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996, ICU

996, ICU is a project initiated by Chinese programmers to speak about their work conditions. I brought up this project during initial conceptualizing session for the event launch. Tancredi brought up working with the Git structure to upload annotations. The git workflow will be explicit in retaining versions of different versions of annotations, showing which user had contributed what content, tracking changes, etc. In prototyping session, we also worked with EPUB file structure, it is composed of HTML files when unzipped. We imagined a collective annotation reader stored in a git repository, as separated files of HTML. I presented and talked about 996, ICU during class as an example of Git used as a social space to afford collective interactions. The Git software is particular powerful at recording authors and alterations made to files, making public of the provenance of these voices (in context of 996, ICU it's the voice of the programmers). Eventually we didn't pursue on working with this particular direction, however I want to write down the outline of 996 ICU and how the project hold relevance to what's being discussed during the course.

996 is short for going to work from nine in the morning, getting off work at nine in the evening, on six days per week. ICU is short for the emergency room. In the Chinese tech industry, there had been numerous cases of employees overworked to severe states health failures and death. To name the project 996, ICU is to call attention to labor condition of the tech workers.

996 ICU's page published citations from the Chinese Labor Law, which demanded limitations on work hours and overtime compensation if excess hours are needed. It is regulated that workers work less than 8 hours a day, and no more than 44 hours per week. If overtime work hours is needed per purposes of production, it is to be discussed with trade unions and laborers and be compensated accordingly.

The policies outlined by Labor Law is not carried out in practice. On the contrary companies had openly adopted 996 working models, treating as the unofficial, de facto rule to abide to. To claim 996 as a working schedule is to assign it with credibility and authority, uphold to it, promote it as industry standard.

This is the project page in which there are more details about how it's structured. It moved me by it's way of using Github, a virtual site for daily interactions of tech workers as a site for activism.

use of invisible watermarking to track exposed internal emails: https://www.zhihu.com/question/50735753/answer/122593277

National Technology Worker Day(全国科技工作者日),on May 30th

As I followed news from 996 ICU, I wondered if National Technology Worker Day had addressed tech worker's working condition by any means, as the topic popped in my news feed of the day. To my disappointment it didn't. The news reports on this particular memorial day focused on paying tribute to impacts that technology brought to society at large, such as technology used in agriculture and national defense. I felt disappointed that this day dedicated to technology workers across the nation failed to address working conditions of the most common worker in tech industry.

in relation to conditions of burn out and precarity

As I ruminate on the topic of the "entreprecariat" from the starting Special Issue, I see how 996, ICU reflect phenomenons described by the "entreprecariat" condition. I am trying to re-read the Entrepreneurial Self by Ulrich Bröckling.

A first look at the Chinese OS the government want to use to replace dependency on Windows

Link is here https://qz.com/505383/a-first-look-at-the-chinese-operating-system-the-government-wants-to-replace-windows/ The news article wrote about NeoKylin, a Chinese developed OS that's similar to linux, possibly developed from Fedora according to the article. The intention of promoting NeoKylin is to decrease dependency on foreign developed systems such as Windows, after it announced it's dropping support for Windows XP.

Huawei to replace Android

https://bgr.com/2019/06/13/huawei-phones-operating-system-android-replacement/