This text represents a first attempt to present the frame and the rationale based on which the computers room at the Social Space for the Freedom Micropolis was created, as well as an effort to describe the aims and operations of the room, as these have been determined by now. At the same time, it constitutes a first presentation of ideas and reflections which aims at the provoking of a collective open and dynamic discussion that will be in position to listen for the needs of the people who operate at Micropolis that are related to technology, and to modulate, according to them, the character and the objective of the computers room, but also to explore methods of the use of technology on the axis of the fulfillment of these needs.
Main administrative body of the computers room of Micropolis is the computers group, which is in charge of its operation, as well as of the preservation of its collectively determined characteristics. The computers group does not represent a closed group, but potentially includes all those that share an interest in the inquiry and the codetermination of methods of creative use of technology in the frames of Direct Democracy, Solidarity and Freedom. This directly implies that the computers room does not represent the computers group’s operation space, but belongs in all those that recognize technology as a useful tool that can be used for creative aims. Thus, we would like all those who operate at the computers room to be comprehended not as visitors or users of the space, but as participants and coresponsible for the preservation of its characteristics, but also for the good use of the computers of the room, in order to avoid their deterioration, and on the axis of the recognition and the respect to the idea of the common ownership of the resources.
More concretely, in this frames, we want the operation conditions of the computers room to be such that they:
- encourage a healthy relation with the technology, that will aim at:
- the briefing/counter-information
- the knowledge/self-education
- the communication
- the collaboration and
- the more general use of technology for action aims
- deter:
- the technology’s mastery on the human will
- the hemming in the virtual world and the substitution of the real one by this
- the individual appropriation of communal computer resources, demonstrating a lack of respect toward their common ownership
- any relative with the use of technology behaviours that bear fascistic or sexist characteristics
Moreover, the computers room does not constitute an alternative internet café, but represents one of the activities/operations that are realized in the Social Space for Freedom Micropolis, and consequently, it carries a frame of operation which is consistent with the general characteristics of the Social Space, determined in such a way that the notions of freedom and autonomy are promoted and on the axes of self-management, direct democracy and anti-hierarchy. Thus, the behaviors that are expressed in its entire operation, can only bear an anti-hierarchic character, that presupposes the decision-making through horizontal structures, without any leaders, entrusting or representations, presupposing the free and equivalent attendance of all those that operate in it. Moreover, the operations that take place in the computers room are anti-commercial, in the sense that, in any case, they do not aim in the acquisition of profit in any way. However, in the frames of self-management and autonomy that characterize the computers room, as well as the whole of Micropolis, one can also perceive its economic autonomy, in the sense that that the fulfillment of various economic requirements that have to do with the maintenance/manufacture of computers material constitute a collective responsibility of the individuals that participate in it.
Main objective of the computers room’s operation is the fulfillment of the needs of those that operate at Micropolis, as for the use of computers and networks, providing free access to computers that run free software and to the internet, but also accommodating the realization of sessions of self-education (interactive seminars) with regard to various technological subjects that will be determined on the base of each time’s needs. Thus, the computers room can be comprehended as a space of application, in the frames of Micropolis, of an abundance of ideas that are related with the creative and action use of technology, as are the confrontation of techno-phobia in practice, the acquaintance and the familiarization with the free software and the direct-democratic philosophy that conditions it, the exploration and the inquiry of new methods that could support self-management, autonomy and anti-hierarchy, the familiarization, but also the critical confrontation of an abundance of tools that can make our life easier or realize models and visions that seamed unfeasible in the past.
The computers room will be open daily, from the 12pm till 11pm, while in regular time intervals there will be organized sessions aiming at the benefit of support, with regard to the use of the free software that runs on the computers.
Finally, beyond the computers room , another responsibility of the computers group will be a room of repair, which will bring a double objective: on the one side it will accommodate activities of computers repairing, which will cover the utilitarian needs of the people that operate at Micropolis, supporting, in this way, autonomy characteristics as for the fulfillment of needs in material, and on the other side, through its operation, it will promote the choice of the re-use of computer appliances, in a spirit of anti-consumerism and ecology.
Computers Group of Micropolis
