First Monday January 2006

Dear Reader,

The January 2006 issue of First Monday (volume 11, number 1) is now
available at http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_1/

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Table of Contents

Volume 11, Number 1 - January 2nd 2006

Cultural diversity in cyberspace: The Catalan campaign to win the new .cat
top level domain
by Peter Gerrand
http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_1/gerrand/

Abstract:
In September 2005 ICANN approved the first top–level Internet domain to be
dedicated to a particular human language and culture: '.cat'. This paper
describes the history of the Catalan campaign to win the '.cat' domain
against political opposition from the former conservative Spanish
government and the reluctance of some decision–makers within ICANN
circles. While '.cat' creates a precedent for greater use on the Internet
of 'minority languages', there are significant hurdles for other
candidates for language–based top–level domains. The paper discusses the
concomitant factors needed to support the greater use of any minority
language on the Internet.

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The legal and practical implications of recent attacks on 128–bit
cryptographic hash functions
by Praveen Gauravaram, Adrian McCullagh and Ed Dawson
http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_1/gauravaram/

Abstract:
This paper discusses the legal and practical implications of attacks,
presented at Crypto '2004, against various 128-bit hash functions and in
particular MD5 due to its wide usage. These attacks are significant
because a number of important applications depend on MD5. It is argued in
this paper that the MD-x style of hash function designs for various
applications can be a single point of failure. New hash function design
schemes with some strict security properties should be developed in order
to avoid new attacks in the future.

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The filtering matrix: Integrated mechanisms of information control and the
demarcation of borders in cyberspace
by Nart Villeneuve
http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_1/villeneuve/

Abstract:
Increasingly, states are adopting practices aimed at regulating and
controlling the Internet as it passes through their borders. Seeking to
assert information sovereignty over their cyber–territory, governments are
implementing Internet content filtering technology at the national level.
The implementation of national filtering is most often conducted in
secrecy and lacks openness, transparency, and accountability.
Policy–makers are seemingly unaware of significant unintended
consequences, such as the blocking of content that was never intended to
be blocked. Once a national filtering system is in place, governments may
be tempted to use it as a tool of political censorship or as a
technological "quick fix" to problems that stem from larger social and
political issues. As non–transparent filtering practices meld into forms
of censorship the effect on democratic practices and the open character of
the Internet are discernible. States are increasingly using Internet
filtering to control the environment of political speech in fundamental
opposition to civil liberties, freedom of speech, and free expression. The
consequences of political filtering directly impact democratic practices
and can be considered a violation of human rights.

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Evolutionary information seeking: A case study of personal development and
Internet searching
by  Jarkko Kari
http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_1/kari/

Abstract:
This article explores one question: what does Internet searching have to
do with personal development? Personal development means that individuals
improve their own abilities, skills, knowledge or other qualities by
working on them. The paper reports on a qualitative case study, in which a
single participant was interviewed and her Web searches observed.
Information search strategies seemed to form a spectrum of developmental
sophistication. Four major types of relationship were found: a) the
Internet in the context of development; b) development in the context of
the Internet; c) development affecting Internet use; and, d) Internet use
affecting development. There were some informational phenomena which
exhibited regression, the converse of development.

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Tight prior open source equilibrium: The rise of open source as a source
of economic welfare
by Matthias Barwolff
http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_1/barwolff/

Abstract:
Open source has become a viable mode of production and resource allocation
not only for intrinsicly motivated communities but for commercial firms as
well. This may be due primarily to the fact that open source ultimately
produces greater value on both the use and production sides. Open source
thus acts as an institution that affects the structure of the software
industry much more efficiently than politics and law. It also provides an
economic perspective that may help refine the standard notion of the firm
since it emphasises the link between firm and market, not the frontiers
that separate the two.

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First Monday Editorial Group

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FM10 Openness: Code, science and content
Making collaborative creativity sustainable

First Monday's tenth anniversary conference, 15-17 May 2006
at the University of Illinois at Chicago

Recent years have seen a strong interest among academics, policy makers,
activists, business and other practitioners on open collaboration and
access as a driver of creativity. In some areas, such as free software /
open source, sustainable business models have emerged that are holding
their own against more traditional, proprietary software industries. In
the sciences, the notions of open science and open data demonstrate the
strong tradition of openness in the academic community that, despite its
past successes, is increasingly under threat. And open access journals and
other open content provide inspiring examples of collaborative creativity
and participatory access, such as Wikipedia, while still in search of
models to ensure sustainability.

There are clear links between these areas of openness: open content often
looks explicitly towards open source software for business models, and
open science provides through its history a glimpse of the potential of
openness, how it can work, as well as a warning of the threats it may
face. Finally, open collaboration is closely linked to access to knowledge
issues, enabling active participation rather than passive consumption
especially in developing countries.

Despite these clear links, there has been surprisingly little thoughtful
analysis of this convergence, or of the real value of the common aspect of
open collaboration. In particular, while open source software — due to its
strong impact on business and on bridging the digital divide — has drawn
much attention, it may provide false hopes for the sustainability of
openness in other areas of content that need careful examination. The
conference - FM10 Openness: Code, science and content: Making
collaborative creativity sustainable - provides a platform for such
analysis and discussion, resulting in concrete proposals for sustainable
models for open collaboration in creative domains.

The conference will draw on the experience of First Monday as the foremost
online, peer–reviewed academic journal covering these issues since May
1996. Not only has First Monday published numerous papers by leading
scholars on the topics of open collaboration, open access, and open
content in its various forms, it is itself an example of open
collaboration in practice: for nearly a decade, the journal has been
published on a purely voluntary basis, with no subscription fees,
advertising, sponsorship or other revenues. The success of First Monday is
demonstrated by thousands of readers around the world, downloading
hundreds of thousands of papers each month. This conference celebrates
First Monday’s tenth anniversary. The first issue of First Monday appeared
on the first Monday of May 1996 at the International World Wide Web
Conference in Paris. Altogether, 658 papers have been published in 115
issues, written by 783 different authors from around the world.

The conference is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation (http://www.macfound.org/), the Open Society Institute
(http://www.soros.org/), and the University of Illinois at Chicago
(http://www.uic.edu/).

Watch First Monday's Web site for further details on registration and the
conference program.