Digital Culture Coordinator, Jose Murilo, delegate from the Ministry of Culture of Brazil to the Free Culture Forum in Barcelona, introduces the strategy being implemented in Brazil for creating the new law on intellectual property.
“Free software is a possibility that those kids will reinvent things that need to be reinvented.”
Lula da Silva – Speech at 10.FISL, POA, Jun/2009
Digital culture is a new, emergent term. It has been used in different forms by different sectors, and incorporates different perspectives about the impact of digital technology and networking in society. The Ministry of Culture see, as it’s role, the convening of a collective reflection on these broader perspectives, encouraging the participation of all stakeholders in an innovative process of collaborative construction of public policies for the digital sector.
The cheapening of the personal computer and cellular phone, combined with the rapid development of applications using free software and free services on the network, has promoted a radical democratization of access to new means of production and access to knowledge. The digitization of culture, combined with the global race to connect everything to everyone all the time, turns open networks at this moment in history into something too big, which now requires specific consideration.
A recent debate in the blogosphere about an article in Wired Magazine – “The New Socialism,” by Kevin Kelly – raised the issue of lack of appropriate terms to communicate the ongoing phenomena within the networks. Re-framing the term ’socialism’ to refer to the innovative arrangements for sharing and collaboration typical of a collective connected by the Internet has generated controversy and has been challenged strongly by Lawrence Lessig, the American lawyer known for his activism in the debate over the revision of copyright laws.
Lessig argues that we are facing something entirely new, and that it is not appropriate to reuse terms loaded with former meanings to describe the current situation. His concern seems to be related to the typical American notion that establishes an inverse relationship between individual autonomy and state power — a notion that is also the essence of th classic contest between right and left. However, as Kelly argues, the so called ‘digital socialism’ (’stateless socialism’?!) seems to host both classical libertarians who hate government in general, and the global political movements that are critical of excessive market logic.
Finally, there is a real lack of conceptual characterization for the phenomena encountered in digital culture. Yochai Benkler, reflecting creatively about the possibility of a political theory of the network, sees the emergence of social networks and peer production of an alternative to both the proprietary systems fundamental to the logic of the state and to the market. An innovative new cultural ‘operating system’ would be able to foster both creativity, productivity and freedom, while also satisfying the demands of both individuals and collectives. Benkler speaks of a ‘participatory culture’.
With the arrival of ubiquitous, instant and inexpensive collaboration tools, it is possible to promote opportunities for debate and a collective model where public decentralized coordination can create innovative solutions to the issues presented by the 21st century. The implementation of this technology in the digital network environment, coupled with the concept of ‘participatory culture’ of Benkler, creates the possibility of bridging policies that once seemed mutually exclusive, inviting open discussion by opposing interest groups that have specialized in fighting in the trenches.
The Forum for Brazilian Digital Culture
In order to better understand the various parts that make up the mosaic of digital culture, to facilitate the public participation of those concerned with monitoring, and to assist the construction of public policies and regulatory frameworks that will format the sector, the Ministry of Culture is launching the Forum for Brazilian Digital Culture.
The process begins with the launch of the social network ‘culturadigital.br’, and the invitation of experts and networks of cultural activists to register and profile their digital identities and references (their blog, twitter, delicious, youtube, etc…) into the Forum. The environment was built to aggregate people and their socialstreams linked by the tag #culturadigitalbr, thus organizing and documenting their participation in the debate. Live presentational and virtual online events during the second half of 2009 will propel the discussion into the proposed five guiding themes: memory, communication, art, infrastructure and economy.
We have made several interviews with specialists, agency ministers, people from academia and artists, which turned into a book: culturadigital.br. The goal was to collect and provide initial inputs to warm up the debate, which will be consolidated at an international seminar to be held in November. Notably, the process of ‘Brazilian Digital Culture Forum’ will happen in parallel with major debates on regulatory frameworks and public policies that directly affect the landscape of digital culture.
The new draft copyright law which will be presented by the Ministry of Culture for public consultation and the cyber-crime law (Law azeredo) — to be voted on in the House — deals with structural issues for the governance of the digital environment. The national conferences of Culture and Communication coincidentally will also be going on, which makes the second semester of 2009 a special time for proposing, contemplating and debating visions of the future we want for the country.
The coordination of the ‘Brazilian Digital Culture Forum’ now is making available the ‘culturadigital.br’ network environment for all who wish to organize and document free conferences and/or other specific events related to these processes. We believe that the time is right to be motivated toward new ways to develop consensus and build proposals. MINC seeks to introduce into the prospect of digital culture the innovative elements that facilitate and promote greater engagement and more effective participation of interested citizens.
The most creative people are never all together in a single company or government or organization, or country. To open the processes of constructing public policies in the network, and facilitating the collaboration of stakeholders, is almost obvious as an initiative appropriate and necessary at the dawn of this century. Promoting innovation in processes and creating tools for distributed governance can refine democracy and transform society.
This article is foreword to the book ‘CulturaDigital.BR’,
an edition that is part of the process of the
Brazilian Digital Culture Forum
#culturadigitalbr
I’ve been away from this blog, and from about everything else, because of the huge effort to put up the ‘Brazilian Digital Culture Forum’ — culturadigital.br. I will come back later to better explain what’s going on, but for now I will reblog a nice description of what we are doing by Gilberto Jr., a Brazilian blogger who was able to follow the many steps of the Forum’s process until now. [See also the Global Voices report]
The proposition of the Brazilian Digital Culture Forum: open and participatory
The Brazilian Digital Culture Forum has a social network for collaborative production of public policy for contemporary Brazil. This is a web platform that supports a broad spectrum of cultural programs based on the ideas and initiative generated by citizens, which includes face-to-face events and is expected to wrap up in November.
The Brazilian Digital Culture Forum was launched by the Minister of Culture in partnership with the National Network of Education and Research. The object of the Forum is, through these events, to encourage debate about digital culture with activists, business representatives, government institutions and non-governmental organizations. It’s in this context that the social network can work to both accelerate discussion and unify ideas.
Cory Doctorow, our ‘renegade information plumber’, is launching his first collection of essays on ‘everything form copyright and DRM to the layout of phone-keypads, the fallacy of the semantic web, the nature of futurism, the necessity of privacy in a digital world, the reason to love Wikipedia, the miracle of fanfic, and many other subjects’.
As expected from Cory, the new book (Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity, Copyright, and the Future of the Future) digital versions are available, without charge, at the same time that the print versions are published. He is innovating on reward models, so if you want to donate something you can do so by buying a copy for a librarian or teacher — and teachers and librarians can request a copy for their institution.
The book was designed by typography legend John D Berry, and presents a fine introduction from our good friend John Perry Barlow (photo), which I found provocative enough for me to publish it here.
John Perry Barlow
San Francisco — Seattle — Vancouver — San Francisco
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Perhaps these words appear to you on the pages of a book, a physical object that might be said to have “contained” the thoughts of my friend and co-conspirator Cory Doctorow as they were transported in boxes and trucks all the way from his marvelous mind into yours. If that is so, I will concede that you might be encountering “content.” (Actually, if that’s the case, I’m delighted on Cory’s behalf, since that means that you have also paid him for these thoughts. We still know how to pay creators directly for the works they embed in stuff.)
But the chances are excellent that you’re reading these liquid words as bit-states of light on a computer screen, having taken advantage of his willingness to let you have them in that form for free. In such an instance, what “contains” them? Your hard disk? His? The Internet and all the servers and routers in whose caches the ghosts of their passage might still remain? Your mind? Cory’s?
Gilberto Gil has left the Brazilian Ministry of Culture. He says that music has called him back.
A quick look at reactions surfacing this week in the headlines of the Brazilian mainstream media tell of a singer-minister who did a passable job in using his social capital to boost the ministry’s actions into international channels. Gil’s assignment was almost passed off as just one more of Lula’s ‘populist tricks’ to hold qualified support for himself.
The seemingly condescending tone of Brazilian media comments and analyses about Gil’s performance as a minister are definitely not a surprise. During his term, the mainstream outlets basically ignored or ridiculed some major international coverage such as 2004 Wired magazine article, telling about Gil’s ahead-of-the-curve awareness of the importance of openness among the principles of the digital revolution.
He was ridiculed, indeed, when during an inauguration class at the University of Sao Paulo (USP) in August 2004 he declared:
“I, Gilberto Gil, Brazilian citizen, world citizen and Minister of Culture of Brazil, develop my work in music, in the ministry and in all the dimensions of my existence under the inspiration of hacker ethics; I am concerned about the issues that my world and my time pose to me, such as the issue of the digital divide, of free software and also the issue of regulation and development of audiovisual content production and distribution, by any media, for any purpose”.
“Elite Squad”, a much-hyped film about Rio’s special forces police is having its official launch today in Rio and São Paulo, and the nationwide premiere is scheduled for Oct. 12. The peculiar thing about this release is that an estimated crowd of 3.5 million people have already seen it before its debut. The [unauthorized] copy of the film can be viewed or downloaded from many different places on the web, and the speculation is that more than a million copies of the DVD have been sold on Brazilian streets across the past few weeks.
Praised as a “City of God 2″, but presenting a narrative based on a policeman’s perspective, the film is provoking heated debates across the country about the causes of violence in big cities. There are interesting discussions also on the morality of the widespread use of an unauthorized copy leaked to the web of an unreleased film. Surely, this case has made Brazilians go deeper into the actual meanings of piracy in the digital era, and it can turn out to be a defining moment for the audiovisual industry. Bloggers are all around it.
I was invited to represent the Brazilian Ministry of Culture in the conference panel “Making the Local Global: Virtual Worlds, Migration, and Linguistic Diaspora” of an event called ‘Interdependence Day‘ in Mexico City. I’ve met a fine man called Joshua Fouts (Director, USC Center on Public Diplomacy) at the iSummit in Rio last year, and he was really excited about connecting the work we do at the cultural hotspots with virtual worlds. We’ve been exchanging messages since then, but I kept telling him that Second Life’s platform needed some developments in order to be included in our program. Still, they wanted to hear about what we’ve been doing in Brazil in terms of using technology to outreach and enhance cultural bridges.
I managed to make a video containing a message from Minister Gilberto Gil on the panel’s theme, and prepared myself to go to Mexico. But then, I was given the wrong information about the need for a Brazilian to have a visa in order to visit Mexico, and so I was stopped in São Paulo and was not permitted to fly to Mexico City. The solution at hand was to participate in the panel through Second Life, and it worked out pretty well as you can see below.
Prokofy Neva comments on the panel - Podcast by Metaversed [7:39m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadThe Ashaninkas are the largest indigenous group in the Peruvian Amazon and differently from the majority of the South American original dwellers, their cultural identity is greatly preserved. Apart from being among the native nations of the continent connected with the traditional use of Ayahuasca, the Ashaninkas are specially known for their use of beautiful cotton robes, or cushmas, which are woven by the Ashaninka women for the men of their tribe. Cushmas are an Ashaninka’s most prized possession and there is a very long tradition of giving and exchanging cushmas and cloth with nyomparis (or trading partners) which linked distant Ashaninka villages into cycles of meetings, collaboration and resource sharing.
Accounts from the beginning of the last century tells about some Ashaninka groups that escaped from the Peruvian “caucheiros” [rubber tappers], and today a few hundred of them live on the Brazilian side of the border. There are stories about the braveness of the skilled warriors who expulsed the wild Amahuakas from the area around the Amonia River in the Upper Juruá. These few groups achieved the ownership of their land in the 90s, after many decades of struggle against the successive waves of colonization, and nowadays they strive to engage in activities that can help them to communicate with the world, and better defend their land and their culture from their current enemies.
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There is no clear consensus about the specific reasons that occasionally boost Brazil to the cutting edge of the open source revolution. For us here in the field, facing so many difficulties, ranging from simple misunderstandings to big resource constraints, the international acclaim sounds a bit exaggerated, and at times misinformed. Ever since the remarkable 2004 Wired magazine article — We Pledge Allegiance to the Penguin — started the world buzz, and until quite recently, the Brazilian media was not following what was really going on. Partly because of innocent ignorance and partly because of economic and political reasons the full story was not being delivered to the mass TV audience. But now that some fruits of the first generation of “seed” ideas are starting to ripen into visibility to bigger audiences, and as principles of the ‘open’ protocol start to be tested in other sectors more and more commentators are joining in the conversation focusing on specific areas that catch their attention.
No brilhante texto de Dibbell (leia na íntegra), o ministro da Cultura, Gilberto Gil, já atacava “os fundamentalistas do controle absoluto sobre a propriedade” e o seu iminente fracasso. “Um mundo aberto pelas comunicações não pode se manter fechado em uma visão feudal de propriedade”, diz. “Nenhum país, nem os Estados Unidos, ou a Europa, pode ficar no caminho. É uma tendência global. É parte do próprio processo de civilização. É a abundância semântica do mundo moderno, do mundo pós-moderno – e não há por que resistir a isso”. Com esse pensamento compartilhado por uma parte do governo Lula e com o Fórum Internacional de Software Livre (fisl) realizado em abril pela oitava vez em Porto Alegre, o Brasil continua como um dos maiores inimigos da propriedade intelectual como a conhecemos hoje na indústria do conhecimento capitalista, como já vem sendo noticiado pelo mundo todo.
Brasil perpetua-se como inimigo número um da propriedade intelectual, por Carlos Gustavo Yoda – Blog do Turquinho
Varjão do Torto is a low income settlement area on the outskirts of Brasília, Brazil’s political capital. It neighbors the land where my community is located, and it is full of young people eager to make things happen. This is where I am collaborating in a workshop for the local ‘Ponto de Cultura’ (Cultural Hotspot), a government program sponsored by the Ministry of Culture:
“The cultural hotspot, a program with a budget of R$ 37 millions (£ 9.2 millions), is about democratization, permitting ideas of different places, from rich to poor cities, be exchanged. “The main goal is to plant seeds” says Claudio. A hotspot is established with a broadband connection, infrastructure made with recycled equipments and, most of all, technical workshops of open-source software, allowing anyone to digitalize their creativity. The workshops aim to create independency, leaving on the hands of each community the ownership of their individual process, decentralizing the system. Technology has always been a tool for social inclusion, but here the main objective is not only to make possible the incorporation of labor to the market, but to give people voice, power over their expression, to give them citizenship.”
Cultural Hotspots – Brazilian open-source and copyleft – Mazine.ws
