Introduction

The short time-span in which the project is being realized, the complex and difficult nature of the subject matter and the complexity of human nature itself can easily result in confusion under organizers and participants alike with regard to the precise nature of the PROCESS/YON Retreat-Workshops.

These notes are intended to clarify our position on some of the theoretical issues that influence the practical implementation of the project for participants and organizers.

Dear Rory Stewart,

My name is Fatima Lasay, artist-writer based in the Philippines.

I would like to bring to your attention a BBC News article "Celebrating art in Afghanistan" announcing the launch of a project by your organization, Afghanistan's first contemporary art prize -- in particular a number of statements made in the News article which I consider propaganda that reinforces damaging perceptions upon the public.

On "They have laid bare the schism in this laudable project to bring cheap computing to millions of children across the developing world." From BBC News

Surely the real question underlying the One Laptop Per Child project is not the nature of the operating system -but the nature of "computing" itself.

This document is based on a short presentation/discussion I facilitated several days ago at ISIS International-Manila. Entitled "Death by ICT. A Critical Look at the Information Society", the presentation/discussion was intended to stimulate critical thinking about communication and technology concepts and how these concepts relate to and affect daily tasks, decisions and issues seemingly unrelated to ICT.

This same-titled document is an extended version of that presentation/discussion and is intended to open up more possibilities for analyzing ICT use and understanding within the expanding "Information Society." While this document is in outline form, it is open-ended and will be expanded to include more of my ideas and observations regarding some important issues:

1. The social catastrophe of the "new" when dealing with "new" technologies within the context of development.

2. The succumbing of the computer as a complex programmable computation machine into a device for communication and its dangerous implications on the so-called "Information Society."

3. The US military origins and the present doctrinal model of the Internet and its implications as a "social network" and as a ubiquitous and pervasive computing tool.

This document is a work-in-progress. As usual, comments, questions, corrections and suggestions are welcome.

Microsoft Office Open XML now a certified standard: Some issues

In an article by Catherine Saez on Intellectual Property Watch WTO/WIPO Colloquium Aimed At IP Teachers, teachers of intellectual property from developing countries have been invited to attend a two-week colloquium jointly organised by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) from 30 June to 10 July.

I wonder if the WTO/WIPO Colloquium will also attempt to dispel the myths of Intellectual Property Rights, or will these myths continue to be taught as doctrinal truths to university professors of law, management and economy from developing countries?

1. "Innovation and technology: Twenty-First Century"

In the journal "Leonardo", Volume 28, Number 4 -published by Pergamon Press in 1990 we read an article with the title directly above, written by Lowell T. Harmison (biophysicist, scientist, administrator) Maxwell Foundation, USA:

The article "ARPA's 50th Anniversary and the Internet: a Model for Basic Research by Ronda Hauben"(1) really does need close scrutiny -because (in my view) it sketches the rise of a pernicious Military-Industrial complex (as warned against by President Eisenhower) -but which has now become even more dangerous by linking up with educational and entertainment systems (the edutainment business) to become the Military-Industrial-Edutainment complex.....

In response to Document Freedom Day efforts of promoting, adopting and raising awareness for Free Document Formats and Open Standards, the Philippines-based art initiative Korakora.org is organizing an open on-line dialogue entitled "Surfers or Serfs: Digital Freedom or Digital Feudalism?"

Note:

This series is intended to document and share my attempts at finding, installing and maintaining a notebook computer that runs on fs/oss. Feel free to post your own experiences. Comments, suggestions, corrections are all welcome!

Also, I've updated the text and corrected many errors in the "Finding Linux" article I sent earlier. While I wrote the first draft rather hastily, I think it is important that I check back on it and carefully correct some errors and ambiguities. Laziness only adds to confusion. Some corrections / clarifications that I thought were important include:

Once upon a time, adults used to question things: They would ask themselves and others why some things were good and why some things were bad. This was called "discussion" and some people enjoyed it.

However, one day, a very clever person discovered that if you kept repeating how clever you were and how wonderful your products were, then after a while other people got too tired to argue with you and so they just went out and bought these products however "good" or "bad" they really were. This was called "advertising".

The BBC article "Lesson one: no Orwellian language"suggests that education has somehow been undermined through the corruption of the very language used to discuss education itself.

Professor Richard Pring of Oxford University believes that education has been taken over by an "Orwellian language" which has started to control the way we think and act, pointing out how the aims and values of education has become "dominated by the language of management."

More examples of this language are:

Lesson one: no Orwellian language. By Mike Baker. From the BBC Report

An insightful speaker raised a massive cheer from the audience at an education conference this week. No, he had not called for a doubling of teachers' pay, the abolition of national tests, or even a ban on lumpy custard in school canteens. No, his rallying cry was much simpler and involves no complex administrative changes or financial costs.

Yet it went to the heart of what education is about.

He urged everyone to stop talking about "delivery" in education and to return to talking about "teaching".

The speaker was Professor Richard Pring, of Oxford University, and he was not just being fussy about the use of language.

His point was that education has been taken over by an "Orwellian language" which has started to control the way we think and act.

Is Media a Danger to Democracy?
From the Third World Traveler
by Robert Parry, American Dispatches magazine (formerly iF magazine), Feb. 2000

Shortly before New Year's 2000, writer Robert D. Kaplan penned a New York Times commentary about the world's future.

While thousands of people converged in Makati yesterday (Feb 29) for the inter-faith rally seeking President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's ouster, the shape of the country's future leadership is being designed via the automated ARMM elections (August 11, 2008 as per RA 9333), a test pilot leading to the 2010 presidential elections (May 10, 2010).