<chapter>
<title>Welcome</title>
<desc>...</desc>
<mails>
<mail>
<nbr>0.0</nbr>
<subject>Welcome, and information on the &lt;oldboys&gt;-lis</subject>
<from>Cornelia Sollfrank</from>
<to>oldboys@lists.ccc.de</to>
<date>Tue, 20 Mar 2001 20:28:29 +0000</date>
<content>Welcome to the mailing list of Old Boys Network, &lt;oldboys-list&gt;!

Please save this message for future reference.  Thank you.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION: (as regards content, information below)

This is the ezmlm program, managing the oldboys@lists.ccc.de mailing list. It will speak in the first person further on...

I can handle administrative requests automatically. Please do not send them to the list address! Instead, send your message to the correct command address:

To subscribe to the list, send a message to:
   &lt;oldboys-subscribe@lists.ccc.de&gt;

To remove your address from the list, send a message to:
   &lt;oldboys-unsubscribe@lists.ccc.de&gt;

Send mail to the following for info and FAQ for this list:
   &lt;oldboys-info@lists.ccc.de&gt;
   &lt;oldboys-faq@lists.ccc.de&gt;

To get messages 123 through 145 (a maximum of 100 per request), mail:
   &lt;oldboys-get.123_145@lists.ccc.de&gt;

To get an index with subject and author for messages 123-456 , mail:
   &lt;oldboys-index.123_456@lists.ccc.de&gt;

They are always returned as sets of 100, max 2000 per request,
so you'll actually get 100-499.

To receive all messages with the same subject as message 12345,
send an empty message to:
   &lt;oldboys-thread.12345@lists.ccc.de&gt;

The messages do not really need to be empty, but I will ignore
their content. Only the ADDRESS you send to is important.

You can start a subscription for an alternate address,
for example "john@host.domain", just add a hyphen and your
address (with '=' instead of '@') after the command word:
&lt;oldboys-subscribe-john=host.domain@lists.ccc.de&gt;

To stop subscription for this address, mail:
&lt;oldboys-unsubscribe-john=host.domain@lists.ccc.de&gt;

In both cases, I'll send a confirmation message to that address. When you receive it, simply reply to it to complete your subscription.

If despite following these instructions, you do not get the
desired results, please contact my owner at 
&lt;oldboys-owner@lists.ccc.de&gt; 
Please be patient, my owners are a lot slower than I am ;-)

WHAT IT IS ABOUT:

&lt;oldboys-list&gt; is an international discussion mailing list owned by the Old Boys Network.

OBN is regarded as the first international Cyberfeminist alliance and has been founded in 1997 in Berlin. Under the umbrella of the term 'Cyberfeminism' OBN contributes to the critical discourse on new media, especially gender-specific aspects. 
 
OBN is dedicated to appropriating, creating and disseminating Cyberfeminisms (plural). OBN creates real and virtual spaces where Cyberfeminists can research, experiment, communicate and act. The OBN platforms aim to provide a contextualized presence for the diverse and interdisciplinary approaches to Cyberfeminism. One of these platforms is &lt;oldboys list&gt;.

One of the basic rules of OBN is that every member is required to call herself a woman (without consideration of the biological base of this intelligent life-form). With regard to its contents - the elaboration of Cyberfeminisms - our aim is the principle of disagreement!

Additional to our communication in virtual space OBN regularly organizes real space meetings.
- First conference: 'first Cyberfeminist International', documenta x, Kassel, 1997, hybrid workspace;
- Second conference: 'next Cyberfeminist International', 1999, Rotterdam, de Balie (in cooperation with 'next5mintues, festival for tactical media, Amsterdam).
- Third conference: ’very Cyberfeminist International', 2001, Hamburg, is currently in preparation.

All conferences are documented in printed readers. No.1 and no.2 are sold out already. The content will be available on our new website, soon! 

Currently (2001) the book ’Cyberfeminism - next protocols' is in production in collaboration with the Publishing House Autonomedia, New York. 

In 2000 OBN presented itself in the 15 minutes long video ’processing Cyberfeminism'.

Since OBN has come into being it's personnel as well as the organisatorial structure have been in a constant flow. 

If you want to learn more about the regulating structure of OBN, and you are interested in finding out what is special about this transitory network, please visit our website (currently being redesigned by Slowenian artist Irena Woelle).
http://www.obn.org

&lt;oldboys-list&gt; can stay unmoderated as long as all subscribers feel responsible for the list, share it's policy and the general netiquette.

* text-format:
plain ascii, no MIME-attachements, maximum size: 40.000 bytes (please split bigger texts); 

* visuals:
basically visuals are welcome to be distributed, but not automatically via the list; pls. announce your visuals and send them at request to individual addresses.

* all postings are automatically forwarded to the searchable &lt;oldboys-list&gt; web-archive. This archive is only accessable by subscribed members of the list who have the password. (further instructions soon)
address: www.nettime.org/oldboys

* copyright policy:
forwarding of public announcements via e-mail is allowed if the footer is included; all other forwarding has to be checked with the authors. for republishing on a web or ftp site, contact with the authors is obligatory. The same regulation is valid when republishing in paper media, or if money changes hands.

* &lt;oldboys-list&gt; is a way to form a large network of active cyberfeminists. Please feel free to invite new subscribers or to suggest them by simply sending a mail to the list-owner.

* questions, comments, criticism are welcome!
please direct them to &lt;oldboys@lists.ccc.de&gt;
Old Boys Network, march 2001</content>
</mail>
<mail>
<nbr>1.0</nbr>
<subject>[oldboys] Personal Welcome!</subject>
<from>Cornelia Sollfrank</from>
<to>oldboys@lists.ccc.de</to>
<date>Mon, 26 Mar 2001 16:25:13 +0100</date>
<content>Welcome to the &lt;oldboys&gt;-list!

As I have already announced to you individually some weeks ago, OBN has finally installed it's mailinglist. It is running on the list server of CCC, Chaos Computer Club in Berlin, which is the German hacker's club. About 150 cyberfeminists have subscribed so far. 

Attached to the list is a searchable webarchive: http://www.nettime.org/oldboys 
This means that &lt;oldboys&gt;-list is an open list and everyone who is interested can follow what is going on here.

In order to give you a better understanding of what OBN used to be and what it is now, and also what the list is supposed to be used for, I would like to describe the situation of OBN from MY PERSONAL point of view. 

I am sure, most of you know OBN through our conferences and the documentary readers. Indeed, the ’real' platforms of OBN have been dominant so far, in contrast to our ’virtual' ones. But this mailinglist is the first step to improve our virtual presence and communication, and is meant to host a global discourse on Cyberfeminism. 

As a matter of fact, we are also working currently on the relaunch of our website. Irena Woelle from Ljubljana is our webdesigner, and we are looking forward to our new site, which will represent what OBN is, much better than the current one. Amongst many other things, next to a theory section, there will also be a gallery space, and a calendar which contains all current events in which cyberfeminists take part. As soon as we have a Beta-version, we will put it up and inform you, as well as ask you for your contributions. 

Furthermore OBN is planning a third international conference, called ’next Cyberfeminist International' which hopefully will take place in November this year in Hamburg. The current situation is, that we are in the middle of organizing the funding for the conference. We will keep you updated about this and send out a call as soon as we can verify the details.

OBN itself has gone through several major shifts in the almost four years of it's existence, shifts in personnel and shifts in the organisatorial structure. Some of you might know our video ’processing cyberfeminism' which represented the so-called core-group of OBN. Our current website also still contains this outdated information that there is something like a core-group. There used to be one, right, and it consisted of Cornelia Sollfrank, Susanne Ackers, Julianne Pierce, Helene von Oldenburg, Claudia Reiche, Faith Wilding, Yvonne Volkart, Verena Kuni. But we had to realize after a while that it was no longer functional, for several reasons. For me, most irritating was the fact that the existence of a core-group transported the idea of a closed inner circle to the public, and consequently many interested people felt uncomfortable and not really welcome. I feel very sorry for that, because OBN was always meant to be an open network.

About one year ago, the core-group abolished itself in order to open up the structure and make space for new boys, new ideas, new projects, and new cyberfeminisms. Still, there was no infrastructure where we could have announced and praticed our desire for change. We found ourselves in the contradictory situation that it was up to the ex-core-group again to build these new structures. 

In this very transitional phase during the last year, a fragmented ex-core-group consisting of Helene von Oldenburg, Claudia Reiche, Verena Kuni, myself and partly Susanne Ackers gathered again and made efforts in order to realize the transition of OBN. We have set up the list, made the concept and raised money for the new website, thought and talked about the possible future of OBN, and are now busy making the next International happen.

I would like to welcome you, on this list and in the network. Please understand OBN as an open structure where activities and contributions are welcome, and of course a lot of qualified critique;-) And, be also aware that all the work which the boys have invested so far in OBN was voluntary. Although, our ressources are very limited, we try to make things happen, but we can not function as a service business. 

I'm looking forward to your input and many lively discussions, and hope you enjoy this piece of autonomous infrastructure. Make the best out of it! 

To find out more about OBN and the current regulatory structure, pls. send a mail to &lt;oldboys-info@lists.ccc.de&gt; and/or &lt;oldboys-faq@lists.ccc.de&gt;

Cheers from Scotland, Cornelia
March 20th, 2001

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: oldboys-unsubscribe@lists.ccc.de
For additional commands, e-mail: oldboys-help@lists.ccc.de</content>
</mail>
<mail>
<nbr>2.0</nbr>
<subject>Welcome to nettime-l</subject>
<from>majordomo</from>
<to>nettime-l@desk.nl</to>
<date>Fri, 4 Apr 1997 00:17:49 +0100</date>
<content>Welcome to the nettime-l mailing list!

If you ever want to remove yourself from this mailing list,
you can send mail to "majordomo {AT} Desk.nl" with the following command
in the body of your email message:

    unsubscribe nettime-l nettime-archive {AT} factory.org

Here's the general information for the list you've
subscribed to, in case you don't already have it:

[Last updated on: Tue Feb 27 22:38:19 1996]

&lt;nettime&gt; is not only a mailing list, but an attempt to to formulate an
international, networked discourse, that is either promoting the dominant
euforia (in order to sell some product), nor to continue with the cynical
pessimism, spread by journlalists and intellectuals working in the 'old'
media, who can still make general statements without any deeper knowledge
on the specific communication aspects of the so-called 'new' media.
We intend to bring out books, readers and floppies and web sites in
various languages, so that the 'immanent' net critique will not only
circulate within the internet, but can also be read by people who are not
on-line.
&lt;nettime&gt; 
is closed and slightly moderated,
it has two channels:

-&gt; post to : nettime {AT} is.in-berlin.de 
   (mail gets delivered to all subscribers via desk.nl)
   news://news.thing.at/thing-talk {AT} mail.thing.at

&lt;- reply to: the adress of the original sender
   re: (public dialogue): nettime-talk {AT} mail.thing.at
   which is the same like
   news://news.thing.at/thing.nettime-talk  

text-format: plain ascii, max 72 chars, monospace 
   fonttype (courier), no MIME-attachements or bin-hex,
   maximum size : 40.000 bytes, please split bigger textes

text-collection:
   ZK Proceedings (book in progress):  
   http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/

copyright policy: 
   forwarding via e-mail is allowed if footers gets included,
   for republishing on a web or ftpsite contact with the authors
   is recommened. in case of a republishing in paper media, 
   or if money changes hands, the confirmation of the authors is 
   obligate. (this note is under construction - look for updates)

* with &lt;nettime&gt; you can reach a group of people 
  of active cultural producers. feel free to
  invite new subscribers by simply sending a 
  mail to the list-owner.

* you can use nettime as a forward channel, a 
  social text filter, for own textes, found textes,
  requests, announcements... 

* to get to know who is on the list (only e-adresses), 
  please send a mail to majordomo {AT} desk.nl with 
             who nettime-l 
  in the body of the message.

* questions, comments, criticism are welcome!
  please direct them to nettime-owner {AT} is.in-berlin.de
 27feb96                         Geert Lovink, Pit Schultz</content>
</mail>
<mail>
<nbr>3.0</nbr>
<subject>Welcome to nettime-l</subject>
<from>Majordomo</from>
<to>nettime-l@desk.nl</to>
<date>Sun, 25 Oct 1998 14:58:56 +0100</date>
<content>Welcome to the nettime-l mailing list!

Please save this message for future reference.  Thank you.

If you ever want to remove yourself from this mailing list,
you can send mail to &lt;Majordomo {AT} Desk.nl&gt; with the following
command in the body of your email message:

    unsubscribe nettime-l nettime-archive {AT} nettime.khm.de

 Here's the general information for the list you've subscribed to,
 in case you don't already have it:

[Last updated on: Fri Feb  6 18:00:59 1998]

&lt;nettime&gt; is not only a mailing list, but an attempt to formulate an
international, networked discourse, that is neither promoting the dominant
euforia (in order to sell some product), nor to continue with the cynical
pessimism, spread by journalists and intellectuals working in the 'old'
media, who can still make general statements without any deeper knowledge
on the specific communication aspects of the so-called 'new' media.
We intend to bring out books, readers and floppies and web sites in
various languages, so that the 'immanent' net critique will not only
circulate within the internet, but can also be read by people who are not
on-line.

&lt;nettime&gt; 

is closed and slightly moderated,
it has two channels:

-&gt; post to : nettime {AT} desk.nl 
   (mail gets delivered to all subscribers via desk.nl)
   news://news.thing.at/thing.nettime-talk  

text-format: plain ascii, max 72 chars, monospace 
   fonttype (courier), no MIME-attachements or bin-hex,
   maximum size : 40.000 bytes, please split bigger textes

text-collection:
   ZK Proceedings (book in progress):  
   http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/

copyright policy: 
   forwarding via e-mail is allowed if footers gets included,
   for republishing on a web or ftpsite contact with the authors
   is recommended. in case of a republishing in paper media, 
   or if money changes hands, the confirmation of the authors is 
   obligate. (this note is under construction - look for updates)

* with &lt;nettime&gt; you can reach a group of people 
  of active cultural producers. feel free to
  invite new subscribers by simply sending a 
  mail to the list-owner.

* you can use nettime as a forward channel, a 
  social text filter, for own textes, found textes,
  requests, announcements... 

* to get to know who is on the list (only e-adresses), 
  please send a mail to majordomo {AT} desk.nl with 
             who nettime-l 
  in the body of the message.

* questions, comments, criticism are welcome!
  please direct them to nettime-owner {AT} desk.nl
6feb98                   Geert Lovink, Pit Schultz</content>
</mail>
<mail>
<nbr>4.0</nbr>
<subject>&lt;nettime&gt; five years later</subject>
<from>Nettime</from>
<to>nettime-l@bbs.thing.net</to>
<date>Tue, 31 Oct 2000 20:13:00 -0500</date>
<content>___           ___           ___         ___               
             /\  \         /\  \         /\  \       /\  \              
             \:\  \       /::\  \       /::\  \     /::\  \       ___   
              \:\  \     /:/\:\  \     /:/\:\__\   /:/\:\__\     /|  |  
          ___ /::\  \   /:/ /::\  \   /:/ /:/  /  /:/ /:/  /    |:|  |  
         /\  /:/\:\__\ /:/_/:/\:\__\ /:/_/:/  /  /:/_/:/  /     |:|  |  
         \:\/:/  \/__/ \:\/:/  \/__/ \:\/:/  /   \:\/:/  /    __|:|__|  
          \::/__/       \::/__/       \::/__/     \::/__/    /::::\  \  
           \:\  \        \:\  \        \:\  \      \:\  \    ~~~~\:\  \ 
            \:\__\        \:\__\        \:\__\      \:\__\        \:\__\
             \/__/         \/__/         \/__/       \/__/         \/__/
                                      ___                         ___     
           _____                     /\  \                       /\  \    
          /::\  \       ___         /::\  \         ___          \:\  \   
         /:/\:\  \     /\__\       /:/\:\__\       /\__\          \:\  \  
        /:/ /::\__\   /:/__/      /:/ /:/  /      /:/  /      ___ /::\  \ 
       /:/_/:/\:|__| /::\  \     /:/_/:/__/___   /:/__/      /\  /:/\:\__\
       \:\/:/ /:/  / \/\:\  \__  \:\/:::::/  /  /::\  \      \:\/:/  \/__/
        \::/_/:/  /   ~~\:\/\__\  \::/~~/~~~~  /:/\:\  \      \::/__/     
         \:\/:/  /       \::/  /   \:\~~\      \/__\:\  \      \:\  \     
          \::/  /        /:/  /     \:\__\          \:\__\      \:\__\    
           \/__/         \/__/       \/__/           \/__/       \/__/    
                                        ___                 
                         _____         /\  \                
                        /::\  \       /::\  \         ___   
                       /:/\:\  \     /:/\:\  \       /|  |  
                      /:/  \:\__\   /:/ /::\  \     |:|  |  
                     /:/__/ \:|__| /:/_/:/\:\__\    |:|  |  
                     \:\  \ /:/  / \:\/:/  \/__/  __|:|__|  
                      \:\  /:/  /   \::/__/      /::::\  \  
                       \:\/:/  /     \:\  \      ~~~~\:\  \ 
                        \::/  /       \:\__\          \:\__\
                         \/__/         \/__/           \/__/

                         ___           ___           ___     
                        /\__\         /\  \         /\  \    
                       /::|  |       /::\  \        \:\  \   
                      /:|:|  |      /:/\:\  \        \:\  \  
                     /:/|:|  |__   /::\~\:\  \       /::\  \ 
                    /:/ |:| /\__\ /:/\:\ \:\__\     /:/\:\__\
                    \/__|:|/:/  / \:\~\:\ \/__/    /:/  \/__/
                        |:/:/  /   \:\ \:\__\     /:/  /     
                        |::/  /     \:\ \/__/     \/__/      
                        /:/  /       \:\__\                  
                        \/__/         \/__/                  

                   ___                       ___           ___     
                  /\  \          ___        /\__\         /\  \    
                  \:\  \        /\  \      /::|  |       /::\  \   
                   \:\  \       \:\  \    /:|:|  |      /:/\:\  \  
                   /::\  \      /::\__\  /:/|:|__|__   /::\~\:\  \ 
                  /:/\:\__\  __/:/\/__/ /:/ |::::\__\ /:/\:\ \:\__\
                 /:/  \/__/ /\/:/  /    \/__/~~/:/  / \:\~\:\ \/__/
                /:/  /      \::/__/           /:/  /   \:\ \:\__\  
                \/__/        \:\__\          /:/  /     \:\ \/__/  
                              \/__/         /:/  /       \:\__\    
                                            \/__/         \/__/    
     &lt;http://www.nettime.org/nettime.w3archive/199510/msg00000.html&gt;

          To: zack {AT} contrib.de
          Subject: Welcome to nettime
          From: majordomo
          Date: Tue, 31 Oct 95 08:13 EST
          
          --
          
          Welcome to the nettime mailing list!
          
           &lt;...&gt;</content>
</mail>
<mail>
<nbr>5.0</nbr>
<subject>Welcome</subject>
<from>Beryl Graham</from>
<to>&lt;new-media-curating@jiscmail.ac.uk&gt;</to>
<date>Fri, 9 Feb 2001 16:09:23 +0000</date>
<content>Welcome to new-media-curating!

This list is intended for those involved in curating, exhibiting, archiving or interpreting new media art (including net.art, interactive installations, digital video
etc.)

It is the discussion list of the CRUMB web site (Curatorial Resource for Upstart Media Bliss http://www.newmedia.sunderland.ac.uk/crumb/).

The list will be active from March 2001, and list members will be emailed with details nearer the time.

Beryl Graham and Sarah Cook
CRUMB editors and new-media-curating list owners</content>
</mail>
<mail>
<nbr>6.0</nbr>
<subject>[-empyre-] welcome</subject>
<from>n/a</from>
<to>&lt;empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au&gt;</to>
<date>Sun Jan  6 14:39:01 2002</date>
<content>welcome to -empyre-
 
-empyre- is a soft space where invited guests from the media arts field - artists, theorists, curators, producers and admisistrators can discuss their projects, publications, productions, and share knowledge and experience. it's specific to the issues which surround media arts, without necessarily being academically referenced, nor concerned with deliniating areas of practice into interactive, or digital, or net, or rom, or pda, or web, or text, or flash art.
 
how it works:

guests will send out an initial email statement about thier work/project/publiction, and then for two or so weeks will be open to comment, questions, discussion around the topics. on 15 january 2002 the discussion starts with Ollivier Dyens ( bio at http://www.subtle.net/empyrean/empyre/dyens.html ) who has generously agreed to be the test guest.. a new guest will be invited at regular intervals..currently every second month, however depending on the level of interaction perhaps i will make it more or less frequent. administratively there may still some glitches to be ironed out over the next few weeks as well - the net is never a seamless experience. 

 
many people have subscribed since i opened the list a few days ago which is great.. and leads me to think a lot of you want something extra in the way of content from your email.. however i know i get enormous amount of email in my in box everyday, a lot of it duplicated info  which i have to filter out..

 -empyre- is not the place for conference announcements, or art show invitations or email text works. i think we are all connected to (often too) many networks which provide these functions already.If anyone consistantly spams the list, sends attachments, or is abusive towards other members i will unsubscribe them.
 
as i have made the subscriber list invisible so that it can't be harvested by bulk emailers, i would encourage people to post a brief introduction to the list before the first guest arrives.  i'm glad to see new names, as well as so many subscribers whom iv'e known in other hard and digital realms over the years, and i look forward to your participation, which has always been informative and stimulating... often contraversial and sometimes extremely funny. 
 
-empyre- is an experiment in this format, and like most mailing lists will have an organic lifespan generating its unique rhythms, highs ands lows,  jumping between furious pace and slow silences... basically -empyre- will live or die according to your input, - you are the animating fluid of -empyre- 

 
Melinda Rackham</content>
</mail>
<mail>
<nbr>7.0</nbr>
<subject>[spectre] Rise and Decline of the Syndicate</subject>
<from>Arns/Broeckmann</from>
<to>spectre@mikrolisten.de</to>
<date>Tue, 13 Nov 2001 15:52:15 +0100</date>
<content>Rise and Decline of the Syndicate: the End of an Imagined Community

Inke Arns &amp; Andreas Broeckmann, Berlin, November 2001
The Syndicate mailing list imploded and went down in August 2001,
destroying the life-line of the Syndicate network. The network had been in
a shaky situation for a while, due - we believe - to the destabilisation of
the problematic balance between personal contacts of list members, lurking
and filtering-and-not-reading-let-alone-posting subscribers, and a growing
number of self-promoters who used the list as a personal performance space
and disregarded the social rules of the online community.

Some people insisted on continuing the list on a new server, taking over
the subscriber list, while we decided to form a new list, SPECTRE, which
has been running on the previous Syndicate list-serve in Berlin since 28
Aug 2001. The list currently has 250 new subscribers (Nov 01) and continues
the tradition of the Syndicate list as a low-noise, open platform for
exchange and cooperation in media culture in Europe.

After six years of successful work with and for the Syndicate community,
the demise of the Syndicate list in August 2001 was a rather shocking
experience for many of us, imposing on us the realisation how feeble such a
community channel can be, and how easily destroyed. It proved that
responsibility and care are essential elements in a viable social online
environment, and we had to learn the hard way that there is no consensus
about the rules that should guide behaviour and interaction. The following
text gives a brief summary from our personal perspective of the Syndicate
initiative as it developed since its inception in 1996, and attempts an
evaluation of its end.
Andreas started administering the Syndicate mailing list after its
installation on the server of the Ars Electronica Center in Linz (aec.at)
in January 1996, helping people to subscribe, unsubscribe and post to the
majordomo list. As the subscriber base grew from the original 30
subscribers to about 300 in 1998, Inke joined in administering the list and
- together with Arthur Bueno of the V2_Organisation in Rotterdam, who also
maintained the Syndicate website and archive on www.v2.nl/syndicate from
1998-2000 - mostly managed the list administration through these years. We
taught ourselves the basic majordomo commands, had our private mail
accounts jammed with bounced messages, and therefore installed an admin
account. Each time we would look into this account there would be hundreds
of mails sitting there and voraciously waiting for us ... but somehow it
worked. Problems started appearing on an entirely different field.

With its completely open structure (technically and socially speaking) the
Syndicate mailing list soon proved to be vulnerable. In the beginning of
November 1998 the list was first targeted: all the subscribers were
unsubscribed. Luckily we had been extracting the "who"-file on an almost
daily basis and thus were able to reconstruct the list quickly. In
September 2000 the list software on the server faced a serious crash which
the sysops in Linz could not take care of because of the festival they were
in at the time. So we decided to relocate the list onto a server to which
we would have easier access for administration and configuration. Since
then, the Syndicate list was hosted by an ISP in Berlin (openoffice.de)
which also soon gave us the opportunity to switch from Majordomo to the
more easily administratable Mailman software.

But the Syndicate was much more than a piece of software: it was a network
of people. The Syndicate was founded in January 1996 on the last day of the
Next 5 Minutes 2 Festival in Rotterdam. It was a network which devoted
itself to fostering contacts and co-operation, improvements in
communication and an exchange between institutions and individuals in
Eastern and Western Europe active in the media and media culture. By
allowing regular e-mail communication between participants regarding
forthcoming events and collaborative projects the Syndicate mailing list
developed into an important channel and information resource for announcing
and reporting new projects, events and developments in media culture. The
complete mail archive is kept at http://www.v2.nl/mail/v2east/

Since the first meeting in Rotterdam in 1996, which was attended by 30
media artists and activists, journalists and curators from 12 Eastern and
Western European countries, the Syndicate network grew steadily. In August
2001, it linked over 500 members from more than 30 European and a number of
non-European countries. The original idea was to establish an East-West
network as well as an East-East network. In the meantime, however, the
Syndicate had increasingly developed into an all-European forum for media
culture and art. Over the last few years the division between East and West
had been growing less important as people cooperated in ever-changing
constellations, in ad-hoc as well as long-lasting partnerships.

Syndicate meetings and workshops have been held regularly, in most cases as
part of festivals and conferences. The main meetings have taken place at
half-yearly intervals in Rotterdam (Sept. 96), Liverpool (April 97), Kassel
(July 97), Dessau (Nov. 97), Tirana (May 98), Skopje (Oct. 98), Budapest
(April 99), and Helsinki (Oct. 99), with many smaller meetings and joint
projects, presentations and workshops happening in between. Readers edited
by Inke and published on the occasion of some of the meetings (Rotterdam
1996, Ostranenie Dessau 1997, Junction Skopje 1998) have collected the most
important texts from the mailing list in printed form. 

It was worth condensing Syndicate stuff in this way because most of the
time the mail traffic was dominated by announcements. Attempts to turn the
Syndicate list into a discussion list and encouragements for people to send
their personal reports, views, perceptions of what was happening, were met
by only limited response. In the beginning, when many people on the list
still knew each other personally, this strategy was more successful, later,
with the exploding rate of lurkers, less.

While in the first three years of its existence, the Syndicate held its
meetings quite regularly (almost every six months!), and organised panels
and workshops with its members, since 1999 the Syndicate list came to be
more like a sleeping beauty which in times of crisis would awake and show
its full potential. Suddenly, when necessary, everybody was back on,
communicating almost breathlessly with each other ("Have you heard about
X?" - "The cultural center Y was closed!" - "Z received his mobilisation
call.") The list was last activated in order to support Edi Muka,
Tirana-based long term Syndicalist, who had been sacked from his post at
the cultural center Pyramid by some politically malevolent officials. 

The meetings and personal contacts off-list were an essential part of the
Syndicate network: they grounded the Syndicate in a network of friendly and
working relationships, with strong ties and allegiances that spanned across
Europe and made many cooperations between artists, initiatives and
institutions possible. The Syndicate thus opened multiple channels between
artists and cultural producers in Europe and beyond, which is probably its
greatest achievement. It connected people and made them aware of each
other's practice, creating multiple options for international cooperation
projects.

A structure like that can work so long as it is supported and protected by
a sufficient number of participants. It needs an ethical consensus about
what is and what isn't possible on the list, which kinds of actions support
and which may tilt the social equilibrium. The case of Andrej Tisma, a
Yugoslav artist from multi-cultural Novi Sad and a defender of the
Milosevic regime throughout the late 90s, is a case in point: many
perceived his tirades against the West and against NATO as pure Serbian
propaganda which became unbearable at some point. Later, Tisma came back to
the list and continued his criticisms by posting links to anti-NATO web
pages he had created. For us, he was always an interesting sign post of
Serb nationalist ideology which it was good to be aware of. And it was good
that he showed that people can be artists 'like you and me', and be Serb
nationalists at the same time. The Syndicate could handle his presence
after he agreed to tune down his rants. 

However, this consensus was further eroded through the last two years. The
nn episode on Syndicate in August 2001, then, was a symptom, but not the
reason for the death of Syndicate. This started way before August 2001. Not
only that there were no more meetings after 1999, one could also notice
that since mid 1999 people felt less and less responsible for the list.
Many Syndicalists of the first hour grew more silent (this was partly
incited by the hefty discussions during the NATO bombings in Yugoslavia),
perhaps more weary, perhaps less naive, many also changed their personal
circumstances and got involved in other things (new jobs, new families, new
countries ...). At the same time, the number of subscribers kept growing:
more and more newbies kept flowing onto the Syndicate list. 

The major change that occurred on the Syndicate around that time (1999) was
the transition from a network of people and of trust to a more and more
anonymous mailing list, a list for announcements like so many others. A
growing majority of Syndicate subscribers now tended to see the mailing
list merely as a quick and handy tool for spreading self promotion. The
mailing list was to serve them for promotional goals, rather than as a tool
of communication. When calls went out for support in the adminstration of
the list, far too few people responded at all. Many people still do not
understand the voluntary nature of the Syndicate initiative, and that the
whole project depended on the sharing of work and responsibility. Too many
people took the efforts of too few people for granted. Investing time and
energy in the administration of such a list became more and more
frustrating. When some fellow Syndicalists joined the admin team early
2001, we could have realised that the project had peaked and should have
been transformed into something different altogether.

The net entity nn (Netochka Nezvanova, integer, antiorp, etc.), a pseudonym
used by an international group of artists and programmers in their
extensive and aggressive mailing list-based online-performances and for
other art projects, had been subscribed to the Syndicate list in 1997. It
was, as the first of less than a handful of people ever, unsubscribed
against its will because it was spamming the list so heavily that all
meaningful communication was blocked. In January 2001, nn sent an e-mail
asking to again be subscribed to the Syndicate mailing list. (What nn never
bothered to realise was that subscription to the list had always been open
so that, at any point, it could have subscribed itself - we have always
wondered why Majordomo is such a blind spot in this technophile entity's
arsenal.) After getting assurances from nn that she was not out to misuse
the list, we subscribed it to the Syndicate list. 

Naively, as we had to realise. nn went from one or two messages every day
in February to an average of three to five message in April and up to eight
and ten messages per day in May and June - and that on a list which had a
regular daily traffic of three to five messages a day. The distributed
nature of the nn collective makes it possible for them to keep posting 24
hours a day - great for promoting your online presence, irritating for
people who have a less frantic life rhythm. nn's messages are always
cryptic, sometimes amusing, often tediously repetitive in their quirky
rhetorics and style, and generally irritating for the majority of people.
Its activity on the Syndicate - like on many other lists it has used and
terrorised - soon came to look like a hijack. But the sheer mass of traffic
nn was generating, the sheer amount of nn's presence, was overwhelming.
Perhaps this phenomenon could be compared to SMEGL, short for super mental
grid lock, a term that was developed to describe traffic jam situations in
NYC back in the eighties (or was this term coined in Berlin-Kreuzberg's
famous Fischbuero? Who knows, the boundaries get blurred...). 

In the spring of 2001, nn's and other people's activities who use open,
unmoderated mailing lists for promulgating their self-promotional e-mails,
triggered discussions about 'spam art', on Syndicate as well as on other
lists. Actually, given the extreme openness and vulnerability of a
structure like the Syndicate it remains quite astonishing that this
structure survived for such a long time. What happened in the course of
2000/2001 (not only to Syndicate, but also to several other mailing lists)
was that the openness of these lists, i.e. the fact that they were
unmoderated, was massively abused, and, finally, destroyed, by relentless
'creative' spamming. One of the basic principles of the Internet - its
openness - suddenly seemed to become a mere tool for attacking this very
principle. 'Netiquette' did not seem to be of much value anymore and was
sacrificed for the egotistical self-expression of (distributed) artist
egos. The irony of this process is that, like any good parasite, this
artistic practice depends on the existence of lively online communities: it
not only bites, but kills the hand that feeds it. - These parasite nomads
will find new hosts, no doubt, but they have over the past year helped to
erode the social fabric of the wider net cultural population so much that
communities have to protect themselves from attacks and hijacks more
aggressively than before. Their adolescent carelessness is partly
responsible for the withering of the romantic utopia of a completely open,
sociable online environment. However educational that may be, we despise
the deliberation with which these people act.

nn got unsubscribed from the Syndicate without warning on a day when there
had been nothing but ten messages from her. After some days of silence and
sighs of relief, angry protests by nn came through. On the list,
accusations of censorship and/or dictatorship were made. A small but noisy
faction denounced unsubscribing nn as an act against the freedom of speech.
They called the administrators fascists, murderers, and 'threatened' to
report the case to 'Index on Censorship'. While some other list members
welcomed the departure of nn on and off the list and the admin team again
and again explained their move, the ludicrous allegations and vociferous
insults continued. 

The real shock for us was that the majority of list subscribers did not
participate in the discussion and thus silently seemed to accept what was
going on. It was personally hurtful not to receive more support against the
insults raised against us, but more frustrating was the indifference that
made the whole process possible. Within few days, the alienation from the
atmosphere on the list was so great that we admitted defeat, re-subscribed
nn and began to withdraw from the Syndicate. The list was moved to a
different server and is now administered by other people at
anart.no/~syndicate. We wanted to avoid further verbiage and conflict and
therefore gave up the name, but we insist that from our perspective the
Syndicate project that was founded in 1996 ended in August 2001. What
remains under its name is a zombie kept alive by misconceptions about what
the Syndicate really was. Maybe we should have stopped the project
altogether in the summer?

Filtering has, in a way, done us in. Before there were effective e-mail
clients that could filter out lists and other mail communication, everybody
on the list got everything more or less instantly, which also meant a
higher level of social awareness and social control of what goes on on the
list. Today, many people filter the lists they subscribe to and only look
at the postings at irregular intervals - some mailboxes don't get opened
for months. Like this, people consume the list passively and do not even
notice a fiasco like the one that we experienced on the Syndicate list in
the summer. I guess that some people who remain subscribed to the Syndicate
list still have not noticed that anything has changed. For a social
community, that kind of behaviour - automated deferance - can be fatal.
"There's a spectre haunting Europe ..."

In August 2001, after unsubscribing from the Syndicate, we initiated a new
mailing list under the name SPECTRE. It is an open, unmoderated list for
media art and culture in Deep Europe. SPECTRE offers a channel for
practical information exchange concerning events, projects and initiatives
organized within the field of media culture, and hosts discussions and
critical commentary about the development of art, culture and politics in
and beyond Europe. Deep Europe is not a particular territory, but is based
on an attitude and experience of layered identities and histories -
ubiquitous in Europe, yet in no way restricted by its topographical
borders. (The term Deep Europe was coined by Anna Balint in 1996. It was
passed on by Geert Lovink. It was used by Andreas Broeckmann and Inke Arns.
It was interpreted by Luchezar Boyadjiev. It was used more by Sally Jane
Norman, Iliyana Nedkova, Nina Czegledy, Edi Muka, and many others.)

SPECTRE is a channel for people involved in old and new media in art and
culture. Importantly, many people on this list know each other personally.
SPECTRE aims to facilitate real-life meetings and favours real face-to-face
(screen-to-screen) cooperation, test-bed experiences and environments to
provoke querying of issues of cultural identity/identification and
difference (translatable as well as untranslatable or irreducible). The new
list was immediately welcomed by many frustrated Syndicalists who quickly
made the move.

SPECTRE is an unmoderated, but by not means open mailing list. With the
Syndicate experience in mind we felt the need to explicitely formulate some
basic, apparently no longer self-evident netiquette rules, like "meaningful
discussions require mutual respect," and "self-advertise with care!" The
list is initially hosted by the two of us who also have to approve requests
for subscription. The blurb explicitely reads: "Subscriptions may be
terminated or suspended in the case of persistent violation of netiquette."
We regret that we have to introduce such a system of control but see no
other effective way of protecting something that is dear to us. A lack of
sensible protection brought down the Syndicate. Information about SPECTRE:
http://coredump.buug.de/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/spectre

We try to continue the good Syndicate tradition of amiable exchange and are
more hesitant about the illusion of being an 'online community'. We
maintain our romantic belief in lasting friendships and insist on the need
to infuse networks with a strong sense of conviviality. We believe in
people and their needs more than we believe in art.

Inke Arns, Andreas Broeckmann

Berlin, November 2001</content>
</mail>
<mail>
<nbr>7.1</nbr>
<subject>[spectre] Rise and Decline of the Syndicate-SOME THOUGHTS</subject>
<from>KINGA ARAYA</from>
<to>spectre@mikrolisten.de</to>
<date>Tue, 13 Nov 2001 15:35:42 -0500 (EST)</date>
<content>Dear Inke and Andreas,

I have been a rather 'silent' member on your ex-Syndicate list. After the
unpleasant events with Miss nn et al., I abandoned the Syndicate list and
I gladly joined the Spectre list you created. I do appreciate time you
took in writing to all of us about the summer events on the old Syndicate
list. I actually did not have a clear idea what was really going on except
that I was sensing that SOMETHING was going wrong with the virtual
community you created. I did not know who the nn-crowd was and what they
really wanted.

Even though I was not a very active member of the Syndicate, I always
appreciated the pieces of information you provided. THANK YOU VERY MUCH TO
ANDREAS and INKE FOR YOUR WORK. And since I am an artist and a doctoral
student who is always 'on the run', I regret that fact that when nn
abusive e-mails where polluting my e-mail box I was simply deleting them
and kept going on with my busy life in-between languages, countries and
cultures. (I do not live on internet).

Your e-mail Inke MADE ME understand that the silence of the members is no
longer possible. Yes, we DO have certain responsibilities to each other,
we-virtual and invisible specters. I think that your e-mail touches on a
very critical issue of ethical and aesthetic responsibilities of virtual
e-mails that have never been dealt successfully (at least to my
knowledge).

Well, now when I finally CAME OUT what would be my/our next step?

I believe that all the Spectre subscribes share certain responsibilities
to each others (it is already voiced in Inke's mail) and I am not sure
what to propose given the large number of member of Specters. We cannot
send each others personal e-mails and start interdicting each other - it
would create a virtual chaos! But I strongly believe that we have to DO
something.  As a flamboyant artist I would say: "Hey, who/where are you?
Let's go for a drink and talk about art!" Unfortunately it can only remain
a rhetoric call.  The only thing I CAN do right now is to VOICE my virtual
presence more often on the Specter's list because I have great respect to
people who work very hard to make sure that we get important and wonderful
information about our cultural and political status quo.

Thank you and best wishes to Inke, Andreas and all the 250 (+) member of
the Specter,

Kinga Araya (an interdisciplinary artist currently working and studying in
Montreal, Canada)</content>
</mail>
</mails>
</chapter>