Baroque, creolization, cannibalism and technology adoption

“Baroque layering: The most basic way in which users can appropriate a technology is for them to use the personalization features that are provided to them with that intent in mind. As technical objects, mobile phones come with many such affordances. These include for example the ability to change the ringtone, screen wallpaper, upload one’s phonebook, set up short-cuts for most-often called numbers, download games, and upload one’s music, photo, or video collection.
(…)
Creolization represents a deeper transformation, a more profound form of appropriation. It refers to practices where the user recombines or reprograms elements of the technology. In this appropriation mode, by contrast with baroque layering, users are more deeply involved in changing the technology. They now explore ways to adapt the technology beyond the options that have been designed by the phone makers and service providers.
(…)
Cannibalism: This third form of appropriation is the most extreme in the sense that it corresponds to practices where the user chooses to engage in direct conflict with the suppliers of the technology (or at least with the power relation as embodied in the technology.) Cannibalism includes modifications of the device that place the user in direct opposition with the providers’ business model, destruction of the device.“”

(via Pasta&Vinegar.)

* the academic “Mobile technology appropriation in a distant mirror: baroque infiltration, creolization and cannibalism” by Bar, Pisani and Weber can be found here.

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EDIT: thank you Twitter Tools - it has been a fine mess with over 20 posts created overnight for a single tweets. let’s see how this will perform from now on.

* Recently Charlotte from Manystuff asked us to give more details about the ideas around &AMP - below I’m translating in english our answer to her request:

Financing and the notion of Crowd Sourcing
Instead of using a single source of finance, grant or sponsoring -we are seeking to establish a principle of distributed funding, like a p2p network. This principle is applied as well to the distribution since each share-holder/participant own a certain percentage of the real thing produced, and each of them is able to decide individually or collectivelly of the future of his or her share of the production.
A series of economic experiments
This project is for us a laboratory. The poster and the text of AMP001 (the first issue) are a first test tube. We are just starting to be able to draw early conclusions, it is for us a little bit like a reduced scale LHC: we are launching something and looking at the results depending on the parameters of the launch.
An extension of R-echos (http://r-echos.net)
R-Echos is a website, a selection of whatever we find, see, read and collect online, it is our daily best picks; it is a reblog that we have been maintaining for some years now. The poster of this first issue shows tangible objects that belongs to our every day life ans surround us: things on our desks, books in the shelves, visuals references that inspired us for some reasons - we consider those objects as being the sources of the project we develop and realise (like in programmation); we really consider R-Echos like being one of the source-code of Electronest.

french version:
le financement et la notion de crowd sourcing
au lieu de s’en remettre à une seule source de financement, ou à un principe de sponsoring - nous cherchons à mettre en place un financement distribuée comme un réseau p2p. Ce principe s’applique également à la distribution, puisque chaque Share Holder possede un certain pourcentage de notre production et est en mesure de decider individuellement (ou cellectiveemnt) du futur de sa part de la production.
une serie d’expériences économiques
ce projet est un laboratoire pour nous. Le poster et le texte de AMP001, c’est une première éprouvette. On commence tout juste à pouvoir tirer des conclusions. c’est un peu comme un micro-LHC pour nous: on lance un truc, et on regarde ce que ça produit en fonction des paramètres de lancement
une extension de R-Echos — http://r-echos.net
R-Echos est un site internet, une sélection de ce que l’on lis/trouve online, nos “best picks” quotidien; c’est un reblog que l’on fait depuis quelques années déjà. Ce poster contient les objets qui nos entourent et nous inspirent — c’est un peu comme un code-source des choses que l’on fait, on considère le site de R-Echos comme étant un des codes-source de Electronest.

* Here is also a short text I put on the facebook group a little while ago, it links the ideas of &AMP and the ones of etoy.SHARE:

obviously, there’s some sort of inspiration taken from etoy.SHARE.
In the & Make Production project, shares are project based and they determine if the project is interesting enough to make it to the production step. if not shareholders will be able to decide how they want the money to be used: refund, re-investment in the next publication or in the structure itself, etc.
Shareholders are sharing the destiny of the project which we don’t control anymore.