This fund contains projects
that have to do with the Internet, the World Wide Web, and computer technology
in general. Its cutting-edge
nature makes this a dynamic fund and maintains its high rate of turnover.
The Net Fund is managed
by Thing.net, a preeminent activist service provider, and Rhizome, a prominent group of Internet analysts and educators.
"Use and develop this software that turns the Cuecat, the freely available barcode scanner meant to aid shopping from home and to keep messy information away from 'consumers', into a tool for learning about corporate behavior."
"Purchase e-mail lists and subscribe to bulk-mailing services (usually about $150). Use these lists to send messages informing recipients where their addresses were bought, how the messages were sent, and urging them to complain. Provide real contact for the companies that you want to receive complaints, as well as legislators' contact info and other anti-spam resources."
"Save up all those pesky soon-to-be-in-your-local-landfill AOL disks that come streaming endlessly to your mailbox. Get a large group of people to do the same thing. Send them all back at the same time. (A website has taken this project global.)"
"How many people have been displaced from their reasonably priced rentals in the speculative market of dot com San Francisco alone since the going baud rate was 14,400? If 14,400 people who once lost their rentals to gentrification--through evictions, owner move-ins, renovations, condo-izing, etc.--each put in $50, we could save one single house, and remove it from the speculative market. If you have ever been evicted by gentrification, you can participate in this futile attempt to save 633-637 Haight from the Yuppies. Pledge $50 of your hard-earned money; if 14,399 others do it as well, the asking price of the house will be met and the residents will not have to move down in life! Send your pledge (not the money, just the pledge) of $1 to $50 to slewison@hotmail.com. Over 1000 pledges have been received so far! If 14,400 pledges are collected, you will be asked to send in the money, and a legal structure will be set up for your protection; the house will become a community center for the last of San Francisco's non-market-driven people."
"Create hilarious or stupid/offensive ad-banners for corporate websites. Try to place them in link-exchange or likewise. ('I've never gotten fucked like in the new Audi TT!') One strategy might be to first create some nice average homepage banner and after a while change the motif and the destination."
"Write a dummy 'virus' using code from several frequently downloaded products of some unpopular company. Get antivirus people to take the bait, so that subsequent versions of their software will make computers 'allergic' to such products."
"Launch a website dedicated to making fun in an entertaining way of a seemingly omnipotent corporate figure (Bill Gates?). Get the figure angry enough to sue, generating massive media coverage. (See Virtual Bill Clinton for an example, at http://www.protocomix.com/)."
"Given the recent court decision on the 2600.com posting of the DeCSS program which stated that computer code is not a protected form of speech, get caught pirating software from a major manufacturer (Microsoft, for example) and argue that software, not a protected form of speech, is not subject to ANY copyright protection."
"In a personal effort to take the message of drug policy reform public in America I have created the U.S. Congress Quick Email Directory. It is listed on search engines for quick email access to the U.S. Congress. The visitors that it snags are average folks looking to contact their representatives for personal, political or social reasons, but while they are there exposes them to drug liberalization propaganda."
"To call attention to the planned obsolescence of various computer products, place 'best before' dates on various components, either by silkscreening (would have to be done within the factory) or with stickers placed on retail boxes."
"Fight back against bulk mailers by using this software to automatically hit the first 25 links at this locus of bulk mailer distribution." (Note: WTO/GATT has not tested this software for functionality or safety.)
"The Internet Cookie-Scrambler will be a mesh of proxies that cross-refer requests for banners so that information passed through to this information gathering firms is just scrambled. The principle is by having many users using such a mesh these companies will get a lot of incorrect data into their databases, which has the effect of actually devaluating their product."
"If you buy things or simply request information from many web sites, they will put your name on a list and sell it to other e-commerce interests without your knowledge. Set up a website that tracks the sale of personal email accounts by submitting unique email addresses to suspect sites. When you receive unsolicited mail from 3rd parties with the unique address, you will know who originally sold the name. Heavily publicize your findings on your site and in the media."
"Help defeat the corporate stranglehold on the 'root zone' of the Internet by switching your Domain Name Service over from Network Solutions or other corporate giants to independent namespaces. More info here."
for "a worker at a very high-profile web site who substitutes shocking graphics or texts for standard advertisements or other features (they must remain in place long enough for thousands of visitors to see them)."
"Create and distribute a number of head-mounted computer devices similar to those used by the 'cyborgs' at the MIT Media Lab, that would track those cyborgs and report, via retinal monitor, on the MIT cyborgs' whereabouts and online activities."
"Write a computer program that enables any recipient of junk e-mail to cripple the program or server that sent it. The program must be widely distributed, and its efficacy must be proven and touted by the media."
"In France at the beginning of March, every year, there is a 'Fête de l'Internet', a kind of internet festival, heavily funded by the French Ministry of Culture and serving only to promote big computer companies. (The Ministry of Culture does not, however, support internet artists.) Create a mediatic event to underline the strictly commercial nature of this net stupidity."
"Raise awareness of widespread data-warehousing in the digital economy by crippling Acxiom, one of the top data-warehousing corporations in the U.S., which stores and sells data on almost every household in the US. Begin by purchasing a large list of demographically and geographically targeted individuals from Acxiom (for about US$0.08 per individual). Next, send each person on the list a copy of his or her Acxiom file. Then, using the personal details purchased through Acxiom, remove each listed individual from the system through Acxiom's own 'opt-out' program."