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From: Bruce Sterling [bruces@well.com] Sent: Monday, July 01, 2002 9:03 PM Viridian Note 00320: Global Civil Society Design Contest Key concepts: Viridian design contests, trusted computing, global civil society, Mary Kaldor Attention Conservation Notice: It's another in our series of Viridian design contests. Links: Newsweek: "Trustworthy Computing jihad" Anti-Palladium FAQ: "When you boot up your PC, Fritz takes charge." http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html I, Cringely: "a militarized network architecture" http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20020627.html "Why Intel Loves Palladium" http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/3/25892.html "Trusted Computing" Platform Alliance http://www.trustedcomputing.org/tcpaasp4/index.asp Hunt Terrorists on Net, Earn Big Bucks From Grateful
US State Dept.
http://www.rewardsforjustice.net/mostwanted.html
"Trusted systems" are a hot topic this season, given
that the Internet is swarming with spammers and Microsoft
viruses, and maybe one or two terrorists. Who better to
solve this Microsoft problem than Microsoft? Except they
probably won't.
As you can see from the resentful, gushing acrimony
in the many links above, Microsoft plans to wire itself
permanently into the substructure of the planetary
operating system. "Palladium" might not be all that bad a
scheme if it had any democratic political legitimacy
deriving from the consent of the governed. But, alas, it
doesn't. Nobody's even considering that approach.
One needs to look at this particular design problem
from a global perspective. Why would any sane computer
user (even an American), trust the "trusted system" of a
ruthless commercial monopoly with such a long history of
abusive practices? One might well be forced to do such
a thing at the point of a bayonet or a search warrant.
But how much "trust" does that involve?
Then there's the spy and dirty-tricks angle, always a
show-stopper for American-dictated networking solutions.
If trusted Microsoft is not writing in nice large trusted
doors for the trusted FBI and trusted NSA, then they're
not very patriotic. If they are wiring-in the FBI and
NSA, then they have the same basic problem as the long-
forgotten Clipper Chip.
Frankly, it's just bonkers for any French, German or Chinese person, or, really, any human being, to use a device which is so transparently designed as an asset for American espionage. You are supposed to hide UK/USA Echelon, and all the rest of that stuff. It's secret, that's why it's called "espionage." You can't just slop espionage like pork-and-beans onto a paper plate and expect everybody to swallow it. Even the British will balk. Link: So, we have a serious social, political and economic
problem here. However, a Viridian solution beckons. What
we need is a genuinely trustable, cheap, well-designed,
rugged, sexy, accessible computer system that is owned,
manufactured and operated for, well, Global Civil Society.
This machine shouldn't be some commercial for-profit
business gizmo which has been wrenched over (unwillingly
and kicking all the way) to some few of the many noble
purposes of citizenship and global democracy. This
computer needs to be a primarily political and social
computer. When you open it up, it shouldn't display the
creepy logo and suspicious agenda of "Microsoft, Compaq,
HP, IBM, Intel" or any of those "trusted computing"
jaspers. It shouldn't even say "USA," "France,"
"Germany," "G-8", "U.N.," or "NATO" == it shouldn't say
anything, really, except "Global Civil Society." Think
globally, act globally!
And none of this shady ICANN nonsense, either. Link: The software and communications protocols in this
device should be transparent. Honest. Aboveboard. Public.
Public-spirited. Fair. Inclusive. Multi-culti. Legitimate.
This Is What Democracy Looks Like. All that stuff that
computer hardware and software never, ever is.
Thus, our latest Viridian Design Contest: the Global
Civil Society Design Contest.
As longtime slashdot readers, we know perfectly well that the mere 1,750 people (and counting) on Viridian List can't possibly build a global computer operating system fully suitable for human rights orgs. Therefore, what we want from you is a Viridian Imaginary Product. It's the graphic screenshot of such a system. Imagine what that device might look like, and what it might do. Then show that to us by putting it up on the web and emailing the web address to the Pope-Emperor, bruces@well.com. We will place your entry onto our customary websites. Links: Here's the basic pitch. Let's imagine you are Joe or
Juanita Global-Civ. There you are, a selfless, activist
policy-wonk, one civilized soul in a darkening world where
ethnic throat-cutting is rising sharply and trust in the
biz community has plummeted.
You're at Rio, eloquently moaning over the dead coral
reefs. You're at the WTO and you brought a rational
argument. You're cataloging landmines in the Balkans or
Kashmir, you're logging-on in Alternet and Indymedia,
you're the daring token feminist at the Kabul loya
jirga....
Then, in that classic wonk moment, you pull your
Global Civil Society Designer Laptop from your ballistic-
nylon shoulder bag and you boot it up. "Whoa!" is the
instant response from a stunned and impressed public.
"Where'd you get that?"
"Oh, this? We've all got these now! They're
everywhere!"
That's our conceptual victory condition. Now here are
some operational details.
I will not be judging this design contest. I am judging another design contest run by somebody else. Link:
http://www.the5k.org
Instead, there is a Special Guest Judge for this highly global Viridian Contest. Her decision is, of course, globally final. She is: HBR>Dr. Mary Kaldor, C.B.E., Dr. Kaldor literally wrote the yearbook on "Global Civil Society." Better yet, Dr. Kaldor agrees with me that she needs a much cooler and more appropriate computer. Link: Note these typical Dr. Mary Kaldor stomping grounds: Helsinki Citizens Assembly, Kosovo Commission, documenting the arms trade, "organized violence in a global context," etc etc. Links: I ran into Mary Kaldor at a conference called "Technologies of Anti/Counter/Terrorism." Mary Kaldor is certainly the most globally with-it Commander of the British Empire that I have ever met. If there's such a thing as global civil society, well, here she is. Viridian designers, knock yourselves out. THE CONTEST PRIZE In our last Viridian contest, the "Enron Logo" contest, the winner received 100 shares of Enron stock. That's now worth, I dunno, literally less than the paper it's printed on, but at least it's a collector's item. That was pretty generous by Viridian standards == but it's nothing compared to this. Because even though the Global Civil Society Design Contest is relentlessly noncommercial, we are upping the Viridian ante by offering, for the first (and probably last) time ever: COLD HARD CASH!! That's right! The prize is cash! And none of that flaccid, green, American funny-money, either. Instead, it's this season's rapidly escalating, crisp, brand-new, supranational, global-standard currency:
Yes indeed! No fewer than 150 Euros, a staggering one hundred and fifty of 'em! And that's not all! Because if Microsoft (like so many other large American companies) turns out to have some major accounting skeletons in its closet, the value of these Euros could skyrocket overnight. Furthermore, these Euro bills represent an intriguing state-of-the-art in high-security, trustable, paper-money design. Unlike feeble old dollars, they've got uncopiable color schemes, state-of-the-art security strips and big embedded holograms! Win this contest and this cash will be mailed
straight to you!
This contest expires August 15, 2002.
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