Monday, December 7, 2009

Late Posts

Terranova


Tragedy of the Creative Commons



The internet can be conceived of as a series of tubes. Better yet, a public highway system trafficked with information. Sitting at ones computer, an illusion is brought about as one surfs the internet. It seems as though the totality of human knowledge is at ones finger tips. We are free to move about, clinking link after link, chatting and connecting with people all over the world, irrespective of geography and time. However, this system connects a mass of private/public networks and computers linking people (users) to each other and a variety of producers and, increasingly today, conglomerators of content. It brings together fragments of society into a common space through a massive network. "The Internet, that is, seems to us to capture (and reinforce) a feature of network culture as a whole – the way it combines masses, segments and microsegments within a common informational dimension in which all points are potentially even if unevenly affected by all other points" (153). The Internet has a distinct geography. The URLs that we input into our browsers point to specific IP addresses that give discrete locations within the network. When I go to the Brown University website I start off in Rhode Island, connect in New York, then Boston, and arrive at my final destination, back in Rhode Island. We send requests to a server and packets of information are sent back and reassembled within the GUI of the computer. Too many requests from independent networks and users can result in a denial of service to all users (Twitter is down!). The nation of Qatar, which uses one IP address for all traffic out of the country, was banned from editing Wikipedia articles after a number of malicious edits.


I decided to trace the paths of my connections to a few websites I frequently visit. First, through my own standard internet connection then with a Brown VPN connection. Attempting to traceroute to www.nsa.gov directs me to a non-functional pi address. Furthermore, my connection is timed out for an indefinite amount of time and I eventually terminated the process. My last stop, AT&T (http://news.cnet.com/AT38T-sued-over-NSA-spy-program/2100-1028_3-6033501.html). In the other cases, connecting to Brown VPN resulted in a more privileged connection, my browser taking a more direct route to their destinations and pages loading faster. The most extreme case in visiting Brown’s own website; I never had to leave the local network. It seems the internet produces its own unique geography, separate from that of the physical world. Far from being a classless, open, field of endless informational flow and discovery in which all users are anonymous peers with equal access, the internet has begun to reproduce the very political, and structural elements of informational flows in the physical world. We've come upon a new “political field that cannot be made to unite under any single signifier (such as the working class) or even under a stable consensus; while at the same time it cannot really split off into separate segments with completely separate socio-cultural identities (even hybrid ones) – a space that is common, without being homogeneous or even equal” (154). The blank spots, such as the NSA, the higher status connections of a distinguished university, the traffic jams and flows, all traversing a the same network.


As the content evolves and demands on the network have become greater, the limits of informational flows come increasingly under debate. Should so-called bandwidth hogs, free riding of the rest of the reasonable customers, pay more? When all information is split into packets and transmitted without regard for content or meaning, should we devise ways to privilege certain information? Are we heading towards a digital iteration of the Tragedy of the Commons?


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www.brown.edu or 128.148.128.180


traceroute to www.ciswip.brown.edu (128.148.128.180), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets

1 wireless_broadband_router (192.168.1.1) 1.220 ms 0.636 ms 0.543 ms

2 l100.prvdri-vfttp-13.verizon-gni.net (96.238.59.1) 4.517 ms 4.495 ms 4.619 ms

3 g4-0-213.prvdri-lcr-02.verizon-gni.net (130.81.133.160) 4.551 ms 5.510 ms 4.151 ms

4 p11-0-0.prvdri-lcr-01.verizon-gni.net (130.81.27.66) 13.264 ms 9.581 ms 8.896 ms

5 so-3-3-0-0.ny5030-bb-rtr1.verizon-gni.net (130.81.29.28) 10.055 ms 9.130 ms 8.770 ms

6 0.so-3-1-0.xt1.nyc8.alter.net (152.63.10.33) 13.574 ms 14.041 ms 14.184 ms

7 0.so-6-0-0.xl3.nyc4.alter.net (152.63.16.221) 14.210 ms 13.616 ms 13.222 ms

8 0.xe-7-0-0.br2.nyc4.alter.net (152.63.3.166) 16.614 ms

0.xe-4-2-0.br2.nyc4.alter.net (152.63.3.110) 14.362 ms

0.xe-5-0-0.br2.nyc4.alter.net (152.63.18.5) 14.691 ms

9 xe-10-2-0.edge2.newyork2.level3.net (4.68.110.233) 15.635 ms

204.255.173.54 (204.255.173.54) 14.407 ms

4.68.110.105 (4.68.110.105) 14.961 ms

10 vlan51.ebr1.newyork2.level3.net (4.69.138.222) 14.356 ms 13.948 ms 14.230 ms

11 ae-4-4.ebr1.newyork1.level3.net (4.69.141.17) 14.869 ms 14.676 ms 14.252 ms

12 ae-1-8.bar2.boston1.level3.net (4.69.140.97) 24.727 ms 18.472 ms *

13 ae-0-11.bar1.boston1.level3.net (4.69.140.89) 19.544 ms 18.980 ms 19.697 ms

14 ae-7-7.car1.boston1.level3.net (4.69.132.241) 19.973 ms 20.529 ms 18.552 ms

15 oshean-inc.car1.boston1.level3.net (4.53.48.162) 19.288 ms 20.066 ms 19.157 ms

16 host-198-7-224-6.oshean.org (198.7.224.6) 28.117 ms 27.400 ms 27.913 ms

17 host-198-7-255-38.oshean.org (198.7.255.38) 28.139 ms 28.721 ms 27.962 ms

18 wilson-r.net.brown.edu (128.148.130.3) 30.028 ms 32.196 ms 29.874 ms

19 * * *

20 128.148.128.253 (128.148.128.253) 30.351 ms 28.997 ms 28.047 ms

21 * * *

22 128.148.128.253 (128.148.128.253) 29.026 ms !H * 30.929 ms !H


VPN


traceroute to www.ciswip.brown.edu (128.148.128.180), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets

1 128.148.9.65 (128.148.9.65) 32.506 ms 29.422 ms 28.028 ms

2 cit-r.brown.edu (128.148.130.2) 29.961 ms 30.085 ms 28.838 ms

3 fred-wilma.net.brown.edu (10.1.64.105) 28.278 ms 31.343 ms 29.130 ms

4 128.148.128.253 (128.148.128.253) 33.867 ms 29.432 ms 31.845 ms

5 128.148.128.253 (128.148.128.253) 31.661 ms !H 29.616 ms !H 29.568 ms !H


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www.google.com or 66.249.80.104


traceroute to www.l.google.com (66.249.81.104), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets

1 wireless_broadband_router (192.168.1.1) 3.892 ms 0.828 ms 0.550 ms

2 l100.prvdri-vfttp-13.verizon-gni.net (96.238.59.1) 5.161 ms 4.894 ms 3.885 ms

3 g4-0-213.prvdri-lcr-02.verizon-gni.net (130.81.133.160) 4.243 ms 4.589 ms 5.709 ms

4 p11-0-0.prvdri-lcr-01.verizon-gni.net (130.81.27.66) 8.209 ms 8.210 ms 8.262 ms

5 so-3-3-0-0.ny5030-bb-rtr1.verizon-gni.net (130.81.29.28) 10.677 ms 11.009 ms 8.537 ms

6 0.so-3-1-0.xt1.nyc8.alter.net (152.63.10.33) 12.586 ms 14.337 ms 14.322 ms

7 0.so-6-0-0.xl3.nyc4.alter.net (152.63.16.221) 14.373 ms 13.782 ms 17.146 ms

8 0.xe-5-0-0.br3.nyc4.alter.net (152.63.16.181) 17.809 ms 14.049 ms

0.xe-8-1-0.br3.nyc4.alter.net (152.63.17.53) 15.681 ms

9 te-7-1-0.edge2.newyork2.level3.net (4.68.127.21) 13.999 ms 13.287 ms 50.224 ms

10 vlan52.ebr2.newyork2.level3.net (4.69.138.254) 13.558 ms 14.878 ms

vlan51.ebr1.newyork2.level3.net (4.69.138.222) 17.427 ms

11 ae-6-6.ebr4.newyork1.level3.net (4.69.141.21) 20.140 ms 17.118 ms

ae-4-4.ebr1.newyork1.level3.net (4.69.141.17) 14.877 ms

12 ae-64-64.csw1.newyork1.level3.net (4.69.134.114) 17.204 ms

ae-81-81.csw3.newyork1.level3.net (4.69.134.74) 14.144 ms 27.835 ms

13 ae-1-69.edge1.newyork1.level3.net (4.68.16.14) 16.078 ms

ae-4-99.edge1.newyork1.level3.net (4.68.16.206) 14.375 ms

ae-2-79.edge1.newyork1.level3.net (4.68.16.78) 14.674 ms

14 google-inc.edge1.newyork1.level3.net (4.71.172.86) 15.872 ms 14.887 ms

google-inc.edge1.newyork1.level3.net (4.71.172.82) 14.722 ms

15 72.14.238.232 (72.14.238.232) 16.080 ms 18.495 ms 19.454 ms

16 * * *

17 lga15s01-in-f104.1e100.net (66.249.81.104) 16.994 ms 17.432 ms 15.467 ms


VPN


traceroute to www.l.google.com (66.249.80.104), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets

1 128.148.9.65 (128.148.9.65) 29.252 ms 28.097 ms 28.081 ms

2 128.148.130.101 (128.148.130.101) 28.763 ms 29.391 ms 29.576 ms

3 host-198-7-224-37.oshean.org (198.7.224.37) 30.310 ms 28.482 ms 29.826 ms

4 gi1-1.ccr01.pvd01.atlas.cogentco.com (38.103.240.1) 104.801 ms 163.031 ms 51.120 ms

5 te4-1.ccr01.hpn04.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.2.1) 34.051 ms 35.264 ms 36.182 ms

6 te1-4.ccr04.jfk02.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.24.241) 39.889 ms 33.393 ms 35.881 ms

7 te8-4.ccr02.jfk05.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.26.66) 35.267 ms 34.542 ms

te7-4.ccr02.jfk05.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.3.70) 39.384 ms

8 core1-0-0-8.lga.net.google.com (198.32.118.39) 35.620 ms 35.051 ms 35.430 ms

9 209.85.248.180 (209.85.248.180) 36.257 ms 36.805 ms 36.802 ms

10 * * *

11 lga15s03-in-f104.1e100.net (66.249.80.104) 36.807 ms 37.008 ms 33.988 ms


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www.facebook.com or 69.63.181.16


traceroute to www.facebook.com (69.63.181.11), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets

1 wireless_broadband_router (192.168.1.1) 1.090 ms 0.594 ms 0.557 ms

2 l100.prvdri-vfttp-13.verizon-gni.net (96.238.59.1) 7.490 ms 5.252 ms 4.188 ms

3 g4-0-113.prvdri-lcr-01.verizon-gni.net (130.81.133.152) 7.604 ms 4.094 ms 4.300 ms

4 so-3-3-0-0.ny5030-bb-rtr1.verizon-gni.net (130.81.29.28) 8.789 ms 12.537 ms 8.785 ms

5 0.so-3-1-0.xt1.nyc8.alter.net (152.63.10.33) 12.859 ms 17.135 ms 12.545 ms

6 0.so-6-3-0.xl3.nyc4.alter.net (152.63.0.69) 13.041 ms 15.319 ms 14.386 ms

7 0.xe-4-2-0.br2.nyc4.alter.net (152.63.3.110) 14.358 ms

0.xe-7-0-0.br2.nyc4.alter.net (152.63.3.166) 54.124 ms

0.xe-3-2-0.br2.nyc4.alter.net (152.63.3.126) 14.687 ms

8 204.255.173.54 (204.255.173.54) 63.313 ms

xe-10-2-0.edge2.newyork2.level3.net (4.68.110.233) 14.549 ms

4.68.110.105 (4.68.110.105) 18.045 ms

9 vlan52.ebr2.newyork2.level3.net (4.69.138.254) 13.676 ms 13.934 ms 13.245 ms

10 ae-6-6.ebr4.newyork1.level3.net (4.69.141.21) 22.111 ms 18.372 ms 15.633 ms

11 ae-2.ebr4.sanjose1.level3.net (4.69.135.185) 94.498 ms 89.243 ms 88.676 ms

12 ae-94-94.csw4.sanjose1.level3.net (4.69.134.254) 89.946 ms 88.915 ms 90.274 ms

13 ae-44-99.car4.sanjose1.level3.net (4.68.18.198) 85.021 ms 83.950 ms 84.442 ms

14 facebook-in.car4.sanjose1.level3.net (4.71.114.122) 93.897 ms 97.897 ms 93.163 ms

15 ae1.bb01.sjc1.tfbnw.net (74.119.76.23) 94.645 ms 113.038 ms 94.764 ms

16 ae4.br02.snc1.tfbnw.net (74.119.76.26) 98.453 ms

ae4.br01.snc1.tfbnw.net (74.119.76.24) 109.211 ms 94.579 ms

17 eth-18-17.csw01a.snc2.tfbnw.net (204.15.23.195) 93.574 ms

eth-18-1.csw01b.snc2.tfbnw.net (204.15.21.125) 96.858 ms

eth-17-1.csw01a.snc2.tfbnw.net (204.15.22.1) 93.591 ms

18 www-10-01-snc2.facebook.com (69.63.181.11) 96.412 ms 97.402 ms 94.970 ms


VPN


traceroute to www.facebook.com (69.63.181.15), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets

1 128.148.9.65 (128.148.9.65) 29.297 ms 28.273 ms 28.574 ms

2 128.148.130.101 (128.148.130.101) 33.518 ms 29.711 ms 28.092 ms

3 host-198-7-224-37.oshean.org (198.7.224.37) 29.610 ms 29.718 ms 29.746 ms

4 207.210.142.245 (207.210.142.245) 29.454 ms 30.984 ms 29.272 ms

5 207.210.142.2 (207.210.142.2) 36.000 ms 36.271 ms 35.497 ms

6 xe-1-1-0.br01.lga1.tfbnw.net (198.32.118.27) 38.321 ms 40.673 ms 34.129 ms

7 xe-2-2-0.br01.ord1.tfbnw.net (204.15.22.66) 58.439 ms 60.378 ms 59.375 ms

8 xe-0-1-0.br02.pao1.tfbnw.net (204.15.20.50) 113.707 ms 111.384 ms 114.601 ms

9 xe-9-1-0.br02.snc1.tfbnw.net (204.15.21.98) 143.218 ms 112.253 ms

xe-9-1-0.br01.snc1.tfbnw.net (204.15.21.94) 114.319 ms

10 eth-17-17.csw01a.snc2.tfbnw.net (204.15.23.239) 115.737 ms

204.15.21.75 (204.15.21.75) 112.227 ms

eth-17-1.csw01a.snc2.tfbnw.net (204.15.22.1) 113.652 ms

11 www-12-01-snc2.facebook.com (69.63.181.15) 112.227 ms 112.370 ms 114.937 ms


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ATT and the NSA


traceroute to www.nsa.gov.att-idns.net (12.120.172.8), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets

1 128.148.9.65 (128.148.9.65) 30.705 ms 27.970 ms 29.651 ms

2 128.148.130.101 (128.148.130.101) 29.502 ms 29.485 ms 28.900 ms

3 host-198-7-224-37.oshean.org (198.7.224.37) 30.031 ms 32.054 ms 28.283 ms

4 gi1-1.ccr01.pvd01.atlas.cogentco.com (38.103.240.1) 29.900 ms 29.242 ms 29.516 ms

5 te4-1.ccr01.hpn04.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.2.1) 34.285 ms 33.631 ms 32.326 ms

6 te1-4.ccr04.jfk02.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.24.241) 34.276 ms 35.266 ms 36.238 ms

7 te2-2.ccr01.jfk07.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.1.218) 34.799 ms 35.461 ms 35.233 ms

8 192.205.36.77 (192.205.36.77) 35.585 ms 35.002 ms 40.018 ms

9 cr2.n54ny.ip.att.net (12.122.81.70) 35.778 ms 36.607 ms

cr1.n54ny.ip.att.net (12.122.81.58) 35.671 ms

10 gar8.n54ny.ip.att.net (12.122.130.1) 35.222 ms

gar8.n54ny.ip.att.net (12.122.131.1) 36.769 ms 38.183 ms

11 * * *

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31 * * *



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Guest Lecture - Csikszentmihalyi

We aim to bring the 'unit' of product away from the level where it has been stuck, at the level of the individual where a human or citizen is turned into a consumer, and to the level of society (Csikszentmihalyi).

- I may have misinterpreted this idea, but I felt something missing from this was the individualism of production (corporations are regarded as persons at least in the United States). A company controls a product, dictates how it should be used, and how it is produced, marketed, and distributed. To me it seems as though that 'unit' of the product is not stuck, but the actual tools, means, or barriers to production instead. The "human or citizen" is always a consumer, purchasing goods and services for personal use. Society is the aggregate of these citizens functioning in some sort of order. For reason of scarcity, of land or whatever else as imagined or real, we've left an order in which we produce all or most of what we consume. This has in most all cases been beneficial to the whole of society. Information and knowledge production however is what is truly stuck. When the printing press was popularized we started as citizens producing and distributing information to each other. This led the reformation and wide dissemination of knowledge. The power to produce text has been increasingly centralized into a few individuals/corporations today as it is much easier for them to maintain a hold on audiences.

Rewriting text books, systematically remove things that didn’t work, add in things that are hopeful. Gives sense of unilinear history. Science and engineering are de-historicized in their self-representation, but the knowledge is actually not ahistorical (Csikszentmihalyi).

- Brought to mind the structure of Wikipedia and the internet in general. I could cite an article in a paper today from an online source that might not exist tomorrow. Does the information still exist. Is that relevant? Wikipedia articles are always subject to renegotiation, but a history of edits to an article is always kept. Is this a move toward the type of self-representation of science and engineering he is calling for?

Anonymous said...

Wald

Parallels between Global Health and Global Security.

"Microbial indifference to boundaries is a refrain in both scientific and popular writing about emerging infections… 'emerging viruses know no country. There are no barriers to prevent their migration across international boundaries or around the 24 hour time zones.' Emerging infections offer proof that the industrialized and technologized North cannot afford--economically, socially, politically, and medically---not to think about health globally" (33-34).

The connected world in which we live is being confronted with the threat, real or perceived, of global terrorism. This emerging infection has forced debate on issues of national and global security. Nations of the industrialized North cannot afford not to think about national security on the global scale. The attacks of September 11th have taught us that "'there is nowhere in the world from which we are remote and no one from whom we are disconnected'" (34). Like emerging infections, the traffic of terror appears as one way. This terror epidemic is both primordial and emerging in that acts of terror are endemic to impoverished areas but have emerged in their potential to affect the metropolitan North. This narrative has been used to justify war abroad and violation of civil liberties at home and stigmatize the populations of afghanistan and the middle east in general. It seems this narrative is exchanging violence in both directions. Islamic terrorism is directed against the western sphere of influence and its pervasive spread into their societies. The west responds by invading Afghanistan and Iraq as a way to avoid a pandemic of terrorism within the middle east threatening global security. This remedy is also a poison, a pharmakon reifying the very tenants of the islamic fundamentalist struggle it seeks to eradicate. Can a better engagement with both of these narrative lead to a better understanding of the intricacies of these conflicts and better approaches at providing security of nations?

Anonymous said...

Countries that are party to the WTO must follow all agreements including but not limited to those on intellectual property within the TRIPS agreement. A move was made towards reinterpreting a clause of the agreement which states that it cannot interfere with the health of a countries population. South Africa, passed a law that allowed them to manufacture generic versions of AIDs drugs. In response PhMRA closes subsidiaries and South Africa is made to look as if it is on the verge of collapse through scare-ads. US policy first sided with the pharmaceutical industry but through social mobilization and the election cycle led the Clinton administration to change its stance. This narrative traveled to Brazil, in a changed form, where the TRIPS agreement was modified in order to allow countries to force compulsory licenses when medications cost too much. The pharmaceutical industry, realizing Brazil is a large market which they would not like to lose, complies and still makes money off of the deal, money they otherwise would not have made because no one could afford the drugs there. Brazil is allowed to create generic versions of the drug but only for their domestic population. Brazil is in a unique situation in that it has the capacity to produce medications but this does nothing for the majority of the developing world. This seems like a case in which friction had made considerable change and illustrated the possibility of future change. However, this narrative was incorporated into the legal structures and capitalism as an all-encompassing unbeatable globalizing machine, while overcome momentarily in South Africa, has not really been overcome, but only had the property rights renegotiated.