[spectre] (fwd) European Commission's RFID public consultation
[it would be great if some of the critical artistic research that is being done in this field would be fed back into the political debate; -ab] Hi all, just a short note to tell you that the European Commission is holding a public RFID consultation on its website after previous Workshops on the issue in May and June. So who ever feels like commenting on RFID policy is welcome to do so under: http://www.rfidconsultation.eu/ http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ipm/forms/dispatch?form=RFID Greetings, Christine * The Information Society and Media Directorate General is consulting stakeholders on their opinions on development and deployment of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, and on possible ways to stimulate its use while mitigating its potential negative impacts on privacy and health. A public debate on RFID was launched on 9 March 2006 by Mrs Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Information Society and Media, at the CeBIT fair in Hannover. Developments around RFID, Commissioner Viviane Reding said, open the door to a new wave of productivity gains across a wide range of sectors. Remember that productivity is the engine of economic growth and job creation. (...) We must also make some decisions of principle on the security and privacy issues associated with widespead government and commercial use of RFID technology. The time for action is now. (...) I will not see the liberty of citizens and their fundamental rights being compromised. Between March and June 2006 five workshops took place in Brussels to discuss and build consensus on the main issues, challenges and opportunities related to the use of RFID. These workshops addressed the research and technological development requirements and options, the growing use of RFID in commercial and governmental applications, the legal and societal issues related to security and privacy protection, the standardisation, interoperability and governance issues, and the current and future frequency spectrum requirements. The present consultation seeks feedback from all stakeholders involved in the development and deployment of RFID technology as well as from consumer and civil liberty organisations that feel concerned by the potential societal implications of RFID use in situations where personal data processing is involved. Should you wish, you are invited before replying to read the supporting background document called Your voice on RFID which provides a summary of the views and conclusions that emerged from the workshops and which may provide useful guidance on the concepts and vocabulary relevant to the field. The creation of a conducive and stable policy environment for the implementation and use of RFID calls for a wide consensus among experts on certain complex technical issues such as standards and interoperability, the read range designed into a particular RFID system, frequency allocation, privacy and security, counterfeiting prevention, and the integration of RFID with other technologies. It is imperative to understand the technology, its full potential and the related business requirements in order to appreciate its policy implications. Please note that peculiar issues related to RFID technology such as, for example, its possible health effects or the governance of identities across the associated decentralised and distributed databases, can be addressed by respondents, should they have an opinion and wish to express it, in question 38. But besides getting the knowledgeable opinion from the key stakeholders in the field, the European Commission is also keen to consult all interested citizens on issues that are primarily a matter of personal opinion and choice. In this respect, compulsory questions are mainly intended to elicit the general public's views with respect to not purely technical problems whereas optional questions are primarily set to collect the views from RFID specialists. On the basis of the replies, the European Commission intends to prepare a Communication to European Parliament and Council, which will cover all the aspects referred to in the questionnaire. The consultation will be open until 17 September 2006. If you wish to consult the information available on the workshops and the roadmap concerning the consultation initiative on RFID, and/or to submit further comments or evidence, outside this consultation, please feel free to do so at: http://www.rfidconsultation.eu Thank you for your valuable contribution. ___ Wsis Mailingliste JPBerlin - Mailbox und Politischer Provider [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://listi.jpberlin.de/mailman/listinfo/wsis __ SPECTRE list for media culture in Deep Europe Info, archive and help: http://coredump.buug.de/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/spectre
[spectre] 7th Werkleitz Biennale HAPPY BELIEVERS 6-10 Sept 2006, Halle/D
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2006 18:27:10 +0200 From: biennale06 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: nettime-ann Press Release 7th Werkleitz Biennale HAPPY BELIEVERS *7th Werkleitz Biennale HAPPY BELIEVERS 6th-10th September 2006 in the Volkspark Halle (Saale) * Press Release No. 4, 25th July 2006 The biggest media arts festival in East Germany, also known as the 'Documenta of East Germany', will once again take place in premises of the Volkspark Halle (Saale). From 6th to 10th September the Werkleitz Biennale will present approximately 100 international contributions of contemporary art and culture. The biennial features an exhibition with 30 art works, 13 film programmes with a total of 56 films, performances, lectures, roundtables and DJ-events. Throughout the last decade the general interest in religiosity and religious phenomena has increased. The 7th Werkleitz Biennale entitled Happy Believers takes a close look at the role of belief and religion in present day society.What do we believe in? and Why do we believe? are the central questions guiding the production of the art works. These investigations go beyond an understanding of belief in a strictly religious sense.Visitors of the Church Congress, Zen-Buddhists, football fans, brand fetichists and hobby astrologists - they all have their own belief. It seems that a new longing for meaning and wholeness develops alongside the ongoing process of individualisation and globalisation. Characteristic for 'patchwork religion' is that people create their own belief systems from different sources: happy believers.Whereas, the media often stages events using religion for political and economic purpuses. The art works presented at the 7th Werkleitz Biennale approach this complex field from different artistic view points: some art work investigate the fascination with belief and highlight the moments of happiness it gives people, while other art works critically examine the ways religion is instrumentalised. Art works specifically produced for the biennial deal with specific local forms of belief in a Federal State known for its a-religiosity, Saxony-Anhalt. Many of the participating artists will be present during the festival. Thus, the biennial once again provides a space for intensive exchange between artists, culture producers and the general public. The 7th Werkleitz Biennale is curated by Anke Hoffmann, Solvej Helweg Ovesen, Angelika Richter and Jan Schuijren. For the programme and a list of the participating artists, please visit our webseite: www.werkleitz.de/happy_believers *** *Press Conference - Please note * The press conference will take place at the 6th of September, 2 pm in the Volkspark, Weinecksaal. Thereafter, the curators want to invite the participants on a guided tour through the exhibition. The organisers and participating artists will also be available for interviews. Until 7 pm, the official opening of the biennial, journalists have the opportunity to view films from the film programmes or to work in the press lounge. *Contact person* If you have any further questions, need foto material or want to arrange an interview with the curators of the 7th Werkleitz Biennale, please do not hesitate to contact: Hanna Keller phone: +49 (0)30 69 53 12 53 mobile: +49 (0)176 24 09 36 57 [EMAIL PROTECTED] In case you are not interested in further information, please answer this mail with the subject unsubscribe. The 7th Werkleitz Biennale is funded by: Federal State of Saxony-Anhalt, Lotto Toto GmbH, Stiftung Kunstfonds Additional funds and sponsoring by: Kunststiftung Sachsen-Anhalt, Mitteldeutsche Medienfrderung GmbH, Stadt Halle (Saale), IASPIS, British Council, Burg Giebichenstein - Hochschule f¸r Kunst und Design Halle, Hochschule Anhalt Fachbereich Design, Kniglich Niederlndische Botschaft in Berlin Image Hans Hemmert Hans Hemmert: Dom zu Speyer by Louis Vuitton Melletier, 2006, Paper -- hanna keller presse- und ffentlichkeitsarbeit fon: +49 (0)30 69531253 mobil: +49 (0)176 24093657 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.werkleitz.de __ SPECTRE list for media culture in Deep Europe Info, archive and help: http://coredump.buug.de/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/spectre
[spectre] Book 2.0 Chronicle of Higher Education
Book 2.0 Scholars turn monographs into digital conversations By JEFFREY R. YOUNG Chronicle of Higher Education http://chronicle.com/free/v52/i47/47a02001.htm New York While most scholarly books are reviewed by a few carefully chosen experts before publication, McKenzie Wark's latest monograph is getting line-by-line critiques from hundreds of strangers in cyberspace, many of whom know absolutely nothing about his academic field. Mr. Wark, a professor of media and cultural studies at The New School, has put the draft of his latest book online in an experimental format inspired by academic blogs and the free-for-all spirit of Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Each paragraph of Mr. Wark's book has its own Web page, and next to each of those paragraphs is a box where anyone can comment though readers are not permitted to alter the original text. The scholar says he looks forward to sitting down each day to read a new batch of comments, some by colleagues whose names he recognizes and others by people cloaked by pseudonyms. That input has persuaded him to sharpen the opening section, and he says he will probably make other changes as well. But not all the online feedback has been helpful, or kind. This doesn't have substance, wrote someone identified as toad. Take some time off, and teach a little. Mr. Wark is in the habit of responding publicly to just about every comment, but that left him virtually speechless. Harsh, dude, he replied. Welcome to what is either an expansive new future for the book in the digital age, or a cacophonous morass that will turn scholarship into a series of flame wars or both. Scholars like Mr. Wark, who are as comfortable firing off comments on blogs as they are pontificating at academic conferences, are beginning to question whether the printed book is the best format for advancing scholarship and communicating big ideas. In tenure and promotion, of course, the book is still king the whole academic enterprise often revolves around it. But several scholars are using digital means to challenge the current model of academic publishing. Thanks to the Internet, they argue, the book should be dynamic rather than fixed not just a text, but a site of conversation. Printouts could still be made and bound, but the real action would be online, and the commentary would form a new kind of peer review. Even some publishers are experimenting, though so far the most ambitious efforts have been at scholarly journals. Nature, for instance, started a program this summer in which authors can opt to have articles they submit made available immediately as electronic pre- prints that anyone can comment on. Those papers are still reviewed the old-fashioned way, but the comments by online users are also taken into consideration. Many academic publishers shrug off open-review e- books as simply the latest technological fad, saying that the time-tested peer-review process should not be replaced by bands of volunteers. Whether traditional publishers join in or not, there is no doubt that academic discourse is increasingly occurring on blogs and other online forums. So how can that energy be channeled into accepted forms of scholarship? Is it time for the book to get a high-tech makeover? Game On Mr. Wark's book is called GAM3R 7H30RY [http://www.futureofthebook.org/gamertheory/] (pronounced Gamer Theory, and rendered in a code- like language style popular among computer geeks). It offers a cultural critique of video games and argues that popular culture increasingly casts life itself as a kind of game where you're only truly a survivor if you can avoid being voted off the island. Mr. Wark originally planned on sticking with the old- fashioned peer-review model and he has, in fact, submitted the book for publication by a traditional academic press (Harvard University Press). But as he was finishing a draft, he was approached by Ben Vershbow, a researcher at the Institute for the Future of the Book, an unusual academic center run by the University of Southern California but based in Brooklyn. Mr. Vershbow is a fan of one of Mr. Wark's previous books, A Hacker Manifesto (Harvard University Press), an excerpt of which the scholar placed online. So Mr. Vershbow asked whether Mr. Wark would have been interested in having users comment on that book while it was under production. Hell, no, Mr. Wark responded at least by his retelling, over brunch at a Brooklyn restaurant last month. That's one of those books where you sit alone on a mountaintop and not talk to anybody. ... Not everything can be 'engage with the reader' every five minutes. But he agreed to turn GAM3R 7H30RY into a conversation with his audience. So he sat down with researchers from the center a group whose work ethic blends long brainstorming meetings with bouts of hands-on multimedia production and helped design a format that would put both text and comments in the foreground. In
