User:Pedro Sá Couto/Reading, Writing & Research Methodologies 2nd
The Network we (de)Served — INTRODUCTION
Editing, with Lídia Pereira
27/03/2019
https://pad.xpub.nl/p/2019-03-27-rwrm
Group Intro
We, Xpub1, traveled from home to home by bicycle, setting up homeservers. As friends and companions on this Infrastructour, we chatted over drinks served by our hosts. Where possible we installed our servers at home, in other cases we had to depend on another member of the group. While learning about networks we supported each other, and bonded over shared frustrations. Each of us were drawn to a different set of questions.
- What is a network?
- How is autonomy related to contingency?
- What is the role of social networks?
- What is network(ed) publishing?
- Is it possible to map a network?
We followed our own personal (yet interconnected) routes. Here are our accounts of this experience.
Version 04 — Group Line Editing
I already knew we wouldn't be going to my apartment during the Infrastructour. I guess that this might have been the main reason why I got a bit skeptical about this pursuit of online autonomy from the beginning. When I first came across this theme I had to immediately question myself. On the one hand, to what degree are we really autonomous while still relying on an internet provider? On the other hand, as I was not able to have a server hosted in my home, would the task be unaccomplishable even before it had begun?
A short contextualization on why I could not set my server up in the freshly renovated building where I live: I live in a 21-story building, where the internet is provided by one company to all the separate houses. I don't have physical access to the main router and I only have a small access point installed in a reachable place. Even while calling the company in charge of this hardware I was not given the credentials to further explore, and neither did they have the time nor patience to explain to me how the system was put together. Long story short, I think that the community aspect of building this network was what made it possible to continue. I set my server in Tancredi's place. His house was the last one on the tour, but from what I can recall, that didn't even make our installation more successful or straightforward than any of the previous ones. We did not do it on the Infrastructour day with everyone there. I not only had different hardware from all the others but the software was also different. During the weekend, over beers and without time constraints, we finally did it: the server was online! I could not SSH into it directly but, in an ingenious way, we were able to create a bridge between both server and everything was sorted out. I could easily access it remotely. I think that this increased my autonomy as long as this small machine was still plugged in, and online. Practically however, I still relied on a second party.
From this point on, my main question became clear: what did it mean to be autonomous and what kind of examples were available which allowed me to see more directly how communities rely on self-hosting and how they manage it?
We were introduced to Mastodon, an online federated social network. I focused my research on this case study, where users can either be part of an instance or host their own. I researched within its universe to understand what kind of communities are present and why they moved there. Mastodon started being used by some because it provided a possible answer to issues of personal safety. We can take the example of marginalized communities (for instance LGBTQI+). Such groups used to rely on Twitter to discuss and share their points of view, but Twitter became filled with hate bots, trolls that skimmed through posts and at the first trigger word would react (in)discriminately. This made a few users leave Twitter, and Mastodon presented an alternative. When you create your own instance, you can state clear rules for what you imagine it to be. Some instances try to be open to everyone in order to provide a safe space. However, this also creates the necessity to draw clear lines between what one can and cannot do.
13/03/2019
https://pad.xpub.nl/p/2019-03-13-rwrm
SHORT INTERVIEW
Version 03
Beforehand I already knew we wouldn't be going to my apartment during the infrastructour and I guess that might have been the main reason for why I got a bit skeptical about this pursuit to online autonomy from the beginning. When I first came across with this thematic I had to immediately question myself. On the one hand, on what degree are we really autonomous while still relying on an internet provider and, on the other, now that I am not able to have a server hosted in my place is it unaccomplishable even before it has begun?
As a small contextualization on why I could not set my node up in the young and appealing renovated building where I live. I live in a 21 stories building, where the internet is provided by one company to all the separated houses. I don't have physical access to the main router and I only have a small access point installed in a reachable place, even while calling the company in charge of this hardware I was not told the credentials to further explore it, neither they had the time or patience to explain to me how the system was put together. Long story short, I think that the community aspect of a building this network was what made it still possible to continue. I set my router in Tancredi's place. His house was the last one on the tour, but from what I can recall not even that made our installation more successful or straight forward than all from the above. We did not do it on the infrastructour day with everyone there, not only I had different hardware from all the others but also the software was different. During the weekend, sharing a beer and without time constraints we finally did it, the server was online, I could not ssh into it directly but in an ingenious way, we were able to create a bridge between them and everything was sorted out. I had access to it from outside of his house. I think that this increased my autonomy level as long as this small machine was still powered and online, but physically I am still relying on a second party.
My main question started then to be, what did it mean to be autonomous and what kind of examples did I have where I could see in a more direct approach on how communities rely on it and how do they manage it?
We were introduced to Mastodon, an online social network and self-hosted social media. I focused my research on this platform, where users can either be part of an instance or they can host their own node in the network. I researched in the Mastodon universe to understand what kind of communities are present and why did the move there. Mastodon.social started being used by some because it was the answer to a safety problem. We can take the example of the LGBT communities that used to rely on Twitter to discuss and share their point of views, but they stopped having a place for it. Twitter filled itself with hate bots, trolls that would skim through posts and at the first trigger word would act. This made a few users leave the platform, Mastodon was an alternative. When you create your own instance, you can state clear rules from what you imagine it being or not. It is interesting how some instances try to be autonomous and open to everyone, but in order to be a safe space, they have the need to draw heavy lines on what you can and cannot do.
Version 02
Beforehand I already knew we wouldn't be going to my apartment during the infrastructour and I guess that might have been the main reason for why I got a bit skeptical about this pursuit to online autonomy from the beginning. When I first came across with this thematic I had to immediately question myself. On the one hand, on what degree are we really autonomous while still relying on an internet provider and on the other now that I am not able to have it in my place is it unaccomplishable even before it has begun?
As a small contextualization on why I could not set it up in the young and appealing renovated building where I live. I live in a 21 stories building, where the internet is provided by one company to all the separated houses. I don't have physical access to the main router and I only have a small access point installed in a reachable place, even while calling the company in charge of this hardware I was not told the credentials to further explore it, neither they had the time or patience to explain to me how the system was put together. Long story short, I think that the community aspect of a building this network was what made it still possible to continue. I set my router in Tancredi's place. His house was the last one on the tour from what I can recall but not even that made our installation more successful or straight forward than all from the above. We could not do it on the infrastructour day with everyone there, not only I had different hardware from all the others but also the software was different. During the weekend, sharing a beer and without time constraints we finally did it, the server was online, I could not ssh into it directly but in an ingenious way we were able to create a bridge between them and everything was sorted out. I had access to it from outside of his house. I think that this increased my autonomy level as long as this small machine was still powered and online, but physically I am still relying on a second party.
My main question started then to be, what did it mean to be autonomous and what kind of examples did I have where I could see in a more direct approach on how communities rely on it and how do they manage it?
We were introduced to mastodon, an online social networked and self-hosted social media. I focused my research on this platform, where Users can either be part of an instance or they can host their own node in the network. I researched in the mastodon universe to understand what kind of communities are present and why did the move there. --LGBT groups-- --Why is mastodon so popular in Japan?--
Mastodon.social started being used by some because it was the answer to a safety problem. We can take the example of the LGBT communities that used to rely on Twitter to discuss and share their point of views, but they stopped having a place for it. Twitter filled itself with hate bots, trolls that would skim through posts and at the first trigger word would act. This made users fled, mastodon was an alternative. When you create your own instance, you can state clear rules from what you imagine it being or not. It is interesting how some instances try to be autonomous and open to everyone, but in order to be a safe space, they have the need to draw heavy lines on what you can and cannot do. If I can give an example, in the instance "gravitas.cafe":
"We have a zero tolerance policy for anyone breaking any of these rules, and they will result in an immediate suspension from this instance. — Do not participate in, engage in, or boost any form of harassment of other users in the fediverse. — Hate speech and bigotry are not tolerated. This includes, but is not limited to, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, racism, and ableism. — NSFW posts are allowed but must be behind a Content Warning and flagged as sensitive. — Do not follow any of our users with a follow bot. Users please report any follow bots that follow you."
Taking profit from mastodon API I started to be able to get instances descriptions and to very specifically target how do they characterize themselves. You start to realize patterns but also the sharply defined lines on how instances are ruled..... --for people who don’t know what is an API can you explained it roughly? what kind of information were you getting from the API?--
Version 01
When I first came across with this thematic I had to immediately question myself. Why are we setting up our own routers and why are we in the pursuit of getting this status of being autonomous online. I also found myself a bit skeptical, on what degree are we really autonomous while still relying on an internet provider. I set my router in Tancredi's place. I live in a 21 stories building, where the internet is provided by one company to all the separated apartments and I didn't have physical access to the router, this was the first constraint from the start. In the placed where my router is hosted now I am not paying for internet directly but still, I am relying on a second party.
My main question started then to be, what did it mean to be autonomous and what kind of examples did I have where I could see in a more direct approach on how communities rely on it and how do they manage it?
--do you think the idea of being completely autonomous is impossible, to begin with, or do you think having little autonomy is better than having none?----
We were introduced to mastodon, an online social networked and self-hosted social media. I focused my research on this platform, where Users can either be part of an instance or they can host their own node in the network. I researched in the mastodon universe to understand what kind of communities are present and why did the move there.--LGBT groups----Why is it big in Japan?--
Mastodon.social started being used by some because it was the answer to a safety problem. We can take the example of the LGBT communities that used to rely on Twitter to discuss and share their point of views, but they stopped having a place for it. Twitter filled itself with hate bots, trolls that would skim through posts and at the first trigger word would act. This made users fled, mastodon was an alternative. When you create your own instance, you can state clear rules from what you imagine it being or not. It is interesting how some instances try to be autonomous and open to everyone, but in order to be a safe space, they have the need to draw heavy lines on what you can and cannot do. If I can give an example, in the instance "gravitas.cafe":
"We have a zero tolerance policy for anyone breaking any of these rules, and they will result in an immediate suspension from this instance. — Do not participate in, engage in, or boost any form of harassment of other users in the fediverse. — Hate speech and bigotry are not tolerated. This includes, but is not limited to, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, racism, and ableism. — NSFW posts are allowed but must be behind a Content Warning and flagged as sensitive. — Do not follow any of our users with a follow bot. Users please report any follow bots that follow you."
Taking profit from mastodon API I started to be able to get instances descriptions and to very specifically target how do characterize themselves.--for people who don’t know what is an API can you explained it roughly? what kind of information were you getting from the API?-- You start to see patterns on this,
13/02/2019
https://pad.xpub.nl/p/special_issue_19_02_13
Questions
PALOMA && PEDRO
- Economics
— What will you need to be start a network. What are the resources (money, people, infrastructures) for this network? And to maintain it?
— What does the funding model represent? Who is behind it? Why are they funding this project? (eg. Telegram (APP that is private. Telegram messages are heavily encrypted and can self-destruct. Cloud-Based.), founders are owners of VK, Russian social platform)
— How is my network going to support an expansion? How is it going to grow? How will you deal with a network effect?
- Politics
— Is there any hierarchy? What are the rules? And limits? And who is the one that creates them?
— How to control the decentralisation of Networks and its content?
— What is the governance model of this project? Who establishes the rules, are there any?
- Privacy
— How can you maintain privacy while keeping it possible for you to connect to other people. What is the code that I need to find a user? There is no network if you are not connected to anyone.
— What are your kind of agreements? (In facebook you are either in or out.) How to prevent this? How to give some power to the user, will this mean you will have to create limits to their access?
— How am I going to be linked to other people, categories, in FB you are either a friend or not.
— What kind of relations are you going to allow, and what are you going to label them?
Annotated reader
16/01/2019
https://pad.xpub.nl/p/annotated_reader
The Ruling Class and the Ruling ideas, Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels (1845)
https://pad.xpub.nl/p/annotated_reader_Marx_Engels
(i) History of the Subaltern Classes; (ii) The Concept of 'Ideology'; (iii) Cultural Themes: Ideological Material, Antonio Gramsci (1929-35)
https://pad.xpub.nl/p/Gramsci_hegemony
Encoding, Decoding, Stuart Hall (1975)
https://pad.xpub.nl/p/sh_encoding_decoding
Sub Culture, the Meaning of Style, Dick Hebdige (1979), Chapter One: From culture to hegemony
https://pad.xpub.nl/p/subculture_paloma