The Internet is the global data communication capability realized by the interconnection of public and private telecommunication networks using Internet Protocol (IP), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), and the other protocols required to implement IP internetworking on a global scale, such as DNS and packet routing protocols.

Norms and facts

Internet Standards Create a Global Commons
The Internet Is Largely Composed of Private Networks
The Internet Incorporates an End-to-End Design: neutral
The Internet Requires Exclusive and Coordinated Resource Assignment (distinctive DNS)
The Internet Is Non-territorial

Governmental or Regime approach VS. Normative approach
Lawrence Lessig’s regulation model: Law (Hierarchy), Market (Competition), Norms (Culture), Architecture (Technology)

3 Hong Kong Internet governance

3.1 Policy history

1998 (minimal-intervention approach):
E-Privacy: A Policy Approach to Building Trust and Confidence in E-business (2001)
Code of Practice: Practice Statement on Regulation of Obscene and Indecent Material – self-governance of the Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association (HKISPA) 2002
E-transaction ordinance (2004)
Computer crime based on existing criminal ordinance
Anti-spam campaign and ordinance (Dec 2007)

3.2 Recent debates on internet governance: censorship

Digital Copyrights:
- Criminalization of downloading
- Privacy and I.P information
- Format shifting, Filtering
- Statutory damages (issue of harm)

Application of Obscene Articles Ordinance – Indecent hyperlink – Flickr censorship – Flickr censorship protest (youtube)

Other criminal law into virtual space
- Association Ordinance – freedom of expression

Questions:
- internet (global) norms or social norms;
- border and jurisdiction;
- virtual expressive space or real;
- issue of harm, intension and victim;
- stake-holders involvement

Future Move:
- Communications Authority: the merger of the Telecom Authority (TA) and Broadcasting Authority (BA)

4. Hong Kong Government and development of internet

Digital 21 consultation 2006

4.1 E-government, e-governance and e-democracy
Definition: (Comparing e-government and e-governance)

E-government is the applications of information technology (IT) to public sector operations – which involve G2G, G2C, G2B relations.

E-governance: public sector use of IT to deliver to all citizens improved services, reliable information and greater knowledge in order to facilitate access to the governing process and encourage deeper citizen participation. i.e. – change of power relation operation.

E-government                                           E-governance
- electronic service delivery                    – electronic consultation
- electronic workflow                                – electronic controllership
- electronic voting                                     – electronic engagement
- electronic productivity                          – networked societal guidance

e-government governance framework – an U.S example

4.2 Hong Kong E-government

Infastructure

- Equipped external telecommunications capacity: 1,152 Gbps (March 2006)
- Mobile phone penetration rate: 125% in 2006 (104% in 2003)
- Household PC penetration: 70% in 2005 (68% in 2003)
- Broadband household Internet penetration 66% in 2006 (50% in 2003)
- PC penetration in business: 60% in 2005 (55% in 2003)
- Internet penetration in business: 55% in 2005 (48% in 2003)
- Over 50% of businesses adopted some form of e-business in 2005

4.3. Digital 21 Consultation: Government’s role in digital development

- facilitating a digital economy – outsourcing – R&D – facilitating convergence – CEPA
- promoting advanced technology and innovation – cyberport – university R&D (Science park) e.g digital media center, 3G, DRM, etc.
- Hong Kong as a Hub for technological cooperation and trade – Mainland integration – education – business environment, IPR – communication authority
- Public service upgrade – e procurement (work flow and communication), health record, transport
- building an inclusive, knowledge-based society – digital divide fund and DRM

4.4. Hong Kong E-government Strategy VS. The Commonwealth Center for E-governance

Hong Kong

- New strategy for e-government services delivery
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
- Channel Management Strategy (e.g email)
- E procurement
- Measuring the benefits of e-government initiatives
Examples: ESDlife 2001, GovHK and Youth.gov.hk

Ref: Governance in the information age: building e-government in Hong Kong by Ian Holliday and Rebecca Kwok, CTU – skeptical about change in governance.

VS.

Commonwealth model

Changing nature of government in electronic age e-democracy

- e-voting, e-participating, e-consulation

As with all public sector programs good governance is the lynchpin for success. Accountability, transparency, ethical financial practices, citizen-centric programs and workable programs are important if e-Democracy is to work. In the case of e-Consultations it is important to have trust in the citizen, allow a wide range of comments and also ensure anonymity when needed. This is often required because the citizen might be disclosing personal information, might feel more secure imparting views in an anonymous setting, might need anonymity for professional reasons and might be more frank in stating views and opinions.

4.5. Bottom-Up challenge to governance – e.g. citizen media (PLA Berth), obscene article ordinance

1. Different approaches to Power

Ref: Cyberpower: The culture and politics of cyberspace and the Internet, Chapter I, by Tim Jordan, Routledge 1999.

Max Weber: Power as a possession

- it imposes effect onto others
- it receives resistance
- it says “no”

Barry Barnes: Power as a social order

- it makes you conform (a set of rule, such as traffic light)
- underlying sanction / punishment
- collective knowledge / consensus / legitimacy
(similar to Pierre Bourdieu’s habitus)

Michel Foucalt: Power as domination

- discursive knowledge: both repressive and productive (constitutive of subjectivities, e.g student)
- governance – institutional, daily tactics, knowledge backup

Example: Censorship as a state power – Max Weber; as a common sense regulation – Barry Burnes; and as subject constitution via knowledge and back up by institution (e.g. Chineseness) – Foucalt

2. Operation of power online and offline

2.1. Individual

- transgression myth: extension of self and identity fluidities
- individual possession: PC, internet access, knowledge, rights, etc.
- individualized management: email – traces: cuhk.edu.hk
- class and education background via interaction, e.g language in cybersex
- Avatar (online identity) – Second Life research by Choi Chu Wai, Lai Ka Chun

2.2. Elite and virtual social order

- Technopower: infrastructure for online social interaction: hierarchical and virtual social (online harassment, bullying)
- Technopower spiral and techno elites

2.3. Social

- virtual communities
- Fan’s club research 2003 virtual community and its political implications (A drafted Paper)
- Nationalism – imagined community, nation across border – Al Qaede or virtual police, e.g 強國論壇 or 香港網上獨立運動研究 by 馮建瑋, 薛健鋒, 何健豪

- Social relation: Cyberfeminism
A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s – Donna Haraway (1991)
- challenges to bio-determined gender construction
- public vs private
- how about gender inequality, internet pornography (youtube), cyber-rape, etc?
- Woman’s resource (新婦女協進會 – 婦女資源網)and (En)gendering digital body via language and practice

- other social minority, e.g. 互聯網與香港同性戀社群研究 by 楊達祺

2.4. Resistance

- states and grassroots confrontation in different forms
- censorship vs freedom of expression
- copyright
- Internet crime

2.4. Production setting / economic infrastructure

- Financial Capital into cyberspace: youtube (google 1.65 billion), facebook (microsoft $240 million for 1.6%), Alibaba (P.E 100)
- global production and consumption

2.5. Myth and desire

(Ref: Myth-ing links: Power and Community in Information Highway, by Vincent Mosco)

- Ohmynews’ success: US10,000 in its micro payment system, Fund raising
- Stock price
- New media mobilization
- Networking effect
- etc.

2.6. Discourse and subjectivities

e.g. citizen reporter as a new social actor based on the myth and knowledge about information technology

3. Case: Digital Divide

- Digital divide is defined as the gap between individuals, households, businesses and geographical areas at different social-economic levels in respect of their opportunities to access IT and the use of the Internet for a wide variety of activities. (Not Power Law)
- Beyond ICT (internet communication technology)
- Developing countries VS. developed countries
(Internet world statistic 2007)
(Internet penetration rate within Asia 2007)
- Class, race, gender, age, rural vs urban
- Language, skill, time
- Attempts in bridging digital divide – e.g. One Laptop per Child

- Hong Kong: Digital 21 strategy
- Discussion: Highest broadband penetration, no digital divide in Hong Kong? What are the aspects of our digital divide?

Free Software

• Brief History: GNU (GNU’s Not Unix) as a response to close sourcing
  • Copyright Act of 1976 – Late 1970s, software compaines stopped to distribute sources code with software.
  • Xerox Printer – When Richard Stallmans (a MIT AI lab hacker) want to change the function of the printer driver, the request was refused because the sources code is not open
  • Decline of MIT Hacker Culture – When the policy change, Richard Stallmans refused to sign non-disclosure agreements not to share source code or technical information. Because he think that software should always be free, and user should be able to change it as they need
  • Founded the GNU Project – Build a operating system which is “free”.
• Definition:
  • GNU Manifesto
  • Free Software
    • You have the freedom to run the program, for any purpose.
    • You have the freedom to modify the program to suit your needs.
    • You have the freedom to redistribute copies, either gratis or for a fee.
    • You have the freedom to distribute modified versions of the program, so that the community can benefit from your improvements.
  • Free Speech, not Free Beer
• What GNU do:
  • An alternative – GNU is a new computer system, alternative to Unix
  • Raise Awareness – A lot of public speaking
  • Legislation – Political campaign against software patent, copyright, etc…

  Open Sources Movement

• Brief History: “Open Sources” as a marketing buzzword (1990s) – Free means cheap, and cheap is no good
• “Marriage” with Free Software Movement
  • When Linus developed a Unix-competiable operating system kernel (Linux), but lacking of a system libraries; And Richard Stallman developed a Unix-competiable system libraries (GNU Project), but lacking of a system kernel. GNU / Linux
• “Break up” with Free Software Movement
  • Alan Cox – “Majority of the kernel developers don’t buy the FSF political agenda” / Eric Raymond – “If you want to change the world, you have to co-opt the people who write the big-checks”
  • GPLv3 – Should we accept DRM hardware?
• Why Open Sources?
  • Technical-Superiority – Open sources model lead to software
  • Persuasive to business
• How business model integrate with open sources model?
  • Redhat, MySQL, JBoss – Sale of services or “Side-product”
  • IBM, Sun – Open sources to encourage Open Standard as a way to break the Network Effect
  • HP, Router Manufactuor – Open sources as a way to cut-cost, cheap way to produce products
  • Innovation Happens Elsewhere

Open Sources Development Model — Democratizations?

• Technical Tools
  • Mailing List
  • IRC
  • Wiki
• Characteristics
  • No Hierarchy
  • Micro contribution
  • Lengthy Discussion
  • Forking
• Case Studies
  • Wikipedia (“Too many rules” Problem, Hierarchy and Rewards)
  • Linux (Charismatic Leader — Linus)

  Copyleft

  • Different Level of Copyleft:
  • Strong / Weak Copyleft (GPL / LGPL) – Strong Copyleft License always impose its license to all derivated work, while Weak Copyleft do not. GPL is a Strong Copyleft License since any code used “GPLed” code have to be released in GPL license too. While LGPL have an exemption of when new code is dynamically linked with “LGPLed” code, the new code do not have to be licensed under LGPL. Application of Strong Copyleft work includes Wikipedia.
  • Full / Partial Copyleft
• Copyleft vs “BSD-style” license
  • BSD-style – Some time refer as “Permissive Free Software License”, close to public domain. Except: (some example, such as old BSD license require attribution of Berekely University)
  • Cristism: Both side claim that the other side is not as “free”.
• Copyleft vs Public Domain
  • Public Domain – No right reserved.
  • Cristism: How about the atomcity of art work?
• Discussion: What is “free”? GPL / BSD / Public Domain?

Related Movements

Anti-DRM

• what is DRM?
  • To enforce certain copyright limitation by technology measures.
  • Leaded by major copyright holders and computer industry, concerning their own rights only, neglecting many other issues, as followed.
• as a privacy problem
  • Trusted Computing
    • Computer industry tries to make computer or any electronic devices only trust DRM materials. By this measures, old materials that does not employ DRM cannot be used in new devices. In the implementation, usually a particular ID is given to all products, and thus people could be traced by such ID. Also, people lose their control to the devices.
  • Spyware (Sony Case)
    • Sony’s DRM on their CDs forced users to play the CD with their own softwares in computer. It was later found that the software contains spyware, which steal users’ personal information. Sony was ruled to let customers exchange new discs, give penalties to customers, never does such harm to customer again and put spyware cleaner in their website for two years.
• as a business problem
  • Unsuccessful Business Model (Yahoo’s Executive Speech)
    • Many music and movie resaler has voice out that DRM is not a successful business model, including Steve Jobs from Apple iTune and Ian Rogers from Yahoo! Music. One basic argument is that DRM does not add value to customer. Rather than that, DRM lower the value to purchasing CD/DVD, making purchasing CD/DVD becomes even less competitive than piracy.
  • Anti-Competition
    • Current DRM systems are dominated by a few IT giant companies. They design their own DRM system, such that customer must use particular device to play or use the media. For example, the DRMed music on iTune can only be played on iPod. European Union has ruled that Apple must let the DRM technology open to other companies, so that it does not lead to anit-competition.
    • Cyberport advocate OpenDRM, which is a vendor free DRM. Is it good for customer?
• on a moral ground
  • Lawerence Lessig: Law by Business Sector (E.g. Fairuse)
    • By the very basic principle of copyright law, it is to protect expressions of ideas, but not protecting business. Thus copyright law provides fairuse or fair dealing, which are exceptions of using copyright works so that won’t bounded reasonable usage of works or limit follow-up creations. But with DRM, these exceptions cannot be implemented, as they are not able to quantized to computer programs.
  • Ownership or Rights?
    • We used to own a product when we buy it. With DRM, we only has limited right to use the product. For example, for DRMed CD, we only has the right to play the CD, but not making backup, or converting them to MP3.
• on a economic ground
  • derivative work right
    • DRM technology ban several usage to the materials thus usually forbid derivate work. However, Copyright do allows some derivative work right, such as Parody. In an economic point of view, copyrighted work produce value when people consume it, and also when people derivate more work from it, forbidding derivate work reduce the value.
  • cost to use it
  • In an economic point of view, DRM always add the cost to consume a creative work. Either the creator, publisher or consumer has more difficulties and cost compared with no DRM.

Open Document Format vs OOXML (http://www.noooxml.org/)

• Basic ideas about closed document format and opened document format
  • closed file format
    • only the developer knows how to read/write this format (e.g. Microsoft Office)
  • opened file format
    • the format specfication is open to public, anyone may understand and implementing such format (e.g. ODF)
  • advantage of opened document format
    • the opennesss guarantees the document can be read even the developing vendor closed down (no Vendor Lock-in)
    • as anyone can implement the format, more people can involved in developing programs for that, helping the improvment of working environment
• ODF vs OOXML
  • ODF – OpenDocument Format
    • developed by OASIS, a organization to design open file format
    • now used by OpenOffice, StarOffice, K Office etc.
    • approved by ISO on 2006
  • OOXML – Office Open XML
    • developed by Microsoft
    • submitting for ISO
  • ODF vs OOXML
    • OOXML is only developed and used by Microsoft. Actually, there is no full implementation for OOXML yet, not even the latest MS Office.
    • duplicated ISO open document format will cause confusion
    • many functions are not explained in OOXML specification, such that implementing OOXML will need MS support. There is no guarantee that implementing OOXML will not violate MS patent.
    • Microsoft admit that they pay to ISO voters, in order to let OOXML pass ISO.

    Hong Kong Case Studies: Digital copyrights consultation

    1. The criminalization of all downloading activities except from cachePushing BT case forward: uploading of seed file and its debate
  • 2. The protection of copyright works transmitted to the public via all forms of communication technology, such as the transmitting of CD to MP3
  • i.e: format shifting, Digital rights management
  • 3. Pressure to the Online Service Providers for releasing users’ information and introducing filtering technologyThe issue of piracy and censorship

    4. Statutory Damages for Copyright Infringement

    The issue of harm

    Reference

    DRM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryXDhXqR-SE

    Open Sources -> Commuist? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twAyI4LPk0Y

    Open Sources + Commercial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfkucaGv0oA

Prepared by Ben Cheng, EX force

0. Mid-term and Recap:

Mid-term: 50% MC, 50% short quest 5 out of 7 questions
Elaboration on the pier preservation experience: affective and subjective knowledge – social agency

1. The meaning of “Free” in free culture

1.1 Liberation tradition to Liberalism tradition

Structural and individual
Mean and practice
Social activism and free culture
Left and liberal
IMC anti-globalization movement and blog culture

1.2 The spectrum of political morality in Free culture: Liberalism and communitarianism

- Liberalism: interest in maximum in free market, rational and self-governing self, equal liberty and human rights, universal

- Communitarianism: situated morality (defined by community, such as family, groups), good prior to right, shared common meaning, inter-subjective self, relative (unjust invasion)

- Politics of common goods VS. politics of rights (censorship issue)

- Knowledge and information as property (individual rights) or common goods?

1.3 Neo-liberalism since 1990s (Washington Consensus)

- Neo-liberal agenda (10 recommendations): uplift global trade barrier to eradicate poverty – free trade by imposing, for example:

TRIPS – Trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights e.g medicine and software
TRIMS – Trade related investment measures (remove restriction on FDI) e.g labour intensive rather than technology advancement in China
GATS – General agreement on trade in services e.g education, hospital, postal service, etc.

- The global market challenge to “common” goods

1.3.3 Knowledge as property under the context of globalization and neo-liberal economy

Ref: Unacceptable Costs: The Consequences of Making Knowledge Property in a Global Society by Christopher May (Global Society, Vol. 16, No. 2, 2002)

- WTO – TRIPS which incorporates agreement from WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) – knowledge as property – labour, reproduction of self in the civil society, value for scarcity and stimulus for innovation

- Moral ground: tragedy of the commons – Garret Hardin’s “herdsman in common land” scenario – market mechanism instead of universal ruin – question: can knowledge be exhausted like natural environment?

- commodification of knowledge would make ideas scarce and from a social point of view less valuable – balance between private and public good. Patents (20 years) Copyrights (50 years after death)

- From owner’s right to property as assets – corporate withholding and absentee owners – exclusive rights and monopoly

- e.g AIDS crisis in Africa (more than 20% of the 15± 49 year-old population HIV+) – generic drugs legislation in South Africa in 1997 challenged by U.S government representative – Novartis sued against India generic AIDS medicine Demonstration in India (youtube)

- e.g public realm / domain – James Boyle environmental movement in the net – knowledge as a global resource – limitations and challenge

Internet Free Culture Practice

2. Internet culture: cracking the tech and the system

Ref: The internet Galaxy chapter 2.

2.1 Agents:

- Techno-elites – cutting edge technology (institutional)

- Hackers – network of programmers – the development of UNIX – 1984 becomes Bell Lab property – Richard Stallman advocated Free software and developed GNU and Linux – open access to all the program’s information and freedom to modify – gift economy – subculture: crackers

- Virtual communitarians – users oriented – shape the internet mediascape – e.g BBS and Citizen media

- Entrepreneurs – idea oriented business – selling of future – diverse interest – money driven

2.2 Hacktivist

- What is hacking? – appropriation of technology

In my day to day life, I find myself hacking everything imaginable. I hack traffic lights, pay phones, answering machines, microwave ovens, VCRs, you name it, without even thinking twice. To me hacking is just changing the conditions over and over again until there’s a different reponse. In today’s mechanical world, the opportunities for this kind of experimentation are endless.
- From Tim Jordan and Paul A. Taylor, Hacktivism and Cyberwars: Rebels with a cause?

- Hack Lab in San Diego (youtube)

- Hacking and innovation

E.g The development of internet phone (against monopoly of Telecom) – business incorporation

E.g Nepal Telephone radio in Hong Kong (6000 customers)

3. Free Culture and copyrights

3.1 Lawrence Lessig’s free culture (pdf)

3.1.1 What is free culture?

- A bridging of liberalism and communitarianism morality.

A balance between anarchy and control. A free culture, like a free market, is filled with property. It is filled with rules of property and contract that get enforced by the state.

- The airplane scenario – Wright brothers and invention of plane – land property (from earth to the heaven) – 1945 court: air as public highway – common sense develops through new technological environment

- Armstrong’s death – establishment against innovation

- The difference between everyday life culture (free and goods) and commercial culture – the former being eroded – business protectionism rather than innovation

3.1.2 Piracy

Disney’s Mickey mouse (1928) from Steamboat Willie, stories from Brother Grimm – creative works are derivative

The rise of popular culture is related with mechanical reproduction – photography, film, news

Pirate industry – Hollywood: film-maker escaped from Thomas Edison – recording industry – radio – cable TV

The issue of harm

3.1.3 Property

Copyright (right to reprint – author) VS Copy-right (monopoly right – booksellers)

Regulation: Law, Norms, Market and Architecture or material base (interactive) – Copy-right as DDT

Free culture – creative commons

3.2 Electronic Frontier Foundation – a leading civil liberties group defending your rights in the digital world

Advocacy and legal action on:
- Free speech
- Intellectual property
- Privacy (against surveillance)

4. University and privatization of knowledge

From: Recent Changes in Patent Policy and the Privatization of Knowledge: Causes, Consequences, and Implications for Developing Countries – by By Bhaven N. Sampat

Government sponsored research: public or private? how about developing countries? (another dumping scenario)

Example in China: Tsinghua holding

4.2 Student movement: freeculture.org

A network of student org across the northern America

Manifesto for digital commons

- Participatory democracy: the mission of the Free Culture movement is to build a bottom-up, participatory structure to society and culture

- Refuse to accept a future of digital feudalism where we do not actually own the products we buy – against DRM: Anti RIAA Propaganda (youtube)

- Uphold the value of our cultural wealth, promoting free software and the open-source model.

- Resist repressive legislation which threatens our civil liberties and stifles innovation.

5. Discussion: Where’s the free culture in Hong Kong?

1. Recap: Mass media: structure and ideology — new media and its challenges

Questions: New media as popular culture or democratization tool? How to cross the line between expression and social / structural change? — The development of blogging in Hong Kong (how is blog culture localized in Hong Kong?)

2. Social Movement theory and new media

2.1: resource moblization and new social movement theory

Resource mobilization and political process theories:
- The presence of social movement organizations (SMOs) which offer selective incentives and can help turn the bystander public into adherents and adherents into constituents. (e.g Iron worker strike)
- Interest based e.g Class — Trade Union
- free rider

New social movement and collective identity theories:
- Collective identities (feminism) through boundary definition, consciousness raising (global warming) and symbolic negotiation. (e.g 利東街: 換了紅裝)
- discursive struggle: agenda making (via action and mainstream media) — Non-government organizations
- value based

2.2 Mass media’s role in social movement

- agenda making (mass media’s logic in agenda setting)
institutional (more than 70%); social order and disorder (public-ness); breaking news
- public opinion and pressure (hegemony based on consensus)
- mass media logic in social movement
Resource mobilization: Worker strike – disorder – public opinion
New social movement: Greenpeace (人山人海銅鑼灣節能)

2.3. Media as social movement: From community media to DIY new media – media transformation as an end

- History: Community media movement (community radio 1960 to virtual community) – Vartivist@wanchai
- Actors: Media workers; social movement sector — alternative information sources; diffused sectors
- Policy and environment (Radio jamming: 民間電台, censorship)
- DIY – from individual to collective practice – expressive individualism to counter media (e.g alternet)
- internet as a contested terrain (rather than just a tool) – in term of space and content (Internet governance, power relation)

2.4. Significance of New media social movement / what’s new about new media social movement?

Miscible mobilization via new media
- Boundary breaking (not based on a certain identity but through discourse) e.g move on
- Reflective space (movement within movement)
- Aggregating and networking effect of individuals in agenda setting and framing

Flash mobs
- P to P mobilization via mobile phone
- de-centered leadership
Ref: Flash! Mobs in the Age of Mobile Connectivity

3. Case studies I: Star Ferry and Queen’s Pier Preservation

Background: since 1999

Citizen reports:
十二月六日速記
何志平立會講大話

Other representations on the Internet:
e.g 天星遺情

蔡子強: 天星抗爭: 新社會運動的開始?

4. Case studies II: WTO independent media movement

Global attention map
- Politics of representation and agenda making in global media: international politics

Seattle anti WTO mobilization and IMC movement – IMC
VS.
Global opinion market: Global voices online

Reference:
Oppositional Politics and the Internet: A Critical/Reconstructive Approach – by Richard Kahn and Douglas Kellner
Democratic media activism through the lens of social movement theory – by William K. Carroll and Robert A. Hackett (2006)

0. Recap: Web 2.0: Technology and Politics

Picking up discussion from the blog: Web 2.0 information distribution character VS. brain washing. (what do we mean by brain washing?) 

1. Introduction:

From the rise of mass society and to the internet era

2. Background and Politics of “Mass” society:

2.1. Age of the Crowd

Industrial Revolution (1760s-1830s), Age of Imperialism (1860s) post-industrial revolution

Democracy in America (1835 and 1840) and the Old Regime and Revolution (1856) – by Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)

Culture and Anarchy (1869)- by Mathew Arnold (1822-1888)

2.2. Capitalism and Mass society (State and individuals)

Karl Marx (1818-1883): The Communist Manifesto (1848) – All That is Solid Melts into the Air / mass production / alienation – Elaborated by Marshall Berman

Constant revolutionising of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones … All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses, his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.

Emile Durkheim (1858-1917): Suicide (1897) – Anomie

Max Weber (1864-1920): Protestant ethnics and spirit of capitalism (1905) – individual work ethnics

2.3. Frankfurt School (1930) on ideology and critical theory

2.3.1. Walter Benjamin (1892-1940): The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (pdf) (1935)

- Problematique: Oppression and resistance in superstructure
- The conditions of art in the age of Mechanical reproduction
- Aura: historical and spatial distance, mystic and religious value
- reader gain access to authorship
- Photography and film: mass consumption
“The enlargement of a snapshot does not simply render more precise what in any case was visible, though unclear: it reveals entirely new structural formations of the subject.”
“The camera introduces us to unconscious optics as does psychoanalysis to unconscious
impulses.”
- fascism organize the proletarian masses by giving them freedom to express but not changing the property structure – fascist aesthetics – war as a goal for the mass movement
- Communism responds by politicizing art.

2.3.2. Adorno (1903-1969) and Horkheimer (1895-1973): The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception (1944)

- Monopoly and identical mass culture
- cultural business rather than art
- consumer culture – production leaded – passive reaction
- radio: turns all participants into listeners
- every technical media are forced into uniformity
- triumph of invested capital
- the falling apart of the whole and parts, structure and details, e.g film
- the end of style due to a “system of non-culture”
- liberalism – supply and demand market – rather than establishing style and tradition – innovation – not to conform means to be “self-employed”
- technological reason – organized amusement
- represses sublimation – love into romance, happiness into laughter
- advertising – representation of social power  – separation of form and content e.g hk developer ad.
- ideology of freedom

2.3.3 Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979): One Dimensional Man (1964)

- post-war industrial society and role of critical theory
- productive apparatus (supported and extended by technical apparatus) tends to become totalitarian to the extent to which it determines not only the socially needed occupations, skills, and attitudes, but also (defines and creates) individual needs and aspirations. It thus obliterates the opposition between the private and public existence, between individual and social needs (e.g facebook: blurs the line between work and leisure). Technology serves to institute new, more effective, and more pleasant forms of social control and social cohesion.
- In the medium of technology, culture, politics, and the economy merge into an omnipresent system which swallows up or repulses all alternatives. Technological rationality has become political rationality.
- positive thinking, liberation of imagination (one-dimensional) vs. critical, poetic

2.3.4. Critique of Frankfurt School: 陳光興: 媒體/文化批判的人民民主逃逸路線 (1992)

2.4. The Mass Society and contemporary politics

The Mass Society, from Power Elite – by C. Wright Mills

- Opinion making by power elite via “secret” network and mass media.
- Authority formally resides ‘in the people,’ but power is in fact held by small circles of men. That is why the standard strategy of manipulation is to make it appear that the people, or at least a large group of them, ‘really made the decision.’ – i.e. spin doctor.
- Men in masses are gripped by personal troubles, but they are not aware of their true meaning and source. Men in public confront issues, and they are aware of their terms. (problem lies in education)

Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky: Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (1988) e.g. U.S War in middle east

3. The History of mass media and New media revolution

3.1 Case study: paper media history in U.S

Dan Gillmor: We the Media, Grassroots Journalism by the people, for the people
佐滕卓己, 現代傳媒史, 北京大學出版社

- Publick Occurrences (25 Sept 1690), 1st U.S. (Boston) newspaper
- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790): Pennsylvania Gazette
- Stamp Duty (1765): colonial repression of press freedom
- Thomas Paine (1730-1809): early pamphleteer
- Independence of U.S.A (1776) Note: Media and nation building – imagined community
- 1st Amendment by democrats (1787): press freedom
- 1800s: Postal system for newspaper distribution
- 1814: Times’s printing machine 500 X 4 page / hr
- 1833: New York Sun by Day Benjamin. H (Crime and Scandal)
- 1835: New York Herald by Bennett, James Gordon (Social reform)
- 1844: telegraph – factual information
- 1848: Associate Press founded (6 newspapers)
- 1851: New York Times by Raymond, Henry Horace
- 1861-1865: U.S Civil War: Information based; no more anonymous report (military
- 1885: Printing machine: 25,000 / hr
- 1900: Associate Press (690) – fair and objective rather than localism
- 1900s: Corporate era – 1960-70s – monopoly of big media. e.g Cable
- 1980: beginning of the Internet Era – BBS
- 1999: anti WTO and IMC movement
- 2001: Sept 11 blogging (rise of citizen media)

3.2 Mass media and politics of opinion making

- News and opinion as consumption
- Spin doctor and P.R politics
- Corporatism and monoploy – hidden political agenda and economic interest
- Where’s the market? The compromise of speech freedom (same as Yahoo! and Sina in China)

3.3 Implications of internet based grassroots journalism

- role of producers and consumers blurs
- new journalistic practice: factual, subjective, conversational, transparent, process, user-generated ethics. see: Earn your trust (2005)
- politics of opinion making (refer to the discussion of Web 2.0 and brian washing)
- democracy – internet mob or critical mass?
- information monoploy – neoliberal corporatism – how about incorporation?
- network effect and tribalization
- utilitarian individualism – expressive individualism – how to transgress from individual expression to social / structural change?
- digital divide

Ref:
We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People by Dan Gilmor

4. Hong Kong: the development of blogging

4.1 Hong Kong blog distribution (via sidekick Aug 2007):
Xanga 370016
Y!Blog 38680
Mysinablog 2411
Live Space 2143
Hompy 1445
Blogspot 2282
Mocasting 432
WordPress 128
Hkbloggers 17
Small BSP Independent Blog 629

4.2 Discussion
Book: Why we blog? 點止日記咁簡單
Blog is blog
Blog 2005
Blog 2006

4.3 Political action
Blog ring: Beyond the Stars

4.4 Discussion: What can you tell about blogging in Hong Kong? The difference between blog and BBS in its localization process and political influence in Hong Kong?

1. Recap: Network society, democracy and public space

Politics: personal (technology extension, individual and net), local (public sphere and democracy), global (production and global public sphere)

2. Liberation or control?

- 2015 EPIC - A futuristic history of the development of Internet

Discussion: Liberation or Control? What is the the relation between the Self and the Net? What is the meaning of human agency? and social structure?

2.2. Technological Optimism and Pessimism

2.2.1. J.P Barlow (1996), A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace

- independence from nation state
- global social space, autonomous communities
- Cyberspace consists of transactions, relationships, and thought; all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth.
- diversity
- virtual vs. material world (governed by law and system)
- against internet governance and censorship
- new civilization of mind

2.2.2. Clay Shirky (2003), Power Laws, Weblogs, and Inequality

- Power law distribution: 12% of blogs account for 50% of the links (economic: 20% of the population holding 80% of the wealth)
- Class, gender, etc. (digital divide)
- 屯門民間女記者工作坊

2.2.3. Cyberesistance Fighter – An Interview with Paul Virilio

- Extension and amputation (Marshall McLuhan) e.g car
- Technology reflex not reflection: no automatic democracy
- Worldwide time becomes the history not local time: e.g. hypercity: virtual city as city of all cities (pauperization of old cities)
- Regression / amputation: Internet sectorization and sectarianism; reduce of movement: inertia.

2.2.4. Baudrillard on the New Technologies: An interview with Claude Thibaut, March 6, 1996 (Bio)

- Hyper-reality (representation)
- From extension of self to virtual self (immersion of the self), e.g: Movie matrix
- End of communication: Network becomes an end rather than content (facebook: zombie, vampire, poke applications)
- Virtuality virtualizes politics: virtuality itself is not able to turn itself into a political power… (online petition Vs. local action)
- The disappearance of raison d’etre: means become ends (Georg Simmel: money)

3. Web 2.0

3.1. What is web 2.0?

Tim O’Reilly: What Is Web 2.0 ? Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software

3.1.1 2001 dot.com bubble – survivors

3.1.2 The web as platform (happenings and interaction)

Web 2.0 Meme(jpg)

3.1.3 The web as service
- Facilitator: Netscape Vs Google
- Decentralization: Double click Vs Adsense
- Architecture of participation: BT

3.1.4 Harnessing Collective Intelligence
- User contribution: Wikipedia, Flickr, de.li.cious
- Network effect from user contribution as keys to market dominance
- Wisdom of the crowds

3.1.5 Infoware: data management –> free data movement

3.1.6 Software as service

3.1.7 Lightweight Programming Models: RSS and AJAX (Javascript and XML) in Google Map

3.1.8 Innovation in Assembly (e.g Facebook plug-in service)

3.1.9 Software Above the Level of a Single Device (bridging): i-tune (net and i-pod) and TiVo (net and TV)

3.1.10 Rich user experience: enabled by AJAX; multi-media integration

3.2 Web 2.0 History

Development Time Line

MCF: Multi-media container format
ASP: Application service provider
SOAP: Simple Object Access Protocol
SaaS: Software as Services
Folksonomy: infoware, e.g tag
AJAX: combination of javascript and XML for retrieving data and interaction

Where is HK in the timeline? Why HK has been falling behind despite its cyberport plan?

3.3 Implications on politics

3.3.1 Deliberative democracy (refer to lecture 2)
3.3.2 Global communication and human rights (right to communicate)
Web 2.0 as social movement
3.3.3 From Web 2.0 to Journalism 2.0, Education 2.0 and Translation 2.0 (Harry Potter)
3.3.4 Power law
3.3.5 Regression of politics (mass media replacing public space; virtual space reduces real politics into a show of gesture?)

4. Case study: Facebook

4.1 Profile as Conversation (performantive nature of communication)
4.2 Social network (personal, group, cause, network)
4.3 Plugin application
4.4 Event

Question: to what extend can profile communication can lead to concrete social transformation?

Ref: Profiles as Conversation (pdf): Networked Identity Performance on Friendster by Danah boyd

1. Three approaches to building democracy

1.1. Individualistic liberalism

1.2. Communitarianism

1.3. Deliberative democracy

2. Individualistic liberalism and internet

2.1. Democracy is a mechanism for aggregating individual choices (e.g. votes)

2.2. Internet is helping citizen get access to more information and make choice

2.3. Internet is a huge information pool for unencumbered self of liberalism

2.4. Information technology helps collect public opinion and even votes (Example: e-Petitioning for the Scottish Parliament)

2.5. Problem I: rule of majority

2.6. Problem II: Individual is embedded in social relationship and structure

2.7. Netizen might not be a responsible citizen (Example: The readers and users of Hong Kong Yahoo! News)

2.8. Problem III: Internet is not simply a tool for communication and collecting information. It enables multiple selves.

3. Communitarianism

3.1. Democracy is based on a wide variety of communities

3.2. Sustainable democracy, built from below, is based upon the shared values and conceptions of “the good”.

3.3. Internet is helping people form their communities and express their values and interest.

3.4. Internet functions like a network of networks rather than a pool.

3.5. Example: 網．絡社區

4. Deliberative democracy

4.1. In response to Individualistic and Communitarian democracy

-Democracy is not a machine of voting or making choice

-Internet technology might lead democracy to further tribalization

4.2. The basic questions of deliberative democracy

-How is individual view and interest formed?

-How is public opinion or consensus be formed?

-Human agency in political process

4.3. The basic assumption of deliberative democracy

-An interactive subject or inter-subjectivity

4.4. Deliberative dimension is necessary in all democratic systems

4.5. Examples:

-Debate is necessary in parliament and congress

-Public consultation is a minimum requirement of an open political system

4.6. Questions:

-What are the conditions of communication in different forms of deliberation?

-What is the impact of a particular kind of deliberation?

-Which mode of deliberation is the most appropriate one?

5. Public Sphere and Habermas

5.1. Jurgen Habermas

5.2. Bourgeois public sphere in Europe (17th and 18th centuries) as the cultural basis of modern democracy

5.3. Public discussion shifts from royal courts to salons, coffee house and tea houses.

5.4. Conditions for public debate

-All members are treated as equal

-The social and family background of each participant is bracketed temporarily

-Topics are public issues

5.5. Validity claims: public use of reason

-A speaker claims that what they say is true

-One claims that it is normatively right

-One expresses one’s opinion in an honest and sincere way

5.6. Early newspapers in Europe and US were a further development of public sphere

-Each newspaper represents a particular political stance or even a political camp.

-Pamphleteering: No newspaper could reach the majority. It only serves a particular group of people.

-Political debate is the most important function of newspaper

-Example: The Printer as the Writer

-Example: Whigs and Tory (England) / Republican and Federalist / Pro-communist and Pro-KMT

5.6. The decline of public sphere

-Mass media facilitate the formation of dominant opinions rather than communication or dialogues

-Mass democracy encourages: ->passive and atomized voters ->political elites

-Public sphere turns into public relations

6. Theoretical implications of Habermas’ “Public sphere”

6.1. Lessons from Habermas’ studies

-A public sphere is a social space in which speakers may express their views

-Mutual expectation of rational uptake

(http://www4.discuss.com.hk/viewthread.php?tid=4701229&extra=page%3D1)

-Addressing indefinite audience (?)

6.2. Critique of Habermas:

-Over-generalization of the Bourgeois rationality

-Deliberation is socially or culturally bounded

-”Public sphere(s)” in plural form

6.3. Deliberative dimension is necessary for modern politics

6.4. Media construct, expand and transform the conditions of communication

6.5. What is the impact of information technology on the conditions of communication?

-Transforming the conditions of communication

Example: From personal website to blog; From online TV to YouTube

-Communication directed to indefinite audience

7. Case I: Ohmynews

7.1. It was founded in 2000 and became popular in 2002 during the election campaign of Roh Moo Hyun.

7.2. 70-80% of news are provided by citizen journalists. About 20% is provided by professional journalist.

7.3. All postings are corrected, screened and edited by editors.

7.4. What motivates them to write news stories?

http://ics.leeds.ac.uk/pg-study/mashow/files/shaun_sutton.pdf

7.5. Single motivating factor: Freedom of expression

7.6. Most sought after gratification: Information dispersal

7.7. New (media) technologies and new democracy

-Old (media) technologies: mainstream newspapers / Old democracy: mainstream parties

-New technologies for citizens to make a breakthrough.

7.8. New media is reviving the old tradition of pamphleteering.

1. Cyberpolitics

1.1. Politics mediated by info-technology

1.2. Politics in informational society

1.3. Example I: Censorship system extending from newspapers, TV, film, radio and to internet and mobile media. http://www.interlocals.net/?q=node/867

1.4. Example II: July 1 Rally and media (radio talk show and internet) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9PH3W9Cx0Q

1.5. Political development goes along with info-technological innovation.

2. Manuel Castells: From informational society to network society

2.1. Biography

2.2. Information society

-Daniel Bell argued that services production is more central to contemporary society than production of tangible goods.

-Alvin Toffler argued that knowledge or information is the most important resources today.

2.2. Marxist approach: Social changes perpetuated by material basis

-Industrial society is based on the material basis characterized by factory production, internal combustion engine and industrial product (commodity).

-Material basis is correspondent with social, cultural and political system.

-Example: Industrial production and class conflict (between working class and capitalist)

2.3. The contemporary social change is characterized by the “information technology revolution”

-Going beyond technological determinism: Information technology is not an isolated force.

2.4. Information Technology Paradigm

-A cluster of interrelated technical, organizational and managerial innovations

2.5. Some features of ITP

-Technologies and information are acting on each other

-Pervasiveness of effects of new technologies

-Networking logic

-Flexibility

-Convergence of specific technologies into a highly integrated system

2.6. ITP as the material basis of a new society

2.7. The new society is characterized by the convergence and divergence of The Net and the Self

Reading: Castells, Manuel. 2000. The Rise of Network Society. Oxford and Malden: Blackwell, Prologue; Chapter 1.

3. Case I: Network enterprises

3.1. Industrial Revolution: factory system

3.2. Fordism -mass production-consumption -standardization -stable workforce

http://www.automotoportal.com/media/images/vijesti/060901002.10_mn.jpg

3.3. Oil crisis in 1973

3.4. Post-Fordism: flexible production

3.5. The crisis of corporate hierarchy and the rise of business networks

http://chong.pbwiki.com/f/network_production.jpg

3.6. Example: Walmart

-The biggest retailing empire

-Not only a powerful network of retailing outlets, but also… …

-An extensive outsourcing and purchasing network (4,800 small suppliers and 10.8 billion US$ in China)

-A powerful accounting and quality-control system (processing information) to reduce the price to minimum (Late delivery is subject to heavy penalty).

-Thousands of suppliers go bankruptcy.

3.7. Implications: Producers (Self) and business network (Net)

-Producers are liberated from corporate hierarchy

-But trapped in an extensive network.

-Global network of NGOs involving in corporate monitoring

Example: SACOM

4. Case II: The history of the Internet

4.1. ARPA-NET (Advanced Research Project Agency): A minor program supported by the Defense Department

-Sharing computer time

-Communication among researchers

4.2. Packet Switching (by Paul Baran at Rand Corporation [think-tank])

4.3. TCP/IP (1978): Extending ARPANET to other networks (by computer scientists and graduate students)

-Protocol or standard on which the Internet operates today.

4.4. BBS (Bulletin Board System, 1978-1983) developed by students and programmers

4.5. From UNIX to Usenet (1980s)

-developed and distributed by Bell Lab (innovation arm of Alcatel-Lucent since 1925) and

-further developed by graduate students.

4.6. World Wide Web (Tim Berners-Lee and CERN[European Organization for Nuclear Research])

4.7. Implications

-The Internet is not a product developed by corporations

-The importance of public institutions is increasing

-The Internet is developed by a loose network around government and corporate groups

-A culture of liberty

-Human agency and Network

• Living in/by the network (convergence)
• Making alternative uses of network (divergence)

Reading: Castells, Manuel. 2001. “Lessons from the History of the Internet.” The Internet Galaxy.9-35.