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              | Date: 1998-07-13 
 
 .it: Kommune Rom dreht Avantguarde/netzwerk ab-.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.-
 
 q/depesche 98.7.13/3
 
 .it: Kommune Rom dreht Künstlernetzwerk ab
 
 $& schneidet sich ins eigene Fleisch. Die
 "sperimentali" waren bis dato der weitaus
 populärste Teil des römischen
 Stadtinformationssystems. Dort zählen offenbar
 noch keine Pageviews oder Visits, sondern es
 regiert noch die gute alte Politik.
 
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 The city council member responsible of Civic
 networks has closed the Civic network in Rome.
 
 Mariella Gramaglia, responsible of Civic networks,
 closed by authority and without warning all
 internet spaces that had been given in the past
 years to citizens and associations related to
 Experimental Projects.
 
 This event took place only a few days after the
 seizure of the Islands in the Net server which
 abruptly stopped all activities of many nonprofit
 associations.  In spite of two questions in
 Parliament and the unanimous judgment of netizens
 about the "foolishness" of the action, once again
 a whole web site (which contained information in
 no way related to the "offensive" page) was taken
 down in order to just censor one page (a
 deplorable action by itself).
 
 The thoughtless action damages the work of all
 people and groups who have contributed their time
 for free and who have been the true force of civic
 net.
 
 It can not go unnoticed that with this action
 Mariella Gramaglia simply destroyed the Civic
 network. Actually, Experimental Projects was the
 most popular section of the Civic network in Rome,
 the only spot of free expression for roman
 associations and citizens.
 
 At the moment, after the thoughtless action, only
 the institutional web site of the Rome
 administration remains online. Mrs. Gramaglia does
 not seem to understand that an institutional site
 is not a civic network.
 
 Besides, the reason of the action is laughable:
 priest Don Fortunato Noto, who started an
 association called Telefono Arcobaleno (Rainbow
 Telephone) in Avola (Sicily) fighting pedophilia
 in sometimes worrying ways (books pyre, press
 campaignes against toys manufactures and tv shows)
 and producing often more hysteria than quiet care,
 decided to file a charge against the city
 administration over a page stored on the server.
 The "indicted" page is a quote of a literary piece
 published on a nationally distributed magazine
 purchasable in every bookstore. This is equivalent
 to censoring literary criticism that quotes
 "unseemly" works and closing all libraries and
 bookstores. The quote is part of a project named
 "Feminine and science fiction: writing patterns" ,
 which is also a graduation thesis successfully
 upholded at the University of Rome "La Sapienza".
 
 The web page was part of one of the FRD (Roman
 Digital Forum) active projects, an area arranged
 by and for artists and knowledge workers also
 provided with a wide network of international
 contacts.
 
 The work of dozens of associations and citizens
 (included an association of the Carabinieri police
 force and one related to firemen) has been
 disregarded and the commitments taken by the
 councillor department betrayed. From that we infer
 the unreliable behaviour of the city council,
 which at first offers free expression spaces to
 its citizens and then it removes them without
 warning.  We only need to know that.
 
 Summarizing: - the city administration interrupted
 open-ended time a public service betraying its
 commitments with roman citizens - the reason
 behind this action appears laughable from a legal
 point of view and appears as an autocratic act of
 a city officer who has decided to change without
 warning the open policy of the previous
 administration, which was more respectful of the
 right to expression of the citizens.  - after
 months in her position, Mrs. Gramaglia still does
 not seem to understand the workings and the
 concepts of the internet and civic networks (this
 is easily understood by her statements to the
 press)
 
 We therefore demand the immediate reopening of all
 services of the roman civic network and a meeting
 with Mrs. Gramaglia and all associations and
 citizens that participate in the network, in order
 to calmly but seriously evaluate the competencies
 that are needed to administrate the network.
 
 The participants of Foro Romano Digitale
 Associazione culturale Edu.Co. Associazione
 culturale Matrix Associazione culturale Virtual
 Mondo Associazione Culturale IperAudio
 Associazione Oikos Simultaneita' Complesso
 per/forma Sciattoproduzie Luther Blisset J.W.L.
 Paardekooper
 -- Maurizio Mazzoneschi
 http://www.comune.roma.it/COMUNE/sperimentali/matrix
 
 relayed by
 bbrace@ncal.verio.com  via
 http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/
 
 
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 Download free PGP 5.5.3i (Win95/NT & Mac)
 http://keyserver.ad.or.at/pgp/download/
 
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 edited by
 published on: 1998-07-13
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