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A feminist server ...


Judy Wajcman, Feminism confronts technology, 1991:
« It is impossible to divorce the gender relations which are expressed in, and shape technologies, from the wider social structure that create and maintain them. »

Wendy Chun, Control and Freedom: Power and control in the age of fiberoptics, 2006:
« We must explore the democratic potential of communications technologies – a potential that stems from our vulnerabilities rather than our control. And we must face and seize freedom with determination rather than fear and alibis. »

Ulises A. Mejias in Fibreculture Journal 20: Liberation Technology and the Arab Spring: From Utopia to Atopia and Beyond, 2012:
« A typical drawing of a network depicts a series of nodes connected by lines, representing the links. As a mental exercise, I want to call attention to the space between the nodes. This space surrounding the nodes is not blank, and we can even give it a name: the paranodal. Because of nodocentrism we tend to see only the nodes in a network, but the space between nodes is not empty, it is inhabited by multitudes of paranodes that simply do not conform to the organising logic of the network, and cannot be seen through the algorithms of the network. The paranodal is not a utopia—it is not nowhere, but somewhere (beyond the nodes). It is not a heterotopia, since it is not outside the network but within it as well. The paranodal is an atopia, because it constitutes a difference that is everywhere. »

Please use and abuse. License for the manifesto (added March 2017): copyleft Constant 2014, FAL http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en/
As a feminist server, this text has many pre-, parallel- and afterlives. For some geneologies, see below, elsewhere and here: http://www.newcriticals.com/exquisite-corpse/page-8

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Ministry of Hacking, October 2014 (esc, Graz)

esc / ministry: "A server with a new operating system"

The Department of Tactial Feminism - at the Ministry of Hacking :  subRosa and Nancy Mauro-Flude propose that the Collective-as-Server can foment feminist struggle and practices in the public/virtual sphere, as well as in personal life. The Collective-as-Server can support solidarity and collective action, and make common cause with the many different  struggles for environmental, economic, social and political justice. 

How can collective feminist organizational savvy, critical insights, and creative energy, be used to craft a Server with a new “operating system” that can re-connect us in mindful,  collaborative, and pleasurable ways? What skills, imagination,  experience, and resources do we all bring to the table? And how can we  instigate active, nurturing, convivial being-in-common, both in the here where we live, and in ever-expanding global territories both virtual and embodied to which we are connected?

What are the politics of a Feminist Server? Can we hack the very concept of a “Server” to think differently about how the collective itself is a Server? How do feminist theories of the reciprocity of the personal and the political shift our perspective, and craft feminist solidarity?

---

Scale An issue that seems missing from the March definition. 'at our own rhythm'? Time?

Control How to speak about control in ways that allow insecurity to exist? Need for a truly safe space.

Paranode  "Because of nodocentrism we tend to see only  the nodes in a network,  but the space between nodes is not empty, it is  inhabited by multitudes  of paranodes that simply do not conform to the organising logic of the  network, and cannot be seen through the  algorithms of the network. The  paranodal is not a utopia—it is not  nowhere, but somewhere (beyond the  nodes). It is not a heterotopia,  since it is not outside the network  but within it as well. The paranodal  is an atopia, because it  constitutes a difference that is everywhere." http://twenty.fibreculturejournal.org/2012/06/20/fcj-147-liberation-technology-and-the-arab-spring-from-utopia-to-atopia-and-beyond/

Safety is the state of being "safe" (from French sauf),   the condition of being protected against physical, social, spiritual,   financial, political, emotional, occupational, psychological,   educational or other types or consequences of failure, damage, error,  accidents, harm  or any other event which could be considered  non-desirable. Safety can  also be defined to be the control of  recognized hazards to achieve an  acceptable level of risk. This can  take the form of being protected from  the event or from exposure to  something that causes health or  economical losses. It can include  protection of people or of  possessions.

Security  is the degree of resistance to, or protection from,  harm. It applies  to any vulnerable and valuable asset, such as a person,  dwelling,  community, nation, or organization. Security provides "a form of  protection where a  separation is created between the assets and the  threat." These  separations are generically called "controls," and  sometimes include  changes to the asset or the threat.

Perceived vs Real security, security theatre

Feminist Server Discussion at THF, August 2014 (Calafou)

Notes from the discussion:

Welcome  to this brainstorming session about feminist servers. We will start by a  collective reflection on the idea of feminist server:  
To  start the discussion of what is a Feminist Server, we would like to  share the principles that followed the Feminist Server Summit organised  by Constant. Following the discussion, Femke from Constant came up with  the following principles. Such principle/defintion help us to think in  an expansive way of about feminist servers. 

* This is not a closed "definition". Other principles can be added to this list of principles. 

For the collective reflections the questions we would like to address are:


1. Why is it important to have a feminist server?
2. Personal Motivation for being at the meeting? Why are you interested by a feminist server?
3. Challenges and reservations?
4. Map all the task that we need to make up a server /and roles that exists.                                            
5. Map other projects that have attempted to do this? What are the resources already available?
6. What we do for the rest of the week?

The collective answers can be found below: 

1. Why is it important to have a feminist server ?
    
--  The need to have feminist servers ha s emerged throughout the past  years. More recently, though there was a story where a woman in Madrid  who was doing feminist videos.  This woman started be harrassed and  trolled online. Following this incident, the need arise among the  feminist scene in Spain to have a safer space on the net to host  feminist content. Also: Post-porno content cannot be hosted anywhere  because they are considered as pornographic material..   
-- There is a need, there is a niche for such a server. There are no such political space where feminist resistance happen. 
--  At the ETC in 2008, people were working on a video server to host  post-porno stuff, but the project never came to fruitition. 
--  It is important to have access to a server where you are in control of  your content, you know where it is located, etc. This is about regaining  control and gain autonomy. It is about being able to have feminist  mailing lists that are managed by a feminist tech collective, e-mails  services, etc. 
--  There has been an awareness that there are often few women, genderqueer  and trans that are involved in tecky stuff. It is about transfering  knowledge and recognising that techy.  
    
-- safe space online to keep feminist projects 
-- lost material, start from zero, after four years of hard work => take content in our hands
-- problem with access to servers that are administered elsewhere
-- social, political implications
-- bring the control of access, usage and diffusion in our hands
-- pull together our projects, information, and have full control of it
-- space for storing stuff without passing through providers, and not knowing what they will do with our content 
-- physical contact
-- independence when having the physical hardware in access

2. Personal Motivation for being at the meeting? Why are you interested in a feminist server?

--  a feminist server is different from anarchist server: (not that  important the gender of the person who maintains) need of civility of  this political and recognition of the figure of the server. Political  statement. Trans-hack-feminist emancipation. 
-- Lack of autonomous infrastructure on the Internet. 
-- Feminists: decide what we need. We: have to take care of what we *really* need. 
-- Gathering space to coordinate between different feminists. A space that enables new agencies. 
--  Feminism is very hard term in many levels. A negative context. Strange  that it does not exist. When we talk about feminism there is often a «   brrr ». It is very necessary? This is a provocation : an interesting  one. 
--  Personal level: own server is good, feminist server. We have to start  getting involved into infrastructure. And learn how to administrate.
-- I want to learn the skills.
-- I love feminists that work with technology. I am interested in doing tech in a feminist way. Good occasion to experiment and see what our needs are. 
-- learn what our needs are by doing it ourselves. 
-- necessity to place things (infrastructure) in our hands. 

3. Challenges and reservations?

It is quite a big responsability. 
  
In a context like Calafou, there might be quite a few challenges in terms of: Hardware, power cut, cost, etc. 
Is there a lack of capacity?
What about long term commitment? 
What is the purpose of a Feminist Server? Is it to play around or to serve a political purpose? We need to have a common understanding. 
What about the sustainability of the server. How does it become sustainable socially? 
Administering  a server on a personal machine vs. administering a server for other  collective/people/etc. Different thing to work on my server and working  with other people. If i want to learn about server administration. It is  to meet other people. 
2  approach to administer a server : everyone has access to the server  (many sys admin) - or otherwsie what will be the policy? (is a feminist  server about boundary setting? If so what are these boundaries?). 
In  my network i don't have enough people who are interested to manage a  feminist server, so i need to collaborate with people at the  international level. 
If we create a feminist server, will feminist want to use? Will they trump less efficiency for politics? Or will they say the services are too slow, i am switching to a "free" corporate service (google, microsoft, etc.)

4. Tasks/Role Feminist Server. 
    
* Access to data. 
* Physical / local server VS VM Servers. 
* Who is managing the contact with the VM/Servers Physical?
(Communicating with BASIC HARDWARE on the VM).
* Servers -> Public Regular/Making visible the initiative. 
* Security of the servers and Need to be part of the Common vision of
all participants. 
* Interacting/ Answering to the community.
* Maintenance of the servers. 
* Role of minority (Watch the Attacks!) OUTSIDE dimension. 
* Setting and configuring the machines. 
* Documentation. 
* Transition. 
* Fund rising/Money/Sustainability.
* Checking on projects - Alive? Dead? 
* Accounts/ Comptas del proyecto. 
* Admins. 
* Admins transferring knowledge.

5. Map other projects that exist out there

      Anarcha Server (Tatchanka): A virtual machine has been offered to the  PechBlenda in Calafou by the Tech Collective called Tatchanka. The  server has not been used now. The project is at a stand still.       

     Les samedies : a group that has been meeting every saturday in Brussels with the Constant to try to better understand and manage servers.             

    Systerserve r | an initiative by the Gender C hangers Academy (GCA) : 
    Have for many years run a satellite collective called, 'Adminsysters'  i n 2006 - We got to a stage where we didn't want to rely on the (very supportive mind you) guys hosting our website. We wanted to Do It Ourselves. So this was our own space to practice being systems administrators, where peers are present to answer questions and show by example.
We met on an IRC channel to talk shop. Then one by one take on a task that needed to be done or learnt. The women are from all over the world:
St. John's, San Francisco, New York, Montevideo, Madrid, Amsterdam, and further. 
In 2014 - there is a new reboot phase and a new server currently being set up , see:  http://systerserver.net/  
    
Miss Despoinas Critical Engineering Salon : F ormed initially as a mail list for discussion and a hackspace aimed at removing the strict barriers between software users and developers to enable the ‘uninitiated’ artist into using free software in Tasmania since 20 09 . Miss Despoinas administers and manages her own server, and streaming server, 
this is done mainly by the founding member on knoppix kernal an d LFS linux from scratch, dvgrab,  audio streaming darkice as client encoding ogg vorbis . http://miss-hack.org


Comment:                                       
Why past projects have failed?  

    There is usually only one person who is a tecky. All the responsabilities fall on her/they.      

    It never came to the stage of people who care about it. Few people use it.          

     Overlapping problem:  1) no capacity of transfering knowledge and 2)  Feminist friends are too scattered in different projects and don't take  time to learn about how technology works. 

         
6. Follow-up - what do we do throughout the week? 
-- what do we want to achieve this week? 
-- plan or not? 
-- talk + practice: small setup & doing it.  
-- slot tomorrow that we can go & learn a bit about the server. 
-- virtual server is available BUT we want to see things physically how they work!!! 
-- Linux machines ARE servers. 
 
---
HOW TO with Servers (Donna)
Virginia wolf quoting > A Room of One's Own = A server of One's own
Servers: different types of services that can be kept on a server. Chat, email, web. (called Web server. Mail server)
Phisical machines or Virtual server.
Updating and upgrading is important for a server. (either way can be hacked)
Virtual  machines - fine for web mail, chat.. but some things don't work well.  You need real hardware: for network serviced (dhcp, streaming, ...).
Physical  machines are sometimes better for activism. Political tensions -- so  when you have independent server is good (political angles,  independency). 
Physical machine - you can bring with you :) Independent chat (voice) agents to communicate with people. 
Weaknesses for running own server.
--needs cordination
--needs maintenance
--needs user base 
Don't use Amazon servers: poorly maintained, not secure.. 
Better go to a company that's fully in control of the kernel. "Can I update the kernel?" - if they say "NO", don't use them. 
"Platform as a service". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platform_as_a_service
in 10 years they loose users cannot "compite" with gmail or mainstream platforms
the  user want fast services, and a server that take more than 10minuts will  be discardet and people will change to mainstream services.
How to start?
-- website and public things -- very cheap hosting VPN. 
-- for chat and email -- own server. All that is private.
-- NB! You should have your data encrypted.
VPS  - who is the company, where is it based? What kind of reputation does  it have? Other activists: what providers are they using? 
Hactivist group with a wiki about tools, with ideas where to host your server: 

    Marsupi >   http://es.blogxpopuli.org/wiki/Marsupi_%28server%29

    List of services from hacktivistas: http://wiki.hacktivistas.net/index.php?title=Tools#Web

     Sindominio.net
     Autistici
     Riseup
     Marsupi
     Ourproject
     Probeta
    Poivron.org > https://poivron.org/
    Tachanka > https://tachanka.org/wiki/PublicAbout
    from backbone409: http://backbone409.calafou.org/participants/index.en.html
    Espiv, Greece: Autonomous server > https://espiv.net/
    Fédération FDN, France: Federation of DIY Internet providers

Virtual machines had a lot of virtual machines in one, throttling is the name of this practice.
How to's secure server

    http://www.mysql-apache-php.com/basic-linux-security.htm
    http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-security.html
    http://www.tecmint.com/linux-server-hardening-security-tips/
    
The Darmstadt Delegation
August 2014 (Darmstadt)

The darmstadt delegation came together on the basis of a shared experience of troubling differences in the politics, values and practices of “activists" heavily using networked technology for their struggles, and of "techno-activists" who struggle to develop progressive and alternative technologies. We observe that, loyal to a utopia of a globally functioning interwebs, techno-activists usually organize around universal values: information must be “free”, secure, “privacy-preserving”, accessible, etc. In comparison, those who bring their political struggles to the interwebs may express political differences across a broader spectrum, situated in local and/or global contexts. However, pragmatic decisions due to time pressure and lack of resources often mean that these struggles may integrate themselves into proprietary and conservative technical infrastructures. As a consequence, during “sneaky moments of first getting things done", many organizational matters are delegated to "techies" or to technological platforms. 

If we believe the mantra that our tools inform our practices and our practices inform our tools, we may want to radically reconfigure these divisions of labor between “activists” and “progressive techies". But how? Where do we start? What are ways to resist those sneaky moments in which we pragmatically submit ourselves to "specialization of work" that reproduce hegemonic divisions of gender, race, class and age, and that reinforce ideological differences between activists for social justice and activists for just technologies?

The darmstadt delegation follows in the steps of numerous initiatives which are working on crossing divides while developing technical alternatives for current day struggles. Most recently, we see ourselves in conversation with the numerous initiatives that have aligned around backbone409 [1], interference [2], transhackfeminist camp [3] and the internet ungovernance forum [4].

[0] Currently active delegates are Femke Snelting (ConstantVZW, Belgium), Jara Rocha (Objetologias, Bau School of Design, Spain), Miriyam Aouragh (University of Westminister, UK) and Seda Gurses (New York University, USA).
[1] http://backbone409.calafou.org
[2] http://interference.io
[3] http://transhackfeminist.noblogs.org/call-for-proposal/
[4] https://iuf.alternatifbilisim.org

Autonomy (im)possible!
May 2014 (amro, Linz)

Uncovering new truths and making them public as a disruption and criticism of the dominant system has consequences.

Threat scenarios of the digital surveillance state inevitably have  palpable effects on our lives and actions. Access to information,  infrastructure and technology, which is especially important for  activists in repressive regimes up to the present, has become a widely  discussed issue since Snowden’s disclosures at the latest, because now a  broad mass of people in democratically governed states see their  “privacy” endangered. Independence, confidence and freedom are massively  put to the test.

Artists, hacktivists, cultural producers, journalists, software  developers and idealists, in short creative actors with a desire for  change increasingly find themselves in uncertain territory. Which methods and alternative tools can be used to generate new views of  everyday life, work, money, politics and the environment, and to  instigate a new cultural practice, to impel civil society processes,  without them being nipped in the bud?

How do creative actors contribute to the process of change and which new forms of cooperation do they enter into?

Track 1: Technologies of Autonomy
The time of ridiculing those who were not taken seriously as “paranoid  geeks” seems to have passed at the moment, as the surveillance scandals  have reached the mainstream. There is a newly awakened discussion of  decentralizing infrastructure and alternative possibilities outside the  realm of the large monopolists that determine access to information and  tools and cooperate with secret services. Do these new insights actually  result in a chance for alternatives, and who really needs them? Why is  digital self-defense left up to the users?

Unitary Networking
Unitary Networking is a speculative approach to communications  infrastructure, trying to establish a link between urban technology and  communication technology and reflecting on the way they form networks of  power.
In practice, the starting point of the project is an electronic  messaging system running on a wireless mesh network, composed of both fixed and moving nodes. The messages propagate through the network when  the devices come in contact with each other. It is a non-hierarchical  network, where every node receives, relays and broadcasts messages. The  users of the network can send or receive messages by using the  webbrowser of their smartphone or computer. The messages can be received  and sent at any time, but are only synchronized when other fixed or  moving nodes are encountered.

Feminist Server Summit
December 2013 (Constant, Brussels)

Conclusions from the Summit: a con-federation of competences

1. Scaling

In  which  dimension do we do the things we do? One important point was to  realize  our work in human, understandable scale. What is the  surrounding we  create and therefore also offer to others. Many people  are involved and engaged into developing possibilities  mostly on the  technical level, which is very appreciated.  At the same time, we face  obstacles on the level of sharing this  knowledge: one has to take the  decision whether to go on deceloping a  tool or explaining/teaching it  to others.


2. Sustainability

The  question  of sustainability (how many cables run somewhere, how much  energy do  the involved persons have to go on, can this work be shared).  Not only  thinking on a planet  and personal scale at the same time.  There is no overall strategy or solution.  There seems to be a need for a  general strategy, we don't have it yet
Does it exist ? Or is it even desirable?

3. Infrastructure

Do  infrastructures  need content or expression? Can we spend all our time  on maintaining  the structures, do they have a right to exist and a   function on their  own? Is infrastructure there for its own sake ? Do we  need to channel "content" (or expression) ?
Observation: the medium is the message vs. form follows fun(ction)

4. Perspective

We  discussed  the presented projects from a feminist perspective on  service, so in  conclusion we can understand gender as technology,  something to take  active part in.
Observation: very important point
That leads us to the following question: What are the politics of technologies?

(De)centralized practice
March 2013 (PZI, Rotterdam)

Diana,  Reni, Femke and Seda are part of communities that envision new ways of collaboration or practice using networks. Part of these pursuits entails  building alternative tools and reconfiguring networks using open and  decentralized solutions, and nurturing a sharp culture of critique of  centralized or proprietary services.
In this line of practice, dichotomous thinking may prevail. We may at  times even use it to fuel our political/creative/alternative projects  e.g., free vs. proprietary in the 90s, and centralized vs. distributed  in the age of social media. Yet, these dichotomies may become passé and even turn unproductive. How  can we venture into undoing these dichotomies in order to take a  critical look at our work, rethink and re-present its remarkable  history, and identify the potentials of our "alternative networks"  beyond these dichotomies?

This afternoon is jointly organised with the the Piet Zwart Institute’s Master Media Design and Communication, Ecole de Recherche Graphique, Brussels (The Networked Social http://www.networkedsocial.constantvzw.org) and Institute of Networkcultures (Unlike Us http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/unlikeus)

Samedies
2006-2012 (Brussels)

Petit état des lieux en septembre 2007
                                                                                                                                                                       
Ce n’est plus vraiment la présentation du projet mais un bilan après pratiquement deux ans d’activité ...

Les académies du samedi  viennent d’accomplir un an d’activité : sept samedis, une quarantaine de  femmes (qui ont participé au moins à une rencontre), un serveur déjà  bien "habillé" avec ssh, apache, spip, beaucoup de plaisir, de retours  positifs ...

Droits à l’erreur et multidisciplinarité
Nous nous sommes donné le luxe de faire et refaire des installations  de programmes quand quelque chose n’avait pas marché, de nous scinder en  petits groupes pour approfondir les commandes techniques ou vraiment  aller explorer autre chose que des techniques.

Gratuité et autoorganisation
Nous n’avons pas oublié d’organiser une garderie pour les enfants,  les sessions étaient gratuites, nous amenions de quoi partager pour le  repas (auberge espagnole).
Nous avons organisé les sessions à notre propre rythme, par  thématique.  Nous nous sommes rendues compte cependant de la difficulté  de trouver des femmes travaillant dans le domaine, disponibles pour  animer un atelier.  Finalement nous avons invité des personnes  ressources masculines ...

Techos corps évolution et politique
Nous ne voulons pas de sessions purement techniques où nous jouerions  en ligne de commande, nous voulons aussi nous interroger sur ce que  nous faisons, pourquoi, comment nous apprenons, en quoi la machine nous  complète ou nous fait perdre notre temps ...
Nous avons clôturé la session le 30 juin par une séance de "remue méninges" pour faire le point.

Le futur
Nous voulons mettre en route un serveur à nous, un espace à nous,  avec un serveur web et aussi un serveur pour stocker des données (audio,  images, textes) – tout cela  surtout pour que chaqu’une d’entre nous  puisse  expérimenter.  Nous expérimenterons à la fois sites perso, sites collectifs et gérer le  serveur. Nous ne voulons pas à priori nous lancer dans la gestion d’un serveur  mail.