Diffusion Matt Locke
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1: 2: CONSTRUCTION 1: First, fold each A4 sheet in half along the vertical axis. 2: Using a craft knife or scalpel, cut a horizontal slot along the centre dotted line of the first A4 sheet. (pages 1/2/13/14) 3: Then cut along the dotted lines on all the other sheets. Make sure to cut to the very 3: 4: edges of the paper. 4: Stack the folded sheets in ascending order with the even numbers at the top. Curl the bottom half of the second A4 page (pages 3/4/23/24). 5: Thread the curled page through the centre slot of the first A4 page. Repeat this process with the third (pages 5/6/21/22), fourth (pages 7/8/19/20), 5: 6: fifth (pages 9/10/17/18), and sixth A4 sheet (pages 11/12/15/16) with the even pages in ascending order. 6: When all the pages have been threaded through, check the pagination. Finally, fold the booklets in half along the horizontal axis. DIFFUSION eBook format conceived & developed by Proboscis, a non profit organisation which researches, develops and facilitates creative innovation. An alternative to prevailing formats for ebooks and electronic publishing, Proboscis welcomes the free adoption and use of DIFFUSION by any third party without licence or royalty. www.proboscis.org.uk | www.diffusion.org.uk 2 Imagine a world in which everyone and everything will be connected to every- one and everything else.(1) The fantasy of ubiquitous access to information Locke Matt networks has been a part of every technological DISTRIBUTION revolution since at least the invention of electrical communication. A utopia of instant, unmediated connectivity across distance and time always CONTENT appears to be at the breaking wave of new technolo- gy, and will in turn herald the end of a wide range of IN NETWORKS society’s ills, from the petty annoyances of the workplace to the complex dynamics of political and economic discourse. OF ROLES THE The technologies imagined in these fantasies share RE-THINKING similar themes of mobility, immediacy, and almost transparent interfaces that, taken to its logical conclusion, links communication technology with MOBILITY & P2P would prohibit voice calls, the second allowing the receiver to delay the reception of a message to a concerts even and reviews arts politics, news, of more convenient time. This allows users to route readings offering fee, subscription day a penny a for ‘Telephone Newspaper’ ‘Telephone to users across Budapest across users to around (10) physical or social barriers to communication, a provided Hirmondo Telefon The systems. creating a flexible exchange of messages that suits distribution content successful into networks both sender and receiver. telephone early turn to failed also Century 20th Interestingly, similar experiments at the start of the of start the at experiments similar Interestingly, But the most interesting factor about SMS usage is promised. services WAP that content distributed that it has grown out of a network that was devel- centrally high-value the not chat, one-to-one oped for a completely different purpose. If you were on based been has growth SMS desirable. is it to set out to build a network solely to distribute text mean not does possible is access that fact The messages of less than 160 characters, it would how. and accessing, are people information need to be far less sophisticated than GSM, but of kind what on contingent is anytime anywhere, would appear to have little commercial potential information with connect to individuals of desire compared to the obvious market for mobile voice perceived the that demonstrates SMS as large as networks. SMS is a good example of how users near anywhere market a develop to infrastructure, rapidly adopt technologies that closely match their GSM same the around based WAP, of failure The behaviour and desires, regardless of whether the purpose. that technology is innovative or even well designed for designed well even or innovative is technology 14 13 3 4 how far they were separated. were they far how This graphic proposition illustrates the extremes of (2) recurring fantasies about instantaneous communica- matter no arm, own his on letters these tion, but also appears to predict with startling read could friend his and message, his accuracy elements of interfaces that are recognis- in words the of letters the point metal able in contemporary mobile technologies, such as a with skin alien of piece the on traced the Palm Pilot(3) or RIM(4) Blackberry. So do contem- them of one hour given a at other, porary developments in mobile and P2P (peer-to- each from separated When person. his peer) technologies mean we are closer to this long- on engrafted other the of cuticle the of dreamt-of communication utopia? Or do recurring portion a had party either that so ed’, fantasies about intimate mobile communication ‘transplant- fragments these and each, obscure more prosaic truths about how these tech- of breast or arm the from cut was skin nologies are changing society? of piece A thus: proceeded distance a Two friends who wished to converse at converse to wished who friends Two P2P AND ‘CONTENT AT THE EDGES’ Recent innovation in mobile technologies and 1897: in Advertiser Dundee the peer-to-peer networking have shifted emphasis away from example this in as conduit, of form a as body from the static architectures of client-server relation- the to linked closely is connectivity unmediated ships that marked the early Internet, towards more, for desire the fantasies these In telepathy. parallel Victorian fantasies about spirituality and spirituality about fantasies Victorian parallel P2P & MOBILITY This publication is one of a series RE-THINKING THE ROLES OF of essays commissioned by the NETWORKS IN CONTENT DISTRIBUTION CollaborativeMOBILITY Arts Unit& for the P2P Matt Locke Collaboration and Ownership in the Digital Economy conference, and is First published by Arts Council of England available in downloadable form as a in March 2001 DIFFUSION eBook from Metamute: RE-THINKING www.metamute.com/mfiles/index.html Free ISBN 0-7287-0815-9 If you require copies of this publication THE ROLES OF OF in large print, audiotapeROLES or any other THE British Library Catalaloguing-in-publication format – including translation – please data: a catalogue record for this publica- contact the Information Department on tion is available at the British Library. IN 020 7973 6453. NETWORKS Arts Council of England The Arts Council of England is committed 14 Great Peter St to being open and accessible. We wel- London SW1P 3NQ come all comments on our work. Please T 020 7333 0100 send these to Wendy Andrews, Executive F 020 7973 6590 Director of Communications. CONTENT Minicom 020 7973 6564 www.artscouncil.org.uk This publication is designed to be freely available to download and print Print and Format design by: out. Under no circumstances should DISTRIBUTION Nima Falatoori (www.blutopia.co.uk) any version of this publication, whether Paul Farrington (www.tonne.org.uk) print or electronic, be sold by any third party without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Locke Matt www.diffusion.org.uk 23 6 5 about the death of the music industry may be slight- ly premature, but the conceptual shift that Napster bring would Napster that predictions Early networks. represents has led to predictions of the demise of distribution its of controller as status its preserve many aspects of the centralised distribution net- to order in action legal take to industry music the works that it seems to replace, from the role of inter- prompted has and files, music MP3 swap to users mediaries in distributing creative content to the con- enabled that protocol file-sharing the Napster, been cept of intellectual property rights in relation to the has far so power this utilise to application significant content itself. most The efficiently. operate to resources tralised the edges of the network that no longer needs cen- needs longer no that network the of edges the In this P2P future, everyone is both a creator and a at resource untapped huge a representing nectivity, consumer, and the issues of Intellectual property con- broadband widespread increasingly and power rights, and artistic or economic values associated computing PC in growth exponential the of result This shift has been identified by Clay Shirky Clay by identified been has shift This as a as with it, are pushed to the edges. Once ‘freed’ from (5) the hegemony of the corporate intermediary, content . ’ edges the at content ‘ can be negotiated dynamically between individuals, to ture rather than centrally administrated through organisa- architec- System) Name (Domain DNS the of focus tions such as the Performing Rights Society. In John centralised the from shift a clients, distributed Perry Barlow’s words, content changes from being a massively between orchestrated relationships ‘noun’ to a ‘verb’: many-to-many through constructed are networks dynamic, mobile, ephemeral networks. These These networks. ephemeral mobile, dynamic, Notes (1). The Human Side of Peer to Peer, Viant Innovation Center, http://www.viant.com/downloads/innovation_p2p.pdf (2). From Carolyn Marvin – When Old Technologies Were New, Oxford University Press, 1990 (3). http://www.palm.com (4). http://www.blackberry.net (5). See Clay Shirky – Content Shifts to the Edges, http://www.shirky.com/writings/content.html (6). John Perry Barlow – Napster and the Death of the Music Industry, www.technocrat.net/958163435/index_html (7). The Human Side of Peer to Peer, Viant Innovation Center (8). Clay Shirky – What Is P2P… And What Isn’t, http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2000/11/24/shirky1-whatisp2p.html (9). http://www.gsmworld.com/news/press_2001/press_releases_4.html (10).