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The CADREnet is a collaborative project stemming from the CADRE graduate seminar in the spring of 1997. It is a system that utilizes pagers and accessible software to create a networked community. It is unique as a communication system because it is created by the users of the system. Every user has the same opportunities to generate, collect and manipulate the information handled by the system, as well as manipulating the structure of the system itself. When the system was initialized, it was decided to keep the rules surrounding the development and use to a minimum. A model more similar to anarchy than democracy. A model that initially and in stages would resemble chaos but could lead to an emerging consensus in the community formed around the system . This model would hopefully serve as a platform for a type of collaboration where the individual effort is seamlessly incorporated into the whole, as the individual gives up the "right" to his/her creation and allows other people to freely develop, manipulate and change it. The participants are equipped with alphanumeric pagers, the password needed to send a message, and access to the server and its software. This web document provides input to the server which runs software for receiving, processing and sending information. When the server receives information it forwards it to a program which contains a multitude of software routines and agents. The agents use the information in different ways, they can for example manipulate it or generate new messages depending on the input from the web page. The "agents" can also be time based and generate messages from scratch or retrieve information from web pages or newsgroups. The routines bring some additional functionality to the paging system, there is for example commands that allow the user to manipulate the message's representation in the logfile (stage, testing) and another that allows the user to send invisible agents to the server (obfuscate). The message activity is logged, but there is no distinction between "pure", agent manipulated, or agent generated messages. Potentially CADREnet is not only creating a community by being a group project but also by providing a means for sharing information and experiences. An open communication system, where everyone has access to all information and everyone can at any point change the very system itself, demands mutual trust and reliability from its participants to be able to gain strength. In a new communication system with no defined moral codes or laws enforced by an authority, the participants must be sensitive to each other; increased access to and distribution of information must be handled with care. The project is still in its cradle, but it has already shown great potential as an examination of collaborative strategies, group dynamics and communication systems. |
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Send a page (Password needed) For CADREnet members. |
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Send a page-Limited (No password needed) Send a page to the CADREnet and its members. Special commands can not be used and there are no agents acting on the messages. |
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Description of CADRE|net-specific lingo: Commands: activate duckieduck obfuscate rest sedate stage suspend testing |
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Coverage area Interface Description Member Profiles (under construction)
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An ethnographic study of the CADRE|net Holy Order of Zoe - a pager ritual |
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Links to related sites |
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E-mail CADRE|net: area210@cadre.sjsu.edu |
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Area210/Landscape painting as counter surveillance: A CADRE project. Switch: The CADRE graduate online journal. The CADRE Institute |