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The Cultural Commons and Social Justice: Foundations for a New European Humanism

by Philippe Aigrain

The European construction is at a crossroads. Faced with a major global crisis that challenges its very existence, it must redefine itself by adopting new directions for its policies. These orientations can no longer be expressed negatively, as the avoidance of war, or as the rejection of National egoisms. They must install a new positive agenda, in which European citizens, and in particular the youth, can recognize what they have already started to build, and which they can trust as enabling them to build it further. While the finance-dominated economy is sinking and pulling societies downwards, citizens, advocacy groups and intellectuals have started building new agendas. There will be many paths opened, and this text explores but one of them: the recognition that in the digital era, a huge share of knowledge production, cultural creativity and public expression occurs in a non-market sphere, where the products of activities are placed under commons statutes. Recognizing it, we outline how the cultural commons can be one of the laboratories of the exploration of a new humanism, and under which conditions it can contribute to social justice. more at: http://paigrain.debatpublic.net/?p=4905&lang=en

May 29, 2012

Berkman Center Webcast live oggi ore 18.30 - Making large volunteer-driven projects sustainable. Lessons learned from Drupal

by Giuseppe Futia

*Making large volunteer-driven projects sustainable. Lessons learned from Drupal* http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2012/05/buytaert * Dries Buytaert, original creator and project lead of Drupal * Today, 6.30 pm Webcast live: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/interactive/webcast http://nexa.polito.it/berkman-webcast-live In this talk, Dries shares his experiences on how he grew the Drupal community from just one person to over 800,000 members over the past 10 years. Today, the Drupal community is one of the largest and most active Open Source projects in the world, powering 1 out of 50 websites in the world. The concept of major projects growing out of a volunteer, community-based model is not new to the world. Volunteer networks and communities exist in many shapes and sizes. Throughout history there are examples of pure volunteer organizations that were instrumental in the founding and formation of many projects. For example, the first trade routes were ancient trackways which citizens later developed on their own into roads suited for wheeled vehicles in order to improve commerce. Transportation was improved for all citizens, driven by the commercial interest of some. Today, we certainly appreciate that our governments maintain the roads. However, we still see road signs stating that a particular section of a highway is kept clean and trim by volunteers -- at least in some countries. When new ground needs to be broken, it's often volunteer communities that do it. But a full-time, paid infrastructure can be necessary for the preservation and protection of what communities begin. In this presentation, Dries wants to brainstorm about how large communities evolve and how to sustain them over time. Some questions to think about ahead of the presentation: * Do you know examples of large organizations that have grown out of volunteer communities? * Why do some communities keep growing while other communities come to a halt? * Is the commercialization of a volunteer-driven community part of a community's natural life-cycle? * Is it inevitable that over time the operation and/or leadership of volunteer communities are transferred to paid personnel? *About Dries* Dries Buytaert is the original creator and project lead for the Drupal open source web publishing and collaboration platform. Buytaert serves as president of the Drupal Association, a non-profit organization formed to help Drupal flourish. He is also co-founder and chief technology officer of Acquia, a venture-backed software company that offers products and services for Drupal. Dries is also a co-founder of Mollom, a web service that helps you identify content quality and, more importantly, helps you stop website spam. A native of Belgium, Buytaert holds a PhD in computer science and engineering from Ghent University and a Licentiate Computer Science (MsC) from the University of Antwerp. In 2008, Buytaert was elected Young Entrepreneurs of Tech by BusinessWeek as well as MIT TR 35 Young Innovator. *Links* * Acquia <http://www.acquia.com/> * Drupal <http://drupal.org/> * Dries Buytaert <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2012/05/www.buytaert.net>

May 29, 2012

Cookie e altre amenità

by Blengino

Qualcuno ha il testo del D.L.vo Modifiche al decreto legislativo 30 giugno 2003, n. 196, recante Codice in materia di protezione dei dati personali in attuazione delle direttive 2009/136/CE, in materia di trattamento dei dati personali e tutela della vita privata nel settore delle comunicazioni elettroniche, e 2009/140/CE in materia di reti e servizi di comunicazione elettronica e del Regolamento (CE) n. 2006/2004 sulla cooperazione tra le Autorità nazionali responsabili dell'esecuzione della normativa a tutela dei consumatori approvato dal CDM del 25 u.s.?

May 28, 2012

Internet ha maturato *il titolo di non essere esclusa*

by giorgio.giunchi＠cctld.it

"Dichiarazione a supporto della candidatura di Stefano Quintarelli a commissario AGCOM" http://cctld.it/internetworking/html/supporto_quintarelli_agcom.html Perche' ? A mio avviso molto semplicemente perche' tutta questa vicenda ha fatto esplodere l' evidenza che "Internet ha maturato *il titolo di non essere esclusa*" [conversazioni con Antonio Anselmo Martino appena inserite] http://cctld.it/internetworking/html/agcom.html Giorgio :::::::

May 27, 2012

BBC News - Cookie law set to come into force

by Marco Mendola

--- FYI --- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18206810 Buona domenica, Marco Mendola

May 27, 2012

Big Brother Awards Italia 2012

by Fabio Pietrosanti (naif)

Ciao a tutti, questa email per ricordare a tutti che sono aperte le nominations per i Big Brother Awards Italia. le categorie sono: - "Peggior ente pubblico" - "Peggiore azienda privata" - "Peggiore tecnologia" E' stato mantenuto anche il premio positivo "Winston Smith - eroe della privacy". Potete esprimere la vostra indicazione su: http://bba.winstonsmith.org/ Fabio

May 27, 2012

Human Rights on YouTube

by Corrado Druetta

Il post (del Post) da cui traggo la notizia in realtà è ambiguo: più che un'iniziativa di YouTube, a me pare un'iniziativa della ONG di video advocacy Witness (consiglio il sito: www.witness.org) assieme a Storyful, che utilizza Youtube come canale di diffusione del progetto. L'idea di un canale video tematico può non essere il massimo dell'originalità, ma dedicarlo ai diritti umani è sempre una buona cosa. Ora, si tratta di farlo uscire dalla versione "beta" e riempirlo di contenuti: http://www.ilpost.it/2012/05/26/il-canale-di-youtube-per-i-diritti-umani/ Corrado Druetta

May 27, 2012

NYTimes: "Presidential Panel Urges More Flexible Use of Spectrum"

by J.C. DE MARTIN

May 25, 2012 Presidential Panel Urges More Flexible Use of Spectrum By JOHN MARKOFF <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/john_markoff/i…> SAN FRANCISCO --- A just-completed report from a presidential advisory committee urges President Obama to adopt new computer technologies to make better use of a huge swath of the radio spectrum now controlled by federal agencies. The shift, which could be accomplished by presidential signature --- and without Congressional involvement --- would relieve spectrum congestion caused by the popularity of smartphones, and generate far more revenue for the federal government than auctioning spectrum to wireless carriers, according to the authors of the report. Making better use of the spectrum for cellphones would allow for more services, more competition and possibly lower prices for consumers using cellphone data services. The new plan, which calls on the government to electronically rent or lease spectrum for periods of time as short as seconds using newly available computerized radio technologies, was presented publicly Friday to a meeting of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, or PCAST. The authors of the report included Eric E. Schmidt, the chairman of Google, Craig Mundie, Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer and Silicon Valley venture capitalists Mark P. Gorenberg and David E. Liddle, among others. The report is scheduled to be presented to the president in June after final editing. The idea of using computer-based technologies to increase spectrum <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/18/technology/mobile-carriers-warn-of-spectr…> capacity is catching on rapidly in the United States and overseas. Twice this month in speeches before cellular and cable companies Julius Genachowski, the Federal Communications Commission <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/federal…> chairman, has called on industry to embrace spectrum-sharing technologies to make room for the wireless data explosion. [...] Continua qui: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/26/technology/presidential-panel-urges-bette…

May 26, 2012

Dave Winer: We *can* do better than Facebook

by bernardo parrella

http://scripting.com/stories/2012/05/21/weCanDoBetterThanFacebook.html Google's problem is they used Facebook as their guide to upgrading their view of what the Internet is. And that led them away from their strength, and into what I think is a dead-end. Much as Microsoft was led into a dead-end by the web in the 1990s. The problem with Facebook's approach is more than it has centralized all access to user's data, which they have. They've also centralized the flow of new ideas to the Internet. If you buy the idea that Facebook is the Internet, which is of course the problem for Facebook. Because no matter how big they get, they're still just part of the Internet. All the devices people use to access Facebook can access other parts of the Internet. So if something more exciting comes along, people can get there. (....) The value of the Internet is that it represents a common set of protocols and formats that are very widely implemented. Everywhere human beings are you will find HTTP and HTML. Even in space. Even at the poles. Even in the jungle. Or the core of our cities. It is even possible to add new stuff to that. But please study how that happens. Sure some of it comes from the big companies, but lots of it comes from the people. Some of it comes from young people, and some of it comes from people in their 40s, 50s and 60s. (....) If the past is a predictor, here's what will happen. Facebook will exist for a long time to come. They're huge. They've absorbed a lot of the growth of Silicon Valley. They're the continuation of companies like Sun and Netscape, Apple and H-P. Google is out there too, but they are imho where Microsoft was in the 1990s. They too will be here for a long time because it's very rare for companies as large and diverse as Google to go down quickly. It usually takes a generation or two, and sometimes they figure out how to be in it much longer. But again, if the past is a predictor, new ideas will take root among users and those ideas will grow into the next layer of tech. That's a good place to put your attention too. .... Dave Winer: We*can* do better than Facebook http://scripting.com/stories/2012/05/21/weCanDoBetterThanFacebook.html

May 25, 2012

Vint Cerf: keep the Internet open

by Marco Pancini

Cari Tutti, Vi segnalo questo op-ed di Vint Cerf: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/25/opinion/keep-the-internet-open.html?_r=1 Un caro saluto. marco -- Marco Pancini | Senior Policy Counsel | pancini(a)google.com | +32.28948492 +32.473531203 This email may be confidential or privileged. If you received this communication by mistake, please don't forward it to anyone else, please erase all copies and attachments, and please let me know that it went to the wrong person. Thanks.

May 25, 2012