Last days I have been researching the European draft law on artificial intelligence. I am not an expert on AI, but I do know a thing or two about standards, and standard-setting features prominently in this act! What the European Commission proposes is that standards will be created for AI by European Standards Organisations. AI implementations that are compliant with the standards are legal in the EU.

Procrastination is a capitalist frame we should overcome.

Just write when it works. Increasing productivity is not the solution to our problems. We need to produce less and consume less.

We are destroying ourselves and our planet just to live up to a market logic that no one fully comprehends.

Happy to announce my dissertation is available online:

Wired Norms - Inscription, resistance, and subversion in the governance of the Internet infrastructure

dare.uva.nl/search?identif… In this work, I examine the role of norms in the governance of the Internet infrastructure.

Based on extensive qualitative and quantitative analysis of different Internet governance bodies, namely @ICANN, @ietf, and @ripencc, I developed a theory.

Another new draft in response to the discussion of the removal of racist language in the IETF.

This new draft practically says: when there is contention about whether a concept is racist or not, the IETF should err on the side of racism and the status quo. The draft asserts that this would be to the benefit of the Internet community.

It also continues to state that removing racist language might be too much work, and would not really contribute much. It's more important to not disrupt the current ways of working.

Am not sure why one needs a souvereignty politics to develop a European normative technological system.

Influential normative systems are aimed a norm setting and dissemination, not isolation.

https://twitter.com/rafbuff/status/1290539013124820992

I think a European normative technical system should seek to leverage the human right to science and with that overcome the patents and copyrights of the infrastructure of the information society.

Most relevant and interesting changes in the Internet infrastructure happen outside of Internet governance and standards bodies.

Internet governance institutions facilitate interconnection and interoperation between transnational corporations, norm contestation happens outside. Otoh, Internet governance institutions are a locuspoint for issues. They are the watering holes for a huge distributed infrastructure.

Because of the consensus model, existing interests in the current ordering, and backward compatibility, there is a significant amount of stasis.

All Regional Internet Registries, gathered in the Number Resource Organization, ask @ICANN for full transparency on all documents pertaining the sell or .org by @internetsociety to private equity.

aso.icann.org/aso-issues-ins…

#savedotorg What is so interesting about this is that the numbering organizations mostly do not get involved with the 'naming'-side of things in @ICANN. They mostly focus on IP addresses and ASNs.

That they leverage their 'newly' minted powers is a big step, and a test.

#IANAtransition

Are the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights a legal norm? Obviously yes, because they are a norm that help enforce international human rights law.

Obviously yes, because they are an inherent part of the human rights norms regime.

Obviously not, because they are just voluntary guidelines.

*whelp*

Am furious about @internetsociety's decision to sell .org and PIR to a private equity firm.

They sold off a public interest piece of the Internet to soulless capital.

This story represents what has happened to the Internet at large.

That is why we should resist it. @internetsociety I don't fall for the argument that says that domain sales are stabilizing, and @internetsociety's future needs to be secured: growth is not necessarily needed.

This is a capitalist fallacy that has seriously harmed the Internet, the environment, and society.

Building a PDP11/70. These were among the computers that made the first network connections.

Cannot wait to network and compute how it was originally intended!

#vintagecomputing #infrastructuralista

(With the amazing kit by:
obsolescence.wixsite.com/obsolescence/p… ) Look at all those beautiful components!

Presentation by Zhan Zhang on Huawei's path in Europe

#infrastructuralista #5G #tradewar

St. Petersburg's @Erarta_Museum never ceases to impress @Erarta_Museum

The new @Cloudflare WARP and 1.1.1.1 services, aimed at mobile end-users, is part of a push for a new (privatized) Internet infrastructure imaginary.

Of course we need to ask the classic question: qui bono? Who profits from this? According to @Cloudflare, the 'assumptions made 30 years ago are now making your Internet experience slow and insecure'.

The solution: route all your traffic through us!

This thread are some of my notes from last weeks workshop titled:

'Future Paths for a Public Interest Internet Infrastructure'

Held at the @harvardkennedyschool.

Disclaimer: it was organized by @beatricemartini @C___CS and myself (@nielstenoever) Politics in technology, such as standards and protocols, is often hidden. This is in part due to its complexity, but can also be an agenda to legitimize and protect a specific (capitalist) ordering of the network, industry, and society.

For the second time in a week I found a reference to '6G' in a policy document.

I hope people start to understand that 5G is mostly a marketing concept to sell you stuff you do not need.

5G is a ploy by telcos and manufacturers to increase network control and sell equipment. 5G is not one thing, but a set of standards and technologies that have been developed in a closed industry body, namely the #3GPP. Without any democratic oversight.

We do not understand the full consequences the roll out 5G will have to geographies or Internet architecture.

Blayne Haggart's research shows that the positions of @EFF reinforce the global hegemony of US tech companies.

#IPE #knowledgegovernance #ISA2019 @EFF '.@EFF argues that the individual is the ultimate owner of data, but data can be owned and controlled by companies. There is no concern with US dominance of other markets, and promotes industry self-regulation.' -Blayne Haggart

VS ambassadeur @petehoekstra stelde zondag in @Buitenhoftv terecht vast dat Trump en @groenlinks dezelfde mening zijn toegedaan over 5G.

Hopelijk noopt dit tot een herziening van de positie van @groenlinks vwbt de voorwaarden van de infrastructuur van de informatie samenleving. In plaats van protectionisme en geopolitiek zouden de mogelijkheid tot begrijpen en onderzoeken van de technologie en haar impact op burgers en hun mensenrechten als voorwaarde moeten worden gesteld.

Catherine Malabou's lecture tonight at @UvA_Amsterdam was slightly underwhelming, but it led to very interesting conversations afterwards. Anarchists are cyborgs in Donna Harraway's sense. They need to be comfortable with violence and violent decisions because these are not delegated to the state.

Hi all, hope you're enjoying your weekend. This is a thread about the resurgence of market protection in telecommunications infrastructure at large and 5G in specific. The recent outlash against @Huawei by the US and European countries has nothing to do with security, but with geopolitics and stereotyping. The US and UK have been eavesdropping on the rest of the world FOR YEARS. They weakened standards, built-in backdoors, etc.

The REGEXT working group in @ietf is still pushing forward on standardizing third-party verification providers, seriously harming privacy and other human rights.

There have been complaints about @VERISIGN pushing this standards since 2016 !

article19.org/resources/corp… Eventhough a thorough human rights review has been done by @GurshabadGrover at @cis_india , and many other engaged in the discussion .

gitlab.com/hr-rt/document…

#IETF #infrastructuralista

Generally debates our problems with the Internet concentrate on application layer issues, such as platforms and algorithms, while the Internet architecture is still perceived as engine of innovation. This is WRONG. The Internet architecture is where the privatization and commercialization of the Internet has started.

Up to the early 90s commercial traffic was actually forbidden on the Internet.

Also innovation has been made very hard in the architecture, especially on core protocols.