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Open Source e Decentralizzazione: verso una Coevoluzione Sostenibile
by D. Davide Lamanna Oct. 4, 2023

Oct. 4, 2023

Carissime, venerdì prossimo, 6 ottobre, ore 14:30, faremo un talk show nell'ambito della Milano Digital Week. Avremo piacere di avervi con noi. D. Open Source e Decentralizzazione: verso una Coevoluzione Sostenibile ABSTRACT: I sistemi distribuiti, che appassionarono i pionieri della comunicazione in rete in virtù delle loro caratteristiche di decentralizzazione, sono stati invece piegati a logiche di centralizzazione esasperate, dettate dalla corsa alla capitalizzazione del dato. Abbiamo coinvolto tre esperti di diverse discipline per un appassionante viaggio multidisciplinare attraverso il passato, il presente e il futuro dei sistemi distribuiti e il loro impatto sulla società contemporanea. Esploreremo l'evoluzione in corso nelle relazioni tra esseri umani e tecnologia e ci chiederemo come è possibile trasformare il modo in cui sviluppiamo e utilizziamo le tecnologie per ottenere ecosistemi digitali più inclusivi ed equi. Come possiamo oggi riscoprire le tecnologie conviviali? Con quali architetture hardware e software? Gli esperti ci inviteranno ad una riflessione profonda sul modo in cui possiamo recuperare la decentralizzazione, attraverso curiosità, pazienza e predilezione per la semplicità, spronandoci a coltivare e diffondere soluzioni che promuovano l'autonomia e la diversità. Il monopolio non è solo e in primo luogo un problema economico; beni comuni e gratuità sussistono e si espandono in virtù di un consapevole impegno collettivo, e non da sé. RELATORI: Maria Chiara Pievatolo, docente di Filosofia Politica all'Università di Pisa Norberto Patrignani, docente di Computer Ethics alla Scuola di Dottorato del Politecnico di Torino Agnese Trocchi, Digital Communications Manager MODERATORE: Davide Lamanna, CTO Binario Etico PER ISCRIVERSI: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0ucuurrDIjHteILrmrM2w6MWPXdSHIYs… (null)

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Google User Data Has Become a Favorite Police Shortcut [CDT:L0] [CDT:L1]
by 380° Oct. 4, 2023

Oct. 4, 2023

Buongiorno, una volta da destra e da sinistra avrebbero gridato allo "stato di polizia", oggi, dall'alto e dal basso, queste notizie sono trattate alla stregua della _moda_, collezione autunno inverno 2023/24; perché tutti _devono_ sapere cosa va di moda. Bloomberg: «Google User Data Has Become a Favorite Police Shortcut» By Julia Love and Davey Alba September 28, 2023 at 4:01 AM UTC Articolo completo: https://archive.ph/p6jcc --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- Investigators increasingly use warrants to obtain location and search data from Google, even for nonviolent cases—and even for people who had nothing to do with the crime. [...] Raleigh PD sent Google a search warrant demanding a list of people who were in the neighborhood when the gear was stolen. They also secured a judge’s order for the company to identify anyone who Googled “Motorola APX 6000,” the model of the radio, and similar phrases in the days after the device went missing. Google handed over user location data in response. [...] Rather than naming a suspect, law enforcement identifies basic parameters—a set of geographic coordinates or search terms—and asks Google to provide hits, essentially generating a list of leads. [...] Police have been using versions of this method for decades. Security camera footage and cell tower data from phone companies all have the potential for invasions of privacy that go beyond searching a suspect’s trunk. But the sheer volume of information available from Google about where tens of millions of people have been and what they’ve searched for is unprecedented. [...] Google says it received a record 60,472 search warrants in the US last year, more than double the number from 2019. The company provides at least some information in about 80% of cases. Although many large technology companies receive requests for information from law enforcement at least occasionally, police consider Google to be particularly well suited to jump-start an investigation with few other leads. [...] the president for global affairs at Google and its parent company, Alphabet Inc. “In a significant percentage of cases, we go back and forth with the government to try and narrow warrants.” [...] Cooperation between American businesses and police traces as far back as the days of the telegraph. [...] A Google team known as Legal Investigations Support, or LIS, reviews search warrants and subpoenas. Working with Google’s legal counsel, an employee might process 80 to 90 requests a week. Many LIS specialists are only a few years out of college; some view the role as a way to test the waters before applying to law school. [...] “You’re dealing with government demands, so these aren’t just optional,” says Richard Salgado, who led Google’s division of law enforcement and information security for more than 13 years. --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- Riascoltate *bene* cosa dice l'alto dirigente: «we go back and forth with the government to try and narrow warrants»; "govenrnment", non "judge". Google e tutte le più importanti aziende di telecomunicazione dal telegrafo in poi sono (state) un "asset" del governo USA... ma /solo/ per tutte le questioni di sicurezza nazionale :-O --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- About 1 in 5 location warrants were for offenses such as theft and vandalism. A detective in Scottsdale, Arizona, got one in search of somebody accused of stealing a Louis Vuitton handbag. --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- Il cerchio si chiude: si parla di alta moda. :D --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- Some officials say that the technique is becoming less effective as more criminals learn about it and that many of them simply turn off the setting on their devices or leave their phones at home before committing a crime. --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- Mavà, non mi dite che tutto 'sto circo NON serve contro i criminali, quelli veri! :-O --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- Roy Schahrer, a salesman in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler, was questioned by police after Google data put him near the scene of a shooting in 2021. Cops ruled him out as a suspect after determining he’s “a routine cat feeder” in the neighborhood --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- Oh che tenerezza: se siete gattari potete dormire sonni tranquilli... alla fine sempre lì si torna, ai gattini. Saluti, 380° P.S.: «he likens to “an electronic fingerprint that you can find at the scene.”»; mumble: impronte, *digitali*... uh: un nipotino di Edmund Locard! :-) -- 380° (Giovanni Biscuolo public alter ego) «Noi, incompetenti come siamo, non abbiamo alcun titolo per suggerire alcunché» Disinformation flourishes because many people care deeply about injustice but very few check the facts. Ask me about <https://stallmansupport.org>.

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Foresight & Data Protection a Milano il 6 Ottobre
by Stefano Leucci Oct. 4, 2023

Oct. 4, 2023

Cari tutti, scrivo per invitarvi all’evento che si terrà il prossimo venerdì *6 ottobre a Milano, alle ore 14:00*. Questa occasione speciale sarà dedicata all’esplorazione dei punti di contatto tra due discipline complesse e che so essere molto vicine agli interessi di Nexa: *il foresight e la data protection*. Il programma prevede un intervento iniziale da parte del manager del laboratorio d'innovazione del CNIL (l’Autorità Privacy Francese). Successivamente, una tavola rotonda arricchirà il dibattito con la partecipazione di speaker provenienti dal mondo pubblico, privato ed accademico, i quali si occuperanno di esaminare e discutere strategie “proattive e anticipatorie” nel settore della privacy. *Mi risulta essere la prima volta che si organizza un evento con questo focus specifico in Italia*, un motivo in più per partecipare a questo momento di apprendimento e confronto. Per maggiori dettagli sull'evento, vi invito a visitare il seguente link: https://www.privacyforfutures.it/2023/09/27/privacy-for-futures-i-possibili… Inoltre, se siete interessati ad avere un assaggio preliminare sui temi che verranno trattati, abbiamo iniziato una discussione qui: https://www.agendadigitale.eu/sicurezza/privacy/i-futuri-della-privacy-perc… Avremo anche una diretta online. Non appena sarà disponibile, vi farò avere anche il link per connettervi in caso non riusciste ad essere presenti di persona. Un caro saluto a tutti, Stefano

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saluti e presentazione
by Andrea Barontini Oct. 4, 2023

Oct. 4, 2023

Buongiorno a tutte/i non so come usa qua, ma vi rubo due minuti per presentarmi. Mi chiamo Andrea Barontini, mi occupo di networking per lavoro, e nel tempo libero di blockchain, criptovalute e in generale sono interessato a quanto sia decentralizzazione, privacy, incentivi che promanano dalla teoria dei giochi come declinazione moderna del concetto di democrazia. In tal senso sono atterrato in questa mailing attirato dal sottopancia di Nexa Center, "for Internet & Society": in questo periodo sono molto frustrato dall'assenza di dibattito italiano sul tema che potremo superficialmente racchiudere sotto il titolo "ChatControl EU", e che recentemente si sta rivelando anche in maniera anche documentata per quello che rischia di essere, grazie a un'inchiesta indipendente a cui ha lavorato anche l'italiano Giacomo Zandonini: https://balkaninsight.com/2023/09/25/who-benefits-inside-the-eus-fight-over… https://balkaninsight.com/2023/09/29/europol-sought-unlimited-data-access-i… La mia frustrazione deriva soprattutto dal fatto che oltre a non essere un dibattito diffuso nonostante la portata delle ricadute (cosa grave ma che mi aspettavo data la tecnicita' soggiacente), ho registrato molta indolenza in almeno un paio di consessi frequentati da specialisti del settore. Me la sto prendendo troppo a cuore :) Buona continuazione a tutte/i Andrea

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Amazon restricts authors from self-publishing more than three books a day after AI concerns
by Daniela Tafani Oct. 3, 2023

Oct. 3, 2023

Un umano, si sa, può scrivere due o tre libri al giorno, ma non di più. Amazon restricts authors from self-publishing more than three books a day after AI concerns The company announced the new limitations after an influx of suspected AI-generated material was listed for sale but said that ‘very few’ publishers will be affected https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/sep/20/amazon-restricts-authors-from…

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Libro: "Geographies of Digital Exclusion: Data and Inequality"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Oct. 3, 2023

Oct. 3, 2023

E' del 2022, ma non mi sembra fosse passato in lista (open access). jc *Geographies of Digital Exclusion: Data and Inequality *By Mark Graham and Martin Dittus Today’s urban environments are layered with data and algorithms that fundamentally shape how we perceive and move through space. But are our digitally dense environments continuing to amplify inequalities rather than alleviate them? This book looks at the key contours of information inequality, and who, what and where gets left out. Platforms like Google Maps and Wikipedia have become important gateways to understanding the world, and yet they are characterised by significant gaps and biases, often driven by processes of exclusion. As a result, their digital augmentations tend to be refractions rather than reflections: they highlight only some facets of the world at the expense of others. This doesn’t mean that more equitable futures aren’t possible. By outlining the mechanisms through which our digital and material worlds intersect, the authors conclude with a roadmap for what alternative digital geographies might look like. https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/research/publications/geographies-of-digital-exclu…

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Seminario: "Le azioni della Commissione europea per un'editoria accademica aperta e di qualità"- 12/10/2023 - on-line
by Damiano Verzulli Oct. 3, 2023

Oct. 3, 2023

Segnalo che il team Training di GARR ha organizzato, per il prossimo 12/10/2023, in modalita' "on-line", il seguente seminario: "Le azioni della Commissione europea per un'editoria accademica aperta e di qualità - 12 ottobre 2023" Programma: * 14:30 – 14:40 Apertura del collegamento e benvenuto di Elena Giglia * 14:40 - 15:00 Presentazione a cura di Gabriella Leo * 15:00 – 15:30 Q&A/Discussione L'intervento si propone di esporre i punti fondamentali emersi dalle conclusioni del Consiglio dell'Unione Europea del 23 maggio 2023 sul tema "High-quality, transparent, open, trustworthy and equitable scholarly publishing". Inoltre, verranno presentate le azioni specifiche della Commissione Europea per favorire l'Open Access, con un'attenzione particolare rivolta alla piattaforma editoriale "Open Research Europe". Intervengono: Gabriella Leo: policy officer presso l'unità "Open Science and Research Infrastructure" della DG Ricerca e Innovazione della Commissione Europea, in distacco dal Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR). Nella DG R&I si occupa di sviluppare e monitorare le politiche europee per l'Open Access e per il coinvolgimento dei cittadini e della società nelle attività di ricerca e innovazione. Prima di entrare a far parte della Commissione Europea nel 2021, ha lavorato per oltre 30 anni come ricercatrice presso il CNR, focalizzandosi sui materiali avanzati per applicazioni nella sensoristica e nell'optoelettronica. Elena Giglia (moderatrice): è responsabile dell’Unità di Progetto Open Access all’Università di Torino. Svolge un ruolo attivo in gruppi di lavoro nazionali e internazionali sull’Open Science, ed è partner di diversi progetti Horizon 2020 e Horizon Europe. Ha fatto parte presso il Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca della Commissione che ha redatto il Piano Nazionale per la Scienza Aperta, di prossima pubblicazione. È stata membro del Gruppo di lavoro “Open Access e nuovi indicatori” presso ANVUR (2013-2014). Partecipa attivamente a convegni nazionali e internazionali su diversi aspetti della Open Science, inclusa la valutazione, e su questi temi svolge una intensa attività di formazione, informazione e promozione. Altri dettagli e le modalita' di partecipazione sono disponibili all'indirizzo: https://learning.garr.it/enrol/index.php?id=253 Saluti, DV -- Damiano Verzulli e-mail:damiano@verzulli.it --- possible?ok:while(!possible){open_mindedness++} --- "...I realized that free software would not generate the kind of income that was needed. Maybe in USA or Europe, you may be able to get a well paying job as a free software developer, but not here [in Africa]..." -- Guido Sohne - 1973-2008 http://ole.kenic.or.ke/pipermail/skunkworks/2008-April/005989.html

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Uno su mille ce la fa (o della polizia predittiva)
by Daniela Tafani Oct. 3, 2023

Oct. 3, 2023

Predictive Policing Software Terrible At Predicting Crimes A software company sold a New Jersey police department an algorithm that was right less than 1% of the time By Aaron Sankin<https://themarkup.org/people/aaron-sankin/> and Surya Mattu<https://themarkup.org/people/surya-mattu/> [...] We examined 23,631 predictions generated by Geolitica between Feb. 25 to Dec. 18, 2018 for the Plainfield Police Department (PD). Each prediction we analyzed from the company’s algorithm indicated that one type of crime was likely to occur in a location not patrolled by Plainfield PD. In the end, the success rate was less than half a percentage point. Fewer than 100 of the predictions lined up with a crime in the predicted category, that was also later reported to police. Diving deeper, we looked at predictions specifically for robberies or aggravated assaults that were likely to occur in Plainfield and found a similarly low success rate: 0.6 percent. The pattern was even worse when we looked at burglary predictions, which had a success rate of 0.1 percent. [...] https://themarkup.org/prediction-bias/2023/10/02/predictive-policing-softwa… <https://themarkup.org/prediction-bias/2023/10/02/predictive-policing-softwa…>

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"AI" (LLM, GPT) sparaballe
by Andrea Bolioli Oct. 3, 2023

Oct. 3, 2023

Ciao a tutti, ho visto per caso in TV Rai questo spot: https://www.raiplay.it/video/2023/08/Pillole-contro-la-disinformazione-Spar… Si tratta di una delle "Pillole contro la disinformazione". Non sapevo di questa iniziativa dell'IDMO: https://www.idmo.it/2023/08/31/fake-news-rai-idmo/ Non male, "sparaballe" :-) Buon pomeriggio!

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‘Biggest act of copyright theft in history’: thousands of Australian books allegedly used to train AI model | Australia news | The Guardian
by Alberto Cammozzo Oct. 2, 2023

Oct. 2, 2023

<https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/sep/28/australian-books-tra…> Thousands of books from some of Australia’s most celebrated authors have potentially been caught up in what Booker prize-winning novelist Richard Flanagan has called “the biggest act of copyright theft in history”. The works have allegedly been pirated by the US-based Books3 dataset and used to train generative AI for corporations such as Meta and Bloomberg. Flanagan, who found 10 of his works, including the multi-international award-winning 2013 novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North, on the Books3 dataset, told Guardian Australia he was deeply shocked by the discovery made several days ago. “I felt as if my soul had been strip mined and I was powerless to stop it,” he said in a statement. “This is the biggest act of copyright theft in history.” AI could ‘turbo-charge fraud’ and be monopolised by tech companies, Andrew Leigh warns The Australian Publishers Association confirmed to Guardian Australia on Wednesday that as many as 18,000 fiction and nonfiction titles with Australian ISBNs (unique international standard book numbers) appeared to be affected by the copyright infringement, although it is not yet clear what proportion of these are Australian editions of internationally authored books. “We’re still working through [the data] to work out the impact in terms of Australian authors,” APA spokesperson Stuart Glover said. “This is a massive legal and ethical challenge for the publishing industry and for authors globally.” A search tool published on Monday by US media platform The Atlantic and uploaded by the US Authors Guild on Wednesday revealed the works of Peter Carey, Helen Garner, Kate Grenville, Anna Funder, Christos Tsiolkas and Thomas Keneally, as well as Flanagan and dozens of other high-profile Australian authors, were included in the pirated dataset containing more than 180,000 titles. On Thursday, the Australian Society of Authors issued a statement saying it was “horrified” to learn that the works of Australian writers were being used to train artificial intelligence without permission from the authors. ASA chief executive, Olivia Lanchester, described the Books3 dataset as piracy on an industrial scale. “Authors appropriately feel outraged,” Lanchester said. “The fact is this technology relies upon books, journals, essays written by authors, yet permission was not sought nor compensation granted.” Lanchester said the Australian literary industry, while not objecting per se to emerging technologies such as AI, was deeply concerned about the lack of transparency evident in the development and monetisation of AI by global tech companies. “Turning a blind eye to the legitimate rights of copyright owners threatens to diminish already precarious creative careers,” she said. “The enrichment of a few powerful companies is at the cost of thousands of individual creators. This is not how a fair market functions.” Josephine Johnston, chief executive of Australia’s Copyright Agency, described the Books3 development as “a free kick to big tech” at the expense of Australia’s creative and cultural life. “We’re going to need greater transparency – how these tools have been developed, trained, how they operate – before people can truly understand what their legal rights might be,” she said. “We seem to be in this terrible position now where content owners – remembering that the vast majority of them will be individual authors – may actually have to take out court cases to enforce their rights.” Australian copyright law protects creators of original content from data scraping. Litigation in the US against ChatGPT creator OpenAI over use of allegedly pirated book datasets, Books1 and Books2 (which do not appear to be affiliated with Books3) has already commenced. In July, North American horror/fantasy writers Mona Awad (author of Bunny) and Paul Tremblay (author of The Cabin at the End of the World) filed a lawsuit in a San Francisco federal court, alleging ChatGPT unlawfully digested their books as part of its AI training data. On 28 August, OpenAI filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the authors “misconceive the scope of copyright, failing to take into account the limitations and exceptions (including fair use) that properly leave room for innovations like the large language models now at the forefront of artificial intelligence”. On 19 September the Writers Guild and 17 of its members, including bestselling novelists John Grisham, George RR Martin and Jodi Picoult, filed a complaint in a New York district court against OpenAI, seeking redress for “flagrant and harmful infringements” of guild members’ registered copyrights. In a statement on its website, the guild says while it is aware that companies such as Meta and Bloomberg have used the Books3 dataset to train their LLMs, it is not yet clear whether OpenAI is using Books3 to train its ChatGPT models GPT 3.5 or GPT 4. Democracies face ‘truth decay’ as AI blurs fact and fiction, warns head of Australia’s military Guardian Australia has sought comment from OpenAI, which has yet to officially respond to the guild’s complaint, and Meta. On 4 September, US technology magazine Wired reported that a Danish anti-piracy group called Rights Alliance had been told by Bloomberg that the company did not plan to train future versions of its BloombergGPT using Books3. Bloomberg declined to respond to the Guardian’s queries. The APA said the global nature of the issue would present significant challenges in enforcement and prosecution, and has joined the authors’ society in calling for AI technologies to be regulated. Consultation closed last month for a Department of Industry, Science and Resources discussion paper on supporting responsible AI. A parliamentary inquiry is under way examining the use of generative artificial intelligence in the Australian education system. Flanagan said it was up to the Australian government to act to protect Australia’s writers. “It has power and we do not,” he said. “If it cares for our culture it must now stand up and fight for it.”

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