Last night, during the ‘blizzard,’ I went to the Japan Society to see the first play featuring an android actor. The Seinendan Theater Company and Osaka University Robot Theater Project are currently touring with two one act plays: “Sayonara” and “I, Worker.” Both written and directed by Oriza Hirata expressly for the android and robots featured in the plays.

In discussing robots and androids, we often encounter discussions about the “uncanny” and drawing from Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori’s work a more specific version, the “Uncanny Valley.” In watching Sayonara, I didn’t have an experience of the uncanny, the android was very life-like, but not too much so. Not enough to be uncanny, nor enough to pass for human. However as I was sitting in the front row, I did experience a creepy sense of the uncanny when Dr. Hiroshi Ishiguro came out and sat in front of me for a question and answer session.

I had seen him before, but not as a human. I had seen the android he had built based on himself. Seeing his human-self sitting there in front of me I was driven to examine him carefully and look for signs of humanity. I watched him more carefully and examined his every move with more skepticism than I had his android creation, Geminoid F, who had performed in the play. You can see video of Dr. Ishiguro and his android-self here.

The theater tour continues to Philadelphia, Burlington, Toronto, and Pittsburgh. More information at Japan Society here.

As of this post, both Amazon Prime and Netflix have all of these episodes available for viewing, and if you haven’t seen one, the episode title links will take you to the Wikipedia page, so watch out for spoilers.

I’ve arranged these in order of my favorites, and there are quite a few more I’ve left out. Have I missed any of your favorites? Let me know in the comments!

1. Masks

Subfields: Cultural/Social, Archaeology, Linguistics

Encountering a mysterious object in space, the crew attempt to decode the ritual symbolism and mythology of an ancient, advanced civilization. (Season 7, Episode 17) Note: I find it interesting that they don’t use the word “religion” once in the episode, and that the heavy use of ritual and myth in the culture isn’t seen as holding them back, contrast with disparaging comments about “superstition” in Who Watches the Watchers (see below), Devil’s Due, and other episodes.

2. Journey’s End

Subfields: Cultural/Social

Picard and Wesley become personally involved in the forced re-location of a Native American community who have settled on a disputed planet. (Season 7, Episode 20) Note: Although this episode could be accused of stereotyping Indigenous Americans, it’s worth remembering that this is hundreds of years in the future, on another planet. The Klingon Kachina dolls in the Kiva are an amazing and hilarious touch.

3. Contagion

Subfields: Linguistics, Archaeology

Picard investigates what might be the home-world of an ancient and lost civilization. (Season 2, Episode 11) Note: The Iconian civilization makes an appearance later in Deep Space 9.

4. The Chase

Subfields: Biological/Genetic/Physical, Archaeology

The crew try to solve a genetic mystery uncovered by Picard’s former Archaeology professor. (Season 6, Episode 20) Note: I love this episode, but it’s strange how it’s never referenced again. The theme takes an interesting twist in the Voyager episode about a Saurian species Distant Origin.

5. Who Watches the Watchers

Subfields: Cultural/Social

The crew deal with the after-math of a pre-warp civilization discovering a hidden duck blind where Federation anthropologists have been secretly observing them. (Season 3, Episode 4) Note: The title is a great question for anthropologists to ask ourselves. As mentioned above, there’s a bit of disparaging talk about superstition.

6. The Gambit Parts I & II

Subfields: Archaeology

The crew investigate Picard’s disappearance during Archaeological fieldwork. In part two, the mystery revolves around an ancient artifact. (Season 7, Episodes 4 & 5) Note: Another fun episode along these lines is Captain’s Holiday.

7. Loud as a Whisper

Subfields: Linguistics, Cultural/Social

A deaf mediator uses telepathic communication to speak through assistants, and must find a way to continue negotiations even after losing them. (Season 2, Episode 5)

8. Darmok

Subfields: Linguistics

To survive, Picard must learn a language based entirely on metaphor. (Season 5, Episode 2) Note: This is one of the most popular STTNG episodes, but not a favorite of mine. The “we’re trapped together down on a planet and need to battle and/or learn to communicate/cooperate” storyline feels overdone to me, from the original series, to Geordi and the Romulan, to Enemy Mine. The metaphorical language is a fascinating twist however.

9. Homeward

Subfields: Social/Cultural

Whorf’s brother, a Federation anthropologist, takes an activist position to help his research subjects. (Season 7, Episode 13) Note: A heavy prime-directive episode – the IRB would not approve.

10. Genesis

Subfields: Biological/Genetic/Physical

The crew “de-evolves.” (Season 7, Episode 19) Note: Biological anthropologists probably hate this one, actually – but, you’ve got to watch it just to see what the crew turn into…

-

(All images are screencaptures from Trek Core, an incredible resource for fans or those studying Star Trek. Check them out, and support them with a donation here.)

We have set out to raise awareness towards the changes made in today's education, how new laws imposed by politicians affect us, our economy and overall, our way of life. How far we have ventured from learning valuable skills that would normally help us be prepared in life, to just, simply memorizing large chunks of text in exchange for good grades. How our very own traditions are heard less and less, losing touch with who we truly are. Slowly casting the identities, that our ancestors fought to protect, into exile. - TGS

As a wise man once said: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Updates* We wanted to bring to your attention different examples from Europe, how the laws change so often that even the teachers have a hard time adjusting to them, let alone, the students, to the US, where tuition fees have spiked up so much that by the time you finish any sort of degree, you will be in more debt than you can handle and with no certainty that you will get a job, to Asia, where strict & limited teachings still persist and never seem to catch up with the times and most of the time fail to prep you up for a world where foreign affairs are crucial in this day and age. 

Even so, we figured, how hypocrites we'd have to be to enforce our own beliefs in this release, that's why, this turned out into an open debate where you are all welcome to participate. You don't have to talk about it with us, what's important is that you bring up the subject "today's education" in day-to-day conversations with your family, friends, people close to you and try to understand the system better, together. How it works, how a certain type of diploma can or cannot help you in your road to the career you want to pursue. 

As for us, we have taken the time to gather opinions and points of views from different anonymous members, all around the globe. On behalf of Team GhostShell, I would like to respectfully thank all those that have contributed to this release. It has been a unique experience. - DeadMellox

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-the situation and Europe are nowhere near comparable - the cost of an education in the US is astronomically higher. However, I feel that you do have a point. 
- Solutions: Look in the open-source community. Find those willing to provide educational literature and have it for free for students. The issue with this is that all universities have some agreements with publishers about books for courses and there seem to be few ways to circumvent this. I've said it in the past and continue to attempt to work on this now - make a viable, functioning online university with people in the education field. Advertising and donations for revenue [a radical idea, but something that is in sync with reality in the 21st century]
- "Teacher excitement" sorry, there are many educators that are enthusiastic about their careers, but classroom sizes are ever-increasing. I feel that encouragement and programs to make those interact with their peers and "self-teach" is effective. Self teaching is effective, especially in children. Example: http://neapriorityschools.org/successful-students/flipping-the-classroom-homework-in-class-lessons-at-home-2 has had tremendous success.

Quality: Mcdonaldization of the education system, classroom sizes, decrease in critical thinking skills - Anonymous

Learning. has been reduced to LEARN and REPEAT information, as in MEMORIZE.

If intelligence is not defined by data retention, but the ability to understand data "at present moment" and creativity.

Why to follow old procedures? why not create a channel where everything can be learned? online, officially with the help of schools nationally. - Anonymous

The easy answer is student loans, and they are a big deal.  However I am more frustrated that we designed our current educational system in the 40s/50s when our school system was designed to output 50-70% of students for manufacturing jobs.  We have kept this same system for over 60+ years.    Now the manufacturing jobs market is almost gone so those students are finding themselves net receiving the education that they need for jobs in the information age, and they know it. A common complaint for dropouts is that they feel that the school system is not benefiting them.

This may be part of the root cause of why we are facing high drop out stats and unemployment for students that do not go on to higher education.  Part of the problem is that our current system was only designed to output ~20% to higher education.  - Anonymous

Student: 17 year old female, last year of highschool from a latin third world country:
asi que te doy mi punto de vista como una persona normal
te hago una pregunta
para que vamos al colegio?
Anon 1: a EDUCARNOS. a aprender a pensar. 
Student: exacto esa palabra aprender, pensar
primero.
nos enseñan cosas mucha informacion
pero jamas de los jamases nos enseñan metodos de estudios eficaces
por lo que nos vamos y solamente estudia de memoria y solo para el examen para pasar de grado
por lo que esa informacion despues de pocos dias
se va..
bueno..
lo mejor seria fomentando la imaginacion y el pensamiento individual de cada persona
por eso casi siempre los paraguayos son timidos
no les gusta hablar
porque muchas veces sus palabras no son escuchadas
entendes eso?
osea cuando sos chiquito te tendrian que dar premios por responder
por saber
y aca eso no hacen
por lo que le importa un comino
y piensan que hablar en publico es pelada
se concentran mas en que van a fallar que en otra cosa
mm
mm
que otra cosa
a mi hubiese
encantado aprender musica
pero las clases simplemente no las entendia 
eran muy dificiles para mi comprension
porque con nosotros no empezaron desde cero
y muchas veces los profesores no estan lo suficientemente capacitados para enseñar
si para dar e imponer informacion
pero no enseñan
y muchas veces no tienen paciencia
profesores hay muchos..
maestros pocos.
y la forma en que enseñan aca
da asco
porque vienen se sientan y solo se escucha bla bla bla
la informacion no viene solamente a travez del sentido auditivo
sino tambien a travez de la vista
tenemos un infocus
en el cole
pero los profesores nunca lo usan para sus clases
sin dudas seria mucho mas divertido y definitivamente pondria mas atencion si lo usaran
que se acostumbren a utilizar las ventajas de la tecnologia
que no se queden en lo antiguo de venir hablar y dictar
lo mejor de mi especialidad es cuando salimos
baba
pero cuando salimos a ver cosas referntes a salud
como a las facultades
porque te muestra como va a ser tu posible ambiente de trabajo
y que si se puede 
que noes taaan difcil
mm creo que lo basico es que nos enseñen a aprender desde pequeños y que no den clases aburridas y antiguas porque esta es una epoca moderna con muchos metodos de aprendizaje interesantes.
y bueno creo que eso es todo - Anonymous

Anon 1: concuring with the above opinion, school should first of all teach to THINK independently and not think DEPENDENTLY, as to be creative, to solve problems on their own and not use techonolgy as an excuse to depend on it, techonology is used as a tool to asiste learning without giving in to dependence, also break the habits of old obsolete info, and update constantly, learning should be creative, adaptive, evolving. Teaching like i said: TO THINK and not to DEPEND. - Anonymous

If we want change we must be ready for it. the future is technology. physical school will become obsolete.
Thanks for sharing this "moment" with us. we luvz you all - #OpPortugal @ anonops

<nick> Why do you think Mathematics isn't taught in most "modern" countries?
Do  you really think governments want countries full of people who can  think things through and find the right answers to questions? - Anonymous

Is there a way to measure/determine the proficiency level of various instructors?  Possibly a database of questions which anon-instructors can quiz themselves on, giving a score of how well they are able to "teach" a particular subject and which subjects would prove most informative for a pupil, then match students to teachers. - Anonymous

We shall see the gradual errosion of institutional structures which become increasingly more out of step with modern technology and social mobility. There was a trend towards centralisation during a period of low energy and housing costs when we lacked the technology to provide high quality distance learning. Oil, housing and other costs are now being felt across the demograpghic, at the same time governments are no longer able to fund higher level education. We will now experience a trend toward decentralisation geographically but centralisation digitally where the best teachers can be streamed into local colleges. The cost of education will reduce with this trend as will the barriers to higher education. We are in the middle of a transition where change is being driven by afffordability. - Anonymous

Det svenska utbildningssystemet:
Från statlig verksamhet till kommunal/privata alternativ en medveten sänkning? Det tror jag, och framledes kommer de offentliga (dvs de ickeprivata alternativen) förmodligen vara av så dålig  kvaliteé att det kommer att kosta att ge sitt barn en utbildning. Som i USA och England. Nya korta gymnasiutbildningar som varit på förslag är också ett sätt att försöka "slå sönder" och öppna dörren till "lågstatusyrken". Studielånen kommer det löna sig i framtiden att ens ta dem? Inte säker på det heller. 
Generellt anser jag att utbildningssystemet  andvänds för att forma individen in i samhället, inte mycket till självtänk ingår. Vi bor alltså i ett land där man utbildar sig för att föda barn, något vi gjort i alla tider :)
Svår fråga egentligen...försökt lära mitt barn självständigt tänkande och ändå passa in (utbilda dig) ingen vill väl att ens avkomma skall bli anarkist? (dubbel där.)
De mest korkade i mina ögon är ofta de som gått på universiteten. De sväljer allt utan någon tillstymmelse till ifrågasättande, lustigt!
Vi går igenom förändringar i vår tid, det som en gång varit, kommer inte tillbaka och ställer mig frågan hur har makten tänkt sig sysselsätta undersåtarna framledes? Det pågår saker på flera plan, och de hör på sätt och vis samman. Vem skall äga rätten till orden? Ser en desperation från de "där uppe" ...de gör allt för att behålla kontrollen. Tror i förlängningen inte de kommer att lyckas och när den släpperm kommer vi förmodligen se ett helt nytt samhälle formas. Vi är inte där ÄN, det är som bekant alltid mörkast före gryningen. - Anonymous

Skolan ger våra barn grunden för kritiskt tänkande och ifrågasättandet av etablerade ”sanningar”. Genom att försämra skolans möjligheter att ge barnen bra utbildning urholkas det demokratiska systemet likväl som vår framtid och vi går ett segregerat samhälle tillmötes där sociala klyftor grävs avgrundesdjupa mellan samhällsklasserna. Det kan vi inte tillåta! - Anonymous

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/09/27/nyu-professor-are-student-loans-immoral.html

reddit thread about that article  http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/10mzbw/on_a_rough_estimate_it_would_only_take_70_billion/ - Anonymous

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Our targets for this release have been the top 100 universities around the world. After carefully filtering the ones that we've already leaked before and the ones where Anonymous has in major operations, we have eventually got together a new fresh list. The majority of them should be here. Also, some of us decided to go ahead and add vulnerable links to the other ones anyway, which you can find at the bottom, at "Other Universities".

Apple’s new mobile maps show the Washington Monument across the highway from the actual monument, which appears correctly in the satellite view.

In the opening of the article (titled “Apple Apologizes for Misstep on Maps”) they repeat the claim:

Nine days after the maps’ release, the Washington Monument was still on the wrong side of the street. But something else changed.

Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, released an apologetic letter to customers on Friday, making the remarkable suggestion that they try alternative map services from rivals like Microsoft and Google while Apple improves its own maps. “We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers, and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better,” Mr. Cook wrote.

Clearly the Maps application has serious data issues, with screenshots showing up all over the internet of melting streets and destinations in the middle of bodies of water. But has anyone bothered to check and see if this “Washington Monument” example is actually a meaningful difference between Google’s Maps application on Android and the new maps app on iOS 6? Well, I just did.

Here is a screenshot of iOS 6 on the left and a screenshot from Android on the right that I took with my own phone; it would seem that a similar issue appears on both. In iOS 6 and Google Maps on Android, the “location” of the monument is across the street from “the monument.” To be precise, zooming in on Android’s map application I can see that (according to Google Maps) the Washington Monument is right in the middle of 15th St. NW. I’m sure many drivers in DC would be surprised to hear that.

This isn’t a new issue – “locations” are often contested. We might ask, where is the monument? Well, for what purpose? For navigation by driving? For walking? for determining the National Park boundaries? For those questions, the answer provided by both maps might be more accurate that it seems at first. But there is an assumption in our use of these maps, in our demand of accuracy from them, that when we ask for the location of a thing, that whatever aspect of that place we have in mind is the element that should be indicated by the map. So in this case, we want to be directed to the obelisk, not the grounds, and not the access road. But would users be any happier, or would the map be any more useful if the marker was directly on top of the monument obscuring it from view? And what makes the Google Maps location (in the middle of 15th St. NW) any better than the Apple Maps location? Neither one clearly identifies which structure is the Washington Monument.

I find it fascinating how this example of the Washington Monument has become a rallying cry for the inaccuracy of the Apple maps application in constrast to Google Maps, and how that claim has spread through reporting and discourse about the map online. Spread, it would seem, without anyone verifying whether it was a good comparison case. Including, at least so far, Apple’s own PR department.

I’ll end with this mash-up, a comment on perception, mapping, and reality from the theamazingios6maps tumblr. It pairs an image from the iOS 6 map (left) with one from the film Inception (right):

This corporate liability case is coming before the Supreme Court and will have impact on whether corporations can be held accountable for what they do internationally in U.S. Courts. The case hinges on the Alien Tort Statute (also called the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA)), which reads:

The district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States.

The ATCA is one of the only means available to foreign nationals who seek justice for human rights abuses by American corporations, or corporations who do business in the United States. It has been used previously in the Kano trovafloxacin trial litigation, in which Nigerian families sued Pfizer for the deaths of their children after Pfizer used the children as test subjects in a pharmaceutical trial. If you’ve seen The Constant Gardener, and didn’t realize that it was based on a true story, have a look at Abdullahi v. Pfizer, Inc.

Amicus briefs have been filed in support of Shell, and the list speaks for itself:

The Cato Institute, The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Engility Corp, Former State Department Legal Advisors, KBR, Inc., National Foreign Trade Council, OTP Bank, Professors Anthony J. Belia Jr. and Bradford R. Clark, Professors of International Law, Foreign Relations, and Federal Jurisdiction, Rio Tinto; Caterpillar, Conoco Phillips, GE, Honeywell, International Business Machines, and Monsanto; Chevron Corp, Dole Food Co., DowChemical, Glaxosmithkline, P & G, US China Law Society, Washington Legal Foundation and Allied Educational Foundation

The Untie Our Hands press release includes the following statement from their ‘spokesperson’:

Untie Our Hands spokesperson Carson Boyd says this outdated law needs to be removed to promote healthy economic recovery.

“Because we work in volatile countries like Nigeria, Burma and Papua New Guinea, human rights advocates get us confused with the corrupt dictatorships we’re forced to cooperate with,” says Mr. Boyd. In Shell’s case, tortures and extrajudicial killings were sanctioned by military dictator Sani Abacha; Shell is merely alleged to have provided paramilitary funding.

“As industry leaders, we suffer through endless accusations and litigation — all in the name of bringing consumers affordable and innovative products,” says Mr. Boyd. “We need the freedom to do what we do best: create jobs and deliver quality goods and services.”

Untie Our Hands asks that American enterprise be free from this archaic legal provision, allowing them the liberty to do business abroad without fear of reprisal in the American justice system.

“We put fuel in your gas tank, food on your table and shoes on your feet,” Carson said. “We’re driving the American economy, and for this we deserve the public’s trust — especially when it comes to spreading the prosperity of free markets abroad.”

More details on the campaign can be found on the Sum of Us web site, where the human rights abuses behind the case are explained in more detail: “In the name of profit and quashing dissent, Shell sanctioned extrajudicial killing, torture, crimes against humanity, and the murder of outspoken author and playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa in Nigeria.” Additional details are available from the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard.

The legal questions of the Kiobel v. Shell case are summarized by one Supreme Court Blog as follows:

Issue: (1) Whether the issue of corporate civil tort liability under the Alien Tort Statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1350, is a merits question or instead an issue of subject matter jurisdiction; (2) whether corporations are immune from tort liability for violations of the law of nations such as torture, extrajudicial executions or genocide may instead be sued in the same manner as any other private party defendant under the ATS for such egregious violations; and (3) whether and under what circumstances the Alien Tort Statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1350, allows courts to recognize a cause of action for violations of the law of nations occurring within the territory of a sovereign other than the United States.

After setting up the computer and plugging it into the first ethernet port I’d ever seen, I spent a good deal of time setting up web sites, chatting online, played MMORPGs and collecting, and trying out screensavers.

The appeal of the screensaver was captured so well in the name of one of the most popular Mac screensaver software “After Dark” created by Berkeley Systems. After the lights went down, our computers would sit alone in the dark producing wondrous images, kalaidoscopes of color, cities made of stars, and flying toasters…

Berkeley’s After Dark software allowed the use of third-party modules, and so hundreds were created. They all had one thing in common, as explained by one of the engineers on the project, Patrick Beard, they were meant to:

…create a darker environment for a color CRT in order to help preserve the phosphors.

We’d all seen the effects of images burnt into screens, and we were actually trying to design something with real utility. We never imagined it would define a new category for entertainment software.

Beyond entertainment, they became costume, fashion, accessory, visual aid for sensory experiences the likes of which college students tend to have… And more. And as I mentioned there were hundreds of modules available for After Dark, and that was just one screensaver software platform, there were many others.

They have a long history in computing, and perhaps they first appeared in in fiction. In Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein describes a screensaver on a television of the future:

They went to the living room; Jill sat at his feet and they applied themselves to martinis. Opposite his chair was a stereovision tank disguised as an aquarium; he switched it on, guppies and tetras gave way to the face of the well-known winchell Augustus Greaves.

So, where have the screensavers gone? We all know the standards that come with OS X and Windows, and there are packages of the classics for Linux. But a search today on Apple’s App Store reveals a withering selection:

I don’t know if this is a matter of interest from developers in creating innovative, clever or interesting screensavers, or just an area where developers who make interesting screensavers don’t care to participate in Apple’s closed marketplace model. When I’ve had an occasion to choose a screensaver for computer labs, I’ve used two excellent screensavers: Electric Sheep and BOINC.

Electric Sheep, a reference to the Phillip K. Dick short-story which was the basis of the film Blade Runner, is described by the creators as:

a collaborative abstract artwork . . . run by thousands of people all over the world. . . When these computers “sleep”, the Electric Sheep comes on and the computers communicate with each other by the internet to share the work of creating morphing abstract animations known as “sheep”.

The question asked by the title of the PKD story is “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” This artwork allows your computer to work with others to imagine what these “electric sheep” might look like.

BOINC is a screensaver that will display graphic representations of tasks being run on your computer for volunteer distributed computing projects, such as SETI@home and Folding@home, and many others (see a full list here) which use your home computer to help solve problems related to Malaria, mathematics, cryptography, earth sciences and more.

Like the PKD question, I often think of screensavers as computer dreaming – and of those I know of, Electric Sheep is the most like allowing your computer to dream. But what about screensavers that are just beautiful, funny, odd or inspiring? What does it say about the way we use computers today vs. the 90s, that we no longer seem to have a place for a vibrant screensaver developer community. There are some available, but to be blunt, they’re mostly just really ugly.

One exception is certainly Polar Clock, an innovative and customizable clock that uses motion and color to count-up the time passing. But I’ve been hard pressed to find others, are they out there? What are you favorite screensavers? Are there beautiful ones, crazy ones? works of digital art that I’ve just missed?

To close, here’s a collection of 281 After Dark modules edited together with musical accompaniment, a bit of cyber-archaeology:

Reading the online news today, I found mainstream media coverage of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) anniversary using images and metaphors to frame Occupy as unstable and barely intact. Media reporting alone might lead some readers to believe that Occupy has “returned” (from where? when did it leave?) resulting in “chaos” in the Financial District. Although news reports acknowledge the movement has enough power to send the financial capital of the United States into “chaos” the movement itself is framed as in “disarray,” struggling to “re-energize” since running “out of steam” after the eviction last November. Following the eviction, the media tells us today, Occupy began to “disintegrate” after “arrests and in-fighting.”

However, since the violent destruction of the kitchen, library, medical tent, residences and other structures and services at Liberty Plaza (Zucotti Park) in November 2011, the local and global Occupy movement has continued meaningful, effective, activist work on projects from Brooklyn across the world to Indonesia (the focus of my current research). In New York City, the Occupy Wall Street People’s Library is involved in a lawsuit that asks, among other things, whether the city has the right to seize and destroy books, and stomp on first amendment expression. Since the eviction, the People’s Library has organized scores of events. In one example, the library coordinated a book bomb to send English and Spanish books to communities in Tuscon Arizona as a response to the book banning by the Tucson Unified School District. In Sunset Park, Occupiers are working with rent strikers hand-in-hand to empower tenants. In Indonesia and Papua, indigenous activists are joining with Occupiers to continue their long struggle against worker oppression, land-theft, and violence perpetrated by U.S. mining companies, and other resource extraction corporations.

While ABC news is offering readers a “look back at the rise and fall of Occupy,” the Occupy movement activists and other everyday folks on the ground continue to build the movement. Much of this work doesn’t go on in the outdoor public squares anymore (though some still does), or even the public-private plazas like Liberty, but rather in public-private spaces across the internet. In social media spaces like Facebook groups and across Twitter feeds and through email list-serves and web sites, Occupiers continue to conduct the work of activism as they always have. These Facebook groups and list-serves and other forms of cyberactivism and cybersociality don’t usually result in arrest (in the United States at least) and they aren’t good targets for certain kinds of media attention or newspaper photographers. But these online engagements are as significant as those involving Occupiers who are working offline (if we’re ever really offline anymore).

As an example, consider the case of one Occupier, arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge along with hundreds of others last year. The New York district attorney’s office has subpoenaed over three months of his tweets from Twitter as they try to make a case against him. The fact that Twitter handed over those tweets is reason for all Occupiers to think seriously about using open-source social media alternatives (such as identi.ca or StatusNet). But more to the issue at hand, it’s significant that the city considers these tweets essential to their case against the activist. This points to at least one of the ways activism and action in cyberspace can be as much about contested space, place and power as activism in physical places. Twitter’s decision to hand over the tweets as a stack of printed paper pages in an envelop also speaks to the privilege granted by institutional powers to material forms of evidence. Just as the mainstream media argues that the Occupy movement doesn’t matter if there aren’t a certain number of bodies on the streets, the courtroom only authorizes evidence from cyberspace when it is made physical through printing.

When the New York Times critiqued the spectacle of the early Occupy encampment, on September 23 2011, in an astonishingly myopic piece called “Gunning For Wall Street, With Faulty Aim” they mocked activists for unconventional tactics, clothing choices and the expression of diverse views. Here’s an excerpt:

A blonde with a marked likeness to Joni Mitchell and a seemingly even stronger wish to burrow through the space-time continuum and hunker down in 1968, Ms. Tikka had taken off all but her cotton underwear and was dancing on the north side of Zuccotti Park, facing Liberty Street, just west of Broadway.

“I’ve been waiting for this my whole life,” Ms. Tikka, 37, told me.

“This,” presumably was the opportunity to air societal grievances as carnival. Occupy Wall Street, a diffuse and leaderless convocation of activists against greed, corporate influence, gross social inequality and other nasty byproducts of wayward capitalism not easily extinguishable by street theater, had hoped to see many thousands join its protest and encampment, which began Sept. 17. According to the group, 2,000 marched on the first day; news outlets estimated that the number was closer to several hundred.

This New York Times reporter underestimated the power of that spectacle, the power of the “carnival,” and failed to imagine the power of the networks that would be built between Occupiers. Just a month later, (through incredibly hard work of an all volunteer movement) Liberty plaza had become a thriving community of activists with the attention of the global media, linked into a growing global occupy movement, running web sites, social media campaigns, an extensive library, serving thousands of meals, providing medical services, feeding livestreaming of news and building networks that have persisted to this day. Gaining the attention of the mainstream media was a huge victory. And Occupy continues to be a powerful social movement because it continues to be much more than that initial spectacle of the undressed optimist dancing by Wall Street. It continues to be more substantive than much of the current US presidential campaigning, the gaff and celebrity obsessed reporting and tit for tat soundbites that mainstream politicians, corporations and media love to report on (and then sell to us, and then report to us on the sales). Recognition of OWS as a spectacle worth covering by mainstream media is vital to certain moments, the introductions, the campaigns, the anniversaries, but the spectacle and the media coverage are not the limit or the value of the movement, nor are these forms where the long-term future of the movement is being built by workers on the ground.

As the mainstream media trips over each other today looking for spectacular arrests to photograph (clergy are especially popular), hoping to boost ratings by broadcasting more images of police attacking protesters (and not coincidentally, I think, reminding us of our fate if we too speak out), and as they compete to be the first to announce the demise and deflation of the “Occupy bubble” – the Occupiers, as they have since last year, and in all the movements that were precursors to this one, continue to build networks online and in person, to collaborate, and innovate. They continue to work for change. And today on this anniversary, despite media reports to the contrary, Occupy is alive and strong in the streets, in the squares, online and across the globe.

Oman-Reagan, Michael P.  2012  Occupying cyberspace: Indonesian cyberactivists and Occupy Wall Street. Critical Quarterly, 54: 39–45.

Please contact me if you are a colleague without access who would like to read it.

• a recruiting tool for bringing in new supporters and getting people to events
• a medium for compiling and sharing relevant news stories
• requests for resources
• a space for telling narratives or retelling the experiences of other movement participants
• a medium for instant communication between geographically separated groups within the movement
• a wide range of additional activity

Although this list encompasses most of the activities that occupiers engage in while occupying physical space, the paper frames the activities as dependent on the physical occupation and ignores the creative potential of the occupation in cyberspace. The paper frames the movement as existing in physical space and using online media to spread a message that is primarily produced on the ground in physical occupations. Arguing that the movement is made unique by its “sustained visibility” the paper frames the occupation as “primarily an off-line activity.”

Guest blogging about their paper, the authors write that participation on Facebook serves to “facilitate the creation of local encampments.” This analysis acts to erase the roles of the wide and deep online movement that was responsible for the initial call to occupy Wall Street and that continues to function as an integral part of the core movement. In some cases the online movement is more substantial than the physical occupation. In other cases, online activity is integrated into the occupations day-to-day business in a way that is seamless for participants and invisible to observers who are not participants. An obvious and simple example are the constant exchange of decision-making email discussions that occur between members of the working groups at Occupy Wall Street. Although the physical occupation appears as a non-hierarchical, leaderless movement in the physical performance of the General Assembly and the discourse used by participants – activity online often betrays this notion and reveals a smaller core group of individuals who are engaged in administrative activity behind the scenes. This is true of the working groups that I have been engaged with and the conversations among working group “administrators” that I am regularly witness to.

In the Occupy movement more broadly, many communities that do not have a physical occupation do have an online occupation, and they are “occupying” their nation or city within their occupation of cyberspace. The question remains, how are the online and off-line movements engaging with one another – is there a division? Does the fact that in some locations the occupation is entirely online suggest that the occupation of cyberspace might matter as much as the occupation of physical space?