Kosmopolito.org is a political blog which opposes all forms of online censorship. Until today kosmopolito.org’s domain name registrar has been  godaddy.com. However, this company seems to be in favour of SOPA (and consequently internet censorship). We therefore changed our registrar in order to support #boycottgodaddy and #stopsopa. If you use godaddy.com services please join the boycott campaign!

However, in order to provide some context it is useful to have a look at Sopa (Stop Online Piracy Act)  which is a proposed US law and is widely interpreted as the new attempt by the media industry to secure its outdated business model. The problem of the proposed act is that it allows U.S. law enforcement agencies and private copyright holders to  seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringements. If the bill succeeds it would open up unlimited liabilities for businesses and it might introduce a large-scale internet censorship infrastructure. This may sound very legalistic and technical but it could mean the end of the internet as we know it.

If you are not sure what is at stake we highly recommend to watch the Fight for The Future video:

A guest blog post by our admin who blogs at adversation.de and can be found on twitter @thomas__m

Launched by Reporters Without Borders in 2008, World Day Against Cyber-Censorship (on 12 March 2011) is intended to rally everyone in support of a single Internet without restrictions and accessible to all.

The fight for online freedom of expression is more essential than ever. By creating new spaces for exchanging ideas and information, the Internet is a force for freedom. In countries where the traditional media are controlled by the government, the only independent news and information are to be found on the Internet, which has become a forum for discussion and a refuge for those who want to express their views freely.

However, more and more governments have realised this and are reacting by trying to control the Internet. Never have so many countries been affected by some form of online censorship, whether arrests or harassment of netizens, online surveillance, website blocking or the adoption of repressive Internet laws. Netizens are being targeted by government reprisals. Around 117 of them are currently detained for expressing their views freely online, mainly in China, Iran and Vietnam.

World Day Against Cyber-Censorship pays tribute to them and their fight for Internet freedom. Reporters Without Borders will mark the occasion by issuing its latest list of “Enemies of the Internet.”

RSF produced a nice website, a report (pdf) and a rather interesting map highlighting not only the “enemies of the Internet” (which are quite easy to guess) but also “countries under surveillance“. And there is bad news for Europe:  For the first time a EU member state has made it into the ‘surveillance’ category:  So, congratulations France – unfortunately it is not a huge surprise given the French three strikes legislation. It is however a timely reminder that internet censorship is also a problem in Europe!

Enemies of the Internet: Burma, China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam

Countries ‘under surveillance’: Australia, Bahrain, Belarus, Egypt, Eritrea, France, Libya, Malaysia, Russia, South Korea, Sri Lnaka, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela

Although I find the idea behind flattr fascinating  I doubt that it will be a huge success on this blog because of various reasons. First of all I don’t think I have enough readers (a common problem among eurobloggers!). I also suspect that most of my readers do not have a flattr account.  The second problem is that flattr is not yet popular enough. It seems to me that only few blogs  (mainly tech related), add-ons and several NGOs (wikileaks being the most prominent) use it actively. Only in Germany flattr seems to be a known service.  This  situation is a problem for thus blog. Very few readers have even fewer flattr accounts… So I suppose the main aim for your blogger – to re-finance the server/hosting costs – cannot be achieved. Nevertheless, I would greatly appreciate your flattr love…

So the  main reason why I am using flattr now is twofold. It gives me the opportunity to flattr others and I hope to get to know the system better. Maybe I can use it in other projects more successfully!

If you want to understand Julian Assange I recommend to read his essay “conspiracy as governance” in which he explains his world-view and provides some sort of  philosophical underpinnings for wikileaks.

For example, Assange writes about the non linear effects of leaks on unjust systems of governance:

The more secretive or unjust an organization is, the more leaks induce fear and paranoia in its leadership and planning coterie. This must result in minimization of efficient internal communications mechanisms (an increase in cognitive “secrecy tax”) and consequent system-wide cognitive decline resulting in decreased ability to hold onto power as the environment demands adaption.

Hence in a world where leaking is easy, secretive or unjust systems are nonlinearly hit relative to open, just systems. Since unjust systems, by their nature induce opponents, and in many places barely have the upper hand, mass leaking leaves them exquisitely vulnerable to those who seek to replace them with more open forms of  governance.

Only revealed injustice can be answered; for man to do anything intelligent he has to know what’s actually going on.

• We don’t know enough. So far wikileaks published 220 out of 251287 diplomatic cables. Wikileaks announced that they would release cables in stages over the next few months. They learnt a lesson how to keep the media interested. Remember the Daily Telegraph and the expense scandal in the UK? They published something every couple of days – which made it much more damaging and created a huge political scandal. So, I guess we need to wait and see what else will happen. According to wikileaks the cables can be broadly labelled as follows.

• 15, 652 secret
• 101,748 confidential
• 133,887 unclassified
• Iraq most discussed country – 15,365 (Cables coming from Iraq – 6,677)
• Ankara, Turkey had most cables coming from it – 7,918
• From Secretary of State office – 8,017

• Wikileaks continues with its model to work with a couple of selected media outlets.  Spiegel, The Guardian, El Pais, Le Monde,  The New York Times (via the Guardian)  got access to the files after signing an agreement of confidentiality. Not sure what the role of owni.fr is – they seem to provide tools but did not have access to the files.   Some might criticise that because many other journalists do not have the opportunity to analyse the data thoroughly prior to publication. However, wikileaks learnt that without such a process most files will go unnoticed and much of the momentum gets lost. At the same time it is quite a good business model as it guarantees mainstream media a degree of exclusivity – something the wikileaks team members announced already a year ago. Wikileaks need the mainstream media to be successful – and the mainstream media only need wikileaks if they can get some exclusive rights. (Personally, I think wikileaks should return to a more collaborative and participatory approach instead of focusing on high profile and “event like” leaks…)

• There are – as usual- too many pundits that claim that they know the implications of the leak already. The newspapers will focus on the “funny” headlines how diplomats describe certain politicians etc. I doubt that many will actually put cables in context and try to explain why they were written.  It is also important to note that although a certain ambassador might be ‘quoted’, the cable was written by other policy analysts that work in political reporting. The ambassador might have not even read the report! As far as I can see it there are no “top secret” cables which makes it even more likely that most of the content was routine stuff.  Anyway, to get a basic idea about the cables, the most important article you should read is by Simon Jenkins in the Guardian who not only states  that “the job of the media is not to protect the powerful from embarrassment” – but more importantly he highlights a crucial fact that most commentators will fail to report:

The state department knew of the leak several months ago and had ample time to alert staff in sensitive locations. Its pre-emptive scaremongering over the weekend stupidly contrived to hint at material not in fact being published. Nor is the material classified top secret, being at a level that more than 3 million US government employees are cleared to see, and available on the defence department’s internal Siprnet. Such dissemination of “secrets” might be thought reckless, suggesting a diplomatic outreach that makes the British empire seem minuscule.

The revelations do not have the startling, coldblooded immediacy of the WikiLeaks war logs from Iraq and Afghanistan, with their astonishing insight into the minds of fighting men seemingly detached from the ethics of war. The disclosures are largely of analysis and high-grade gossip. Insofar as they are sensational, it is in showing the corruption and mendacity of those in power, and the mismatch between what they claim and what they do.

• It is very likely that other secret services have seen this kind of “intelligence” before. If wikileaks manages to get hold of this dataset it wouldn’t surprise me if others also managed to do so. After all, any network that can be accessed by millions of government employees is not that difficult to hack. And more importantly no “real” secrets are shared within such a network.
  

• The most striking implication is the likely transformation of diplomacy. Diplomacy changed over the years but it never experienced radical change. The system always relied on written and unwritten rules of secrecy. Moreover, “traditional political reporting” assumes that only staff in a particular city are able to gather facts of the political situation in this country. This also includes newspaper summaries – and  many policy officers do rely on media reports. Well, somehow diplomacy  is still the same system as several hundred years ago – with the exception that cables are now electronic. But it is obvious that “cablegate” would have not happened if diplomats still communicated with letters. Diplomacy entered the 21st century! Generally, diplomats must develop a better understanding of the internet.

• It is not a US problem. It can happen to every service everywhere. We live in a age of information and it is inevitable that these things happen. At the same time, diplomacy and foreign policy need to become more accountable. As long as diplomats do not learn from previous mistakes, as long as they behave as if they can act in a small secret bubble, as long as they think they can get away with everything -  these leaks will continue and indeed help to bring transparency to international politics.

• An unindented consequence might be how the internet is perceived by decision makers. Concerns of privacy and transparency might become a greater issue in the future. Surely, diplomatic services around the world will tighten their intranets and take IT guys more seriously.  But again,  there is always a human factor involved in leaks. As soon as people have access to a network of information leaks are possible!

• “Cablegate” represents a demystification of diplomacy and foreign policy. We get a first hand account of how embassies work and that political reporting is in fact done by human beings. The problem is that some private conversations will now be in the newspapers which can be a problem for some people. Obviously there will some sensitive material which will result in major political scandals. A taster for this kind of information are the revelations of  misbehaviour of US diplomats at the UN headquarters  as well as  signs of corruption in US aid programmes. However, the implications might be more problematic for autocratic and dictatorial regimes as they often act differently in international diplomacy than they do “at home” (in regards to Iran for example). The cables about the thinking of Arab leaders regarding Iran seems to be the most interesting revelation so far. Especially in these cases a more honest and transparent diplomacy might be the result! In countries like Germany or the UK most cables could have been written by an average political analyst (or blogger!).  So far, most cables correspond with the mainstream analysis of US foreign policy (and indeed domestic politics!). However, it will be interesting to compare media reporting in different countries.

• The cables are great for research. In the words of  Timothy Garton Ash:  It is the historian’s dream. It is the diplomat’s nightmare.

• And last but not least. What about the EU? There is category for the US mission to the EU and a EU search tag. There are some mentions of the EU in cables from the several US embassies in Berlin, London, Paris and Rome. Not sure whether we will see a lot of revelations there.  MEP Marietje Schaake asked the European Commission a couple of questions regarding the leaks here. And the answers are here. Not surprisingly, and now confirmed by Der Spiegel, we learnt that Obama has “no emotional relationship with Europe,” and that he prefers to focus  on Asia instead. However, the most interesting case to follow could well be the 7,918 cables from Turkey.

To be continued…

In a speech yesterday, Ed Vaizey announced  that in principle it would be acceptable if  ISPs favoured certain data to create a “two-speed internet”  – and abandon net neutrality:

Under the new provisions providers must present information about their service, including the nature and extent of their traffic management policies and their impact on service quality in a clear, visible and easy to understand form for all their customers.

A transcript of the speech  is available here. The essence of the argument:

Consumers should have the ability to access any legal content or service. Content and service providers should have the ability to innovate and, most importantly, to reach end users. (…) This means ISPs should be allowed to manage their networks to ensure a good customer service. It means allowing flexibility in business models. (…) A lightly regulated internet is good for business, good for the economy and good for people.

The rhetoric of the speech is clever because he uses the language of the supporters of net neutrality (Just look at the title of the document: “The Open Internet Speech”).  However, I think it is important to note that he only talks in terms of customers and consumers – and not of citizens. So the only worry he seems to have is how to please businesses. He basically misses the point that net neutrality is probably the most important factor for innovation and growth with regards to the internet.  And he talks a lot about transparency and openness – but only to justify restrictions that could be imposed on consumers. Everything is allowed as long as you are open and  transparent about it! Screw the people but tell them that they have been screwed.

[Update: Rene Obermann, the CEO of  Deutsche Telekom in Germany is also thinking about  "different levels of internet quality ".]

What is the problem with the idea to abandon net neutrality? It is basically the idea that some data packages get favourable treatment and can be transmitted faster than other data packages. In order to get this favourable treatment for a certain website or service, somebody needs to pay extra – either the company or the consumer or both.  Basically your internet provider (the company that provides your internet access!) can decide what kind of services and websites are more important. It is obvious that this has huge implications for democratic principles and basic rights.  The internet could be transformed into a huge broadcasting channel for wealthy content providers. You can find a good introduction at the excellent La Quadrature du net. To illustrate the problem, have a look at the following image and think carefully whether you want to have an internet that looks like that:

Watch the video, download it and share with your friends: Patent Absurdity — How software patents broke the system:

(click the poster to watch the video!)

Dear Cecila Malmstöm, back off from the Internet, Commissioner . (via netzpolitik.org)

For more details do read this European Voice article and have a look at this leaked Council document “Draft Council Conclusions on an Action Plan to implement the Concerted Strategy to combat cybercrime” and the CIRCAMP project.

I think it is a very good initiative. There are a lot of opportunities for EU institutions by engaging with web tools. Unfortunately there is still a rather widespread skepticism among politicians and officials despite a few good examples how to use web 2.0 tools successfully. Hopefully this letter will contribute to a rethink in the institutions. Moreover, this would also be a good topic to bring up during the Commission-designate hearings in the European Parliament this week…

Hat tip:  Dick Nieuwenhuis Blog: Please, use web 2.0 for Europe!

The new group took the name European Conservatives and Reformists (a contradiction in terms even in the name) but no-one thought to register any domain name for the new group before its establishment. So on 22nd June I had a look around to see what I could find – ecrg.info was still available and I purchased it and registered it with Google. Now more than 3 months on there is still no official ECR Group website as far as I can see, and the single page of my website has risen slowly up the Google results, so much so that I’m starting to get mails via the website from all sorts of organisations asking for information about the ECR’s MEPs and positions and even asking for speakers for conferences.

The video is a German perspective (with English subtitles!) on the recent security discourses surrounding surveillance and control in the name of “the war against terrorism”…

What about trusting your own citizens…?

This blog post is part of a campaign to restore trust and rebuild bridges initiated by the Anna Lindh Foundation. I blog for trust.

In a world in which information is like air, what happens to power? New technologies and a closely related culture of collaboration present radical new models of social organisation. This project brings together leading practitioners and thinkers in this field and asks them to determine the opportunity for government.

And:

If distributed networks of people can run complex organisations such as football clubs, what else can they do? Us Now takes a look at how this type of participation could transform the way that countries are governed.  It tells the stories of the online networks whose radical self-organising structures threaten to change the fabric of government forever.

Check out the official website for more background infos and some more interview clips.

Us Now from Banyak Films on Vimeo.

While the idea to address the young generation through online media is good (and fashionable), one cannot help wondering whether the campaign, on which NATO spent around 500 000 €, would have the expected effect. How often will we see these videos on Facebook walls or on Twitter? (let alone the fact that there is no easy embed function…) And, even more important, will they spark a debate among young people?

“Basement”

“Run”

“Staircase”

The Short and Simple Story of the Credit Crisis.

The goal of giving form to a complex situation like the credit crisis is to quickly supply the essence of the situation to those unfamiliar and uninitiated. This project was completed as part of my thesis work in the Media Design Program, a graduate studio at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.

In “The End of Solitude”, he explores the effects that Internet connectivity and the use of social media have on young people’s ability to be alone, to indulge in solitude and take advantage of this state of mind in order to develop their inner self.

So we live exclusively in relation to others, and what disappears from our lives is solitude. (…) A constant stream of mediated contact, virtual, notional, or simulated, keeps us wired in to the electronic hive — though contact, or at least two-way contact, seems increasingly beside the point. The goal now, it seems, is simply to become known, to turn oneself into a sort of miniature celebrity. How many friends do I have on Facebook? How many people are reading my blog? How many Google hits does my name generate? (…) Not long ago, it was easy to feel lonely. Now, it is impossible to be alone.

Although he is right in pointing out some of the negative aspects of Internet dependency, he does miss one of the main aspects that make people want to stay connected: the web offers an enormous range of opportunities for our professional as well as our personal lives, from maintaining friendships or professional contacts to social activism, issue networking, connected learning and information sharing… The key to success, however, is striking the right balance between real life and online life. And this is, for many, also the biggest challenge. George Siemens at elearnspace points in the same direction:

The concept of how the self relates to the crowd and how much time we allot for reflecting and creative thinking is important. I see that as related more to personal habits than technology.

At the same time, I have my doubts whether this beta version will cause any buzz online as lots of functions are disabled. Maybe it would have been better to launch it with more options at a later stage.

But…

Not surprisingly, the biggest problem of Europeana is the copyright issue, the page has a very restricted license:

In this context it is interesting to look at the recent initiative of the German Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archives). The archive now cooperates with the wikimedia foundation and the first 100.000 historical images have been added to wikipedia under a relatively free license! And the goal is to make another 11 Mio historical images available online!

Coming back to the problems of Europeana: The above mentioned example with the Bundesarchiv – wikipedia cooperation could have been a very interesting model for Europeana ! Not only is it cheaper, but also provides a better license and more collaborative synergies because collaborative knowledge creation generates new knowledge (also some kind of European heritage….)! Europeana could have developed into a true cultural European project that fosters cooperation between citizens that are willing to contribute to it, either integrated into wikipedia or as some sort of wikipedia clone! At the moment, it is only a cultural search engine with millions of external and not integrated content “items”, basically a traditional library catalogue with some nice thumbnails!

• The hierarchical structure that relies on top-down decision processes often led to the Internet being used as a “bin” and even now, the institutions are still heavily reliant on this hierarchy, including many people at the top not recognising the value of online communication, or understanding the website as an archive and not a means for interaction. (…) Accordingly, higher-ranking officials do not usually attend usability workshops so that a top-down change in thinking cannot occur.
• While a willingness to change is apparent, the Internet strategy paper (2007) points out that the transformation has to occur in a “resource neutral scenario”, meaning that even though the importance of (online) communication is recognised, the budget is not increased.
• The majority of students found the site confusing or difficult to handle, independent of prior attitudes. While many students are positively surprised by the website – mostly in terms of language variety and amount of information – they all encountered problems.(…) While most of the German students held highly positive and uncritical views,the Danish students were the most critical and inquisitive, and the British students showed the greatest lack of interest and knowledge about the EU.

Read more about the findings here. Would be interesting to get hold of the recommendations…

1. What happened with the “Telecoms Package” (that I have mentioned here and here)? It seems that most of the worrying amendments regarding copyright issues (especially the three strikes approach) were not adopted by the European Parliament. A detailed analysis by La Quadrature du Net will be published in the next days. However, it was an impressive example of digital citizen lobbyism. If you read German head over to netzpolitik.org and heise.de.  EurActiv has a long and rather general article on the whole initiative. But it is true: the Internet is rather quiet about this success in the European Parliament as A Fistful of Euros notes. Bashing the EU is much easier, I guess.

2. And what about the mysterious “blogger regulation” of Marianne Mikko … that actually never really existed in the first place? Well, it was not adopted by the European Parliament (or rather not included in the EP resolution). For more details check out EUobserver and Julien Frisch.

• Some amendments could allow Member States to create “graduated responses” against unauthorized file sharing, which would have many harmful consequences for civil liberties
• The notion of “lawful content” is a threat for civil liberties and the socio-economic development of the Internet.
• Amendment 34, if voted, can allow to harm privacy in the name of unauthorized file sharing.

Feel free to join the campaign that lobbies for a more open internet. All updates can be found here and as a RSS feed here. (everything is also available in French, German and Spanish). They also provide you with important lobbying advices for the remaining 24 hours before the vote: a very helpful example of a phone conversation with an MEP, a list of ‘incorrect’ arguments, and obviously some nice blog banners: