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The flip side of free
by Giuseppe Attardi April 6, 2021

April 6, 2021

This book is a must-read for anyone who wishes to engage in meaningful discussions of Internet governance, which will increasingly involve economic issues (17-20). It explains clearly why we don’t have to pay in money for services that are obviously expensive to provide. Indeed, as we all know, we get lots of so-called free services on the Internet: search facilities, social networks, e-mail, etc. But, as the old saying goes “there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.” It costs money to provide all those Internet services (10), and somebody has to pay for them somehow. In fact, users pay for them, by allowing (often unwittingly: 4, 75, 92, 104, 105) the providers to collect personal data which is then aggregated and used to sell other services (in particular advertising, 69) at a large profit. The book correctly notes that there are both advantages (79) and disadvantages (Chapters 5-8) to the current regime of surveillance capitalism. Had I written a book on the topic, I would have been more critical and would have preferred a subtitle such as “The Triumph of Market Failures in Neo-Liberal Regimes.” http://www.boundary2.org/2021/04/richard-hill-free-isnt-free-review-of-mich…

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Il Recovery plan del Piemonte
by Antonio Iacono April 6, 2021

April 6, 2021

Il "Recovery plan" del Piemonte varato dalla Giunta regionale: oltre 1200 progetti per 27 miliardi [1]. Qui [2] il piano dettagliato per provincia. Antonio [1] https://www.novaratoday.it/attualita/recovery-plan-piemonte.html [2] https://citynews-novaratoday.stgy.ovh/~media/52366938853702/progetti-recove…

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139° Mercoledì di Nexa | 14 Aprile 2021 | Modalità Telematica
by Nexa Media April 6, 2021

April 6, 2021

Gentilissimi, vi segnaliamo che il 139° Mercoledì di Nexa, *"/Il Futuro Immaginato. Lo Speculative Design nell'esplorazione dei futuri/"*, con ospite *Gloria Puppi *(Novus Lab), si svolgerà *mercoledì 14 aprile, dalle ore 18.00 alle ore 20.00*, in *modalità telematica*, utilizzando il software open source di conference call *Jitsi Meet*. Per chi vorrà partecipare live al seminario sarà possibile accedere alla conference call attraverso il seguente link: https://meet.nexacenter.org/MercolediNexa <https://meet.nexacenter.org/MercolediNexa> Nexa Center for Internet and Society Newsletter Se non visualizzi correttamente questo messaggio clicca qui <https://nexa.polito.it/mercoledi-139> NEXA 139° Mercoledì di Nexa Mercoledì 14 aprile 2021, ore 18.00 - 20.00 https://nexa.polito.it/mercoledi-139 <https://nexa.polito.it/mercoledi-139> Il Futuro Immaginato. Lo Speculative Design nell’esplorazione dei futuri Speaker Gloria Puppi (Novus Lab) This event will be webcast live: https://nexa.polito.it/nexa-hangout-on-air <https://nexa.polito.it/nexa-hangout-on-air> L'INCONTRO SI SVOLGERÀ IN MODALITÀ TELEMATICA UTILIZZANDO IL SOFTWARE DI CONFERENCE CALL *JITSI MEET*. Per partecipare all'incontro: https://meet.nexacenter.org/MercolediNexa <https://meet.nexacenter.org/MercolediNexa> Si raccomanda di accedere al link sopra indicato utilizzando il browser *Google Chrome* per una migliore resa del servizio. /“Il desiderio di conoscere i nostri destini individuali è stato collegato, attraverso i secoli, con il nostro desiderio di predire ciò che ne sarà di tutta l'umanità, per comprendere nella sua complessità la Grande Storia”/, così scriveva *Isaac Asimov* nella seconda di copertina del libro *“Futuredays, A Nineteenth-Century Vision of The Year 2000”* che raccoglie le previsioni e le visioni dell'anno 1899 sull'anno 2000. Negli anni ’50 del Novecento è nata, prima nel settore militare per poi passare ufficialmente nell’ambito civile, una meta-disciplina, olistica e interdisciplinare, chiamata *Futures Studies*, o “Studio dei Futuri”. Il suo obiettivo è quello di osservare attentamente il presente per anticipare i *grandi cambiamenti sociali, tecnologici, culturali della civiltà*, i cosiddetti *megatrend*, e prevederne gli sviluppi attraverso l’*elaborazione di scenari*. Lo *Speculative Design* è una branca dei Futures Studies che si occupa di rendere questi scenari più tangibili ed esperienziali, attraverso la narrazione, progettazione e successiva creazione di oggetti e servizi concreti (prototipi diegetici) che potrebbero esistere in un prossimo futuro. L’intervento si prefigge di fornire un *alfabeto di futuri e di anticipazione strategica*, esplorando diversi metodi dei Futures Studies, analizzando case history di prototipi diegetici e testando un metodo di Speculative Design. BIOGRAFIE - e informazioni supplementari [mercoledì139] *Gloria PUPPI* è Presidente dell’associazione culturale Novus Lab e Co-direttrice dello Speculative Design Hub dell’Italian Institute for the Future, realtà che si occupano di anticipazione strategica attraverso l’utilizzo dei Futures Studies. Parallelamente, prosegue da oltre 13 anni il suo lavoro in ambito narrativo come script consultant e sceneggiatrice, fondando nel 2019 Read My Script. *Letture consigliate e link utili:* * Candy, S. Potter, C. 2019, /Design and Futures/. Taiwan, Tamkang University Press * Poli, R., 2019, /Lavorare con il futuro. Idee e strumenti per governare l'incertezza/, Milano, Egea * Dunne, A. & Raby, F., 2013. /Speculative Everything/, London, The MIT Press. * Barbieri Masini E. 2000, /Penser le Futur – L’essentiel de la prospective et de ses méthodes/, Paris, Dunod * Asimov, I., 1986, /Futuredays, A Nineteenth-Century Vision of The Year 2000/, London, Virgin Books Che cosa sono il Centro Nexa e i cicli di incontri “Mercoledì di Nexa” e “Nexa Lunch Seminar” <https://www.facebook.com/nexa.center/> <https://twitter.com/nexacenter> <https://www.youtube.com/user/NexaCenter> #GloriaPuppi <https://twitter.com/PuppiGloria> #nexawednesday <https://twitter.com/search?q=%23nexawednesday&src=typd> Il Centro Nexa su Internet & Società del Politecnico di Torino (Dipartimento di Automatica e Informatica) dal 2006 è un centro di ricerca indipendente e interdisciplinare che, in collaborazione con l'Università di Torino, studia Internet (e più in generale le Tecnologie digitali) e i suoi rapporti con la società. Maggiori informazioni all'indirizzo: http://nexa.polito.it/about. Durante i “*Mercoledì di Nexa*”, che si tengono *ogni 2° mercoledì del mese* alle *ore 18 in punto*, il Centro Nexa su Internet e Società apre le sue porte non solo agli esperti e a tutti coloro i quali lavorano con Internet, ma anche a semplici appassionati e cittadini. Il ciclo di incontri intende approfondire, con un linguaggio preciso ma accessibile, i temi legati alla Rete: motori di ricerca, Creative Commons, social networks, open source/software libero, neutralità della rete, libertà di espressione, privacy, file sharing, big e open data, smart cities e molto altro. Al centro di quasi tutti gli incontri un ospite pronto a dialogare con i direttori del Centro Nexa, il Prof. Juan Carlos De Martin del Politecnico di Torino e il Prof. Marco Ricolfi dell'Università di Torino, nonché lo staff e i Fellows del Centro Nexa. Maggiori informazioni sui Mercoledì di Nexa, incluso un elenco di tutti i “Mercoledì” passati, sono disponibili all'indirizzo: http://nexa.polito.it/mercoledi. Si segnala inoltre che dal maggio 2012 *ogni 4° mercoledì* del mese *dalle ore 13 alle ore 14* il Centro Nexa organizza anche i "*Nexa Lunch Seminar*". Una lista di tutti i “Lunch Seminar” passati è disponibile all'indirizzo: http://nexa.polito.it/lunch-seminars. See our events calendar <http://nexa.polito.it/events> if you're curious about future luncheons, discussions, lectures, and conferences not listed in this email. Our events are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted. Responsabile Comunicazione Centro Nexa su Internet & Società: *Anita Botta*, tel: +39 011 090 7219, Mob: +39 347 131 3903, anita.botta(a)polito.it <mailto:anita.botta@polito.it>. Maggiori informazioni sui Mercoledì di Nexa e i Nexa Lunch Seminar, sono disponibili all'indirizzo: http://nexa.polito.it/events <http://nexa.polito.it/events>. Weekly Events Newsletter. Sign up <http://nexa.polito.it/mailing-lists> to receive this newsletter if this email was forwarded to you. To manage your subscription preferences, please click here <https://server-nexa.polito.it/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nexa>. Connect & get involved: Jobs, internships, and more <http://nexa.polito.it/get-involved>. Cordiali saluti, -- Anita Botta Communication Manager Nexa Center for Internet & Society Politecnico di Torino – DAUIN Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24 - 10129 Torino _web:_ https://nexa.polito.it/ <https://nexa.polito.it/> _mail:_anita.botta@polito.it <mailto:anita.botta@polito.it> tel: 011 090 7219

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Corte Suprema degli Stati Uniti - Oracle c. Google
by Bruno Carotti April 6, 2021

April 6, 2021

Buongiorno, segnalo la opinion della Corte Suprema degli Stati Uniti nel caso Oracle c. Google. [https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/04/victory-fair-use-supreme-court-revers… Cordiali saluti, Bruno Carotti

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Doctorow, "553, 000, 000 Reasons Not to Let Facebook Make Decisions About Your Privacy"
by J.C. DE MARTIN April 6, 2021

April 6, 2021

*553,000,000 Reasons Not to Let Facebook Make Decisions About Your Privacy* By Cory Doctorow April 5, 2021 Another day, another horrific Facebook privacy scandal. We know what comes next: Facebook will argue that losing a lot of our data means bad third-party actors are the real problem that we should trust Facebook to make more decisions about our data to protect against them. If history is any indication, that’ll work. But if we finally wise up, we’ll respond to this latest crisis with serious action: passing America’s long-overdue federal privacy law (with a private right of action) and forcing interoperability on Facebook so that its user/hostages can escape its walled garden. […] Continua qui: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/04/553000000-reasons-not-let-facebook-ma…

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Re: [nexa] more on mente brillante di Stallman...
by Giuseppe Attardi April 5, 2021

April 5, 2021

D’accordo, ma per dire TV news coverage of a crisis struggles to fill 24 hours a day with "information", notwithstanding the fact that the actual flow of new information about the crisis is nowhere near sufficient to fill that time. bisogna aver passato 24 ore a guardare la TV. Che la TV abbia dato il peggio di sé sul la pandemia non occorreva RMS per capirlo, con interviste a tappeto a virologi/epistemiologi/statistici di passaggio che si contraddiccevano l’un altro, chiedendo al politico se il vaccino X funzionava con la variante Y e al vaccinologo se i sostegni economici sarebbero bastati, oppure quando avremo avuto l’immunità di gregge o altre previsioni da oroscopo settimanale. Purtroppo i social media non sono da meno e le inducazioni degli organi ufficiali, quali quelli dell’OMS inattendibili. Ieri ho ritrovate affisse in ospedale le 10 regole per contenere la pandemia emesse un anno fa: 1. Lavarsi le mani 2. Non toccarsi gli occhi con le mani (se applichi 1 la 2 è inutile) 4. NON usare la mascherina se non siete infetti (!!!!) 10. Gli animali domestici non trasmettono l’infezione. Sono ancora in vigire e non le hanno abrogate. Forse le conservano come un pesce d’aprile. — On 2 Apr 2021, at 11:46, nexa-request(a)server-nexa.polito.it wrote: From: Juan Carlos Gentile Fag�ndez <jucar(a)hipatia.net> To: nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it Subject: [nexa] more on mente brillante di Stallman... Message-ID: <20210402050023.koxitkvhs44r5eta(a)hipatia.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" sempre idee chiare. https://stallman.org/articles/dont-watch-covid-tv.html best juan --

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A Kansas Bookshop’s Fight with Amazon Is About More Than the Price of Books | The New Yorker
by J.C. DE MARTIN April 5, 2021

April 5, 2021

https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-journal/a-kansas-bookshops-fight-with-ama… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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EXPLAINING THE NUCLEAR CHALLENGES POSED BY EMERGING AND DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY: A PRIMER FOR EUROPEAN POLICYMAKERS AND PROFESSIONALS
by Diego.Latella April 4, 2021

April 4, 2021

Segnalo EXPLAINING THE NUCLEAR CHALLENGES POSED BY EMERGING AND DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY: A PRIMER FOR EUROPEAN POLICYMAKERS AND PROFESSIONALS di. A. Futter (Univ. of Leicester)* e in particolare la Sez. IV e la Sez. VI dedicate a AI e Cyber. Penso che gli informatici dovrebbero iniziare a giocare un ruolo più attivo nella discussione su queste questioni, come per altro auspicato dallo stesso Futter alla fine della Sez. IV di questo articolo: "[P]rofessionals and academics working on this topic across Europe must educate policymakers on these technologies and the risks that they involve, so that the nature and seriousness of their application in the nuclear realm is understood at the highest levels. This would probably also involve engaging the private sector where many of the most important developments in AI and automation are taking place." Buona lettura Diego (*) Autore, fra l'altro, del libro "Hacking the Bomb: Cyber Threats and Nuclear Weapons" (Gerogetown Univ. Press), del quale raccomando la lettura. -- Dott. Diego Latella - Senior Researcher CNR-ISTI, Via Moruzzi 1, 56124 Pisa, Italy (http:www.isti.cnr.it [1]) FM&&T Lab. (http://fmt.isti.cnr.it) https://www.isti.cnr.it/People/D.Latella - ph: +390506212982, mob: +39 348 8283101, fax: +390506212040 =================== The quest for a war-free world has a basic purpose: survival. But if in the process we learn how to achieve it by love rather than by fear, by kindness rather than compulsion; if in the process we learn how to combine the essential with the enjoyable, the expedient with the benevolent, the practical with the beautiful, this will be an extra incentive to embark on this great task. Above all, remember your humanity. -- Sir Joseph Rotblat I don't quite know whether it is especially computer science or its subdiscipline Artificial Intelligence that has such an enormous affection for euphemism. We speak so spectacularly and so readily of computer systems that understand, that see, decide, make judgments, and so on, without ourselves recognizing our own superficiality and immeasurable naivete with respect to these concepts. And, in the process of so speaking, we anesthetise our ability to evaluate the quality of our work and, what is more important, to identify and become conscious of its end use. […] One can't escape this state without asking, again and again: "What do I actually do? What is the final application and use of the products of my work?" and ultimately, "am I content or ashamed to have contributed to this use?" -- Prof. Joseph Weizenbaum ["Not without us", ACM SIGCAS 16(2-3) 2--7 - Aug. 1986] Links: ------ [1] http://www.isti.cnr.it

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Seeing stones: pandemic reveals Palantir's troubling reach in Europe | World news | The Guardian
by Alberto Cammozzo April 4, 2021

April 4, 2021

<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/02/seeing-stones-pandemic-reveal…> Covid has given Peter Thiel’s secretive US tech company new opportunities to operate in Europe in ways some campaigners find worrying Daniel Howden, Apostolis Fotiadis, Ludek Stavinoha, Ben Holst Fri 2 Apr 2021 22.11 BST Last modified on Sat 3 Apr 2021 12.15 BST The 24 March, 2020 will be remembered by some for the news that Prince Charles tested positive for Covid and was isolating in Scotland. In Athens it was memorable as the day the traffic went silent. Twenty-four hours into a hard lockdown, Greeks were acclimatising to a new reality in which they had to send an SMS to the government in order to leave the house. As well as millions of text messages, the Greek government faced extraordinary dilemmas. The European Union’s most vulnerable economy, its oldest population along with Italy, and one of its weakest health systems faced the first wave of a pandemic that overwhelmed richer countries with fewer pensioners and stronger health provision. The carnage in Italy loomed large across the Adriatic. One Greek who did go into the office that day was Kyriakos Pierrakakis, the minister for digital transformation, whose signature was inked in blue on an agreement with the US technology company, Palantir. The deal, which would not be revealed to the public for another nine months, gave one of the world’s most controversial tech companies access to vast amounts of personal data while offering its software to help Greece weather the Covid storm. The zero-cost agreement was not registered on the public procurement system, neither did the Greek government carry out a data impact assessment – the mandated check to see whether an agreement might violate privacy laws. The questions that emerge in pandemic Greece echo those from across Europe during Covid and show Palantir extending into sectors from health to policing, aviation to commerce and even academia. A months-long joint investigation by the Guardian, Lighthouse Reports and Der Spiegel used freedom of information laws, official correspondence, confidential sources and reporting in multiple countries to piece together the European activities of one of the most secretive companies in the world. The findings raise serious questions over the way public agencies work with Palantir and whether its software can work within the bounds of European laws in the sensitive areas where it is being used, or perform in the way the company promises. Greece was not the only country tempted by a Covid-related free trial. Palantir was already embedded in the NHS, where a no-bid contract valued at £1 was only revealed after data privacy campaigners threatened to take the UK government to court. When that trial period was over the cost of continuing with Palantir came in at £24m. The company has also been contracted as part of the Netherlands’ Covid response and pitched at least four other European countries, as well as a clutch of EU agencies. The Palantir one-pager that Germany’s health ministry released after a freedom of information request described Europe as the company’s “focus of activities”. Founded in California in 2003, Palantir may not have been cold-calling around European governments. It has, at times, had a uniquely powerful business development ally in the form of the US government. On 23 March, the EU’s Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) received an email from their counterparts at the US CDC, extolling their work with Palantir and saying the company had asked for an introduction. Palantir said it was normal practice for some of its “government customers to serve as reference for other prospective customers”. It said the ECDC turned down its invitation “out of concern of a risk of the contact being perceived as prejudicing ECDC’s independence”. [...]

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Final Substantive Report. - UN Open-ended working group on developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security.
by Diego.Latella April 4, 2021

April 4, 2021

Spero possa essere di Vostro interesse UN Open-ended working group on developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security. Final Substantive Report. https://front.un-arm.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Final-report-A-AC.290-2… Per ulteriori informazioni sull'attività UN in oggetto: https://www.un.org/disarmament/open-ended-working-group/ Buone Feste Diego -- Dott. Diego Latella - Senior Researcher CNR-ISTI, Via Moruzzi 1, 56124 Pisa, Italy (http:www.isti.cnr.it [1]) FM&&T Lab. (http://fmt.isti.cnr.it) https://www.isti.cnr.it/People/D.Latella - ph: +390506212982, mob: +39 348 8283101, fax: +390506212040 =================== I don't quite know whether it is especially computer science or its subdiscipline Artificial Intelligence that has such an enormous affection for euphemism. We speak so spectacularly and so readily of computer systems that understand, that see, decide, make judgments, and so on, without ourselves recognizing our own superficiality and immeasurable naivete with respect to these concepts. And, in the process of so speaking, we anesthetise our ability to evaluate the quality of our work and, what is more important, to identify and become conscious of its end use. […] One can't escape this state without asking, again and again: "What do I actually do? What is the final application and use of the products of my work?" and ultimately, "am I content or ashamed to have contributed to this use?" -- Prof. Joseph Weizenbaum ["Not without us", ACM SIGCAS 16(2-3) 2--7 - Aug. 1986] Links: ------ [1] http://www.isti.cnr.it

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