Onderwerp : [Etc-br] software social: ficção, ação-a-diatância e bonecas

      texto bacana de uma das organizadoras do /etc, infelizmente em
      inglês, mas se vcs colocarem a url no babelfish da samba!

http://babelfish.altavista.com/

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      *http://www.networkcultures.org/weblog/archives/2006/06/social_software.html#more*


      Social software: fiction, action-at-a-distance and dolls

By Nancy Mauro-Flude

I would like to share my perspective on 'social software' in order to 
introduce some thoughts about its potentiality, where not only people 
conduct social and cultural modes of exchange but also other ways of 
engaging with space, time and place are brought about. Here, rather then 
speaking as an expert, I write as an artist who has a vested interest in 
redefining community and self/ves, but whose expertise is not 
necessarily that of a programmer. I rethink these self-organising 
meeting and visibility spaces by considering culture and gender in 
software development. I refer to the /Eclectic Tech Carnival [1] (/etc) 
and its associated ‘public sphere’ and ground the analysis in my 
experience as a core developer of this event.

1.0 Intro
I am interested in the relationship between public and networked spaces, 
and the relevance of gender and selfhood; how they affect this 
relationship. I use the term ‘public’ as a connecting term, as a 
platform able to connect narratives and to spread memes to a broader 
population; also as a part of our own persona, as a way in which we see 
ourselves. These new social spaces created by 'social software' allow us 
to actively shape the meaning of the spaces in which we find ourselves 
and in turn challenge us to reconfigure the limits of our sensory 
perception. According to Mathew Fuller’s [2003] definition Social 
Software, is ‘built by and for those of us locked out of the narrowly 
engineered subjectivity of mainstream software. It is software which 
asks itself what kind of currents, what kind of machine, numerical, 
social and other dynamics it feeds in and out of, and what others can be 
brought into being?’ These developments, connected primarily with 
software developments and other media displayed in public spaces, 
require a rethinking of just how far the ‘public sphere’ extends, but 
most importantly what of our notions of what social software may become. 
I formulate my ideas and thoughts about the emerging importance of new 
technologies within both social and fictional spaces created by ‘social 
software’. The development of this translocal public sphere requires 
further consideration in regard to not only the concept of what 
constitutes the public sphere, but also in regard to the ‘empirical 
attunement with out means or ends’, brought to light by Grosz,

"Perception, intellection, the thing, and the technologies they spawn 
proceed along the lines of practical action, and these require a certain 
primacy in day-to-day life. But they leave something out: the untapped, 
nonpractical, nonuseful, nonhuman or extra-human continuity that is the 
object of intuition, of empirical attunement with out means or ends 
(Grosz, 2001: 187)"

New forms of social software relate to the real and may give 
possibilities for new narrative architectures that not only have 
teleological or functional ideals. If you think a feature is missing in 
a particular programme, then maybe you are the one it takes to initiate 
developing it, but how can you if you are apprehensive to make contact 
with the developing Free Software community because of your difference? 
As Fuller [2004} also states, "Free Software is too internalist. The 
relation between its users and its developers is so isomorphic that 
there is extreme difficulty in breaking out of that productive but 
constricted circle.” I would add for particular groups and classes 
interfacing with one another, this brings conflict and suspicion. Social 
stratification, class and gender mobility in software is still not free. 
Fuller writes is the biggest problem with free software. The movements 
that play the biggest role in the development of social software: 
political, radical organisations, environment and community groups, I 
argue, should also to leave room for the intuitive, fictional and the 
excessive.

2.0 Social software and fictional space
What I am most curious about right now is the contribution of artists, 
women and other minority groups to social software and the various 
morphologies that may develop as a result. The /Eclectic Tech Carnival 
[2] is a week-long meeting and skills-exchange between women who work 
with computers and women who want to learn more about computers. The 
emphasis is on technology, craft knowledge and an imaginative way of 
understanding software and hardware. The /etc has numerous community 
discussion lists. These mailing lists nurture the development of women’s 
communities for the annual gatherings of /etc [3] and other related 
events, such as the GCA [4] hardware courses at ASCII. [5] Just to be 
present and hang out in the environment of the computer lab hearing the 
jargon, seeing people in action is basic research, an important part of 
ones first engagement with technology and the start of a path towards 
understanding the role it might play in their life. The motivating 
factor for these initiatives is to overcome the digital and technical 
divide, and support women interested in computer technology, in using 
computers and potentially even contributing to software development. The 
/etc provides resources, tools and support to all women on a very grass 
roots level: build and maintain their own computers, to learn software, 
get involved in development communities and even possibly become (your 
own) programmer. The hope is that the /etc [6] can contribute to 
developing a more open creative society and will support women to seek 
work by being more self-sufficient through the use of non-corporate tools.

However, the issue of women’s only space is often a contested site of 
discussion. Grosz states that ‘We need quite different terms by which to 
understand space and spatiality, if we are to be able to more 
successfully rethink the relations between women and space. We would 
also have to consider very carefully the boundaries of what constitutes 
the occupation of space and occupying it "as a woman (2001:25-26)”. This 
in turn raises all sorts of questions concerning the efficacy to what 
was once a women only celebrated space in this Free Software event. 
Furthermore, Weiden (2005) from Debian women [1] makes claims about 
occupying space differently, outside the terms of separatist refusal,

"…the role of the women's groups, to offer a friendly interface for 
women to get their feet wet and then join the community. The problem is 
when these groups don't have a clear target, in the end they turn in 
Barbie worlds that don't exist in reality. Instead of integrating the 
women into the community, they serve as ghettos, re-creating existing 
groups in the community with the only objective *being more friendly* 
for women…"

With this comment in mind, specifically pointing to the denouncement of 
“Barbie worlds”, I want to consider Winnicott’s assessment of creative 
play. Winnicott (1971) a British Psychoanalyst wrote an impressive 
essay, articulating the role that dolls play in a child’s Psychological 
development. Investigating the relation between the child and its 
mother, the psychoanalyst centers his reflection on spatiality ‘playing 
has a place’ (1971:41) and emphasizes on the question of where we play. 
Winnicott suggests a potential space that extends between the player’s 
psyche and the exterior reality, a space that paradoxically both links 
and disjoins the two. The proposition is based on the fact that play 
occurs neither entirely in the player’s imagination nor in the concrete 
reality, but in between, in an intermediary area of experience where 
both other ‘areas’ take effect. In this potential space, the real 
becomes the object of the player’s imaginative manipulations: a stick 
becomes a sword; the living room becomes a castle or its surroundings. 
The creativity at work corresponds to the shaping ability the player has 
over her playing space and the elements imported into it. Some rules of 
etiquette apply to that potential space; exterior agents will only come 
into play if they are accepted (for instance the /etc is a women only 
event), the shaping ability of the player must not be put in doubt or 
questioned (no question is too foolish, although /etc encourages a DIY 
[2] approach we never say RTFM [3]). Indeed the hidden contract is 
broken every time the player is reminded that she is evolving in a space 
established by the other: often when a ‘male’ programmer or developer 
interrupts the playing activity, it nullifies the possibility for 
‘creativity’ (Winnicott, 1971:50). The absence of ‘creativity’ generates 
a feeling of pointlessness. For instance, in /etc 2005 hosted by Extreme 
Subversive Centre [7] (ESC) in Graz for the first time there was a large 
male presence welcome on the IRC #etc channel, they were commenting and 
providing insights into the content of the /etc. An IRC chat room was 
projected onto the overhead of the wall at medienKUNSTLABOR (mKL) Art 
Lab [8]. Men could participate virtually with women facilitators and 
participants via the chat room. It is interesting as automatically on 
entering the chat they assumed the role of authority, giving 
constructive critical feedback such as: content of the workshop being 
taught, security protocols of the live email links on the website that 
perpetuate ‘evil’ spammers and secure IRC chatting and so on. One 
instance of this was in a discussion [4] just before the KeyWorx [5] 
workshop, was about the Graphical User Interface (GUI) of the software 
KeyWorx and how it is not respected because it uses Java (not a truly 
free software), and is not as fast in comparison to Pure Data 
Programming Language [6]. The man (sevron) a Pd developer whose nickname 
is changed because a personal target is not my point here, but what is 
the goal of this very small example is that on entering the chat Men 
automatically assume the role of providing helpful technical critique, 
even though, the writing is of an informal nature and it is still visual 
and emotional (the incorrect grammar and spelling), it is clear that the 
women intrinsically use the channel instead to bounce creative ideas around:

[15:25] sevron: keyworks is soo slooow
[15:25] sistero: Yea?
[15:25] sevron: it's a slower pd, no?
[15:25] sistero: dunno
[15:26] sevron: the error is using java
[16:15] sub: i have found a lovely quote on chaos & resonance to begin.....
[16:15] sistero: relax is main theme for my day
[16:15] sistero: ah ha
[16:15] sub: yay
[16:15] sistero: are you using 0.9.0
[16:15] sub: uhuh
[16:16] sistero: ok and you misha are you going to grace us with your 
presence.
[16:16] sub: yes my inverted absentia
[16:17] sub: will be yours
[16:17] misha: what are your wishes?
[16:17] sistero: ummmmmm Themes we explore: site-specific attunement / 
mediated rituals / teleportation process / cellular circuitry/ immersive 
exchange / etheric transmission/ narration of connection / text logs / 
Multi-planet contact /subspace/time tunnels / opening windows near stars 
many light years away
[16:17] misha: do you know that that my computer is picking up are 41 
broadcasted wireless access points from where I am presently sitting?
[16:18] sistero: but in general its great you are here for support 
especially these java fire slaying i received before.
[16:18] sub: wish us into another world
[16:18] sistero: really not nice before you give a workshop for the ol` 
motivation
[16:18] sub: wish me there
[16:18] sistero: 41 acess points wow. you are NodAL
[16:19] sub: 4+1=5=101!
[16:19] sistero: ok i start rounding them up regarding the workshop for 
those with os x and desire
[16:19] sistero: 101 is in town !!!!!
[16:20] sistero: because of the theme of this years /etc chatting and 
blogging
16:20] misha: what's wrong with java, besides it being slow?

About the presence of the men, mainly developers and programmers, in 
this case, the ‘player’ senses that she must adjust and adapt herself to 
the exterior world, and at times more importantly at times it felt ‘as 
if [she was] caught up in the creativity of someone else, or of a 
machine (Winnicott, 1971:65)’. Indeed constructive criticism has its 
advantages, but nethertheless by this very small example we can read 
that this did intervene upon the creative writing flow of some of the 
women participants. The /etc events I would say give a seamless 
structure of the real flowing into a dream and back again. If we keep 
this in mind the doll featuring prominently in many female children's 
lives, serving as an integration object, Weidons comments referring to 
an inconsequential female ghetto or ‘Barbie world’ are mooted. The /etc 
wants to make safe space, some women who attend have barely used a word 
processor and indeed I have witnessed hands shaking at the keyboards 
etc. For some it takes time to integrate different sets and settings and 
this is an initial step for some to a long pathway of understanding.

The principle of a women only environment was positively reinforced 
during the /etc05. In the evaluations women highlighted the fact that 
they enjoyed the opportunity to be in a different atmosphere than the 
typical male computer lab and felt more comfortable to create, share and 
demonstrate. Indeed, it is usually the case that most FLOSS GUI’s appear 
less advanced; it is amusing that DarkVeggy (2005) groups the friendly 
GUI Macintosh with a Doll and complicated PC with a fireman :) Winnicott 
(1971) groups the doll together with teddy bears, blankets, and other 
toys as transitional objects, which make the gradual separation from the 
mother possible. The attachment to the consistent, transitional object 
allows the child to shift the constant association away from the mother 
and so gains the child a certain amount of independence and control. The 
coded nature of social software is so predominant that women, need a lot 
of integration with these environments and interfaces before they begin 
to understand code. Many women are perfectly capable of solving computer 
related problems, but often lack knowledge and access to peer networks. 
To suppose that this has not resulted in fewer discoveries and other 
breakthroughs by the human race as a whole is delusional. Nevertheless, 
to posit that men perform technical roles better than women because of 
genetic differences, i.e., in the midst of the social and cultural 
forces that drive human endeavor, can only be considered another example 
of the discrimination, which continues to persist today.

Thoughtful play provides practice with meaning and direction; practice 
enhances play and offers ideas a concrete expression. The absence of 
female developers is a disadvantage for social software’s development, 
this extends to the way we communicate in an increasingly mediatised 
society. I would like to propose that the /etc events provide a way to 
understand hardware and software in an integrated manner. This women 
only event is appreciated by the actual participants, if not necessarily 
by some men who feel left out, and future events are in demand. The /etc 
has an international focus. The /etc05 participation attendance expanded 
the network considerably, both geographically (women physically attend 
from far away) and also women participants from remote locations via the 
IRC and online collaborative software such as UpStage [7] and KeyWorx. 
Local participants came from diverse places: Slovenia, Romania, Czech 
Republic, Croatia, Republic of Georgia, Austria, Italy, Spain, 
Netherlands, United Kingdom, Canada and South Africa. Furthermore, there 
was a virtual presence of women from the United States, Canada, 
Australia and New Zealand. Women from DMedia collective attended the 
2005 /etc in Graz they were so inspired they offered to host the next 
/etc. The /etc 2006 will be held from 3-10 September 2006 in Timisoara, 
Romania in collaboration with the H.arta Collective.

The crux of the matter is the lack of women involved in information 
technology, either too intimidated to find a way in, or even chastised 
once they arrive sometimes in ways that are very subtle but strong ego 
trips. In order to create new public spheres that engage with new 
narrative architecture build on feminine identified ideas and visions, 
we need to create a more women friendly environments to attract women to 
participate in software development. It is also ironic that a lot of 
free software programming discourse which talks the most about the 
de-centered subject, declaring breakthroughs that allow recognition of 
otherness, still directs its critical voice primarily to a specialized 
male orientated audience that shares a common language rooted in the 
very master narratives it claims to challenge. If radical thinking is to 
have a transformative impact, then a critical break with the notion of 
authority in as mastery over must not simply be a rhetorical device. It 
must be reflected in the actual habits of programming community, 
including styles of coding, communication, as well as chosen subject 
matter. Reminding us about the people on the periphery; the poor, the 
young people, the fugitives, the precarious elements of the social body, 
giving hopeful insights into the inclusive potential of what freedom may 
mean.

I wonder how software development can incorporate the voices of 
displaced, marginalized and exploited people. The experiential learning 
system that the /etc nurtures, unlike the current consumerist highly 
goal orientated approach in mainstream vocational education and training 
systems, encourages different types of people to engage and hopefully 
even sparks the desire for women to develop social software according to 
their own needs and experiences. A more experiential learning 
environment is a synesthetic way of approaching skills development, that 
seems to fosters information acquisition that is not only friendly to 
women but also to various unorthodox minority groups. Computer and media 
technology play a major role in our daily lives and these are more or 
less excluded from production and development of information technology. 
What /etc is interested in, as well as assisting women to respond in 
their actual lives to the provocations of the /etc, is the intermixing 
of skills shared within a highly creative environment. There is a real 
interest of the /etc developers in looking at where practical action 
meets an understanding of what technology -both hardware and software-is 
and should become.

3.0 Software: dreaming, creation and development.
By now, I have pointed out some of the difficulties for women (and other 
minorities) and their involvement in software development, which 
primarily requires developing the skill of coding in a non-graphical 
user interface environment. It can be said that social relations of 
gender within the programming world are reflected in and shaped by the 
design. Freedom in general I believe is the ability to speak for myself, 
the ability to define myself, and the space to represent myself based on 
my own needs and experiences that rather than on an externally 
prescribed idea of me that serves somebody else’s needs, dogmas or 
fears. Although social software seems willing to bring together 
technological creativity and computer knowledge with ethical 
considerations and political practices I would say even within Free 
Software that there is a real lack of female perspective in software 
discourses, design and use. This turn does restrict women’s entry into 
and participation in the development and design of software. More 
precisely, I see the potential direction for social software, the use of 
systems thinking and design principals that provide the organising 
framework for implementing a particular communities vision.
I would like to understand social software as consciously designed 
landscapes, public spheres that mimic social patterns and relationships. 
If people and all the complex emergent ways in which they organise 
themselves are central, social software has the potential to evolve into 
a very creative yet sustainable culture. Indeed software has produced 
new public spheres and spaces for information, debate, and participation 
that contain both the potential to invigorate emergent structures and to 
increase the dissemination of critical and progressive ideas – not 
withstanding new possibilities for manipulation, social control, the 
promotion of conservative positions, and intensifying of differences 
between haves and have nots.

The political battles of the future might again be fought in the 
streets, factories, parliaments, and other sites of conflict, but 
politics today is already mediated by the media and will increasingly be 
so in the future especially if software patents act and the subsequent 
privisation of code is enforced. Those interested in culture of the 
future should therefore be clear on the important role of social 
software; its relationship to free software and its development of 
associated public spheres, and intervene accordingly. Artists and 
activists cultural output is usually a product of marvelous concoction 
of pleasure and politics. I maintain that people who subscribe to an 
economy of mutual-aid and co-operation and are committed to the 
non-commodification of software must also embrace freedoms of 
experience, and expression; acceptance of difference could spread from here.

Conclusion.
The /etc draws together diverse ideas, skills and ways of living, which 
need to be rediscovered and developed in order to empower us to provide 
for our needs beyond economic rationalism. Social software development 
makes transparency of human organization possible, often-invisible 
structures. Those principals deal with physical and energetic resources, 
as well as the public sphere. However, how do we incorporate and provide 
a container for the uncertain and variable nature of that process of 
integration? I believe that women identified software developers might 
be able to provide the answer or at least begin to nurture a space for 
exchange of experience that has not been circulated, or articulated into 
Language (or code), as we know it today. Nevertheless, for the moment 
feminine activities in social software are mainly conceptual spaces, 
collaborative virtual places where information, skills and experience 
are exchanged in a collective manner. The type of events such as the 
/etc are fundamentally about a new relationship between communication, 
education, craft knowledge, programming, art, and activism. This is a 
space in which all these people come together.

Moreover, it is acknowledged that there is a relationship between the 
real space of the event and myths where fictional places are evoked. The 
/etc is a transferable sight which carries its meaning to other places 
-places which as yet can only be imagined. It nominates a region which 
lies under the shadow of -but is still, for the moment, outside of 
patriarchy. The /etc project allows an involved engagement with the 
participants as collaborators, where the constant shift of positions, 
roles, pronouns, selves, discourses and non-linear stories takes place. 
The event continually intersects and works at the edge of many genres.

I am excited about the next step for the /etc, as often real revolution 
takes place not in the bloodied streets but in releasing the ideas from 
the realm of the imagination. I believe only then these will emerge onto 
the street. I will leave with a quote from Arthur Rimbaud (1871) who 
dreamt of recreating life through his words. When he decided that women 
would be the great poets of the future.

...These poets shall exist when the age long slavery shall have ended 
when, she will be able to live by and for herself, when man hitherto 
having given her freedom, she will be a poet. Women will discover the 
unknown. Will her word be different from ours? She will discover things 
that will be strange and unfathomable, repulsive and delicate. We shall 
take them from her and we shall understand them.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Debian is a free operating system (OS) for the computer. An 
operating system is the set of basic programs and utilities that make 
your computer run. Debian uses the Linux kernel (the core of an 
operating system), but most of the basic OS tools come from the GNU 
project; hence the name GNU/Linux. For more information about the Debian 
Women project http://women.alioth.debian.org/about/

[2] For a concise description of the DIY ethic see: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIY_punk_ethic.

[3] RTFM stands for the well worn statement "Read The Fucking Manual for 
more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RTFM

[4] IRC conversation. July 13 2005 /eclectic tech carnival 05

[5] KeyWorx [9] is a Multi-User Cross Media Synthesizer 
multi-user/multimedia features real-time sharing.

[6] For more info on Pure Data see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pure_data

[7] UpStage [10] is a web-based venue and tool for artists.


Posted by Sabine at June 27, 2006 09:14 AM

-- 
"Wanderlyne trata principalmente do tema do poder, rompendo com as concepções clássicas deste termo. Para elx, o poder não pode ser localizado em uma instituição ou no Estado, o que tornaria impossível a "tomada de poder" proposta pelos marxistas . O poder não é considerado como algo que o indivíduo cede a um soberano (concepção contratual jurídico-política), mas sim como uma relação de forças. Ao ser relação, o poder está em todas as partes, uma pessoa está atravessada por relações de poder, não pode ser considerada independente delas. Para Wanderlyne, o poder não somente reprime, mas também produz efeitos de verdade e saber, constituindo verdades, práticas e subjetividades.