Archiving of documents of all kinds: tInformationsdiense' (information
service) in Frankfurt, for eYample, maintains an archive of alterntaive
ne~spapers, in particular the 'tageszeitung' ~ith a comprehensive keyword
index. The Danish Peoplets Movement uses computers to archive so~e of its
mate r i a l .
rhe parties represented noraelly first come into contact ~ith archives
via the parlia~ents. Variaus parl ia~ents are corrently opening data banks
for everyday use by ~e~bers and computers or videotex systems are used tor
internal com~unications. A nu~ber of different external dataLases cen also
be consulted ;ndirectly via documentation services. No~here yet, ho~ever,
do these new facilities forra part of the everyday work of the groups.
eoth private firms and the post office offer mailbo~es in their computers.
Hackers hsve been using this method for sorne time to exchange messages and
addresses.
'Jo`__ick demo___Ey': Hike Robinson fro. London has developed a special
use ot co~puters in cooperatives: using (~hat he claims is) an easily
understood and convenient syste., workers in large cooperat ives can infor.
themselves at any time as to the tinancial, order and prodoction situation
in their company and gain an overview of mansgerial information which cen
only be presented inadequately at works meetingS.
And at a second stage ~anagement decisions cen be simulated to give
~orkere an opportunity to put the~selves to a certain extent in the position
of ~ansge~ent and by so doing to establish ~dell-founded criticisr and
Buring the oseting, Parliement's data-processing division and the Con - ;ssio~n~lternatives.
presented a videotex syste. of this type 'OVIDE': this syste. is msant to
give the political grouns in Parlisment access to databases covering Computers as a form of de~ocratizstion? Certeinty this is not the usual
parlialRentary questions, resolutions and reports but also statistics and for. in which it is encountered today. The question ot ~hether in fact
legislation data banks. The particinants. resction to a de~aonstration of it con be used in thi5 way wa5 interesting but rereined unresolved for the
this syste. was lukewar.. Technically at least, 'OVIDE' was li~ited to a other p~rtic pants
few possibilities for internal use
I will not go into detail here on the various t-Lks yiven by representatives
Exeer--arUd--cdoP--at~on-n--yg-k: the co~puter as a noticeboard and inter~ediary. the to--ission and Parliement on the Com~unity's data processing, as
The cooperative assotiation 'London ICO'l' and the French 'boutiques des these dealt with material which is either aiready fa~iliar or highly
gestions' hsve both geined their first practicat experience in this ffeld technical. I will confine ~yselt to the comment by one of the participants:
ICOM offers via a ~ieroco~puter the addresses, a brief descrintion and
prodoct range of its 2 400 ~erber firas and cen be interrogated according
Sum~a r~
to varfnus cciteria. The 'boutique des gestions' ofters small tirms and
cooperatives adwice and contacts. The Europaan Confederation of Worker5' IPerhaps the ~ost i~portant and ~ost positive effect of this ~eeting were
Cooperatives, CECOP, is currently developing with Co~munity support ~ ~odel the talks and contacts between particIpants outside the meetings proper.
Of a European computer network, ELISE, to promote cooperation between seLt- The many friendly encounters which took place testify to the relaxed
run businesses and what are kno~n as local emotoyment initiatives, and is tost~osphere which prevailed.
trans''tt infor~ation on trade contacts, quallfications and product develop~ent,
~id possibilities, ideas, initiatives and projects in accorJance with ~The introductory quotation fro~ a represetnative o1 'Greenpesce', ~ho in
strictly decentralized syste..turn was quoting an oLd Indian, appositely describes the basic attitude
of ~ost participants.
There has been no ~ention of si~ilar networks in the political grsups 50
far, although these were generally regarded as very useful ~ The 9raUP' °f Nevertheless, there ~as a ctsar interest in ~at~ing the infor~ation avai lable
course ~aintain ~eabersh;p, organizstional and ~ournalist indeses and to us via our Ep Group secessible to varfous parties and grauns. As soon
ailing lists bot at the moment these only operate in one direction, i~e as we hsve brought together the necessary specialist and ~aterial requirements,
are solely geared to the administrative or propoganda needs of the we cen count on active participation in disseminating the ~ass ot data ~hich
organizations. we cen tsp.
relecommunicatigns~ ~a~lbgxes: The direct transaission of text, as packS9es There ~as also interest 1n an infor~al exchange ot infor~ation but,
of data via telephone (and ~ode~) fro. one co~puter to another is ~ainly used jntere5ting~y enough, the suggestion that this shou~d be computerized was
by ne~spapers to trans~it articies and infor~ation to editors ~ore quickly
and cheanly tban telex. The Danish People's 14ove~ent also ~akas use of this
aethod based on a ne~spaper syste. for it' other ~ork.
'poople ~ho don't have any problems invent the sort presented to us here'.
Over the last six ~onths the Belglan group 'presse prodaction' has been
offering a 'ne~spaper' ~hich cen ooly be obtained via co~puter. Current
inforeation on the activities of all Co~un1ty institutions 1s carrently
transaitted using this osthod to a fixed nu~ber of computer aceounts.
The fact that the central agenty ~hich disse~inates th1s service is located
in Canada shows how the retat ionsh;p between t i~e and space has beco~e
irrelevant for the transaissic.: of daea by co~puter. The real 1nterest for
this group ubich finances itsell trc. this somewhat coa~erc1ally oriented
service is the cheapast possiale transaission of data to the Third World
without being subject to central state agencies or censorship.
With the eLectronic asilbo~ tetecoa~unication beco~es usable interactively
as a kind of notice board indenendently of a direct connection.
These electronic ~ailboxes, accessod via telephone froa coaputers, uhich
one or ~ore peoole cen use with a osss~ord and denosit in a wide variety
of forms, messages and texts, ~ere desccibed in detail, particularly by
the representative of the Chaos Computer Club in Haaburg. He pointed out
that such net~orks have been used for years in the USA by opposition social
~ovements and alternative grauns. There, co.Rputer conferences at ~dhich a
nun~ber of graups cone together via computer for discoss~s and even joint
decision-making hsve also becon~e co~ - onplace.
rejected as excess1ve auto~ation. The idea was for a circalar appearing
ae 1rreqular 1ntervals.
The technoLogists present did not take a decision as to Yhether it wouid
be sensible to establlsh 1nforaation and comounication networks ~hich couid
offer ~any interesting possibilities, particolarly at international level.
Such networks are feasible even on a relatively si~ple basis. Whether they
are sensible and usetul depends on those ~ho have soe~thing to ssy,
so~ething to organize, something to exchange, something to transait, and
not on those ~ho control the necessary ~edia.
eenedikt Härlin
P.S. One pro~ising spin-off of the neeting: a joint production by 6RAEL
and ID, ~tth the support of all concerned, to publish an 'international
action handbook' contain1ng the addresses of the most important and
~ost reliable opinfon for~ers of the peace, ecological, alternativ~
and left~ing ~ove~ents in the various countries, eoncentrating on
Europe but also ~ith sections on the other four continents but no
longer tban 1W pages. A draft ~ill be available in September.
