A presentation to Urban Learning Space, by Pat Kane, author of The Play Ethic (http://www.theplayethic.com), on digital identities and practices in Glasgow, Oct 19th, 2006. See http://urbanlearningspace.org/assets/events/event.php?id=238917

1. Soulitarian City: Creative digital identities and practices in Glasgow Pat Kane, The Play Ethic

2. the ‘digital divide’ is now as likely to be drawn between exploiters/controllers , and explorers/users , as between those with or without access

3. On the policy and management side, the search should be on for identities that can ‘bridge’ the gap between an ever-more-potentialised ‘soulitarian’ workforce, and organizational structures of wage-labour and contractual coercion which hold less and less legitimacy.

4. The point of digital activism is not just to defend the quality of existing information structures, but “to encourage you to invent new systems” (Howard Rheingold) … So it’s interesting to look at coders/programmers, who are most likely to do so

5. Creative consuming Creative prosuming/ produsing Creative producing A continuum of digital creativity

6. A “folk culture of software” (Simon Yuill) - meaning a rich environment of collective experimentation and creativity - is as crucial to the pre-eminence of advanced technological sectors like San Francisco, Seoul or Helsinki, as either the concentration of venture capital or the presence of large corporate clients.

8. Oxford Internet Institute’s 2005 Survey on UK internet usage … little prosuming/produsing at all, No producing

9. Are these produsers/prosumers (template users)? Or producers (html/code writers)?

10. Drumchapel Project, Glasgow Caledonian University

11. East end soulitarians, S5-S6 4 boys, 2 girls, studying Computer Science All with broadband at home Interviewed early 2006

15. East end soulitarians, S5-S6 Much admission of darknet activity - free registration codes to unlock software, “hacking PS2’s down the barras”, downloads of proprietary material through p2p networks

23. Glasgow artist-activists: Simon Yuill The spring_alpha project "spring_alpha" is a networked game system set in an industrialised council estate whose inhabitants are attempting to create their own autonomous society in contrast to that of the regime in which they live. The game serves as a "sketch pad" for testing out alternative forms of social practice at both the "narrative" level, in terms of the game story, and at a "code" level, as players are able to re-write the code that runs the simulated world. The original narrative is based on a series of drawings by Chad McCail, "Spring" and "Evolution is Not Over yet", which also shape the game's visual style. The original stories and images become a framework that is fleshed-out by people's own ideas and experiences. The basic aim of the game is to change the rules by which the society in that world runs. This is done through hacking and altering the code that simulates that world, creating new types of behaviour and social interaction. How effective this becomes depends on the players' ability to spread these new ideas into the society. http://www.spring-alpha.org/pages.php?content=about

24. Glasgow artist-activists: Simon Yuill Chad McCall http://www.spring-alpha.org/pages.php?content=story

25. Glasgow artist-activists: Simon Yuill http://www.spring-alpha.org/video/module_04/huddersfield. ogg Introductory clip, 2005 Development page http://www.spring-alpha.org/pages.php?content=development Refs: Second Life, ‘The French Democracy’ “ I’m more about code as empowering people to do things, than merely being a utility for people – more ‘free software’ than ‘open source’. It isn’t just about distributing assets to people, but distributing the knowledge about how to use the assets… This is what free media labs are all about. ” All examples of “distributive practice”:

26. Glasgow artist-activists: Simon Yuill Inspired by Yuill’s ‘distributive practice’ - Radius Glasgow www.radiusglasow.org www. pollokshields .net www. greenmap .org . “ It’s the social patterns and models that I like as much as anything. The idea that people, once they’ve been brought up to the appropriate level of skills, can be involved in the creation of complex and powerful structures, is very empowering. I also like the ‘free’ aspect of it. FLOSS is a common resource that users can build on and enrich by their participation, before we get anywhere near commercial or business applications.”

27. Urban Learning Space - digital activity matrix Our coders are far up to the top right hand box - but do they ‘integrate actual business issues’!? Conclusions….

28. How does the community element of hacker/soulitarian ethics and practices fit within an enterprise, rather than a social welfare context? How can the kinds of independent, freely-acting, boundary-disrespecting practices of motivated coders and programmers relate to the imperatives of prosperity and wealth-creation?

29. How can levels of dynamic and creative expertise be embraced by those who most need to embrace it? What are the intrinsic motivations that can drive someone to ascend levels of skill and competence that can add value to their own lives, and to society? The hacker mentality of programming and coding, in a similar way to practices of musicianship in rock subcultures, is at least one tangible example of how a high-end skill can be generated out of the imperatives of everyday life in the digital society. Yet the contexts in which this skill is aspired to, and gained, are far removed from existing institutions and practices of lifelong learning and skills acquisition.

30. Contact PAT KANE [email_address] www.theplayethic.com www.theplayethic.typepad.com www.newintegrity.org