varia.website/content/2019/nooo2.en.md

Title: One evening, Two launches, Three takes
Date: 2019-09-28
Category: event
Slug: networks-of-ones-own
lang: en
event_start: 2019-09-28 19:30
event_duration: 2h
featured_image: /images/nooo2.png
summary: We are all very glad to invite you to the launch of the second issue of **Networks of One's Own: three takes on taking care** and **Fed Up!**, the 13th issue of the *Pervasive Labour Union zine*. We will celebrate this with an evening of stories and discussions around networks and maintenance practices.

We are all very glad to invite you to the launch of the second issue of **Networks of One's Own: three takes on taking care** and **Fed Up!**, the 13th issue of the *Pervasive Labour Union zine*. We will celebrate this with an evening of stories and discussions around networks and maintenance practices.

**Location**: Varia, Gouwstraat 3 (Rotterdam) <br>
**Date**: Saturday 28th of September <br>
**Time**: 19:30h - 21:30h

![](/images/nooo2.relearn2.jpg)

**Networks Of One’s Own** is a para-nodal[^1] periodic publication that is itself collectively written in a network. Each of the episodes is thought of as the ‘release’ of a specific software stack, contextualised in its specific practice. The series aims to document a set of tools, experiences, ways of working that are diverse in terms of their temporality, granularity and persistence. **Three takes on taking care** is the second volume of this series.

In our activity as artists, designers and researchers working with and around free/libre open source technology based projects, we often encounter situations where collective authorship gives rise to complicated interrelationships of ownership. Specifically, these involve the practical aspects of care, maintenance, documentation and overall commitment. 

Three of these projects, *homebrewserver.club*, *Bibliotecha* and *Relearn*, have been influential for the individual practices of those involved, but also for a wider international network of actors, including exhibition spaces, festivals, collective and both formal and informal learning communities. The maintenance of those projects, however, which is long-term and requires ongoing engagement, often lags behind since it is taken up by individuals on the basis of their ability and time.

This publication is the result of an act of active documentation of the networked projects developed in and around Varia. Active documentation means that we not only documented, but also revisited these projects, spending time on their maintenance and consolidation:

* *homebrewserver.club*, a periodic gathering where people learn together and reflect on self-hosting digital content. (<http://homebrewserver.club>)
* *Bibliotecha*, a project centered on the development of local offline digital libraries for the distribution of electronic publications within small communities. (<http://bibliotecha.info>)
* *Relearn*, a self-organised 'summer school' reflecting upon collective learning, that has as many teachers as it has participants. (<http://relearn.be/>)

With this publication we hope to improve their resilience, portability, long-term sustainability and accessibility.

The first issue in the series was initiated by [Constant](http://constantvzw.org) and documents the project 'Etherbox', a [collaborative writing and documentation environment](https://networksofonesown.constantvzw.org/etherbox/manual.html). The publication included a genealogy of the events, ideas and practices in the Constant network that influenced or reversely were influenced by what eventually became known as Etherbox. This way of documenting stresses how a project like Etherbox is the work of a heterogenous network of practices that each in their way contribute to its formation.

<https://networksofonesown.varia.zone/>

<https://networksofonesown.constantvzw.org/>

![](/images/plu13.png)

**Fed Up!** is the 13th edition of the **The Pervasive Labour Union** and explores topics and issues relating to federated social networks such as Mastodon, Pleroma and Funkwhale. It was made possible by the contributions of Martin Schotten, Eliot Berriot, Luke Murphy, Eugen Rochko, Julia Janssen, Gui Machiavelli, Inge Hoonte and Louisa Bufardeci, and Silvio Lorusso.

**The Pervasive Labour Union** zine is a project initiated by Lídia Pereira in 2015. It not only offers a low-barrier entry level for contributors wishing to express their views on corporate social networking labour, but also a low-barrier entry level for those wishing to become acquainted with these debates. It tries to gather existing knowledge and conversations, while opening up that debate and creating new discourses of user organisation and expression.

It brings together personal rants, academic texts, poetry, photo montages, collages, drawing, etc. Each issue represents a smaller particle pertaining to labour on social networking platforms and attempts to establish an interconnecting discourse around topics such as labour on corporate social networks, algorithmic governance, resistance and alternatives.

<http://ilu.servus.at/category/13-fed-up.html>

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<img src="/images/stimu.en.gif" width="150px" height="auto">

<small>This event is made possible with the kind support of the *Creative Industries Fund NL*.</small>

[^1]: See: Paranodes in *Contra-Internet*, Zach Blas <https://www.e-flux.com/journal/74/59816/contra-internet/>