Intro
Dear reader,
below, please find notes from a journey to London, Oxford, Canterbury and
Paris, which I made 10 - 19 November 1997. The notes should serve as a report to
my employer, i.e. to the boardmembers of the Katto Cooperative Society, who must
have wondered why and where I suddenly disappeared for ten days.
On the other hand, I have decided to write the notes in English (usually, I would address
the Katto boardmembers in Finnish!) and to link them to my personal
homepage on the Web, thereby making the notes available to a
larger circle. As potentially interested readers I have in mind, in particular, the
persons I encountered during the trip, but also some other friends and
partners. Undoubtedly, by gathering these scattered elements into a
whole, I am also looking for an eventual thought or pattern.
(Talking about elements, please note the list of relevant links and adresses
at the end.)
So, why did I go?
I had several reasons for the travel, including a personal one: my fiftieth
birthday (10.11.), from which I wished to flee away. London seemed a good choice,
because I wanted to meet friends and relatives living there, especially my old chap
Henrik Stenius, who is presently the director of the Finnish Institute in London,
and his wife Kerstin; in addition, they kindly invited us (my companion and myself)
to stay with them in their home during our visit to that great and exciting city.
In London I would also have a chance to meet with my client, Ms Emanuella Giavarra,
who is a copyright lawyer and Secretary of the (EU-sponsored) ECUP-project,
which is run by the Bureau of European Library and Documentation Associations (EBLIDA).
The purpose of ECUP is to watch and defend the rights of the users, that is, of the
public, to information and knowledge. Last year Katto signed a 3-year
contract with EBLIDA to provide the European Copyright Users Platform (ECUP)
with its own website, electronic mailing-lists etc.
Thirdly, Leena Krohn (my travel-companion and private partner) had got an invitation
to attend a seven-day MUZE-seminar in Kent. And, since Kent Library and Arts,
which arranges this European (and EU-sponsored) exchange
between women writers and story-tellers (MUZE), had no objection to bringing companions,
I decided to participate in the event myself. This proved, by the way, to become a most
pleasant and freshening experience. The seminar held its internal sessions at fireside
in a country-side manor near Canterbury; the public performances took place in
various nearby Libraries, and in the crypts of Canterbury Cathedral.
Last, but not least, I had received an invitation to a "Discussion over
Morning Coffee" on 17 November, in Paris. This was arranged through the
cross-participation process (meaning, e.g. that the participants, including me,
had their economic price travel tickets refunded) by Inter-Citizens Conferences
(ICC), a Paris-based international organisation
which aims at creating a counterweight, at the level of the civil society,
to the Inter-Governmental Conferences (IGC) on European political union.
The theme of the morning-meeting was employment and unemployment. More precisely, the
discussion was about the Dutch case, considered to be of special interest because of
the relatively low rate of unemployment (ca 6 %), the growing percentage of part-time
workers (male 17 %, female 68 %) and the current social policies of that country. This
was presented by C.J. Vos, responsible of international socio-economic issues at the
Ministery of Social Affairs of the Netherlands. Mr. Vos also reviewed the preparations of
the European Conference on Employment in Luxemburg (which is actually still going on
while I am writing these notes).
My invitation to Paris came through Ms Fazette Bordage, the primus motor of Trans-Europe Halles, one of the partners of the ICC. My contact and correspondence with Fazette originated years ago in the Cable Factory in Helsinki, where K
atto has its office, and which is a
member of Trans-Europe Halles.
Obviously, I had enough reasons to set off on the journey.
And, what did I achieve? (+ reflections)
-
The result of my meeting with Emanuella in London will be an intensive rebuilding and enlargement of the ECUP website during the end of this and the beginning of the next year.
Emanuella had somehow got the impression
that Katto would not be prepared to extend the cooperation on the ECUP-website any further,
but I convinced her, that we (Katto) are certainly ready to do a lot to improve it.
To start with, we will add web-forms for the updating of links and news, and
a an own search engine for the ECUP site and the growing archive of the ECUP
mailing list. Emanuella has collected a pile of materials (documents, links etc.),
which we must try to get onto the web in one way or another.
The improvement of the ECUP website is all the more needed now, because of the attempt at
a tightening of the copyright-rules from the side of the political and
legislative decision-makers.
For instance, the EU Commission's new directive on copyright (in preparation)
will make it forbidden for the visitors of public libraries
(e.g. the public itself) to even browse the tables of content of electronic journals etc.
without paying a fee to the publisher.
Thus the public access to the digital publications would in fact become more
restricted than the public access to books and other printed matters.
From the point of view of the Katto Cooperative, which has among its primary goals to
-
provide the public with free Internet access through the library;
-
promote the production and dissemination [via the Knot-at-the-Cable and, in general,
via the Internet] of authentic contents; works of literature, art,
science and journalism, and other means for human empowerment, discussion
and action [quoted from the Katto's English web-page]
such a development means, of course, nothing less than a scandal.
-
No particular benefits (for anybody else than myself) were thought
to result from my participation in the MUZE-event in Kent. The encounter
with the primarily oral story-tellers from different regions of Belgium,
Ireland and England, was actually a bit shocking at first, especially for Leena,
who is, clearly, a literary story-writer. Yet when we listened to and talked
with the other participants we found reason to believe, firstly,
that story-telling is a growing cultural phenomenon. For instance,
Myriam Mallié from Hainault told me that story-telling is nowadays a common
form of entertainment at cultural centres, in libraries, and even at weddings and
other private feasts in Belgium. - This is very different from how it was
fifteen years ago, when I started my own professional career
as conteur, because at that time there were only three or four
professional story-tellers in Belgium, Myriam told me. Myriam herself
has recently finished a performance of Gilgamesh (with a percussionist), and
she has also published her own interpretation of the ancient poem in a book.
Secondly, it would be very interesting to get an overall picture of the
regeneration of oral story-telling (if one can speak of such a thing) and to
try to relate it to the so called digital revolution, and the coming of
"information society". That the condition of writing literature and of
literature itself are radically changing in these days, should be obvious to all.
It is perhaps less evident, that "information society" also brings a
new appreciation of the spoken word and the story-teller who, precisely,
is not dependent on the information technology for the successful
practice of her (or his) art. Writing, on the other hand, has always been - and
is today more than ever before - an activity based on technology.
-
The Katto Cooperative is to join CIC-ICC
(Conferences Inter Citoyennes - Inter Citizens' Conferences)
as its partner in Finland. This is the main result of my visit
to Paris - provided that both partners consent. Marie-Elisabeth Lautrou
of CIC-ICC promised to find that out very soon in Paris, and I
put the issue on the agenda of the next Katto board-meeting, as a
proposal.
I motivate the proposal with the following arguments:
- I think that the principles, aims and methods of CIC-ICC
fully correspond to what the Katto Cooperative stands for. You may want to
CLICK HERE
for documentation; also use the CIC-ICC-links at the end.
- The partnership with CIC-ICC implies an obligation for Katto to disseminate
information in Finland about inter-citizens activities in Europe, e.g. to
"maintain a map of events taking place". I think that Katto is well placed to
take on such a task, and that we have the appropriate means to rechannel the stream of information from CIC-ICC into the Finnish "civil society". Of course, the
exchange with CIC-ICC is also likely to be socially and intellectually valuable
for Katto and Katto's many members among Finnish NGOs.
- No new financial obligation on Katto will follow from its participance in CIC-ICC, e.g.
CIC-ICC demands no membership or entrance fee.
The above-mentioned new partnership (proposal) was not the only outcome of my short trip (it
lasted only one day) to Paris. I had a long and useful talk with Fazette Bordage, who
briefed me on the activities of the various organisations, which share common space at the
Maison Grenelle (17, Bd Grenelle). Fazette also borrowed 3 videos with interviews she has made
with leading thinkers on the contemporary problems of work and time (Andre Gorz, Jacques Robin,
Susan George); furhermore, she furnished me with back-issues (covering the same theme) of
the newsletter TRANSVERSALES SCIENCE / CULTURE, a booklet by Jacques Robin on
"Le travail à lépreuve des transformations socio-culturelles", etc. I was in Paris, after all,
on a fact-finding mission.
I had come through the night with a coach from Dover. Feeling a bit of a fatigue, I asked for
a possibility to rest in some dark and silent room for an hour or two. This is how I got acquainted with Francoise, a Spanish artist, who happened to pay a visit to the
Maison Grenelle while I was still there; she immediately understood my need for a quiet place, and promptly offered me to find it in her own apartment. As it happened, Francoise
is collaborating with a Finnish musical composer, and preparing an international
web-project with that composer and her husband. Katto will eventually also become
involved.
A Modest Proposal
The copyright issues are of vital public interest and of much greater socio-political
importance than is commonly understood. With all due respect for the juridical
expertise in this field, we must squarely reject the view that copyright is a too complicated
subject for the usual citizen. Instead, the question of the users' right to information and knowledge needs to be introduced into a wide range of social activities. Hence also the need
to link the ECUP-project with the CIC-ICC-activities, and vice versa --
the link
being
not a purely technical arrangement, like the hypertext-links I have added
at the end of this report, but rather something like an alliance for common social
action. Why not arrange an Inter-Citizens' Conference on Copyright, as a first
step? I have a candidate for the conference space: The Finnish Institute,
35-36 Eagle Street, London WC1R 4AJ. I propose that the event be arranged
around Easter, 1998, and financed through the cross participation process. All the
people mentioned in these notes are invited. Please respond as soon as possible.
Yours,
Mikael Böök
Katto Cooperative Society
Tallberginkatu 1 / 39
FIN-00180 Helsinki
Finland
book@kaapeli.fi
Phone +358-9-6947730
Fax +358-9-27090369
Links & addresses
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