feedback

[human being]

  hi syndicate list.

  my interest in the list was to learn more about developments,
  current events, and interactions between Eastern and other
  European views. as a lurker it was once imagined that there
  may be more information about this realm, in terms of how
  these environments are, and their difference from other ones
  like in the USA. for instance, a few examples...

  * this may sound odd but it never seemed appropriate to ask
  about things as follows as it is unknown if they are appropriate
  questions, or if they would be mocked for trying to discuss ideas.
  from this perspective, (in the USA) it is hard to see or imagine
  the different environments, and it has been curious what the
  limits of interaction are between cultures, if it is language-based
  primarily, or if there is a (totalitarian) political aspect in which it
  may be hard to write openly or critically about some topics. it is
  for this reason that a lot of critiques about the USA's policies
  are prevalent, it seems, yet those equally critical between the
  Western and Eastern European nations and elsewhere never
  make it into critiques of growing hegemony, or so it seems. it
  may be an inaccurate portrayal, yet it is curious what today's
  'cold war' environment has been transformed into, what is a
  vestige, limitation, optimal and hopeful aspect in this various
  perspectives. and how may media and other developments be
  in these states (of mind, of people, of citizens, of regions)....

  this is to ask, for instance, what are the views of here and there
  or at least this is a reason for one person to be listening. mostly
  information has been parsed on language and as a fun or a
  different creative list environment. yet there are some serious
  events going on that are not being reported, not by political
  angles alone, but by people on the ground, doing their works.
  maybe English discourses or ideas or power structures are
  so dominant it is hard to interact through translation or through
  very different cultural realities or assumptions. and yet it is
  very curious how people are doing, what it is like working in
  areas that are not the main technopoles, likely with the E.U.
  taking the lead in wired communications and Japan wireless,
  it would seem, or it seems that the USA is not dominant in this
  critical area (good for dynamism) and yet what happens when
  the enlarged EU involves transporting electrical power from
  former states of the USSR of the New Europe to Old European
  centers, hardwiring this new structural geopolitical relationship
  which is also related to technological development, globalism,
  possible exploitation or imbalances that are detrimental, and
  is this relevant, felt, visible, of importance, or not the place to
  share this, or at least- where are the divides still standing in
  the way of greater East-West+ connections. in the USA there
  have been a lot of people from Eastern Europe who have
  immigrated to here, and so this is an interest also, from
  having met people and enjoyed learning about things and
  wishing to know more about what is happening today, with
  a general interest.

* another aspect by way of example is that once I learned that
  the U.K. had a computer hardware company called 'Acorn',
  which seemed to have developed Acorn computer hardware,
  it opened up the eyes as to what the difference may be for
  visual culture or cross-cultural aspects of computing, too.
  that it is not just a U.S. hegemony (it seemed, once, possible)
  and today it may be China that has the economics of scale
  to go further (own hardware, buy processors, use Linux), to
  compete with the Microsoft/Dell or PC-clone market on its
  own terms, as a state-manufacturer, with state computers,
  (and likely backdoors for surveillance, too). there are both
  specific interests, such as 'what is the history of computing
  in Russia' for instance, or Eastern Europe, or Europe or
  elsewhere for that matter, from scholarly, first or second
  or third hand sources, to get some sense of the rest of the
  worlds of experiences, what do people experience day to
  day 'there' that is different from 'here' (is how it may be said
  if speaking to oneself). another way to put it is that, like with
  electrical plug adapters one uses one traveling to different
  countries, so as to be able to 'plug-in' to the electrical grid
  (and cyberspace), or with the earlier days of development
  and how a state-company may have been influenced when
  Tesla and Edison were pitching systems for sale in Eastern
  Europe (Russia, I believe Edison helped developed early
  street lighting), yet are there 'Russian' light bulbs that do
  not have the 'Edison base' (like a screw) on the end? are
  there Romanian computing companies like there were in
  the USA in the 1980s, and earlier, using custom machines
  as, with the monolithic USA-centric story (default, online,
  in English, it would appear) the USA has exported not only
  all the world's hardware and software but controls life in
  all aspects everywhere and all the time, which is evidently
  not accurate, but without hearing of other stories of hard-
  ware and software cultures (not just art designs but also
  computer and electrical engineering cultures) it is hard to
  know what is unique about Eastern and other European
  realities, the state of infrastructures- is it evenly distributed
  in terms of access or are there severe difficulties in keeping
  balance or even online communities in whole states due to
  political, social, economic cultures, which may be related
  to the past, or to changes, challenges, and where things
  meet online, is it another culture or partly connected and
  these are all curiosities as it is important to know this and
  respect it, in my opinion, to not generalize one model as
  the entire model, such as with issues of development
  around the world and the troubling aspects various stages
  may be encountering, and how to address/change this.

  - the other aspect is more specific and it is that the early
  and present history of electromagnetic scholarship in
  the arts, sciences, and technologies has often been said
  to be different in Eastern Europe and yet it is not exactly
  know why, where, or how to look for this information, and
  if there is information online, and if there are people who
  are doing interesting work along these lines. a project now
  worked on is meant to reach farther than US and West EU
  mindsets, and yet there seems to be a strong presence of
  some places and peoples and very few of others. having
  some experience with worldwide lists and communicating
  with people when running a site on architecture, it did not
  matter where one was from because of the ideas. and the
  richness of the ideas were sometimes paradigmatically
  different ways of seeing, that unless this communication
  happened, it is nearly impossible to grasp its importance,
  its cultural value, and once encountering this the desire
  does not go away to keep such networks opening and
  inclusive and learning about other people and networks,
  as part of a network of ideas, beyond geography, but
  related to people in different geographies. it is just that
  it is worried that there may be a stigma that the western
  countries have, or maybe privilege in itself, which makes
  it difficult to speak on the same terms, or share without
  distinction. yet this is partly why the syndicate seems to
  be a platform where this can and could and sometimes
  does happen, yet it is wondered if resources for people
  for do not discuss these things exists elsewhere, as i
  view these as all related to new media, and having some
  trouble with the term itself (where it becomes, and ends)
  that makes me wonder where the people are, with ideas.
  is it even new media that resonates, and is criticism the
  same if being critical means being in deep trouble. not
  that this is not the same in a lot of places, in different ways,
  and yet these voices are seemingly absent in discourses
  that seem so out of touch from the feet (not in one place,
  but in terms of how to interact online, and justify this with
  the experience offline, in relation to the severity of the times)
  and if this is seem as inappropriate maybe it is, yet it is also
  a wish to know more, learn more, and listen more to ideas
  and approaches and people and cultures. so i lurk. brian

  * this is also to add that the current list is oftentimes of
  interest and poetic and intriguing, not to discount this.