The Anarchist Computer Network - A Year Later
Will Kemp
A year ago, i wrote an article called "A Proposal To Set
Up An Anarchist Computer Network", which was
originally published in the australian paper"The
Anarchist". I've recently discovered it was also
reprinted by thebritish paper "Freedom", the italian
"Umanita Nova" and the french "Monde Libertaire".
As the net has now become a reality in Australia and my
ideasand knowledge have developed a long way beyond
the point they were at a year ago, i feel it's time to write
a follow-up.
The @NET really began in Melbourne, Australia's second
biggest city, with an anarchist BBS called "The Xchange".
This started in early 1993 as a dial-in bulletin board system
(BBS), which allowed people with their own computers and
modems to call in via the telephone system to swap
messages and read text files. For a couple of years, it ran
this way, with no network connections - and not very many
users. Late in 1994, we connected it up the the Internet,
giving the users access to international email which allows
them to send and receive electronic mail to and from other
Internet users all round the world. At this point, the number
of users grew dramatically.
A couple of months before The Xchange was connected to
Internet, in about November 1994, "Byteback" BBS began
in Brisbane, two thousand kilometres to the north of
Melbourne, operating from Holus Bolus Anarchist
Bookshop. It had an Internet connection from the beginning
and provided the same service as The Xchange, allowing
people to dial in from home with their own computers.
However, this bulletin board could also be used by coming
into the shop and this allowed people who didn't have
computers to get access to the network. Sadly, Holus Bolus
closed down at the end of July this year, leaving Byteback
homeless and without its dial-in line. However, it's still
running and is available to the anarchist movement in
Brisbane and hopefully one day it will be fully operational
again.
During this period, things were happening in Sydney too.
"The Media Room" was established by an anarchist
collective who were working towards setting up an open
access multi-media resource centre. They established
Internet links around the end of 1994 and by mid 1995 had
their own BBS running,
called "Catalyst". Originally the Media Room was based at
Jura Books, but is now operating from Black Rose
bookshop. Jura are now working on setting up their own
media group.
In February 1995 an anarchist bookshop opened up in
Melbourne, called Barricade. Soon after opening, there was
a public access computer terminal in the shop, which was
connected to Internet via The Xchange BBS. For the few
months between Barricade opening, and Holus Bolus
closing, three of the four anarchist bookshops in Australia
had public access, internet-linked computers.
However, although the anarchist communities of Brisbane,
Sydney and Melbourne all have the possibility of constant
cheap communication with each other, this network doesn't
seem to be used very much in that way yet. It's early days in
the development of such a resource and it obviously takes
time for people to find out how they can use it, as they've
been so isolated from each other for so long. But i feel sure
that if i write a follow-up again in another year, this
situation will have changed completely.
Strangely enough, access to this network seems to have
developed and improved international links much more
rapidly than domestic ones. The most notable example of
this is the link between European Counter Network (ECN)
in Italy and The Xchange BBS in Melbourne. The Xchange
now receives a constant flow of news from the ECN BBS in
Padova. The two BBSs also jointly produce a regular
English-language electronic newsletter which summarises
these postings, along with a full translation of one or two
longer documents from Italy's 'self-organised' left.
There have also been links built with La Linea Lliure BBS
in Barcelona in Catalunya, Spunk Press - an international
collective which maintains an archive of anarchist literature
on Internet - and several other anarchist groups and
individuals around the world.
* * *
At the time of the original article, i'd had no contact with
Internet and knew virtually nothing about it. Because of
this, i made no mention of it in that article. However, thanks
to the guidance of a few anarchist friends who knew more
about these things than i did, i quickly came to realise that
the job of setting up an anarchist network would be made
much easier and cheaper - and more effective - if we used
Internet as our means of communication. Since that time
too, general public knowledge and use of Internet has grown
at a fantastic pace.
The original technology (known as Fidonet Protocol) which
we'd envisoned using for the net would have limited us in a
lot of ways, due to the fact that it would have been more
expensive to operate and we wouldn't have had the instant
international access we now have with Internet. However, it
would have given us some short term advantages that we
didn't get from Internet. Firstly, it would have restricted our
internal network communication to other BBSs on our own
network, which would probably have meant there would by
now be a lot more communication between the australian
cities. It would also have meant we could have had closer
links with ECN in Italy, as this is the type of network they
have. La Linea Lliure in Barcelona also operates this
system and ECN in Germany have a similar network.
However, Fido Protocol is not compatible with Internet and
i believe that in the long run, all these networks and BBSs
will gradually change over to using Internet as their
communication medium. The reason for using Internet is
that it's become so much cheaper to operate than Fido
(which has to be done with long-distance phone calls) and
that it gives you access to a vastly wider network and one
that's expanding at such a pace that the anarchist movement
can't afford not to have a voice there. Internet is
undoubtedly going to become one of the most important
forms of media within a very short time and i'd say it will
eventually overtake television as the main form of mass
media in the world. Unlike television, however, we've got a
chance to have a significant voice in this medium, but we
must get in there now if we're going to get the chance to
develop this influence.
I'd like to see more anarchist groups around the world
setting up their own network links, as this will certainly help
us communicate with each other more easily and
effectively. And with better communication, we can only
build a bigger and stronger global anarchist movement. The
groups with existing network links can provide help and
advice for people andcollectives who want to set up their
own computer systems. I've written a book called: "Message
Sticks In Cyberspace - an anarchist guide to computer
communication" ("message sticks" are traditional
communication mediums used by australian aboriginal
people.) This book aims to take people who know virtually
nothing about computers and, with simple explanations, get
them to the point where they can set up a Bulletin Boardand
run a network. So far this book is only available from
Australia, but hopefully there will soon be copies for sale in
Europe.
* * *
Contacts
--------
The Xchange BBS
---------------
P.O. Box 1052
Preston
Victoria 3072
Australia
Tel (BBS): 03-388 0018
Email: compcoll@xchange.apana.org.au
Catalyst BBS
------------
Black Rose Anarchist Bookshop
583a King St
Newtown
New South Wales 2042
Australia
Email: cat@lyst.apana.org.au
WWW: http://www.usyd.edu.au/~cjmount/cat/
Byteback BBS
------------
Email: root@byteback.apana.org.au
En Linea Lliure BBS
-------------------
C/ de la Cera, 1 bis
08001 Barcelona
Catalunya
Tel (BBS): ++34-3-3290783
Fax: ++34-3-3290858
Fidonet: 2:343/121.80
Email: joanma <ellokal@pangea.upc.es>
Indian BBS
----------
(Tarragona)
Tel (BBS): ++34-77-550485
Fidonet: 2:343/302.
Email: c/o joanma <ellokal@pangea.upc.es>
ECN Bologna (European Counter Network)
--------------------------------------
Tel (BBS): 051-520986
Email: fam0393@iperbole.bologna.it
WWW: http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/ecn/ecnbo.htm
Spunk Press
-----------
Electronic Anarchist Archive
Email: spunk-info-request@lysator.liu.se
WWW:
http://www.cwi.nl/cwi/people/Jack.Jansen/spunk/Spunk_Ho
me.html
FTP: ftp://etext.archive.umich.edu/pub/Politics/Spunk/
The author of this article
--------------------------
email: will@desire.apana.org.au
Message Sticks In Cyberspace
----------------------------
by post from:
Black Rose Books
563a King Street
Newtown
N.S.W. 2042
Australia
$10 (australian) including post and package international
money orders only please
Digital Guerrilla
10,000 lire (about $6+2 for postage and handling).
Available in Italy in many squats, social centres and
infoshops. Those interested elsewhere can send 'e'-mail to:
lpaccagn@riscl.gelso.unitn.it (luc pac)
_______________________________________________