A grey friday morning and a phone camera. But none the less views from my home town.
digital
Political Use of Trees
Using trees to form part of a political protest has almost been synonymous with the green movement. Protesters have hugged or chained themselves to trees to prevent them from being sawn down. Protesters have staged sit-ins in them to demonstrate their point. Part of the Swedish protest movement was staged around some Elm trees in a park in central Stockholm (Kungstrådgården). The Elm Battle (12-13 May 1971) was part of a civil disobedience act. To prevent the building of a entrance to a subway station activists (amongst other things) climbed up into the trees. The planned station entrance was moved.
In central Göteborg today this tree has been painted with the text â??think about the homelessâ?? this is not the first tree to sport this text. When the text on an earlier tree began to fade the notice appeared on this tree instead.
Most groups unable to make their voices heard in traditional media have turned to the Internet to attempt to publicise their cause. This protest is about homeless people and by using the tree as a mediun the message also manages to underscore the lack of technology and basic infrastructure homelessness entails.
Banksy’s latest is a comment on the deregulation of state industries. In this graphic case it is an image of the change from the old to the modern British Telecom (BT). This is portrayed by a bleeding old style phone box in Soho (London)
A BT spokesman said: “This is a stunning visual comment on BT’s transformation from an old-fashioned telecommunications company into a modern communications services provider.” (BBC)
What the BT spokesman failed to mention is the reduction of universal service when follows in the wake of any deregulation. The transformation of a public service company into a modern industry player is not always something to be proud of. The mutilatd phone box has unfortunately already been removed.
Larger image on Banksy’s site.
Fibonacci the Artist
Leonardo Fibonacci (c1175-1250) was travelled widely in Barbary (Algeria), Egypt, Syria, Greece, Sicily and Provence. In 1200 he returned to Pisa and used the knowledge he had gained on his travels to write Liber abaci in which he introduced the Latin-speaking world to the decimal number system. The first chapter of Part 1 begins:
These are the nine figures of the Indians: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1. With these nine figures, and with this sign 0 which in Arabic is called zephirum, any number can be written, as will be demonstrated.
Besides this Fibonacci also took part in mathematical competitions and challenges (these were commonthen). For example, in 1225 Fibonacci took part in a tournament at Pisa ordered by the emperor himself, Frederick II. Competitions could include puzzles such as this:
Beginning with a single pair of rabbits, if every month each productive pair bears a new pair, which becomes productive when they are 1 month old, how many rabbits will there be after n months?
The answer? (xn+1 = xn + xn-1) has become known as the Fibonacci sequence. It begins with 0 and 1. It follows the simple simple rule: Add the last two numbers to get the next.
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987,…
Why the interest in Fibonacci today? I was walking down a street in my home town (a street I have often walked on before) and I noticed that someone had decorated a building with the Fibonacci sequence.
Was this art? or is there a deeper meaning? Perhaps even a conspiracy? Decorating buildings using mathematical formulas and principles was hardly the vogue since this house was built!
Guaman Poma
Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala wrote his 1200-page book in 1615 Nueva corónica y buen gobierno (New Chronicle and Good Government) to convince King Philip III of Spain to reform Spanish rule in South America. The book includes 398 full-page drawings. Its aim was to provide the Spanish king with an Andean perspective on colonial Peru.
The Royal Danish Library has digitised it and made it available online here. Some background about the manuscript by the editor Rolena Adorno can be found here.
The tenth Inka, Tupac Inka Yupanqui (p. 110)
War and Peace
In an article entitled You and the Atom Bomb, George Orwell wrote about the relationship between military technology and democratic development. National self-determination is, according to Orwell’s technologically deterministic argument, a product of the ability to develop efficient arms.
The great age of democracy and of national self-determination was the age of the musket and the rifle…Even the most backward nation could always get hold of rifles from one source or another, so that Boers, Bulgars, Abyssinians, Moroccansâ??even Tibetansâ??could put up a fight for their independence, sometimes with success. But thereafter every development in military technique has favoured the State as against the individual, and the industrialised country as against the backward one. There are fewer and fewer foci of power. Already, in 1939, there were only five states capable of waging war on the grand scale, and now there are only threeâ??ultimately, perhaps, only two. This trend has been obvious for years, and was pointed out by a few observers even before 1914. The one thing that might reverse it is the discovery of a weaponâ??or, to put it more broadly, of a method of fightingâ??not dependent on huge concentrations of industrial plant. (full article here)
The concept of war and peace has changed since Orwell published this article in Tribune (19 October 1945). Those old enough to have experienced the world wars (either as participants or spectators) claim that we have had peace. This is strange to as I cannot remember a single period in my life when we were not at war with some nation (echoes of Orwell’s 1984?)
This peace is therefore an illusion, a consensual hallucination, if the interpretation of reality claims that we are at war then we are at war. If the claim is that we are at peace then we are at peace. Naturally this does not effect the fact that people are being killed, or that military forces are attacking each other. It just does not mean that we are not living in peacetime.
The atom bomb nicknamed Fat Man was dropped on Nagasaki exploded at 11:02 A.M on August 9.
It left an estimated 70,000 dead by the end of 1945.
While living in this myth of peace the threat of all out war remains a threat but in reality war remains based in the use of the rifle or rifle-like weaponry. Since there is no real war in (or with) Afganistan, Iraq, India/Pakistan (Kashmir) or Indonesia (For lists of ongoing conflicts look here and here) but only ‘conflicts’ the struggle remains focused around the rifle.
This is not, as Orwell thought, the technical ability to mass-produce this relatively simple technology but rather the ability to obtain cash or credits to be able to buy small arms (estimated black market trade in small arms range from US$2-10 billion a year). In conflicts such as these it is not the posession of advanced technology that resolves the conflict but rather the money and determination to accept heavy losses.
Digital solidaritet och opinionsbildning
Digital Solidaritet och opinionsbildning
Information ses allt mer som en vara att tjäna pengar på och allt mindre som en social rättighet. Upphovsrätten stärks och patent breder ut sig till det immateriella området.
Politiker och företag ser i ökad omfattning information som ett problem som måste kontrolleras, övervakas och beläggas med sekretess. Samtidigt finns idag möjligheter att samla, kopiera och sprida information i en helt ny omfattning. Informationen blir inte mindre värd för att den används. Tvärtom ökar den i värde.
Det är dags att solidaritets- och rättviserörelser tar hänsyn till allt detta i sitt informationsarbete. Vi måste utveckla en mer solidarisk och gemensam informationshantering och opinionsbildning. Förutsättningarna är bättre än någonsin. Med denna konferens vill vi stimulera den gemensamma diskussionen i dessa frågor.
Ur programet:
Delad information, effektiv information â?? Rasmus Fleischer, frilansjournalist och aktiv i PiratbyrÃ¥n, argumenterar för det rationella med att vara solidarisk pÃ¥ informationsomrÃ¥det.Fri information i praktiken: Creative Commons och Open Access â?? Mathias Klang, doktorand vid Göteborgs Universitet och projektledare för Creative Commons i Sverige, hjälper dig att befria informationen.
Kampen om informationen â?? Lars Ilshammar, författare och förestÃ¥ndare för Arbetarrörelsens Arkiv och Bibliotek, ger oss en övergripande bild av den globala kampen mellan Ã?ppnare som vill frigöra informationen och Stängare som vill lÃ¥sa in den.
Mer information finns hos Världsbiblioteket
När: 15/5, kl. 12:30â??17:00
Var: Solidaritetsrörelsens Hus, Tegelviksgatan 40, Stockholm
Arr: Globalportalen och Världsbiblioteket
Scientific Publication in Europe
In the report Study on the Economic and Technical Evolution of the Scientific Publication Markets in Europe (full report here), Commissioned by Directorate-General for Research (January 2006) the following recommendations are made:
A1. Guarantee public access to publicly-funded research results shortly after publication.
A2. Aim at a ‘level-playing field’ in terms of business models in publishing
A3. ‘Extended Quality’ rankings of scientific journals
A4. Guarantee perennial access to scholarly journal digital archives
A5. Foster interoperable tools to improve knowledge, visibility, accessibility and dissemination
B1. Promote pro-competitive pricing strategies
B2. Scrutinize future significant mergers
B3. Promote the development of electronic publications
C1. Setting-up an advisory committee
C2. Further investigation
The market for scientific publications has been under development for a long time. Now the situation we have arrived at is warped. The writers apply for grants (often government grants) to research and write. Sometimes the writers even apply for grants to publish their material. When the material is published the libraries (often funded by public money) then pay to buy back the books or subscribe to the journals.
Very often the system implies that public funding pays for access to the same knowledge several times over. This is a subvention of the scientific publishing industry.
In addition to this the university text book industry has grown into a virutal monopoly where the major players control almost entire markets depending upon subject area. Mergers between the companies have created massive media companies that control the publication of university text books. This is reflected in the price of the litterature.
Street Art & Advertising
Yesterday I saw this poster.
Its an advert for an energy substitute. The basic premise is that many people have a banana in their training bags but the banana is not good enough to help the body get the amounts of carbohydrates and proteins it needs after a workout. Therefore bananas are for monkeys.
While I could argue about the eating habits of monkeys (not that many bananas) that is not what I want to do. The point of this post is to talk about advertising.
The inspiration for this poster has been taken from grafitti – this can be seen by the imitation of stencils and the mock access paint running down the poster. The ad-company has obviously been inspired by street artists, such as Banksy. This is one of Banksy’s works below.
My question is wouldnt it be nice if the commercial use of art in advertising was openly recognised and acknowledged?
Advertisers tend to rely on the outside world for their inspiration but see no need to admit the fact that they are borrowing from a wider culture. I realise that this is asking a lot but shouldnt advertisers acknowledge these sources?
The Laptop Ban
Recently there has been a growing discussion online about students use of laptops during lectures. This discussion began when a law professor banned the use of laptops during her lectures. The directive seems innocent enough:
Beginning on Tuesday, March 14, the use of laptop computers and other similar devices will not be allowed during Civil Procedure class session. Please be sure to bring with you…paper and pen or pencil for taking notes.
The University made it clear that it was the professors decision (my earlier post here). In the resulting furore one student even threatened to leave (“If we continue without laptops, I’m out of here. I’m gone” USA Today). This seems a bit melodramatic for one course but it is interesting to see how the university will continue to react.
These discussions are particularly interesting as the faculty where I am based has provided laptops and wifi for all the students and there are constant discussions on the students ability to handle this technology particularly in relation to the lecture scenario but even in relation to the need to read offscreen material.
Of course this problem is not unique.
In post Collision Detection writes:
I’d argue that it [Laptops & Wifi] also provides some healthy competition for the professors; too many of them read off brittle, yellowing, decades-old lecture notes and never engage their classes. They’re losing the Darwinian battle for attention for good reasons, and it’s time to cull the herd.
and in a post entitled “The First Thing We Do, Let’s Kill All The Laptops” Plastic writes that “Several schools are considering giving their professors the authority to switch off wireless access.”
This is a tough one. I agree that there is a real need for university lecturers to improve their material and presentation skills – some are really terrible. But there must be a way of improving the lectures without providing more diversions? There is no way a lecturer can compete with online material. But will the cost of improving the lecturer’s skills be the students failure to complete their eductation?
My students have a choice to listen or learn in some other way. But if they use their time with their laptops rather than listening to lectures or actually reading the material is it my fault that they fail their exams? The camel has been taken to the water-hole but but refuses to drink. At the same time I still believe that I have a responsibility to teach – which involves students learning.