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Internet Policy Review Special Issue 'Doing Internet Governance'
by Francesca Musiani Oct. 6, 2016

Oct. 6, 2016

Care e cari, ho il piacere di annunciare la pubblicazione di un numero speciale dell'Internet Policy Review intitolato "Doing internet governance: practices, controversies, infrastructures, and institutions" e curato da me, Dmitry Epstein e Christian Katzenbach. Eccone la presentazione: This special issue makes an argument for, and illustrates, the applicability of a science and technology studies (STS) informed approach to internet governance research. The conceptual framework put forward in this editorial and the articles composing this issue add to the mainstream internet governance scholarship by unpacking macro questions of politics and power. They do so through the analysis of the mundane and taken-for-granted practices and discourses that constitute the design, regulation, maintenance, and use of both technical and institutional arrangements of internet governance. Together, this body of work calls to rethink how we conceptualise both internet and governance. The issue includes an editorial and 10 articles: - Editorial: Doing internet governance: how science and technology studies inform the study of internet governance Dmitry Epstein, University of Illinois at Chicago, United States Christian Katzenbach, Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), Germany Francesca Musiani, CNRS/Université Paris-Sorbonne, France - Disclosing and concealing: internet governance, information control and the management of visibility Mikkel Flyverbom, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark - Beyond “Points of Control”: logics of digital governmentality Romain Badouard, Université de Cergy-Pontoise, France Clément Mabi, Université de Technologie de Compiègne, France Guillaume Sire, Université Paris II (Panthéon-Assas), France - Instability and internet design Sandra Braman, Texas A&M University, United States - The problem of future users: how constructing the DNS shaped internet governance Steven Malcic, University of California Santa Barbara, United States - The myth of the decentralised internet Ashwin J. Mathew, University of California, Berkeley, United States - The invisible politics of Bitcoin: governance crisis of a decentralised infrastructure Primavera De Filippi, Harvard University, United States Benjamin Loveluck, Télécom ParisTech (Université Paris-Saclay) and CERSA (CNRS-Paris 2), France - Multistakeholder governance processes as production sites: enhanced cooperation "in the making" Julia Pohle, Berlin Social Science Center (WZB), Germany - Internet governance as 'ideology in practice' – India's 'Free Basics' controversy Anita Gurumurthy, IT for Change, India Nandini Chami, IT for Change, India - What we talk about when we talk about cybersecurity: security in internet governance debates Josephine Wolff, Rochester Institute of Technology, United States - Governing the internet in the privacy arena Carsten Ochs, Universität Kassel, Germany Fabian Pittroff, Universität Kassel, Germany Barbara Büttner, Universität Kassel, Germany Jörn Lamla, Universität Kassel, Germany Tutti gli articoli sono in open access al seguente indirizzo: http://policyreview.info/articles/analysis/doing- internet-governance-practices-controversies-infrastructures-and-0 Cordialmente, Francesca -- Francesca Musiani (ph.d.) associate research professor (*chargée de recherche*), CNRS, ISCC <http://www.iscc.cnrs.fr/> associate researcher, i3, CSI <http://www.csi.ensmp.fr/>, MINES ParisTech vice-chair, CPT <http://iamcr.org/s-wg/section/cp-t>, IAMCR academic editor, @PolicyR <http://policyreview.info/> on the web <http://www.csi.mines-paristech.fr/People/musiani/> | on twitter <https://twitter.com/franmusiani>

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Coding is not ‘fun’, it’s technically and ethically complex
by Alberto Cammozzo Oct. 6, 2016

Oct. 6, 2016

Programming computers is a piece of cake. Or so the world’s digital-skills gurus would have us believe. From the non-profit Code.org’s promise that ‘Anybody can learn!’ to Apple chief executive Tim Cook’s comment that writing code is ‘fun and interactive’, the art and science of making software is now as accessible as the alphabet. Unfortunately, this rosy portrait bears no relation to reality. For starters, the profile of a programmer’s mind is pretty uncommon. As well as being highly analytical and creative, software developers need almost superhuman focus to manage the complexity of their tasks. Manic attention to detail is a must; slovenliness is verboten. Attaining this level of concentration requires a state of mind called being ‘in the flow’, a quasi-symbiotic relationship between human and machine that improves performance and motivation. Coding isn’t the only job that demands intense focus. But you’d never hear someone say that brain surgery is ‘fun’, or that structural engineering is ‘easy’. When it comes to programming, why do policymakers and technologists pretend otherwise? For one, it helps lure people to the field at a time when software (in the words of the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen) is ‘eating the world’ – and so, by expanding the labour pool, keeps industry ticking over and wages under control. Another reason is that the very word ‘coding’ sounds routine and repetitive, as though there’s some sort of key that developers apply by rote to crack any given problem. It doesn’t help that Hollywood has cast the ‘coder’ as a socially challenged, type-first-think-later hacker, inevitably white and male, with the power to thwart the Nazis or penetrate the CIA. nsisting on the glamour and fun of coding is the wrong way to acquaint kids with computer science. It insults their intelligence and plants the pernicious notion in their heads that you don’t need discipline in order to progress. As anyone with even minimal exposure to making software knows, behind a minute of typing lies an hour of study. It’s better to admit that coding is complicated, technically and ethically. Computers, at the moment, can only execute orders, to varying degrees of sophistication. So it’s up to the developer to be clear: the machine does what you say, not what you mean. More and more ‘decisions’ are being entrusted to software, including life-or-death ones: think self-driving cars; think semi-autonomous weapons; think Facebook and Google making inferences about your marital, psychological or physical status, before selling it to the highest bidder. Yet it’s rarely in the interests of companies and governments to encourage us to probe what’s going on beneath these processes. All of these scenarios are built on exquisitely technical foundations. But we can’t respond to them by answering exclusively technical questions. Programming is not a detail that can be left to ‘technicians’ under the false pretence that their choices will be ‘scientifically neutral’. Societies are too complex: the algorithmic is political. Automation has already dealt a blow to the job security of low-skilled workers in factories and warehouses around the world. White-collar workers are next in line. The digital giants of today run on a fraction of the employees of the industrial giants of yesterday, so the irony of encouraging more people to work as programmers is that they are slowly mobilising themselves out of jobs. In an ever-more intricate and connected world, where software plays a larger and larger role in everyday life, it’s irresponsible to speak of coding as a lightweight activity. Software is not simply lines of code, nor is it blandly technical. In just a few years, understanding programming will be an indispensable part of active citizenship. The idea that coding offers an unproblematic path to social progress and personal enhancement works to the advantage of the growing techno-plutocracy that’s insulating itself behind its own technology. <https://aeon.co/ideas/coding-is-not-fun-it-s-technically-and-ethically-comp…>

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'Too big to fail' cloud giants like AWS threaten civilization as we know it • The Register
by Elia Gabriele Oct. 5, 2016

Oct. 5, 2016

un bell'articolo di warning sul medio termine .. mentre l'informatica cala del 10% in europa le vendite di cloud Amazon, Microsoft e Google crescono del 50% (e da soli fanno il 50% del mercato) se cambierà il loro modello di business (p.es. perchè smetteranno di salire in borsa del 30% all'anno) l'impatto sulle aziende che li usano sarà devastante ... ciao g http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/10/04/cloud_vendors_too_big_to_fail/ 'Too big to fail' cloud giants like AWS threaten civilization as we know it Canalys chief warns traditional hardware skills could die out 4 Oct 2016 at 18:29, Joe Fay<http://www.theregister.co.uk/Author/45> Channel Forums The world’s largest cloud players are in danger of becoming too big to fail, the boss of Canalys warned today. This is a problem because the list of potential trip hazards for the likes of Azure, AWS and Google is growing ever longer – and at least one of them is going to stumble and fall, taking customers' off-premises systems with them. With traditional hardware skills in danger of dying out, it’s not like we can do anything about it. The dual warning came in Canalys founder Steve Brazier’s keynote address to the audience of resellers, distributors, and vendors at the firm’s Channel Forums<https://www.canalyschannelsforum.com/emea> bash in Barcelona, which kicked off with a scorecard of channel performance so far this year. Brazier said that traditional sectors had done poorly. EMEA storage revenues were down 5 per cent in the first half of this year, as were server revenues. PCs had plummeted 12 per cent, while smart phones were up 1 per cent, only because of strong sales in Africa. On the upside, sales of hyperconverged systems were up 74 per cent, detachable tablet sales had skyrocketed 150 per cent, and flash storage was up 100 per cent. However, he warned, these were largely accounted for by shifts of revenue from the traditional markets. Just to drive home how channel economics had changed, he said that only three years ago, 25 per cent of server sales were direct, with the balance going through the channel. Now, just 40 per cent went through the channel, with 35 per cent of sales going to the public cloud, and the balance going to managed service providers. The villains in all of this were the major public cloud vendors. Canalys said that AWS had grown 59 per cent, while Azure had grown its revenues a whopping 98 per cent and Google was not far behind with 89 per cent growth. Together those three accounted for over 50 per cent of the public cloud, which grew 50 per cent overall. Brazier said the cloud firms were waging a massive PR war over the benefits of running your business in the cloud, which traditional vendors had yet to truly respond to. In the meantime, he said, Amazon was close to “crossing the chasm” to have its business model considered “established” and not at all flakey<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/09/25/public_iaas_crisis/>. But, he continued, there were two possible dangers to this breakneck growth. The first was that customers would find themselves increasingly locked in to one of three armed camps. He said that cloud marketplaces had struggled, in part because they were rarely able to offer services from more than one cloud provider. Far more sinister though was the prospect – which may become apparent in two years, or 20 – that these organizations could simply become “too big to fail.” And depending on when this happens, the potential consequences for all businesses could be catastrophic. “If one of these companies goes down, hundreds of thousands of other companies go down too,” Brazier warned. The likes of AWS were potentially vulnerable to financial shocks – a hike in interest rates for example – or a cyber attack that would wreck its business AND those of its customers. They were also subject to a range of other catastrophic risks – for example power grid failures or natural disasters – with the fallout propagated worldwide. He cited AWS’ hiking of its UK prices post-Brexit as an example of how quickly customers could be affected. Of course, the simple answer to this is for companies or service suppliers to build their own infrastructures. However, Brazier had a final sting in the tail, pointing out that young techies were overwhelmingly focused on coding as a career. Hardware engineers were getting increasingly old, as a workforce, and there is a genuine danger, he claimed, of the skill set dying out. It was down to service providers and vendors to “encourage people to go down the hardware route.” Of course, this is all speculative. Brazier also said that established markets were subject to increasing numbers of shocks and unpredictability. It was hard to predict the course of the UK and European market as Brexit takes shape, he said. Then there is the clincher ... Trump in November. ® Questo messaggio e i suoi allegati sono indirizzati esclusivamente alle persone indicate. La diffusione, copia o qualsiasi altra azione derivante dalla conoscenza di queste informazioni sono rigorosamente vietate. Qualora abbiate ricevuto questo documento per errore siete cortesemente pregati di darne immediata comunicazione al mittente e di provvedere alla sua distruzione, Grazie. This e-mail and any attachments is confidential and may contain privileged information intended for the addressee(s) only. Dissemination, copying, printing or use by anybody else is unauthorised. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete this message and any attachments and advise the sender by return e-mail, Thanks. [rispetta l'ambiente]Rispetta l'ambiente. Non stampare questa mail se non è necessario.

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90° Mercoledì di Nexa - 12 ottobre 2016
by Francesco Ruggiero Oct. 5, 2016

Oct. 5, 2016

Se non visualizzi correttamente questo messaggio clicca qui <http://nexa.polito.it/mercoledi-88> NEXA 90° Mercoledì di Nexa Mercoledi 12 ottobre 2016, ore 18.00 - 20.00 Politecnico di Torino http://nexa.polito.it/mercoledi-90 FirstLife un social network georeferenziato per gli urban commons Speakers Guido Boella (Professore ordinario presso il Dipartimento di Informatica dell’Università di Torino) This event will be webcast live: http://nexa.polito.it/upcoming-events Secondo la recente letteratura che ha origine nei lavori del premio Nobel Elinor Ostrom su co-produzione e commons,*anche le città possono essere viste come “commons”*. Una creazione collettiva sia della realtà materiale che di quella culturale fatta dai cittadini e per i cittadini, che si esplica anche in un sistema di gestione da parte dei cittadini: un insieme di pratiche sociali e norme che permettono di preservare le risorse e orientarle per il bene collettivo. Per questo il verbo “commoning” descrive meglio queste realtà del sostantivo “commons”. Le attività di commoning permesse negli spazi urbani si stanno però riducendo: da un lato edifici e piazze sono sempre più gestite da privati, dall’altro il ruolo dell’amministrazione pubblica è limitato dalla crisi e dalla conseguente riduzione dei budget. *Il commoning potrebbe essere invece una soluzione alternativa alle sfide che si presentano nelle città*, delegando ai cittadini la gestione dei commons che vivono giornalmente . Questo porta ad una visione policentrica della governance urbana. Ma la realtà urbana presenta molte differenze rispetto ai tradizionali commons legati alle risorse naturali. In particolare, la disgregazione del tessuto urbano, la dimensione dei gruppi che utilizzano i commons, la difficoltà di comunicazione fra persone che non si conoscono pur utilizzando gli stessi spazi urbani sono l’opposto delle tradizionali premesse per il buon funzionamento del commoning. *Può la tecnologia basata su internet, come auspicato da autori come Christian Iaione e David Bollier, diventare un supporto per il commoning urbano?* Si può riportare a livello locale urbano i meccanismi (passaparola, continuità fra le persone, fiducia reciproca, visibilità delle azioni) che hanno portato al successo i nuovi media che costituiscono il cosiddetto “villaggio globale” di Marshall MacLuhan? Guido Boella presenterà il progetto FirstLife dell’Università di Torino: un nuovo tipo di social network basato su una mappa interattiva che vuole promuovere la collaborazione fra i cittadini nella creazione e gestione degli urban commons. *FirstLife vuole coprire una dimensione della nostra vita non coperta dagli altri social network: le persone come cittadini e non come privati o come professionisti*. Vuole essere un nuovo media che permette di accedere alle informazioni di interesse tramite la mappa temporizzata, piuttosto che tramite hashtag, motori di ricerca o tramite algoritmi sconosciuti che ti chiudono in una filter bubble. Per saperne di più BIOGRAFIE - e informazioni supplementari [ALIPRANDI - BLENGINO] GUIDO BOELLA è Professore ordinario presso il Dipartimento di Informatica dell’Università di Torino. Ha seguito un percorso che lo ha portato dalla laurea in filosofia, al dottorato in informatica sui temi della collaborazione in sistemi multi-agente e, in seguito, alla ricerca in informatica legale e geo-informatica. La sua attività scientifica ha un carattere fortemente interdisciplinare, che investe i campi dei sistemi normativi, dei linguaggi naturali, delle ontologie formali, delle scienze cognitive e dell’intelligenza artificiale. È stato coordinatore scientifico e referente per il Dipartimento di Informatica di numerosi progetti nazionali e internazionali, tra i quali EUcases, ITxLAW, WeGovNow!. Ha realizzato diversi software (powerJava, powerJade, Legal taxonomy syllabus, Eunomos) e partecipato a progetti di trasferimento tecnologico verso le imprese, fondando nel 2010 l’azienda Nomotika. Negli ultimi anni, i suoi interessi e attività si sono estesi ai temi dei social networks e al loro potenziale utilizzo per la gestione dei beni comuni e come strumenti di supporto alla co-produzione dei servizi a scala locale. In qualità di coordinatore scientifico di FirstLife, si occupa dell’inquadramento e della supervisione del lavoro di ricerca legato alla piattaforma, nonché della preparazione di progetti e proposte per una sua applicazione in ambiti che vanno dall’inclusione sociale alle emergenze, dai nuovi sistemi di governance a forme economiche alternative. Letture consigliate e link utili: * The Co-City: Sharing, Collaborating, Cooperating, Commoning in the City <http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2708296>, di Christian Iaione * Collective Action and the Urban Commons <%20http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1791767>, di Sheila Foster. Che cosa sono il Centro Nexa e i cicli di incontri “Mercoledì di Nexa” e “Nexa Lunch Seminar” Il Centro Nexa su Internet & Società del Politecnico di Torino (Dipartimento di Automatica e Informatica) è un centro di ricerca indipendente e interdisciplinare che studia Internet e il suo effetto sulla 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 divulgativo, 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. Maggiori informazioni sui Mercoledì di Nexa e i Nexa Lunch Seminar, sono disponibili all'indirizzo: 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> Nexa Center for Internet and Society Newsletter

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Annual Conference of LL.M. in Intellectual Property - - 24 ottobre 2016 (ILO)
by Francesco Ruggiero Oct. 5, 2016

Oct. 5, 2016

Gentilissimi, siamo lieti di segnalarvi la conferenza annuale del "Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Intellectual Property" sul tema "3-Dimentional Printing and IP", che si svolgerà lunedì 24 ottobre. Occorre confermare la propria partecipazione all'indirizzo e-mail T.Grassone(a)itcilo.org. Maggiori dettagli sono disponibili qui di seguito e nella locandina in allegato. ***** The International Training Centre of the ILO, the University of Turin and WIPO Academy are pleased to invite you to the Annual Conference of the Master of Laws in Intellectual Property. The Annual Conference will be held at the campus of the International Training Centre of the ILO in Turin, Viale Maestri del Lavoro 10, in Piedmont Conference Hall, on 24th October, from 09:30 a.m. to 13:00. The topic of the Annual Conference will be "3-Dimentional Printing and IP". The Director of the Turin School of Development, Mr. Giuseppe Casale, Ms. Martha Chikowore, Training Office at WIPO Academy in Geneva and Professor Alessandro Cogo, University of Turin, Department of Law, will chair the opening of the Annual Conference. Please confirm your participation by e-mail: T.Grassone(a)itcilo.org. ***** Cordiali saluti,

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The Internet of Things Sucks So Bad Even ‘Amateurish’ Malware Is Enough | Motherboard
by J.C. DE MARTIN Oct. 4, 2016

Oct. 4, 2016

https://motherboard.vice.com/read/internet-of-things-malware-mirai-ddos (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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il DNS e' indipendente, il contratto USA e' scaduto
by Andrea Beccalli Oct. 3, 2016

Oct. 3, 2016

mi scuso per il cross-posting, inoltro qui un messaggio inviato alla lista IGF Italia 2016. (Per chi fosse interessato a partecipare alla preparazione dell'IGF Italia 2016, Venezia 14-15 Novembre, può iscriversi mandando una email a 2016(a)IGF-ITALIA.IT) Salve a tutti, la transizione delle supervisione USA sulle funzioni IANA di ICANN (la gestione delle risorse critiche del sistema DNS di Internet) e' completata. Qui sotto il comunicato stampa del Dipartimento del Commercio USA (NTIA), e a seguire un articolo<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37527719> interessante della bbc che racconta il processo storico alla base di questo risultato. Chi e' interessato a saperne di più non esiti a contattarmi. Saluti e buon we! Andrea Beccalli http://www.ntia.doc.gov/press-release/2016/statement-assistant-secretary-st… FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 01, 2016 News Media Contact: Juliana Gruenwald Statement from Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator Lawrence E. Strickling: The federal court in Galveston, Texas denied the plaintiffs' application for declaratory and injunctive relief. As of October 1, 2016, the IANA functions contract has expired.

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ProPublica: "Breaking the Black Box: What Facebook Knows About You"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Oct. 3, 2016

Oct. 3, 2016

Prima puntata di quattro (le rimanenti tre verrano pubblicate il 5, il 12 e il 19 ottobre). juan carlos ----------------- *Breaking the Black Box** **What Facebook Knows About You* by Julia Angwin, Terry Parris Jr. and Surya Mattu, ProPublica September 28, 2016 We live in an era of increasing automation. Machines help us not only with manual labor but also with intellectual tasks, such as curating the news we read and calculating the best driving directions. But as machines make more decisions for us, it is increasingly important to understand the algorithms that produce their judgments. […] Continua qui: https://www.propublica.org/article/breaking-the-black-box-what-facebook-kno…

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WEF (Vetrò) "Italy is giving itself a digital makeover. Here’s how"
by Francesco Ruggiero Oct. 3, 2016

Oct. 3, 2016

30.09.2016Italy is giving itself a digital makeover: here's howAntonio Vetrò, Director of Research, Nexa Center for Internet and Society Data from the *Global Information Technology Report 2016* <http://reports.weforum.org/global-information-technology-report-2016/> shows that Italy is one of the countries that improved the most <http://reports.weforum.org/global-information-technology-report-2016/econom…>during the last year its ability to leverage information and communication technologies to improve its competitiveness and the well-being of its population. The country has gained 10 notches and reached the 45th position in the Networked Readiness Index (NRI), an aggregate index that assesses the countries’ overall environment for innovation and ICTs (information and communication technologies). It also measures their readiness for ICT uptake; the level of usage by companies, society and the private sector; and overall level of impact on society and the economy. While Italy’s improvement reflects efforts by the national government to improve regulation and digital infrastructure, the country’s performance is not uniform across the areas of networked readiness. Some areas, for instance, show an increase in the government’s use of digital technology, while others show signs of deterioration. It seems the political and regulatory environment – for which Italy ranks 96th – still represents one of the country’s Achilles heels. [...] Continua qui: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/09/italy-global- information-technology-report-2016

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UK, trial di social benefit usando bitcoin - preoccupazioni sui dati sensibili che sono rivelati e la possibilità teoria di blocco della spesa su certi settori - BBC News
by Elia Gabriele Oct. 3, 2016

Oct. 3, 2016

Trial di 6 mesi del Dept of Work and Pension; l’archivio distribuito però sarà pubblico (come nella natura di bitcoin) e non modificabile anche se ci fossero dati inesatti, paradossalmente, Ø One recently departed member of the Government Digital Service told me of his amazement that this trial was being allowed to go ahead. His most serious concern was about the privacy implications of putting highly sensitive personal data on a shared ledger "which, by technical design, can never be changed or deleted even if it's inaccurate". Un’altra considerazione è che con tecnologie a la blockchain sarebbe facile bloccare la possibilità di spendere quanto erogato solo verso certe transazioni Ø He sees the possibility that in the future the government could then use the technology to force people to spend benefits on certain things - to make sure, for instance that pensioners spent their winter fuel allowance on their energy bills. Saluti Gabriele http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36785872 The government has quietly launched a bold experiment using the technology behind the virtual currency Bitcoin - and, if anybody notices, it could prove hugely controversial. That is because the trial involves the payment of benefits and could conceivably involve very sensitive data being made public - or at least that's the concern of some critics. There is a huge amount of excitement around now about the Blockchain, with endless academic studies and a good deal of investment reinforcing the belief that a permanent ever-expanding and tamper-proof online ledger of transactions must have all sorts of wider applications. Earlier this year the government's chief scientific advisor Mark Walport wrote a report on blockchain - or distributed ledger technology<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-32781244> - which was enthusiastic about its potential to produce "disruptive innovations that could transform the delivery of public and private services and enhance productivity through a wide range of applications." He recommended that the government should back trials of the technology while also looking carefully at the security and privacy implications of using it. Now, the first real trial is underway, revealed without any fanfare by the welfare minister Lord Freud at a conference last week. [Lord Freud]Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Lord Freud announced the experiment last week The Department of Work and Pensions tell me it began in May, will run for up to six months, and is designed to look at how the technology might help benefit claimants manage their money. Up to 24 welfare claimants will use an app provided by a company called Govcoin to track their spending. But this news sounded alarm bells amongst some of those who have been involved in framing the government's technology policies. Their concern is that the payment of benefits is not the right place to start this journey of blockchain exploration. One recently departed member of the Government Digital Service told me of his amazement that this trial was being allowed to go ahead. His most serious concern was about the privacy implications of putting highly sensitive personal data on a shared ledger "which, by technical design, can never be changed or deleted even if it's inaccurate". [Govcoin]Image copyright Govcoin Image caption The spending-tracking app is being created by the London-based start-up Govcoin He also has a theory that the trial - though billed as a way for claimants to manage their money better - could also be "a potentially efficient way for DWP to restrict, audit and control exactly what each benefits payment is actually spent on, without the government being perceived as a big brother". He sees the possibility that in the future the government could then use the technology to force people to spend benefits on certain things - to make sure, for instance that pensioners spent their winter fuel allowance on their energy bills. "[That would be a] highly political idea. To hide it behind hyped up blockchain technobabble is not on," he said. It seems there is also concern in Whitehall about the process by which this trial came to be approved. The chief scientific advisor had wanted a Cabinet Office committee to vet all the various blockchain ideas coming out of different government departments. It seems that committee has yet to be formed, but another insider has indicated to me that if it had been, the DWP trial would have been quite far down the list for approval. I put these criticisms to the Department for Work and Pensions. [App]Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption The government says it will not use the app to keep a record of who spent what I was told that any data involved in the trial would be handled by the private company running it and personal information would be removed before it reached the department. "There are no plans to replace any DWP payment systems," a spokesman said. "This trial is designed to explore how distributed ledger technology could help support financial inclusion and offer budgeting help, and it does not place any restrictions or limits on what a claimant can spend their welfare payments on, nor tracks how they spend them." There is plenty of enthusiasm for the potential of blockchain to deliver improvements to public services - albeit some time in the quite distant future. But the worry now is that if the first trials go down the wrong path, then public trust in the technology could be irredeemably damaged. Questo messaggio e i suoi allegati sono indirizzati esclusivamente alle persone indicate. La diffusione, copia o qualsiasi altra azione derivante dalla conoscenza di queste informazioni sono rigorosamente vietate. Qualora abbiate ricevuto questo documento per errore siete cortesemente pregati di darne immediata comunicazione al mittente e di provvedere alla sua distruzione, Grazie. This e-mail and any attachments is confidential and may contain privileged information intended for the addressee(s) only. Dissemination, copying, printing or use by anybody else is unauthorised. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete this message and any attachments and advise the sender by return e-mail, Thanks. [rispetta l'ambiente]Rispetta l'ambiente. Non stampare questa mail se non è necessario.

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