nettime: regarding your questions on name.space

[mf@mediafilter.org (MediaFilter)]

Dear Josephine,

On Sun, 19 Jan 1997 15:07:48 +0100, you wrote:

>
>First of all I would like to say I am very happy
>with your recent reply to Rops statements in the
>interview I made. The Economist Interview was not
>a very happy choice to put on Nettime as an answer.
>Also the personal nature of a large part of your
>dispute with Rop is surprising. There seems to be
>a complete lack of will to get this out of the way.
>I hope this changes. It might be an important key
>to developing your project in a pleasant manner.
>

Paul Garrin replies:

I have no personal dispute with Rop.  I am quite surprised
if he has such a personal problem toward me.  If so, I totally
do not understand it.  Whatever he holds against me is a
fabrication in his own mind, since he doesn't know me
well enough to judge me.  I can forgive him for this.
Anyone who knows me can easily ignore Rop's wrong perceptions
about my character.  It would be comforting if he would
get over it.

>After all I heard about this subject there still
>are a few questions that I would like to ask you.
>I hope you have time and pleasure in answering them.
>
>ART:
>
>A lot of support for your project has come from the artworld,
>more specifically the media-art scene around Nettime here in Europe.
>
>Do you call Name.space an art project?
>If you have called it so in the past, do you think it still is
>and if so, why?
>

As related to my artworks, name.space is about public vs.private space.
In a practical sense, it is about creating a public supported public
space on the internet.

>Do you have any ideas about what the role of media- or net.art will be
>in the future of the net as a social place?
>Is commercialisation a necessity or maybe even inevitable?
>

In order for media art to survive and be present, it must find a
means of support beyond the "gift" economy of subsidy.
The Disneyfication of the media can smother the non-commercial
independent voices and visions.  Name.space as an economic venture
is a way to assure that the independent voices can survive and
reamin independent.  The only way to do this is to buy the bandwidth.
There must be a way to finance this.  The name.space project as well
as other related spinoffs are ways to help finance and maintain
not only the survival, but the development of independent media.

Name.space aims to become the ultimate shareware project.  If everyone
supports name.space with their registrations, it creates a public space
on a network that is supported by the public but run independently.
Name.space has a mission to develop and support free media and art
on the net. It is certainly more attractive to fund resources that will be
applied to free media and art than to finance the US national security
agency.
I hope you agree.

>Is there a difference between the net.society and the real life society
>when it comes to the role and impact of art?
>

Art should enlighten us to think of better things and better possibilities.
It should also cause us to reflect on the struggle to find meaning in our
lives and to fathom out ways to a better future through our work.

>
>BUSSINESS & POLITICS:
>
>>Only when development is in the hands of private enterprise responding to
>>demands and changes in the marketplace, can true development and innovation
>>occur. *
>
>Does Name.space offer any specific big new changes in personal freedom on the
>net? Why would you seek support from anarchist based networks and groups like
>for instance Chaos Computer Club for developing your company further?

name.space allows for anonymous registrations and "stealth" domains,
creating greater levels of privacy than are offered by the current system
(the NSA--u.s. national security agency) has your records under the
current system....under name.space they don't have them.
Support from all groups is desired.  Chaos Computer Club is full
of competent talent that could help to develop the future of
nameservice on the net.  I openly invite them to participate
and look forward to their input.

>
>>Remember what happend to the "other" command economy?
>>Don't repeat history. *
>
>Your political point of view seems very american in the way of its
>for some european standards almost naive belief in the beneficial
>powers of total freedom. Are you merely playing with the local US
>sentiments here or is this a serious remark?
>

Whatever I say to the Economist, I do to challenge thier position.
I present name.space as the quintessenial entrepeneurial company,
full of the ultimate, free-market capitalist spirit (the postition
of their magazine???) in order to highlight their hypocrisy in
criticizing name.space as a "threat to the order" of the net.

What Azeem Azhar said was that name.space should wait for the
committee (self-appointed with no mandate, especially no international
mandate--that would require a treaty between consenting nations!)
instead of persuing the free-market, private-development-unregulated-
market-style capitalism that the Economist so exhuberantly flaunts
on the pages of its weekly zine.  Sound like a contradiction to you?

>
>>Name.space is currently developing software to support shared top level
>>domains.
>>Name.space will not at this time disclose any proprietary company
>>information on how this is being accomplished.
>>Name.space does have a right to its intellectual property and in protecting
>>its integrity until it is released into the marketplace.  I think you
>>would agree. *
>
>How can you explain the wide advertising and allocating,
>maybe even selling, of names through Name.space inc. when its product
>does not even really exist?
>

Of course they exist!  Change your nameserver settings to the
name.space servers and all the over 250 new toplevel names will
work, as well as all the "traditional" addresses.  Hundreds
of people are doing this every day!  Users of dds.nl, desk.nl,
is.in-berlin.de, thing.net, and many others are using name.space
compliant nameservers every day.

If you use windows, you can download software to switch you
over to name.space.  If not, you can follow instructions on the
name.space website for other systems.

Visit the black.hole in the net at http://balckhole.autono.net and try
some of the links...and experience what we call "content routing".

F.Y.I. all name.space names are currently free.  At the time
when name.space is universal to the entire internet, there will
be a $25 usd annual charge for second-level names.  Educational
and non-profit groups are eligible for free names.  Names in the
free.zone are always free.  Other free alternatives will be
available soon.

>
>
>*quotes from the Economists interview you posted.
>
Best wishes,

Paul Garrin


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