admin: new info.file text for Syndicate

[Claudia Westermann]

Hello,

we finally replaced the info.file text on the sympa web interface at
http://anart.no/sympa/info/syndicate.

This is the text, which is also sent to new subscribers.

A few people have read this text before and did not protest,
Auriea corrected it to English ;)
and here it is.

You can still protest.
As you will realize it is much more about visions now than the old text.

greetings
claudia

-----------------------------------


Syndicate mailing list is a communication project of Syndicate network.


Initiated by a meeting of 30 people at the Next Five Minutes in Amsterdam 
1996, the Syndicate was established as a platform for the exchange of 
information between East and West European cultural activists.

Syndicate network primarily consists of artists, art theorists and curators 
with an interest in media culture. In December 2001 there are around 365 
subscribers to Syndicate mailing list from more than 30 different European 
and some non-European countries.

As an open virtual community Syndicate network is transcending national 
frontiers and provides, with Syndicate mailing list, an unmoderated channel 
for announcements as well as for discussions on projects, events and the 
political situation experienced.

The decentralized structure of the information provided on Syndicate allows 
for a diversity of opinions from different parts of the world and highly 
contrasts the kind of information provided in the mass media.

Participation, meetings and collaborative projects are initiated and seen 
as an important step towards a system, which can exist in a fluidic form 
without a need of authoritarian actions. Thus, Syndicate network is an 
experimental research project on the possibilities of building open 
transcultural communities by using the advantages of tactical media in 
decentralized structures as the Internet provides them.

In this network of individuals with different personal and cultural 
backgrounds expressed difference is seen as a value that provides the 
possibility to a better understanding.

In August 2001 the administration team of Syndicate mailing list changed 
and since August 27 Syndicate mailing list and web space are hosted by 
Atelier Nord http://anart.no in Norway. In December 2001 the Syndicate web 
space at http://anart.no/~syndciate/ is still under development but will be 
filled over time with texts and projects like, for example, the KKnut 
project at http://anart.no/~syndicate/KKnut/index.html. KKnut is a kind of 
web message board, which allows an interaction from the web space to the 
mailing list. Message entries to the KKnut are accessible at the dreamBeach 
at http://anart.no/~syndicate/KKnut/dreamBeach.php.

A mail archive is publicly accessible at 
http://anart.no/sympa/arc/syndicate. Former archives are accessible at 
http://www.v2.nl/syndicate.

So far the main meetings have taken place at half-yearly intervals in 
Rotterdam (Sept. 1996) Liverpool (April 97), Kassel (July 97), Dessau (Nov. 
97), Tirana (May 98), Skopje (Oct. 98), Budapest (April 99), and Helsinki 
(Oct. 99), Plovdiv (June 2001)
with many smaller meetings and joint projects, presentations and workshops 
happening in between.

Three Readers have been published and collected a selection of important 
texts from the mailing list in printed form:

- V2_East Reader September 1996
- Deep Europe October 1997
- Junction Scopje October 1998

They are also accessible online at V2 in Rotterdam 
http://colossus.v2.nl/syndicate/synr0.html.