Assange, corporate conspiracies, and Wikileaks ultimate contradictions

Monday, October 24th, 2011. While facing a crowd of journalists and activists gathered at London’s Frontline Club for a momentous Wikileaks press conference, Julian Assange looks nervous. Today he has to deal with the inner contradictions of his political project. No, I’m not talking about the legal consequences of his extradition case. Nor about the ongoing fratricidal struggle with his former associate Daniel Domscheit-Berg. Nor about the very polarized reactions to the whole Cablegate undertaking by the global audiences. I’m talking about this…

Yes, Julian Assange has many reasons to be nervous. After the financial blockade, the leak has been reduced to a tickle. « A handful of US finance companies have successfully blocked 95% of worldwide support for WikiLeaks ». Is there, as he implies, a conspiracy against Wikileaks? That would be ironic, as the very implementation of Wikileaks was supposed to single-handedly put an end to conspiracies (according to this seminal 2006 paper, penned by Assange himself). Well, not about as ironic as this: apparently the only way for Wikileaks to counter Bank of America and Paypal is to become as profitable as they are. Open up to « more wealthy donors ». Provide the general public with projections about donations (and, supposedly, tax deductibility). What’s next? Selling shares to new investors via an IPO? Read more

octobre 24, 2011 | Filed Under unclassified | 2 Comments

Steve Jobs et Max Weber : une histoire de charisme et de rétroliens

Le toujours attentif Moses Boudourides (@mosabou) signale sur Twitter ce texte fort intéressant de Kieran Healy (Duke University) qui propose une petite « Sociologie de Steve Jobs ».

Publié le 10 octobre 2011, le billet illustre la trajectoire du fondateur d’Apple au jour de la notion weberienne de « routinisation du charisme ». L’analyse n’est pas dépourvue de finesse et développe – hélas sans le citer et sans faire de rétrolien – un autre billet paru le 7 octobre sur Sociological Images, signé par Nathan Palmer (Georgia Southern University).

Plus concis, le texte de Palmer articule la notion de charisme avec celle de « culte » du créateur de l’iPad. Il renvoie au site Web d’aficionados d’Apple, Cult of Mac. Justement, c’était sur ce même site que la notion de « routinisation du charisme » avait été introduite pour parler de Steve Jobs dans un article de Leander Kahney (auteur de Inside Steve’s Brain, 2009), datant du 23 décembre 2008 ! Mais dans le texte de Palmer, à nouveau, pas de citation, pas de rétrolien à la page exacte…

octobre 11, 2011 | Filed Under social capital | Leave a Comment

Online censorship in Berluscoland: even Wikipedia goes on strike!

You can tell that in a nation the cultural and political situation has reached a height of obscurantism when even encyclopedias go on strike. That’s right, encyclopedias… the pure product of Enlightenment, over the centuries the reference for theorists of modern democratic thought, go on strike in that xenophobic kleptocracy that goes under the name of Italian Republic. This is the press release just published on the Italian Wikipedia. Be scared. Be very scared.

Dear reader,
at this time, the Italian language Wikipedia may be no longer able to continue providing the service that over the years was useful to you, and that you expected to have right now. As things stand, the page you want still exists and is only hidden, but the risk is that soon we will be forced to actually delete it.

The Bill – Rules on Wiretapping etc., p. 24, letter a) states that:

«For the Internet sites, including newspapers and periodicals delivered by telematic way, the statements or corrections are published, with the same graphic characteristics, the same access methodology to the site and the same visibility of the news which they refer.»

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