Syndicate: Re: The Multi-Missions of Syndicate (was [ot] [!nt] \n2+0\)

[Amy Alexander <plagiari@plagiarist.org>]

On Tue, 7 Aug 2001, Igor wrote:

> If I remember correctly (it's
> questionable, naturally) the list was created to 'serve' for two purposes.
> The first one was creation of informational place/space for exchange of
> announcements, reports, info on what happens; and the second one was to
> create a space/place for dialogues focused on the specific
> needs/theories/practices of CEE/East Europe/Whatever art practitioners and
> theoreticians. I am not a sociologist, and certainly will not made huge
> analysis, but I will dare to say that the first idea is merely reduced to
> announcements (with few exceptions), and the second one resting in peace. If
> we compare syndicate with the nettime (one of the models for the initial
> group back in the '96), result is ruinous.

i'm glad you brought this up, because i've been wondering this myself, as
a mostly-lurking subscriber on this list. maybe some discussion/clarification
would help, if there are others thinking about the same questions...
what i've been wondering is - primarily in terms of the
first purpose you mention of the list: how does/should syndicate differ from nettime?

it seems to me that discussion threads on syndicate do arise with respect
to eastern european political issues, and on that front, the discussions
on syndicate seem more personal than on nettime and with more interaction - so there i
do see the difference between the lists.

however, with regard to other sorts
of topics, e.g. art, cyberpolitics/culture etc., there seem to be announcements
but very little in terms of discussion threads going on.
(except for the self-fulfilling "too much attention to NN" threads -
dang, it's like trying not to scratch a rash, isn't it? ;-) )

so anyway, sometimes when i have something to post i wonder,
"if i post this on both syndicate and nettime am i being redundant or
(unintentionally) offtopic?" so
usually these days i'll post discussion-type posts more to nettime than
syndicate, not because
i like nettime better, but because i'm less sure what fits in on syndicate
and don't want to be redundant by attempting to start threads on both
lists.  (of course i realize that moderation is a big difference between
the two lists also.)

but i remember a couple years ago thinking that nettime lacked discussion
threads too - it seemed to be postings of essays and articles to which
nobody ever responded. then somehow, that seemed to change, and
discussion threads emerged, but i'm not sure how.

so maybe we can clarify/discuss all that some?

meanwhile, to do my part and add some content to this otherwise "meta" post:

<content>
1) dmitry skylarov is now out of US prison on $50,000 bail awaiting trial.
however, he is not allowed to leave northern california, and still faces
prison if convicted of writing software at his job in russia: software which is legal
in russia. for anyone who isn't familiar with the story, this bust comes to
dmitry courtesy of Adobe corp, under the amazingly ludicrous US legislation DMCA,
which is now being used as  a model for "anti-hacker" legislation all over the
world.
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/08/06/1941228&mode=thread

2) this one may not have as many implications outside the US (i hope), but has had
less press, so for those who missed it: David McOwen faces 15 years
in prison and $415,000 in fines for participating in a distributed computing
project (sort of like seti@home but different) on machines he administered
at his job at a public college in Georgia. essentially, the state of
Georgia is trying to bill him for time they spent working on prosecuting the case -
a shamelessly overt case of for-profit law enforcemnt.
http://slashdot.org/yro/01/07/08/2153206.shtml

3) the US government, in partnership with microsoft, overhyped the heck out
of the "code red" worm.
http://www.time.com/time/columnist/taylor/article/0,9565,169678,00.html
(to be fair, above link is probably an overreaction in the other
direction, but... )
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/08/03/1211229&mode=thread

4) look for the US federal and state governments, and probably the local
government of wherever you live, to push through even more orwellian
anti-cybercrime legislation
in the very near future, in the name of stopping all these nasty hacker
folks like skylarov, mcowen, and [your name here?]

</content>

feel free to start a discussion on any of the above. :-)

ciao for now,
-@

-- 
plagiarist.org
Recontextualizing script-kiddyism as net-art for over 1/20 of a century.



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