D1gital Territ0ries

*JUST Published*

D1gital Territ0ries – Towards the protection of public and private space in a digital and Ambient Intelligence environment

Authors: Barbara Daskala, Ioannis Maghiros
EUR Number: 22765 EN
Publication date: 5/2007
We would like to bring to your attention our recent publication “D1gital Territ0ries – Towards the protection of public and private space in a digital and Ambient Intelligence environment” [EUR 22765 EN], which might be of interest to you, given your current activities. You can find it at: http://www.jrc.es/publications/pub.cfm?id=1474.

The publication is basically the product of reseach conducted during the last 2 years by our group in the Information Society unit (formerly known as Infomation & Communication Technologies unit) in IPTS, DG JRC. The objective was to develop a framework, in order to provide a more systematic view on the blurring boundaries of public and private digital space, and thus to assist towards addressing the current and emerging concerns regarding privacy, security and identity of people’s online activities; and while appropriately protecting privacy and personal data in the digital world, this framework envisages to promote freedom of expression in the on-line world and enhance the collaboration and communication in the public digital space.

The publication in question provides an overview of the Digital Territories (DT) concept and defines its basic categories and components. Furthermore, with a view to clarify and better understand the DT concept and its application, the authors consider some examples of certain online services and applications (current and future) that have already raised serious privacy considerations and discuss the benefits of applying DT application in these cases. Finally, specific considerations with regard to the application of the concept are identified, as well as future steps that could be made towards evolving and applying the concept.

fringe economies and community response in US and EU

fringe economies and community response in US and EU

“I have a vision for San Diego and that vision is about walkable, livable communities, not big, mega-structures that inhibit people’s lives,” said Councilman Tony Young. – newrules.org

“There were 4,500 pawnshops in the United States in 1985; now there are almost 12,000, including outlets owned by five publicly traded chains. In 2005 the three big chains — Cash America International (a.k.a Cash America Pawn and Super- Pawn), EZ Pawn, and First Cash — had combined annual revenues of nearly $1 billion. Cash America is the largest pawnshop chain, with 750 locations; the company also makes payday loans through its Cash America Payday Advance, Cashland, and Mr. Payroll stores. In 2005, Cash America’s revenues totaled $594.3 million.” Living in America’s Fringe Economy By Howard Karger,
“Somewhere along the line our country has changed from one based upon a strong sense of community and fairness to an ‘I’ve got mine so eff you’ attitude. Americans have been sold a bill of goods for a couple of generations now and it’s been financed by the liquidation of assets and overextended credit. Tens of millions that think of themselves as middle class and above the rabble are but one or two ugly blows from being in a financial trap with no easy way out. They have borrowed and leveraged everything to keep up with the Joneses and are living way beyond their real means. All the things laid out in the article above are examples of a culture based upon greed, selfishness & denial” ( reader response Posted by: NoPCZone on Dec 29, 2006 2:01 AM)   

13% of the US population falls below federal poverty threshold. Sixteen per cent of EU citizens are at risk of poverty, say the latest 2005 Eurostat figures, 55 to 72 million. In Finland, one of the richest EU countries 600.000 citizens (12%) fall below the EU net income per single adult poverty line of EUR 975 per month (2004 figures). Many of the financial strategies in these dependent situations revolve around borrowing, lending, leading up to debts which brings financial penalties resulting in even more borrowing. As such, this was never a new situation. In the last decade, however, in many rich industrial countries, the fringe economy which is characterized by excessive fees for financial services is growing so fast that according to Professor Karger “in an important sense the sector is no longer “fringe” at all: more and more, large mainstream financial corporations are behind the high-rate loans that anxious customers in run-down storefronts sign for on the dotted line:”
“Ron Cook is a department manager at a Wal-Mart store in Atlanta. Maria Guzman is an undocumented worker from Mexico; she lives in Houston with her three children and cleans office buildings at night. Marty Lawson works for a large Minneapolis corporation. (The names have been changed to protect the privacy of the individuals.) What do these three people have in common? They are all regular fringe economy customers.”
Currently there are 33,000 check-cashing and payday loan stores, just two parts of the fringe economy, in the USA, “more than the all the McDonald’s and Burger King restaurants and all the Target, J.C. Penney, and Wal-Mart retail stores in the United States combined”. As a possible strategy against further growth of the fringe economy Karger argues for more “community-based lending institutions modeled on the Grameen Bank or on local cooperatives.” There seems a powerful link between the rise in the past two decades of mega retailers and the rise of the fringe economy. Local governments hesitate more and more to welcome the supercenters unequivocally. The San Diego City Council, for example, recently voted against the construction of supercenters- over 90,000 square feet – effectively preventing Wal-Mart and Target from opening in the city. In Big-Box Swindle Stacy Mitchell shows how since 2000, “over 200 big-box development projects have been halted by groups of ordinary citizens, and scores of towns and cities have adopted laws that favor small-scale, local business development which limit the proliferation of chains.” In Europe the anti globalization movement found a new focal point on issues of work, low wages, temporary jobs, flexjobs in the Stop Précarité movement (2000), culminating in the withdrawal of the CPE – making it easier to fire workers under 26 – by the Villepin government after huge protests and nation wide strikes. Le Monde commented “that “précarité” was going to be a central issue in the upcoming 2007 presidential elections.”

Sometimes you’re so early you forget about it yourself

so here’s a post on IDC

“3. Something really important is going on. Human beings seem to advance by externalizing functions of consciousness. What we’re doing now maybe is externalizing meaning. (In a Heidegger sense) The connection of things enriches them and lets them have the context in which they are what they are. They are there for the next generations to make sense of to see if there are connections between two things that are tagged the same way.”

From Colin Rhinesmith quoting:

David Weinberger
Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of The New Digital Disorder
Book Release Party
Harvard University
April 20, 2007

Check

What is the role and place of design in these information spaces that are mediated with computational processes that generate not data (linked to other data) – the kind of communicative process that we are familiar with – but information (linked to other information)?

and resonance design

But what you don’t get is that it is not about wht is wrong now, but what will be wrong in five years time, and then where will you be?

Anthony Townsend
to telecom-cities

Big Brother’s watching: The secret CCTV bunker that monitors our every move
Last updated at 13:17pm on 1st June 2007

In a bunker beneath the bustling streets of central London, guards monitor a grid of closed-circuit television.

The centre, at a secret location, is run by a private company in association with the police and local council.

Polls show broad public acceptance, even if the cameras more often capture a couple in loving embrace than a terrorist about to wreak havoc.

Police say the average Briton is on as many as 300 cameras every day, usually unaware

Britain has more than 4 million closed-circuit security cameras, more than any other Western democracy.

Police say the average Briton is on as many as 300 cameras every day, usually unaware.

The density of surveillance is significantly higher than in any other Western democracy, says Jen Corlew, spokeswoman for Liberty, a London-based human rights group.

Britain has more than 4 million closed-circuit security cameras

“We are sleepwalking towards a Big Brother society, not in one fell swoop but by stages,” warns The Spectator, a conservative magazine.

“There is no boot stamping on a face: just an ever more insistent foot in the door.”

But the vast majority of 4,000 people surveyed in 2005 said they believed that tapping phones, opening mail and following terror suspects were a price worth paying to stay safe, according to British Social Attitudes Report – an annual survey released in January.

Some 81 percent thought tapping telephones and opening mail were prices worth paying. For terrorism suspects, 80 percent supported electronic tagging.

The British seem to have rallied around the idea that some long-accepted freedoms may have to be curbed in the face of a common enemy – in much the way an earlier generation made sacrifices during World War II.

“When it comes to people’s safety, I don’t think they can go too far,” said Jonathon Walkes, 29, a London lawyer.

“For the most part, we just go about our lives knowing that people are watching. I’m still rowdy after a night at the pub.”

British authorities say people shouldn’t worry about the close surveillance – unless they’re doing something wrong.

“We appreciate that the cameras and some of the other measures are seen as invasive, but only people who really have something to worry about should be concerned,” David Morgan, a Metropolitan Police Chief Superintendent, said on a tour of the bunker.

As he spoke, a series of seemingly private moments unfolded – ranging from a young couple stepping into the shadows for a kiss to a driver sneaking into a restricted bus lane.

TELECOM-CITIES
Current searchable archives (Feb. 1, 2006 to present) at http://www.mail-archive.com/telecom-cities@forums.nyu.edu/
Old searchble archives at http://www.mail-archive.com/telecom-cities@googlegroups.com/

Sci-Fi writers join Homeland Security

Iain Thomson, vnunet.com 01 Jun 2007
A group of science fiction writers has been advising the Department of Homeland Security on future threats to the US.

The group, which calls itself Sigma, attended a Homeland Security conference on science and technology last week. It has been advising governments for over 15 years.

“Fifty years ago, science fiction writers told us about flying cars and a wireless handheld communicator,” Christopher Kelly, a spokesman for Homeland Security’s Science and Technology division, told USA Today.

“Although flying cars have not evolved, cellphones today are a way of life. We need to look everywhere for ideas, and science fiction writers clearly inform the debate.”

The participants include writers Jerry Pournelle, Greg Bear and Larry Niven, and membership of the group is limited to published authors with advanced degrees to avoid being labelled as ‘kooks’. Sigma’s motto is ‘Science Fiction in the National Interest’.

“We are well qualified nuts,” said Pournelle, co-author of best sellers Footfall and Lucifer’s Hammer.

Science fiction authors have long been advisors to the US government. Robert Heinlein, author of Starship Troopers, was a key advisor on the Star Wars missile defence programme until his death in 1988, and claimed to be instrumental in selling the concept to then president Ronald Reagan.

However, the group’s activities have not won universal approval. Arthur C Clarke had a public falling out with long-time friend Heinlein over the Star Wars missile shield, which he considered doomed to failure and potentially destabilising.

Clarke has since written books detailing the impossibility of building an ‘ultimate weapon’.