Call: Projects for 'Unlike Us #2'

After Unlike Us #1 in Limassol. there is now Unlike Us #2 in Amsterdam. Unlike Us #2 will take place from 8-10, March, 2012 in TrouwAmsterdam.

Unlike Us #2 is the second event for Unlike Us, a research network of artists, designers, scholars, activists and programmers who work on ‘alternatives in social media’. Through workshops, conferences, online dialogues and publications, Unlike Us intends to both analyze the economic and cultural aspects of dominant social media platforms and to propagate the further development and proliferation of alternative, decentralized social media software. Unlike Us #2 focuses on how the facilitation of free exchanges and the commercial exploitation of social relationships, which lie at the heart of contemporary capitalism, belly social media. Next to speakers addressing this theme, several alternative media projects will be showcased.

Conference themes (9, 10 March): Social what? Defining the social, Artistic Responses to Social Media, The Private in the Public, Software Matters, Pitfalls of Building Social Media Alternatives, and Social Media Activism and the Critique of Liberation Technology.

Confirmed Speakers: David M. Berry (NO), Frederik Zuiderveen Borgesius (NL), Philipp Budka (AT), Thomas Chenesau (FR), Jodi Dean (USA), Carolin Gerlitz (UK), Seda Guerses (TR/BE), Anne Helmond (NL), Eva Illouz (IL), Walter Langelaar -Web 2.0 Suicide Machine- (NL), Ganaele Langlois (CA), Carlo v. Loesch/lynX -Secushare- (??), Alessandro Ludovico -Face-to-Facebook- (IT), Caroline Nevejan (NL), Arnold Roosendaal (NL),  Eleanor Saitta (USA), Max Schrems -Europe vs Facebook- (DE), Elijah Sparrow -Crabgrass- (USA), Spideralex -Lorea- (ES), James Vasile -Freedombox- (USA) and Dylan Wittkower (USA).

Showcasing Alternatives in Social Media (8 March): The best way to criticize platform monopolies is to support alternative free and open source software that can be locally installed. There are currently a multitude of decentralized social networks in the making that aspire to facilitate users with greater power to define for themselves with whom share their data. Let us look into the wildly different initiatives from Lorea Spideralex (ES), Secushare Carlo v. Loesch/lynX (??), Crabgrass Elijah Sparrow (USA) and Freedombox  James Vasile (USA).

If you an interesting project or work to showcase on March 8, please send us a description (marc[at]networkcultures.org). Please note that we are interested in critical conversations, not in ‘sales pitches’.