Add your presentation abstracts here! This will also help seed and develop themes for the afternoon roundtable sessions.

Karen Smith:

I am attending a workshop in the spring of 2010 on Values in Design (run by Helen Nissenbaum and Geoff Bowker).  My project group is looking at Crabgrass as a 'software' object which interests us because of the privacy values which are emphasized in the design and use of the collaboration software intended for social organization and activism.  My presentation will explore our very preliminary research ideas.      

Fenwick McKelvey:

Governments and Internet Service Providers have begun installing a new class of network management appliances, known as Deep Packet Inspection (DPI). These technologies intensify the inspection and management of Internet traffic to facilitate government wiretapping, Internet censorship, and traffic sharing. My presentation begins a

discussion of how these technologies facilitate new forms of social control.

Colleen McLay: 

*I'll be looking at two normalized statements ("If you're against surveillance of any kind, you're either paranoid or have something to hide," and "If you don't want more censorship on the internet, you support child pornography") and talking about some of the ways activists have circumnavigated those pre-set debates which pathologize, psychiatrize or criminalize dissent. 

Brenda McPhail:

Surveillance techniques often originate in small, controlled settings such as workplaces before filtering out into more general usage. I've talked to workers in specific workplaces--two call centres--about their experiences of working in a constantly surveilled environment. I'll talk briefly about what they had to say, and ask some questions about the degree to which this kind of situated academic study might help inform the ways we look at surveillance more broadly.

Kate Milberry:

The free software movement build values into code, providing social justice activists with an arsenal of oppositional technologies online, including anti-surveillance tools. But I consider anti-surveillance as a socio-technical ensemble, and so pay heed to the online social practices of activists, which enhance their privacy, anonymity and security online, and allow them to pursue their liberatory and democratic social movement goals.

Nancy Paterson:

I will be giving a demo of IXmaps, a project which illustrates Internet infrastructure focusing on exchange points as a locus of control. This work consists of a geographic map of North America, upon which are situated images of major internet peering exchange points called Carrier Hotels. The interactivity so far, consists of clicking to see which exchange points contains US based secret NSA (National Security Agency) eavesdropping rooms and which exchange points are owned by the Carlyle Group (CRG West - now called Coresite), in an overall map of approximately 45 carrier hotels. Discussion of the Google datacenter network will be presented. Google has recently announced the launch of private DNS, collaboration with the NSA and a new product titled 'BUZZ' which is causing concern among privacy experts.

Stewart Trew:

The International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG) has just issued an important and comprehensive report on the state of Canada-U.S. security collaboration on travel watchlists and other security databases. I'll be discussing these findings during the Surveillance and Civic Action event and hoping to connect with others who would like to put pressure on the federal government to be more accountable to those who get caught up in new security webs.