(at)america.jp: Identity, nationalism, and power on the Internet, 1969-2000

america.jp explores identity, nationalism, and power on the Internet between 1969 and 2000 through a cultural analysis of Internet code and the creative processes behind it. The dissertation opens with an examination of a real-time Internet Blues jam that linked Japanese and American musicians between Tokyo and Mississippi in 1999. The technological, cultural, and linguistic uncertainties that characterized the Internet jam, combined with the inventive reactions of the musicians who participated, help to introduce the fundamental conceptual question of the dissertation: is code a cultural product and if so can the Internet be considered a distinctly American technology?;A comparative study of the Internet\u27s origins in the United States and Japan finds that code is indeed a cultural entity but that it is a product not of one nation, but of many. A cultural critique of the Internet\u27s domain name conventions explores the heavily-gendered creation of code and the institutional power that supports it. An ethnography of the Internet\u27s managing organization, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), investigates conflicts and identity formation within and among nations at a time when new Internet technologies have blurred humans\u27 understanding of geographic boundaries. In the year 2000, an effort to prevent United States domination of ICANN produced unintended consequences: disputes about the definition of geographic regions and an eruption of anxiety, especially in China, that the Asian seat on the ICANN board would be dominated by Japan. These incidents indicate that the Internet simultaneously destabilizes identity and ossifies it. In this paradoxical situation, cultures and the people in them are forced to reconfigure the boundaries that circumscribe who they think they are

Pyxis : um sistema de arquivos distribuido

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro TecnologicoEste texto apresenta o PYXIS, um sistema de arquivos distribuído portável com alto grau de paralelismo interno, desenhado para ser flexível no que diz respeito ao ambiente sobre o qual seus componentes são distribuídos, possibilitando sua execução em multicomputadores ou em redes de computadores. O projeto foi desenvolvido no Curso de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Computação da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (CPGCC/UFSC) e deverá integrar um projeto coletivo das universidades federais de Santa Catarina (UFSC), do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) e de Santa Maria (UFSM), que visa desenvolver um multicomputador e um ambiente para programação paralela sobre ele

Culture and Code: The Evolution of Digital Architecture and the Formation of Networked Publics

Culture and Code traces the construction of the modern idea of the Internet and offers a potential glimpse of how that idea may change in the near future. Developed through a theoretical framework that links Sheila Jasanoff and Sang-Hyun Kim’s theory of the sociotechnical imaginary to broader theories on publics and counterpublics, Culture and Code offers a way to reframe the evolution of Internet technology and its culture as an enmeshed part of larger socio-political shifts within society. In traveling the history of the modern Internet as detailed in its technical documentation, legal documents, user created content, and popular media this dissertation positions the construction of the idea of the Internet and its technology as the result of an ongoing series of intersections and collisions between the sociotechnical imaginaries of three different publics: Implementors, Vendors, and Users. These publics were identified as the primary audiences of the 1989 Internet Engineering Task Force specification of the four-layer TCP/IP model that became a core part of our modern infrastructure. Using that model as a continued metaphor throughout the work, Culture and Code shows how each public’s sociotechnical imaginary developed, how they influenced and shaped one another, and the inevitable conflicts that arose leading to a coalescing sociotechnical imaginary that is centered around vendor control while continuing to project the ideal of the empowered user

Wandel von Staatlichkeit in digitalen Namensräumen: zwischen Hierarchie und Selbstregulierung

"Die vorliegende Fallstudie ist im Rahmen des Sonderforschungsbereichs 597 'Wandel von Staatlichkeit' im Projekt 'Regulation und Legitimation im Internet' an der Universität Bremen entstanden. Das Ziel der Fallstudie ist, den Wandel von Staatlichkeit über einen Zeitraum von knapp drei Jahrzehnten empirisch nachzuzeichnen. Den Untersuchungsgegenstand bilden Adressierungssysteme, genauer: Namensräume für digitale Kommunikationsnetze. Namensräume dienen dazu, Nutzer von Kommunikationsdiensten mit einer unverwechselbaren Identität auszustatten. Ihre Organisationsstruktur spiegelt Vorstellungen über die Rolle des Staates im Betrieb von Kommunikationsinfrastrukturen wider. Der Fallstudie liegt die Hypothese zugrunde, dass Veränderungen von Staatlichkeit in zwei Dimensionen zu finden sind, auf der organisatorischen Ebene in Form einer (Teil-)Privatisierung vormals öffentlicher Aufgaben und auf der räumlichen Ebene in Form einer Inter- bzw. Transnationalisierung vormals territorialstaatlicher Handlungskompetenzen. Anhand eines Vergleichs wird untersucht, ob sich in der Organisation von Adressräumen seit den frühen 1980er Jahren Hinweise auf eine dauerhafte Transnationalisierung von Regelungsstrukturen finden lassen. Im Ergebnis zeigt sich, dass eine Transnationalisierung von Regelungskompetenzen tatsächlich belegt werden kann, dass aber dessen langfristiges Ausmaß noch immer Gegenstand von Verhandlungen und daher offen ist." (Autorenreferat)"This case study originated in the context of the Collaborative Research Center 597 'Transformations of the State' as part of the research project 'Regulation and Legitimation on the Internet'. The goal of the case study was to empirically trace the transformation of statehood over a period of nearly three decades. The subject matter for investigation is address systems, or more precisely name spaces for digital communication networks. Name spaces provide users of communication services with a unique identity. A name space's organizational structure reflects specific ideas about the role of the state concerning the operation of communication infrastructures. The case study is based on the assumption that transformations of statehood occur along two different dimensions; on an organizational level through a (partial) privatization of previously public tasks, and on a spatial level through a trans- or internationalization of previously national responsibilities. By means of a comparison, the case study seeks to ascertain if the organization of name spaces has been subject to a process of trans-nationalization. The study arrives at the conclusion that a transnationalizationof former public tasks can indeed be identified. However, the long term extent of trans-nationalization is still under negotiation and therefore an open issue." (author's abstract

Wandel von Staatlichkeit in digitalen Namensräumen: Zwischen Hierarchie und Selbstregulierung

Die vorliegende Fallstudie ist im Rahmen des Sonderforschungsbereichs 597 Wandel von Staatlichkeit im Projekt Regulation und Legitimation im Internet an der Universität Bremen entstanden. Das Ziel der Fallstudie ist, den Wandel von Staatlichkeit über einen Zeitraum von knapp drei Jahrzehnten empirisch nachzuzeichnen. Den Untersuchungsgegenstand bilden Adressierungssysteme, genauer: Namensräume für digitale Kommunikationsnetze. Namensräume dienen dazu, Nutzer von Kommunikationsdiensten mit einer unverwechselbaren Identität auszustatten. Ihre Organisationsstruktur spiegelt Vorstellungen über die Rolle des Staates im Betrieb von Kommunikationsinfrastrukturen wider. Der Fallstudie liegt die Hypothese zugrunde, dass Veränderungen von Staatlichkeit in zwei Dimensionen zu finden sind, auf der organisatorischen Ebene in Form einer (Teil-)Privatisierung vormals öffentlicher Aufgaben und auf der räumlichen Ebene in Form einer Interbzw. Transnationalisierung vormals territorialstaatlicher Handlungskompetenzen. Anhand eines Vergleichs wird untersucht, ob sich in der Organisation von Adressräumen seit den frühen 1980er Jahren Hinweise auf eine dauerhafte Transnationalisierung von Regelungsstrukturen finden lassen. Im Ergebnis zeigt sich, dass eine Transnationalisierung von Regelungskompetenzen tatsächlich belegt werden kann, dass aber dessen langfristiges Ausmaß noch immer Gegenstand von Verhandlungen und daher offen ist. -- This case study originated in the context of the Collaborative Research Center 597 Transformations of the State as part of the research project Regulation and Legitimation on the Internet. The goal of the case study was to empirically trace the transformation of statehood over a period of nearly three decades. The subject matter for investigation is address systems, or more precisely name spaces for digital communication networks. Name spaces provide users of communication services with a unique identity. A name space's organizational structure reflects specific ideas about the role of the state concerning the operation of communication infrastructures. The case study is based on the assumption that transformations of statehood occur along two different dimensions; on an organizational level through a (partial) privatization of previously public tasks, and on a spatial level through a trans- or internationalization of previously national responsibilities. By means of a comparison, the case study seeks to ascertain if the organization of name spaces has been subject to a process of trans-nationalization. The study arrives at the conclusion that a transnationalization of former public tasks can indeed be identified. However, the long term extent of trans-nationalization is still under negotiation and therefore an open issue.

Governança multisetorial e o processo de governança da internet : um estudo de caso sobre crime cibernético e filtragem na internet entre 1990 e 2010

Tese (doutorado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Relações Internacionais, 2012.Texto em inglês, com os elementos pré-textuais, introdução e conclusão em português.Com o desenvolvimento do código HTML e do primeiro browser no começo dos anos 90, a internet deixou de ser uma rede acessada somente por um grupo relativamente pequeno de pessoas distribuídas por alguns países. A partir do momento em que houve a comercialização da internet, um número crescente de pessoas e atores começou a utilizar esse meio de forma a desenvolver suas próprias visões, ideias e interesses. O que começou como uma rede fundamentalmente usada por programadores e acadêmicos com o objetivo de criar acesso rápido a informações independentes da localização física do usuário se tranformou em uma rede de negócios, um meio de divulgação de direitos básicos, um fórum para qualquer tipo de informação, mas também um espaço para atividades mal intencionadas, crime cibernético ou ataques virtuais. Face a essa alta quantidade de problemas e oportunidades, um grande número de atores do setor público, do setor privado e da sociedade civil criou um novo fenômeno chamado governança de internet, baseado no conceito multi-setorial. A institucionalização desse processo aconteceu quando, em 2005, foi criado o Fórum de Governança de Internet pela Organização das Nações Unidas. Esta tese busca analisar o processo que criou o ambiente multi-setorial da governança de internet com foco nos dois fenômenos de crime cibernético e filtragem da internet. _______________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACTWith the development of HTML and the first browser in the beginning of the 1990s, the Internet was no longer a network exclusively for a relatively small group of individuals in a number of countries. With the commercialization of the Internet a growing number of individuals and actors started using this means to develop and follow their own visions, ideas and interests. What had started as a network basically used by programmers and scientists aiming at creating fast access to information independently of the physical location of the user, turned into a business network, a place to divulge basic rights, a forum for any kind of information but also a place for malicious activities, cybercrime, and virtual attacks. Given the high quantity of problems and opportunities a large number of actors from the public sector, the private sector and civil society developed a new phenomenon called Internet governance, based on a multi-stakeholder approach. The institutionalization of this process happened in 2005 when the United Nations Internet Governance Forum was set up. This thesis is analysing the process that built the multi-stakeholder Internet governance environment, with a focus on the two phenomenons cybercrime and Internet filtering