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below is my reply to Sam's reply ;) <br>
<br>
I also recommend reading Lewandowski's essay on the independent web
index.. it's in the Society of the Query reader as well:<br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/society-of-the-query-reader-reflections-on-web-search/">http://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/society-of-the-query-reader-reflections-on-web-search/</a><br>
<br>
Lewandowski suggests providing public funding for a public index of
the web that would enable programmers to build various ranking
algorithms etc on top of it.. as an alternative to Google's index no
one can access or work with.. the advantage, in his view, is that a
free web index would enrich & diversify the search engine
landscape since different algorithms can be developed using the same
index.. concerning funding he suggests some sort of transnational
European funding structure.. but well, that seems tricky.. <br>
<br>
I wonder what you guys think of this suggestion that seems pretty
"European" to me.. public funding and stuff.. or am I wrong here?<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-forward-container">best, Astrid<br>
<br>
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<th valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap">Betreff:
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<td>Re: [iDC] introduction</td>
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<th valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap">Datum: </th>
<td>Wed, 02 Jul 2014 10:07:59 +0200</td>
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<th valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap">Von: </th>
<td>astrid mager <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:astrid.mager@univie.ac.at"><astrid.mager@univie.ac.at></a></td>
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<th valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap">An: </th>
<td>Samuel Tannert <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:samuel.tannert@gmail.com"><samuel.tannert@gmail.com></a></td>
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dear Sam,<br>
<br>
yeah, I totally agree with you! especially with your last points..
and I would even add that's not only the hacker class that's
co-opted, but us too. don't we use facebook, twitter etc to
promote the digital labor conference/ ourselves? can we see these
activities as an exploitation of facebook when we, at the same
time, <br>
contribute to facebook's user traffic and hence business model? is
it feasible/ ethical to organize a facebook exodus via facebook
when we make people log into facebook to join the group? compared
to offline-life: would we organize protest in a shopping mall
rathen than on the streets? these are really difficult questions
I'm struggling with too.. <br>
<br>
..concerning DuckDuckGo the questions are similar: is it ethical
to make use of Bing's web index and results in order to provide a
privacy-secure service? is the Bing deal a co-option or is it
rather a clever move to make use (exploit) a tracker to offer
users a search engine that does not track or filter bubble? (if
it's helping Bing to sustain/ enlarge its business at the same
time..) - that's something I wanna look into more deeply in my
next project: what are the ideologies/ imaginaries alternative
search engines are carrying/ pushing forward? especially those
hybrids that are offering secure services, while drawing on
tracking companies.. also, what business models do (can) they
develop to compete with big search engines in the long run? and,
from a European perspective: why is it that all successful search
engines - and even alternative technologies - are developed in
the US? what is wrong with European tools? is it the funding
structure that is too bureaucratic? and, finally, what is the role
of the state/ EU in governing corporate search engines and their
business models - e.g. there's a new data protection law under way
that is supposed to be binding for all EU countries, but there's
heavy lobbying from Silicon Valley companies.. more industry
amendments than ever before in EU legislation - but also in
supporting/ funding alternatives etc.. <br>
<br>
ad YaCy: I think its impossible to say how good YaCy is despite
the lack of critical mass since the number of peers is crucial for
the quality of the index.. so far, I don't think it's a very
useful tool.. but it's an intersting one worth to look into in
more detail! also, once you download it you're contributing to the
index yourself, so the index develops along your interests more
and more over time.. but well, I guess it's still a long way to
go. but you can try it yourself; they have a demo version on their
website:<br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://search.yacy.net/">http://search.yacy.net/</a><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://yacy.net/en/">http://yacy.net/en/</a><br>
<br>
- let me know what you think about it! <br>
<br>
I guess that's it for now! I wonder what you think about all this
& I'm looking forward to continue our discussions in NYC!!!
all the best for now,<br>
Astrid<br>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Am 27.06.2014 21:55, schrieb Samuel
Tannert:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CA+Ww5QDg3Nkw44GrzGELYpTYztbmaFXEyejL24hx09zQ_Sx70w@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>Dear Astrid,</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I read your 2014 publications -- really fascinating
stuff! The analysis of alternative search engines was a
great challenge to their viability as a counter-hegemonic
tactic. Yesterday I would have championed Duck Duck Go, but
today the world seems different! Have you used YaCy? Despite
the lack of 'critical mass' did you find it reasonably
functional?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I must admit though, I did wonder if your conception of
'punishment' might be an overextension, at least in its
framing as an _intentional_ violence. You say, describing
Röhle's position,</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>>users who try to opt out of Google’s data collecting
practices by changing default privacy settings,
reconfiguring their web browsers, or turning off cookies are
punished with less convenient services than cooperating
users get. This shows how Google makes ... users play by the
rules.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>To me this highlights not how coercive Google is, but
rather how willing we are to relinquish our privacy in
exchange for efficiency. Without cookies or
data-tracking/profiling Google is _unable_ to serve us in
the same way it does 'cooperating users'. The data is simply
unavailable. This seems to be a major problem with arguments
in favor of an exodus, which you highlight in your
acknowledgement of the lack of alternatives: if there is
nowhere to go then any such response is self-harm (at least
in productive terms).</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>So maybe this is a good transition into my second
question: Who are the traditional and organic intellectuals
on today's field of battle?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Would you consider that today's organic intellectuals are
not only Snowden & Assange but also the leviathans of
Silicon Valley & the start-up scene at large? If we take
Wark's notion of the emerging Vectorialist & Hacker
classes seriously, as two separate but related challenges to
the dominant Capitalist mode of production, we ought to see
organic intellectuals in both camps. What is so troubling,
however, is that the Vectorialist class seems able to buy
off the leading figures of the Hacker class.
Info-should-be-free programmers seem to have a political
price of a few million dollars: buy the start-up, change
their ideology. (I think Gramsci called this 'molecular
absorption.')</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>If we accept this analysis of the situtation, as
traditional intellectuals we seem to be caught in a weird
middleground. We make pragmatic moves upon the old terrain
of the Capitalist/Worker paradigm and thus fail to make a
meaningful alliance with the very intellectuals from the
Hacker class whom we praise.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Two examples:</div>
<div>1) We call for the 'employee' status of Amazon Mechanical
Turk workers, that they might be afforded the same
protections by the firm as they were in the capitalist mode
of production. Yet this merely clings to antiquated notions
of the firm & factory! Our real desire is wages & a
meaningful standard of living, but we seem to be
accidentally promoting what only 50 years ago we sought to
destroy.</div>
<div>2) We call for a taxi strike against Uber in order to
protect the livelihoods & medallion investments of
current drivers, but in doing so we fight against an
'information should be free' model and the hacker class at
large. Uber is a _great_ hack, but its vectoral-monetization
is not. (#NationalizeUber) The Vectorialists definitely won
over a fair amount of journalists during the strikes,
though: "TAXI STRIKES = GREAT UBER PR; +800% APP DOWNLOADS"</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I guess I just see a dangerous game being played in
digital labor theory... One wants to make proposals that can
immediately benefit those abused by the new Vectorialist
configurations of labor, but all too often that requires
seeking the protections won from (read: granted by) the old
dominant powers. We say to ourselves, "What were the last
100 years of labor struggle for if we are just going to give
up all those gains?" But to retain them is to submit
ourselves once again to that domination..</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I think our challenge becomes twofold: How do we
cultivate more organic intellectuals from the digital labor
demographic? And, more importantly, how do we stop them from
being co-opted every time Google opens their wallet? I'm not
quite sure.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Sam</div>
</div>
<br>
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