digital

Carpet was bombing

We are controlled by out technology. Not necessarily in a large noticeable way but definitely in small ways in which we hardly notice. Technology and technological metaphors shape our lives and our ideas. For those of us annoyed but dependent upon spelling aids in software we quickly realise how the software suggests words, spellings and grammatical rules which we are unsure of whether we want to use. If we continue to accept without question then eventually language will be shaped by software we use.

Occasionally something happens which draws attention to the silliness of allowing software to rule our language. Today I attempted to write carpet bombing. The software complained and I checked to see what it wanted. It did not like the words carpet bombing (is this an ethical choice?) but suggested carpet bombs, carpet is bombing, and carpet was bombingâ?¦

Who wrote this stuff?

Posted on by mklang

Big Blog – No Cash

In discussions on the role of blogs (with journalists, freelance writers, lawyers etc) I tend to argue that the biggest change is that there is all of a sudden a large group of people who are prepared to write for free. Many of these writers are really bad and not worth reading. But it is easy enough to find a group of blogs/writers, which suit your interests and tastes. Therefore a great deal of the sources of literature and analysis of affairs comes from passionate amateurs â?? as opposed to the ranks of paid experts.

In attempts to prove my point I often enjoy pointing out that I blog for free to an unknown audience. Sometimes that audience engages me in discussion, comments my writing or questions my intelligence. This feedback is always nice (even the latter).

Recently I was questioned (not online) about my statement that I blog for free since I have in the left column of this blog a list of books and if you were to click on them and then buy the books from Amazon chances are that I will get a kickback.

Have I therefore lost my amateur status?

The books are there because these are the books that I at present find most interesting they are randomly chosen from my collection at Librarything. The idea is to give the visitor and list of additional reading and provide readers with some random colour.

Since I said kickbacks you naturally ask: â??Tell us about the money!â?? To which I reply here is a copy of my earnings under 2005 (the duration of this experiment thus far).

The -7 refers to books which have been returned. So my connection with capitalism has brought me less than a penny a day. This amount is too small to be paid by Amazon â?? so I do write for free after allâ?¦

Or maybe it’s just because I don’t have a big enough blog?

Posted on by mklang

Enemies of the Internet

The Reporters Without Borders annual â??Enemies of the Internetâ?? report has been released online. The list includes 13 countries and explanations for their inclusion on the list.

The enemies of the Internet are: Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan & Vietnam.

Taken off from last years list are: Libya, Maldives & Nepal.

Posted on by mklang

Copyright and University Libraries

Today has been another travel day. Up to Stockholm for a day discussing copyright in relation to university libraries. As usual I found the librarians active and concerned about copyright issues. This is only natural since they are forced to be pragmatic about the way in which they react to copyright.

Most of the problems discussed today dealt with archiving. The most common forms of documents, which need to be archived (and are troubled by copyright), are student essays, licentiate theses and PhD theses.

Copyright creates problems in a couple of ways. First off can universities force student works to be archived and if so can they be put online? The same questions apply to the output of teachers and researchers (not always the same thing).

The whole question is complicated by the shifting practices among libraries, university departments and faculties. Actually the universities rarely have power in these issues since the decision making power is on the faculty level. For more on the dilemmas of university copyright see here.

As I mentioned the librarians were pretty cool. From totally ignoring the question of copyright and taking the â??just do itâ?? approach â?? to the more careful approach which is more concerned with the consequences. The lawyers on the other hand tend to be pessimistic and uncooperative. They want to risk nothing, do nothing, for fear of losing. Sometimes I wonder what they think they would lose in a battle? Since the slow disintegration of copyright is losing the war.

An interesting thing was that the librarians were very concerned about the potential malicious side effects of DRM use by publishers.

Posted on by mklang

Surveillance Report

The Surveillance Studies Network (some information here) has released its â??A Report on the Surveillance Societyâ?? (editor: David Murakami Wood, authors: Kirstie Ball, David Lyon, David Murakami Wood, Clive Norris & Charles Raab)

The report consists of five sections entitled:

Introducing the Surveillance Society
A Survey of the Surveillance Society
A Week in the Life of the Surveillance Society 2006
Glimpses of Life in the Surveillance Society 2016
Regulating the Surveillance Society

Download the report as a PDF here.

The BBC website has a short readable list of ways in which surveillance takes place in addition to a news article on the new report.

In relation to this see also Privacy International and the results of their international survey. This survey showa that the UK is among the nations which have the worst protection of privacy rights. Or to put it in a more positive light â?? the UK is one of the leading surveillance states.

Posted on by mklang

Copyright Australian Style

From Matthew Rimmer we get an update on the copyright situation in Australia where the Australian Parliament is viewing an amendment of copyright (Copyright Amendment Bill 2006).

Matthew writes that instead of creating a US style defence of fair use or even reforming the defence of fair dealing, the Australian Government has actually narrowed the defence of fair dealing in respect of research and study. There are new minor exceptions on time-shifting, format-shifting, non-commercial use by libraries and archives, and satire and parody.

However, such provisions have been so narrowly framed that they are largely unworkable and inoperable.
Search engines, such as Google, will be in particular strife in Australia under such a regime. In addition, the Australian Government is providing copyright owners with stronger technological protection measures and a wide range of remedies.

A Parliamentary Committee will hear half a day of debate next week on the topic. Some of the submissions of interest are from: The Australian Digital Alliance, The Australian Libraries Copyright Committee, and the submission of Google.

Posted on by mklang

Postdocs at Humlab

Why not spend an exotic year at Humlab in Umeå (North Sweden)? They are offering Postdocs. Unfortunately I am not qualified since I have a Swedish PhD.

You are expected to have a PhD degree in a humanities discipline from an international (non-Swedish) university. You may not have been employed by Umeå University or had a postdoctoral scholarship at the university. The intention is to have all postdoctoral positions affiliated both with HUMlab and an appropriate department at the Humanities faculty. We are looking for applicants with documented interest in any of the four research areas, and a willingness to engage with digital humanities more broadly. You need to have excellent written and oral proficiency in English. HUMlab is a lively and convivial studio space with a wide variety of activities, research, technologies and cross-disciplinary interaction. It is expected that you will contribute to such an environment and you also share our interest in working with traditional humanities disciplines and other related areas. Furthermore you will be expected to participate actively in any of the four research groups associated with the initiative. Therefore you will need to live in Umeå during the post doc period.

This would definately be an exotic experience doing research among the cool people up north.
More info.

Posted on by mklang

Toaster Filling

As mentioned earlier we are going to build a Freedom Toaster for the Technical Museum in Stockholm. Naturally itâ??s on a short deadline â?? life would be boring otherwise!

As part of the Toaster we also want to include more stuff than simply an operating system. We want to have texts, images, music and film. We also want the material to be Creative Commons licensed (or similar) so that people can do more than simply be passive consumers (if they choose to be more).

In an instance of synchronicity Рtoday I aimlessly browsed into the blog of an excellent artist & cartoonist and was blown away (who says procrastination is all bad?). Not only this but he happens to live in G̦teborg (same city as me).

Naturally I emailed him about the project and he is interested in helping to provide some of his artwork for the project. What can I say? Sometimes Fortuna plays along. Check out the artwork on Mattias Adolssonâ??s blog.

This is his Beatnick Dragon
Posted on by mklang

Walls of Ceuta & Melilla

Continuing (earlier here and here) on the topic of walls of segregation. Here is more on Ceuta and Melilla.
Unfortunately only available in French and Italian the Migreurop have published The Black Book of Ceuta and Melilla online. The work documents the atrocities being committed under the guise of controlling illegal immigration to the EU via the Spanish north-African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. The introduction to the publication is available in English here.

Statewatch writes that the book contains… “…analysis, photographs and extensive testimonies from migrants themselves, who are thus given the opportunity to describe their experiences of what EU institutions euphemistically refer to as an ‘integrated system to fight illegal immigration’, which is repeatedly, and annoyingly, considering that migrants have been shot, abandoned to die in the desert, hunted down and detained in inhumane conditions, followed by the phrase while respecting human rights.”

Read also Peio Aierbe’s The “assault” by “sub-Saharan migrants” in the media.
(via Subtopia)

Posted on by mklang