Il primo aprile si è aperto a a Matera l’incontro sulla libertà di stampa del del Forum degli studenti europei di giornalismo. Qui il Programma

Internet Democracy?
The role of the Internet in the revolts in the Maghreb region, and the dynamics at play between local and external influences?
Arturo Di Corinto ??
@ Fejs AC 2011

Since the times of Pericles, the forms of communication are constantly intertwined with the forms of democracy. It is perhaps for this reason that we have come to believe that any new medium, particularly with the penetration of modern mass communication, could herald a new dawn for our democracy. That was the case with the launch of telephone, radio, cinematography and finally television. But we know how that turned out: initially used by a bunch of pioneers, in some cases these media become a tool for Government propaganda and eventually large companies stepped in giving way to a typical merger and acquisition trend. The resulting conglomerates learned quickly how to control content and to communicate it to the masses to suit their own interests, while more and more the media space was being occupied by political figures just interested in gaining power, from Thailand to Italy to Mexico.
In recent years we witnessed the emergence of a novel and powerful communication tool – actually, broad a set of tools which we simply call the Internet. Once again, this new medium has deceived us in envisioning “a new era of Athenian democracy,” according to former USA vice-president Al Gore. Among its early theorists, the founders of the monthly Wired Magazine called up for “a democracy without professional intermediaries” based on a widespread use of distance technologies enabling an open and multidirectional communication. And in 1996 the Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace, drafted by John Perry Barlow (co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation), sanctioned the vision of a totally “self-governing Internet” and the rebuttal to government of the Internet by any outside force, specifically the United States.

However, even in this case we could predict the outcome of this story. With the current professionalization of political communication, who has deep pockets is the winner on the Internet, can develop the best sites and pay viral agents to trigger the message chain that leads to the general consensus. Despite our initial hope that on the Internet every individual could communicate on equal terms, today this approach is far from the truth. Continua »

“Culture, a common heritage”
Culturalazio.it: an open platform for user generated contents
Arturo Di Corinto – CATTID, Sapienza University of Rome
(a dicorinto at uniroma1 it)

Preface
Culturalazio.it, is the portal of the Department of Culture, Entertainment and Sports of the Lazio Region and was created with the aim of spreading the concept that culture is accessible to all. Inside the portal, citizens are not only seen as users of its contents but as its first producers.
The main idea of the Culturalazio.it portal is indeed that culture is a collective resource, in both economic and social terms. It is a “common heritage” and a regional portal on culture can be useful to promote knowledge on a territory’s cultural heritage, history, customs and traditions. Continua »

Free software as a Commons
by Arturo Di Corinto

“Thanks to its characteristics, free, open source software, is a distributed property that is capable of evolving into a Public Good.”

Its “open” and modular language, which is freely accessible and created thanks to the collaboration of many in different stages, allowing it to be perfected and modified, make the free software a “relational good” that, thanks to its accessibility, non-exclusivity and lack of competitiveness presents all the characteristics of a common resource: something which everyone can make use of, even if they have not participated directly in its creation.
The free software as an “environment for interaction”, presents itself as a meeting place for scientific research, social cooperation and innovation. Thanks to its “openness”, the free software is capable of “evolving” as an incubator for ideas and relations, which are the abstract constituents of highly evolved technological products. Continua »

UBERMORGEN.COM
Superenhanced

OPENING & PERFORMANCE: Saturday, January 17, 2009 at 6.00 PM

From January 17 to March 7, 2009
3.00 – 7.00 PM, closed on Sunday

Fabio Paris Art Gallery is proud to announce the second solo exhibition by
the Austrian artist duo UBERMORGEN.COM, presenting the world preview of the
project “Superenhanced”, which is dedicated to the pressing issue of
torture. Though torture is banned almost everywhere, it has re-emerged
under a new set of names with the neutral, tidy, functional language of
marketing and branding. http://ipnic.org/superenhanced
Continua »

Interview with Bruce Perens
Arturo Di Corinto
Rome – Italy
a dot dicorinto at uniroma1 dot it

>Who is Mr. Bruce Perens?
I’m father of a 7-year-old boy, a husband, and after those come all of these technical things. I’m probably best known as the author of the Open Source definition, the manifesto of Open Source software and the rules for its licensing. I’m vice president of Sourcelabs, a venture-funded startup company that services Open Source. But I spend half of my work time being an Open Source leader, and Sourcelabs can’t tell me what to do or say in that capacity. It must be that way for me to maintain my credibility. Continua »

Arturo Di Corinto
Rome, Italy
a dot dicorinto at uniroma1 dot it

Software is not a ordinary object but an instrument good at building other tools and instruments.
Software instructs computers in writing letters, calculating, drawing, and it’s also usefull for writing music, recording stories and ideas and projecting machines and environments, for recording climate changes or warning us of an earthquake.
Software is a peculiar language form through which people manage culture and knowledge accumulated over centuries and because of that it’s not a simple utensil. Software is a cognitive artifact and it incorporates intelligence and work, it transmits meanings and values, it brings with it the idea of its creator and of its user. The fact that its use is exclusive, limited in space and time, or vice versa that it might be modified, given, freely exchanged even behind geographical barriers, makes a remarkable difference.
If the language, la langue et la parole, is the “operating system” of the society, software is the language of scientific and technological innovation in the information society. Because of this it has to be free, that is freely usable, to favour the progress of all the society, of every society, because, otherwise we would be all less free.
Think if someone patented the language. A comic strip story of 1991, made by Zzywwuruth e Cicare’ and published in Italy by Editori del Grifo, is really prophetic over this terrible perspective. Continua »

Hacker culture
Arturo Di Corinto
Rome, Italy

Entering a leg in a tense ten-year debate, we can say that maybe the “hacker class” does not exist, but the hacker culture certainly yes. And with as much certainty we can say that it has profoundly shaped our society. Historically, the hacker culture has emerged in the creative use of information technologies and its origins can be traced in the dormitories of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on horseback of the sixties, when a group of geeks used to play with electric trains decided that was more fun to play with computers and coined the term hackers, to denote those who made working better software, telephones and relay with a “hack”. Since then, the hacker culture has expressed itself as a playful relationship with machines, electric wires and computers. Continua »

Arturo Di Corinto

Implementing a Digital Business Ecosystem vs. 0.2

The European economy is slowing. The rise of the euro is taking a toll on exports because the its appreciation has boosted the cost of European products and many Europeans think is better to buy from the dollar area.

In a scenario marked by a modest growth of the global economy (mainly for the higher price of oil) the strengthening of the euro cuts deeply into the competitiveness of European companies. Especially the IT sector is exposed to the risk of new monopolies, consolidation and the ultimate colonization of European IT firms by large enterprises, especially from Usa and Japan.
Continua »

DIGITAL BUSINESS ECOSYSTEM PROJECT

Digital Business Ecosystem: The Internet’s new Common Land
Arturo Di Corinto & Neil Rathbone
7th September 2004

Download file

Digital Business Ecosystem
Arturo Di Corinto
01/09/04

“Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of the European economy. Accounting for 99% of enterprises, Europe’s 19 million SMEs are the main source of new jobs and play a key role in enabling Europe to compete in world markets. Although they tend to get lumped together under the one label, in reality SMEs are highly diverse. Some are dynamic and flexible with an innate ability to innovate and respond to changing conditions. Others are traditional, based on family involvement and embedded in local business environments. Still others are start-ups, fragile organisations striving to exploit niche markets or technologies”.
IST 2003: The Opportunities Ahead
Continua »