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                Date: 1998-07-13
                 
                 
                .it: Kommune Rom dreht Avantguarde/netzwerk ab
                
                 
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      q/depesche 98.7.13/3 
 
.it: Kommune Rom dreht Künstlernetzwerk ab 
 
$& schneidet sich ins eigene Fleisch. Die 
"sperimentali" waren bis dato der weitaus 
populärste Teil des römischen 
Stadtinformationssystems. Dort zählen offenbar 
noch keine Pageviews oder Visits, sondern es 
regiert noch die gute alte Politik. 
 
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The city council member responsible of Civic 
networks has closed the Civic network in Rome.  
 
Mariella Gramaglia, responsible of Civic networks, 
closed by authority and without warning all 
internet spaces that had been given in the past 
years to citizens and associations related to 
Experimental Projects.  
 
This event took place only a few days after the 
seizure of the Islands in the Net server which 
abruptly stopped all activities of many nonprofit 
associations.  In spite of two questions in 
Parliament and the unanimous judgment of netizens 
about the "foolishness" of the action, once again 
a whole web site (which contained information in 
no way related to the "offensive" page) was taken 
down in order to just censor one page (a 
deplorable action by itself). 
 
The thoughtless action damages the work of all 
people and groups who have contributed their time 
for free and who have been the true force of civic 
net.  
 
It can not go unnoticed that with this action 
Mariella Gramaglia simply destroyed the Civic 
network. Actually, Experimental Projects was the 
most popular section of the Civic network in Rome, 
the only spot of free expression for roman 
associations and citizens.  
 
At the moment, after the thoughtless action, only 
the institutional web site of the Rome 
administration remains online. Mrs. Gramaglia does 
not seem to understand that an institutional site 
is not a civic network.  
 
Besides, the reason of the action is laughable: 
priest Don Fortunato Noto, who started an 
association called Telefono Arcobaleno (Rainbow 
Telephone) in Avola (Sicily) fighting pedophilia 
in sometimes worrying ways (books pyre, press 
campaignes against toys manufactures and tv shows) 
and producing often more hysteria than quiet care, 
decided to file a charge against the city 
administration over a page stored on the server. 
The "indicted" page is a quote of a literary piece 
published on a nationally distributed magazine 
purchasable in every bookstore. This is equivalent 
to censoring literary criticism that quotes 
"unseemly" works and closing all libraries and 
bookstores. The quote is part of a project named 
"Feminine and science fiction: writing patterns" , 
which is also a graduation thesis successfully 
upholded at the University of Rome "La Sapienza".  
 
The web page was part of one of the FRD (Roman 
Digital Forum) active projects, an area arranged 
by and for artists and knowledge workers also 
provided with a wide network of international 
contacts.  
 
The work of dozens of associations and citizens 
(included an association of the Carabinieri police 
force and one related to firemen) has been 
disregarded and the commitments taken by the 
councillor department betrayed. From that we infer 
the unreliable behaviour of the city council, 
which at first offers free expression spaces to 
its citizens and then it removes them without 
warning.  We only need to know that.  
 
Summarizing: - the city administration interrupted 
open-ended time a public service betraying its 
commitments with roman citizens - the reason 
behind this action appears laughable from a legal 
point of view and appears as an autocratic act of 
a city officer who has decided to change without 
warning the open policy of the previous 
administration, which was more respectful of the 
right to expression of the citizens.  - after 
months in her position, Mrs. Gramaglia still does 
not seem to understand the workings and the 
concepts of the internet and civic networks (this 
is easily understood by her statements to the 
press)  
 
We therefore demand the immediate reopening of all 
services of the roman civic network and a meeting 
with Mrs. Gramaglia and all associations and 
citizens that participate in the network, in order 
to calmly but seriously evaluate the competencies 
that are needed to administrate the network.  
 
The participants of Foro Romano Digitale 
Associazione culturale Edu.Co. Associazione 
culturale Matrix Associazione culturale Virtual 
Mondo Associazione Culturale IperAudio 
Associazione Oikos Simultaneita' Complesso 
per/forma Sciattoproduzie Luther Blisset J.W.L. 
Paardekooper 
-- Maurizio Mazzoneschi 
http://www.comune.roma.it/COMUNE/sperimentali/matrix
                   
 
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edited by  
published on: 1998-07-13 
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