The Anarchist Computer Network - A Year Later -by 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 the british paper "Freedom", the italian "Umanita Nova" and the french "Monde Libertaire". As the net has now become a reality in Australia and my ideas and 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 to 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 and collectives 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 Board and 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 Indian BBS ---------- (Tarragona) Tel (BBS): ++34-77-550485 Fidonet: 2:343/302. Email: c/o joanma ECN Bologna (European Counter Network) -------------------------------------- Tel (BBS): 051-520986 Email: fam0393@iperbole.bologna.it WWW: http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/ecn/ecnbo.htm Italian Anarchist Computer Book ------------------------------- Digital Guerrilla -- guida all'uso alternativo di computer, modem e reti telematiche. 100 pages A5 (15 x 21 cm). 10.000 lire (that is, about 6 US $, plus 2 $ for shipping and handling outside italy) -- in italy you can get it in many squats, social centres and infoshops. interested people in foreign countries can email lpaccagn@risc1.gelso.unitn.it An electronic html version of the book will be available on the internet in a month or so. Spunk Press ----------- Electronic Anarchist Archive Email: spunk-info-request@lysator.liu.se WWW: http://www.cwi.nl/cwi/people/Jack.Jansen/spunk/Spunk_Home.html Ftp: ftp://etext.archive.umich.edu/pub/Politics/Spunk/ 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. The author of this article -------------------------- Email: will@desire.apana.org.au END