UoNews
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[edit] New
[edit] Lewes Launches Its Own Currency
"The Lewes Pound, which was drawn up by Transition Town Lewes (TTL) and is made up of local residents whose aim is to campaign for a more self-sufficient community."
faculty news | recent and older news |
- The CFU is Closed! Long live the CFU.
[edit] Old
[edit] Reinstate Dr Agha Nasir of Balochistan University Pakistan, Repeal Model University Ordinance
[edit] Petition Begins
We condemn the Balochistan Univeristy administration and the Higher Education Commission Pakistan for sacking Dr Agha Nasir Assistant Professor Balochistan University for resisting the World Bank sponsored Model University Ordinance (MUO) imposed on Balochistan University.
We support the protest movement that has followed since Dr Nasir's sacking with the students leading the protest and boycotting classes and exams. We respect the student-led boycott that now enters its 10th week. We express our solidarity with the varsity teachers throughout Pakistan that have protested against the sacking of Dr Agha Nasir and imposition of MUO through black days and protest meetings.
We view with honour that Dr Agha Nasir, Professor and head of Urdu Department Balochistan University, is a member of the Executive Council of teachers association and was leading the protests and opposition to the MUO. On June 30 Prof Nasir was charge sheeted and transferred to Department of Sociology as a punishment. Prof Nasir was targeted because he was in the forefront of the struggle against MUO.
We demand Dr Nasirs' reinstatement, repeal of Model University Ordinance, restoration of the 1973 University Act and end to harassment and persecution of students and teachers at the hands of military Vice Chancellor of Balochistan University.
We view with concern that authoritarian rule, imposition of anti-people policies ignoring desires and wishes of the working people are being imposed in Pakistan. We express our solidarity with all the students and teachers and other elements of working class in their struggle against pro-market education and for democratic rights and quest for a just system.
[edit] Petition Ends
[edit] Background Details
Dr Nasir was charged with 'never taking classes, meeting guests instead of teaching, not allotting assignments to students, nefariously published his own book as PhD thesis and misused leave'. All these charges had no factual basis to support. Dr Nasir took regular classes and exams and did his PhD from Karachi University in 2006 which first turned down Balochistan Universtiy's request to re-examine Prof Nasir's thesis and then held an inquiry which also dismissed charges of plagiarism.
Teachers protest started in may this year when they came to know that the government has tabled the infamous Model University Ordinance on the agenda of the then Balochistan Assembly. At the same time new office bearers were elected to the Academic Staff Association Baolchistan University who raised objections and lobbied assembly members. The teachers protest proved successful and the Model University Ordinance was removed from the agenda but only to be brought back in the next session where once again the teachers protest forced it not to be tabled in the assembly. Failing in its efforts the Governor, also the Chancellor of Baolchistan University, imposed the Model University Ordinance on 5 July 2007. This was done with tacit approval of Higher Education Commission which had imposed the MUO on another public sector varsity, the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology headquartered in Karachi in January 2003.
World Bank, Higher Education Commission and Model University Ordinance Before targeting the Federal Urdu University the Higher Education Commission tried to impose the MUO on all public sector universities in 2002. That move was resisted by a countrywide protest campaign including national strikes by the university teachers. The Model University Ordinance, Higher Education Commission are part of the so-called reforms formulated by the World Bank Task Force in 'Higher Education in Developing Countries - Challenges and Opportunities 2000' written by two Harvard University Professors David Bloom and Henry Rozovisky. The World Bank through MUO aims to privatise public sector universities, its first attack is on the structure of varsity administration which (through the 1973 University Act passed by the parliament) gives teachers and student representation in Senate (governing body), Syndicate (administrative body), Academic Council, Boards of Faculty and Departments. The 1973 Act empowers the Vice Chancellor but makes it difficult for him to dictate government policy. The MUO takes away all representation for all boards and bodies and gives authoritarian powers to the administration. MUO has failed to reform the Federal Urdu varsity it was implemented on in 2003 where corruption, nepotism and authoritarian reign supreme and teachers and students are denied all rights of representation and expression.
[edit] Balochistan University Teachers Struggle
Balochistan University teachers and students are defending their rights by not accepting the Model University Ordinance. After the MUO imposition they continued their struggle. The varsity used military (Rangers) and disallowed agitation at the campus. Teachers were not allowed to use a room to hold a meeting and thus a General Body of ACABU was held outside on lawns and condemned the MUO. They observed black days by wearing black-armbands and the association hoisted banners against the MUO. The national association of university teachers FAPUASA meet on 26 June and condemned the imposition of MUO on Balochistan University and the harassment of teachers at the hands of a military Vice Chancellor who earlier had threatened all those protesting against the MUO. On 27 June the FAPUASA leadership met Governor to discuss MUO.
Dr Agha Nasir, Professor and head of Urdu Department Balochistan University, is a member of the Executive Council of teachers association and was leading the protests and opposition to the MUO. On June 30 Prof Nasir was charge sheeted and transferred to Department of Sociology as a punishment. He was charged with 'never taking classes, meeting guests instead of teaching, not allotting assignments to students, nefariously published his own book as PhD thesis and misused leave'. All these were false charges. Prof Nasir took regular classes and exams and did his PhD from Karachi University which first turned down Balochistan University’s request to re-examine Prof Nasir's thesis and then held an inquiry which also dismissed charges of plagiarism. Prof Nasir was targeted because he was in the forefront of the struggle against MUO. The ASABU held demanded his reinstatement and condemned the sacking. The association held a protest camp at Quetta Press Club and University teachers held protest-assemblies at the university entrance. At this Prof Kaleem Khan, the President of ASABU was given a show cause notice for illegal assembly and protest. Individually 24 other teachers were threatened through letters. Hundreds of teachers were harassed through chairs of departments to dissociate from protest demanding Prof Nasir's reinstatement and repeal of MUO. In a blatant attempt to crush the resistance the Vice Chancellor even tried to get 110 teachers sacked through a golden hand shake scheme in the Chancellor's self appointed Senate. In all these anti-teacher actions the Higher Education Commission was hand in glove with the military Vice Chancellor of Balochistan University. Nominee of Higher Education Commission is in the MUO bodies of the varsity while there is no representation of the teachers. Students have also been protesting against the MUO and cases filed in sacking teachers and initiating inquiries against others. The inquiry officers against protesting teachers are temporary teachers hired by Higher Education Commission's Tenure Track Scheme purported to promote quality research.
On September 18 Students Action Committee held a black day against Prof Nasir's dismissal, forced retirement, MUO and raise in fee. On September 20 classes boycott started. Thousands of students participated in the agitation that spread to various colleges. At this the varsity administration filed even more cases against the students. No exams or classes had taken place in Balochistan University since September 20 2007. An attempt by the varsity administration fizzled out the very next day when the varsity was shut down after the killing of a Balochistan Liberation leader.
[edit] Authoritarian Rule by the General
General Musharraf has tried to destroy many institutions in Pakistan. Judiciary, media are his recent targets. Before this he has divided and manipulated education, health and other public service workers. Political parties too have been the target of the military dictatorship and almost all have succumbed on various occasions to the threats and divisions when a popular movement wants their tacit support for success on single issues like the MUO on Balochistan University or earlier on on the Federal University. Teachers too have been divided by the Higher Education Commission through its direct interference in universities academic matters through Tenure Track, Retired Faculty Hiring, PhD Program, 4-Year Bachelor Degree Program, anti-plagiarism attacks, changes in rules making registration and examination of PhD a highly bureaucratic task. Balochistan itself has been under attack through a military operation that started in 2002 after people resisted mega-projects sponsored by Chinese, US and Pakistani military establishement. Thousands have been arrested and hundreds remain ‘disappeared’ by the military. Thus the struggle for rights over one’s land and over one’s University is against a common enemy.
Composed by Dr Riaz Ahmed, Associate Professor, Applied Chemistry, Karachi University, Karachi Pakistan.
ahmedriazku at yahoo.com 0092-333-2298922
[edit] Missing Pages Problem Solved
The problem with some of our pages being present but not easy to find, was solved a little while ago. It turned out that others were having similar problems. The specifics have been added to the notes on the uo wiki migration.
[edit] Uo Wiki Move
The Uo wiki has been moved to MediaWiki from the old phpwiki. Most of the translation was done with Mr. Wilcox's excellent php2mediawiki script. You might want to tidy things up a bit. Inclusions don't seem to work so well any more.
Please share wisdom from the move on the uo wiki migration page.
Thanks!
[edit] Uo Wiki Renovation Day
The uo wiki is in a mess!
Not only has it been heavily spammed - it is in dire need of gardening and updating.
There has been a preliminary de-spamming session, so the wiki is now more or less clean of spam. Please help preserve the uo wiki by taking a backup of it's clean(ish) db! You can download it here: http://uo.twenteenthcentury.com/index.php/PhpWikiAdministration?actionzip&includeall Why not do it regularly?
So - from 2pm - 6pm GMT on Sunday 15th July, there will be a wiki gardening session, with a move to a brand new wiki! More details on this red hot wiki nearer the time.
[edit] Resistance to UN intervention in Darfur
Press Statement by Darfur Peoples' Solidarity, 24th October 2006
http://uo.dczn.net/index.php/PressStatementbyDarfurPeoples%27Solidarity%2C24thOctober2006
Leaflet by Darfur Peoples' Solidarity http://uo.dczn.net/index.php/LeafletbyDarfurPeoples%27Solidarity
Deportation successfully resisted, January 2007 http://uo.dczn.net/index.php/Deportationsuccessfullyresisted%2CJanuary2007
[edit] SUICIDE ATTEMPTS AS HUNGER STRIKE CONTINUES
AT COLNBROOK IMMIGRATION REMOVAL CENTRE
UO De-Colonialisation: http://uo.dczn.net/
HandsUp if anyone still thinks this wiki should be editable at all
The frightening lack of action (considering previous latent editing activities) indicates that this is now a dead wiki. If so, that should be made explicit and editing functions removed for security and archiving purposes. 5 or more HandsUp indicates that it's still useful for it to remain editable. Go on. Show a sign of life.
[edit] Uowiki spam attack!
The Uo Wiki had a horrific spam attack. It was spammed offline for about a week .
Due to bad admin, it's taken ages to reconstruct what was here without the spam (which was two edit layers deep), and unfortunately it's made it necessary to enforce logins for editing. That sucks. Also, phpwiki, the wiki that the uo started with, is kind of old and a bit lame (although this wiki is now on the newest version) and it's difficult to move away from.. converter scripts are also sucky. All this means it's time to move on, and plan for a new wiki, or a new way of doing things that doesn't rely on spammable web technologies. Please make plans on the UoWikiNextSteps page.
[edit] Freemasons of the Future
Writer An Mertens has extrapolated on some of the ideas partly derived from the Freemasons of the Future text in a dutch-language short story called 'Bang'. Anyone who reads Dutch will probably enjoy this one. In other news it seems like there are now AI bots policing copyright: http://www.blackducksoftware.com/ (via the Wizards of OS mailing list )
http://petition.publicgeodata.org/rejectinspire.gif
[edit] LivingArchives Workshop #3
The last in the current series of LivingArchives workshops: 'towards a public infrastructure for knowledge representation' was held recently in Brussels, and is getting practical soon. More details about the meetings on the LivingArchives page, and a short report is available on the LivingArchiveWorkhsop3Minutes page.
[edit] New Decolonialization
[edit] WSFII: World Summit on Free Information Infrastructure:
WSFII Memorandum Of Understanding
"We declare, as an ongoing international process of multiple, local action oriented events which provide space for people to come together, to share experiences, present practical solutions, to learn and to build, all kinds of Free Information Infrastructures."
Complete text available at http://wsfii.org/ .
[edit] Open Season, October 2005 .
http://chinabone.lth.bclub.org.uk/albums/wireless_london/open_season_hand.thumb.gif
This October, as part of the EU presidency, the UK government holds a pan-European conference pan-European conference on how to consolidate regulation and control of intellectual property, copyright and technology. Looking for creative alternatives, NODE.London is declaring October 2005 an 'Open Season' on technology, media, culture, politics and art with a diverse and challenging series of events. Check their October 2005 page for more details.
[edit] WSFII: World Summit on Free Information Infrastructure:
- Dates/times: Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd October 2005, 11am - 6pm.
- Location: LimehouseTownHall, 646 Commercial Road, London E14 7HA
- booking details: http://wsfii.org/register/
- link: http://wsfii.org
- This event brings together practitioners and projects from the front lines of information infrastructure development to map out connections between Free Networks, Open Hardware, Free Media and Culture, Open Maps/Geodata, Open Civic Information and Community Currencies.
[edit] RiskConference - Sunday 28th August 2005
Risk Conference Meeting place oppostite the Lloyds Building on Leadenhall Steet at half past six in the evening on sunday 28th August. RiskConference is a platform for investigation, analysis and discussion - a unique format for integrating intellectual and physical engagement with ethics and architecture. It spreads the conference call all over the facades of corporate buildings.
[edit] Map Limehouse
Today, Sunday 17th July, as part of limehouse town hall's 'open weekend', you are invited to help 'map limehouse'.. walking, biking, meandering around with either high-tech gizmos or tooled up with pieces of paper, we'll divide up the uncharted areas of east Tower Hamlets and go out on a survey. For more information, see the MapLimehouse page of the Faculty of Cartography wiki.
[edit] More Openmoney
Moving on from the LETSGetTogethers, there will be a lets demonstration and call for interest at the Limehouse Town Hall openday, starting this weekend - the 16th and 17th July 2006.
Also, the infamous Anselm Hook sent in some of his research on the subject: http://hook.org/anselm/essays/smartmoney.html. Well worth a read.
[edit] FacultyOfProblemSolving
- Date
- Fri 22nd July
Time: 7:30pm to 9:30pm
Venue: In a beer garden.
- We will be taking advantage of the current run of warm evenings by having our gathering in a beer garden. We will be meeting outside of Limehouse Town Hall shortly before setting off.
- Fri 22nd July
- Topics
- Governance Systems for Problem Solving|Why Not Open Source Movement
- Further information about these nights is available .
[edit] Mumbai Free Map
CRIT (Mumbai), Janabhaaratii Project (Mumbai), Locative Technologies (San Francisco), University of Openness Faculty of Cartography (London), Mahiti Infotech (Bangalore) and Seacrow Labs (Bangalore), have put together a Free Map of Mumbai , with detailed data for streets, buildings, and other landmarks in Mumbai/Bombay, India.
It's pretty amazing, have a look at the map and the project page | http://www.crit.org.in/projects/gis ] at CRIT (Collective Research Initiatives Trust), Mumbai.
All other cities of the world, coming soon.
[edit] LETS workshops at LimehouseTownHall every tuesday
There's a series of courses running at LimehouseTownHall every tuesday, run by letslinklondon and supported by the uo Faculty of Econometrics , as an introduction to office-like free software, in order to run Local Equity Trading Schmes (LETS), with a view to helping develop some software for fluffy monetary reform. Mailing list invitation here , LETs Link London page here and LETS announcements page here .
[edit] TheMapRoom-
(is open�) at 56a Infoshop presents "YOU ARE HERE but why? A Festival of Mapping" As part of the 56a Infoshop Free Skool, the curators of the The Map Room (is open�) will present a month long festival in June 2005, concerning maps and mapping. http://www.56a.org.uk/maproom.html and www.mdx.org.uk/mapfestival.html
when: Thursday June 2nd, 7-9pm, LimehouseTownHall
The LETS Get Together is a gathering of people working on, and with, LETS and community exchange systems. The first LETSGetTogether boded so well that we decided to hold one regularly on the last thursday of each month over the summer.
[edit] Journals for Patterns Recognised
The faculty BarnabySnap and http://socialfiction.org have just come out with the shiny new Journal for Patterns Recognised . Definitely worth checking out.
[edit] FacultyOfProblemSolving: A Chaotic Field Trip
- Date
- Saturday 18 June
Time: 3.00pm - 4.30pm
Venue: Institute for Autonomy, 76-78 Gower Street, London WC1
Facilitator: Justin
- Saturday 18 June
This Saturday some FOPS will be at a discussion on Complexity Theory with tabla as illustration - exploring relationships between music/percussion/order/chaos/predictability/unpredictability/the number system/prime numbers as chaotic/etc.... also the psychology of freedom thru creative activity for good measure!.
Its a London Anarchist Forum discussion and part of the Radical Theory Forum.
[edit] FacultyEconometrics
The next LETSGetTogether, a gathering of people working on free software oriented local / community currency projects, is on 28th April 2005 in the Map Room at LimehouseTownHall.
Forum on Open Geodata, Thurs April 14th 2005
JoWalsh, of the FacultyCartography has been organising a forum on open geodata in collaboration with the Open Knowledge Foundation , as part of their series of Open Knowledge Fora. It sounds like it'll be a good chance to see some strong presentations of projects that have intersected with many areas of Uo researcher's interests, and have some proper conversations afterwards too.
more info: http://okfn.org/wiki/OpenGeoData / | http://okfn.org/geo/
when: Thursday April 28th, 7-9pm, LimehouseTownHall
The LETS Get Together is a gathering of people working on, and with, LETS and community exchange systems. The first LETSGetTogether boded so well that we decided to hold one regularly on the last thursday of each month over the summer.
The uo has been collectively invited to participate in the Kingdom of Piracy's Game Commons project. The invitation is here . Come and play, but please, make up the rules on your way in .
UoJournal #2 - reports from the Economic Observatory
The UoPress has just published the second issue of the UoJournal. This text was produced and distributed in accordance with the to UoPublishing model at the 'marketplace' of the Arts Council's 'Ways Of Working 2' seminars hijacking the University of Westminsters photocopiers to run off 100 issues that were bound in a TextSewingCircle. If you want printed copies, make your way to the UoPress.
AmbientAttentionYoga results!
The Faculty of Vortical Integration 's fantastic AmbientAttentionYoga research project has run its 7 day course and has turned up some fascinating and surprising results .
Any ThoughtsOnTheWikiSpamProblem?
See the Meatball Wiki page on it.
Uo server upgrade
The server is being upgraded soon - to improve problems with the wiki going down really often. Sorry about this. It's being talked about a bit on the mailing list... and on the UoServersDebate page.
Cross Faculty Research projects?
CrossFacultyCollaboration projects now have their own pages.
The cross-faculty research project on tagging has working material here.
The FacultyForTheInterpretationOfImages is back from the dead
GOOM workshop
3 February 2005
19.00 (tbc)
Limehouse Townhall
London
UK
GOOM stands for Generative Object-Oriented Mythology. The workshop aims to understand what that might mean.
See: http://socialfiction.org/GOOM.html
Faculty of Unix term begins
The Faculty of Unix is kicking off a new syllabus on tuesday 11th January 2005. If you come you will find out how to use computers well. There is an invitation here
Starting Again
The Faculty of BusilessStudies is starting again .
Walking The Olympic Sacrifice Zone
Memebers of the Faculty of Cartography and special guest stars set about WalkingTheOlympicSacrificeZone on Saturday 12th Dec. There are some photographs of this walk , and a small report is forming at the faculty wiki.
Communications of the Uo
The Uo's first pilot journal is out now, and plans for more are in the pipeline .
London Free Map
A new project has kicked off at the Faculty of Cartography over on their new server to try sort out the appaling geodata situation we have here in the uk. All power to the Civic Survey! http://uo.space.frot.org/?node=LondonFreeMap
Treffen Hamburg 6.12.-11.12 2004
Our Sister U , The Manoa Free University has proposed a gathering / exhibition in Vienna from March - April 2005. A preparatory meeting will be held in Hamburg second week of December. This page is to help organise what kind of involvement (if any) the uo, it's faculties, students, staff and interlopers might have.
If anyone from the uo wants to go, it's only 99p on Ryanair.com and it should be possible for us to have a whip-round to generate institutional support for a visit. Let us know on the UoMailingList if you are interested.
Uo Publications
Another Uo article, this one a critique of the Creative Commons lisences is going to be published - this time by metamute . Last Saturday, editing closed on the Faculty of Cartography's re-edit of The Freemasons of the Future article for the European Journal of Higher Education. It seems a set of methods for publishing via the uo is emerging. Perhaps this is a job for the UoPress.
Faculty of Cartography Moves Servers
The faculty of cartography has moved servers to http://uo.space.frot.org. The old wiki will be there until new years at least though... move anything you want to keep accross.
Members from various Uo faculties attended the Technique Over Technology workshop at the cube cinema in bristol last weekend. A small report has been written.
Unix has moved nights
Last night a man with blondish brown hair and a nervous look about him was hanging around outside Limehouse Town Hall. When challenged, he admitted he had heard about the fabled Unix class, but hadn't noticed they'd moved days to Tuesday nights They have. Take note. More info on the faculty of unix website
Laboratory for the Insurrectionary Imagination
There's some fun / trouble brewing for the ESF. Should be fun. Sounds like a good opportunity for um.. research.
14th - 17th / 10 / 2004
The day will start with a Breakfast Briefing at 10.30am where groups/individuals who have proposed an action/project for the day will eat a delicious breakfast and brief and/or run a workshops with the laboratory on their tactics, past projects, ideas etc. and specifics about the day's action. - http://www.labofii.net/
Creative Commons UK goes live!
- Professor Lawrence Lessig, Stanford University Law School
- 12-2pm Monday 4 October 2004
- Edward Lewis Theatre, Windeyer Building, UCL, Cleveland Street,
- London W1
A field trip for the Faculty of Collaborative Research ? Definitely an interesting opportunity to sing praise or throw eggs .
The Vrije Universiteit (Free University) in Amsterdam, a large university with an orthodox-protestant background, is introducing new rules for Moslem students. The three main points are:
1. veils are forbidden 2. Moslem students must shake hands with university staff when they talk to them 3. Moslem students must look directly into the eyes of the university staff when talking with them.
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/09/297685.html
UoLibrary overhaul
The UoLibrary has had a software overhaul. The catalogue has lots of nice new features and doesn't look so hideous anymore. Check it out here: http://dlp.theps.net .
Technique over Technology
Maybe people from the Uo will be interested in coming to the Technique over Technology workshop in Bristol this November: http://irational.org/heath/techniqueovertechnology/
- "A day of theoretical and practical distillation of technology into technique. If technology is considered as a mediation device to mitigate against loss or unwelcome facilitation of exploitation then any departure should be a step towards freedom and wealth."
wiki wierdness
- wtf? the front page of the wiki was locked so nobody could change it. Anyone know what's going on? News indeed.
- I noticed this a few days back and assumed it was deliberate (had wondered vaguely if adding FacultyMemetics had triggered it). Assumed it could still be updated by logged in users. - UncleFester
CIRCLE LINE PARTY 3 IS HAPPENING
Not only is it happening, but it is happening THIS FRIDAY! Cancel your sister?s birthday party, cancel your mum and dad?s wedding anniversary, forget that romantic meal with your loved one.
Click below to find out when and where to meet and catch the train:
Click below for the official invite: http://www.spacehijackers.co.uk/clp3/clp3.swf
EXACT DETAILS WILL BE GIVEN ON FRIDAY MORNING
More details here, (check here again on Friday) http://www.spacehijackers.co.uk/clp3
The last two Circle Line Parties have been fantastic, members of the public enjoyed it so much they stayed onboard for extra laps!
The plan is simple, everyone brings entertainment, music, instruments, sound systems, decorations and food and drink to share.? We sneak onto the trains and only party when we are in the tunnels, when we are in the stations we are silent.? The general public are made to feel very very welcome, they are given sweets and drinks.? We fill up the trains from the back carriages and leave the front one empty, if the train is packed out, we wait and fill another train too.
The doors close, we hit a tunnel, we party, the doors open we flip back to bored commuter mode.
www.spacehijackers.org
Librarians meeting in Belgrade
The UoLibrary, the AntiSystemicLibrary and their staff have been helping to organise a meeting of librarians in Belgrade this July. Anyone interested in getting involved should check out the invitation and come along, or participate remotely. The UoLibrary catalogue software is also under review so suggestions are (as always) appreciated.
Really Old News
A whole bunch of really old news updates have been moved to the UoNewsArchive page. (This page was becomming impossible to edit in some browsers due to it's size)
