SWARM: An ECD Project for ARS Electronica Festival ´98 by Ricardo Dominguez Stefan Wray Brett Stalbaum Carmin Karasic rdom@thing.net http://www.thing.net/~rdom ARS Electronica Festival ´98 *The information revolution is the key to the development of new designs and capabilities for sustainable swarming--from the establishment of an initial posture of dispersed forces, to the coalescing of those forces for an attack, to their dissevering return to the safety of wide dispersion, and their preparation for a new pulse. Only a new generation of robust information gathering and distribution systems can support such pulsing.* --In Athena´s Camp 1.1 Digital Zapatismo as InfoSwarm Systems. The Zapatista movement in Chiapas, without benefit of any technological infrastructure, has been able to manifest it self as a transnational network of email based activism that has constrained the Mexican Goverment from crushing them immediately. The advent of these networks has up to now been able to do the work that is needed--to spread information about the situation in Chiapas on a mass scale. This continues to be the most vital element of Zapatismo on-line. Digital Zapatismo is now concentrating on replacing the InfoWar doctrine of cyber-terrorism by pushing Electronic Civil Disobedience to the forefront of mass media discussion. This will be the main thread of the project within the INFOWAR list. 1.2 Electronic Pulse Systems. Digital Zapatimo calls all individuals and groups to participate in research and development of new methods of Electronic Civil Disobedience that move beyond email lists and information sites. This investigation should focus on non-violent Electronic Pulse Systems (EPS), that function beyond the Tactical Flood Nets that we have already built (http://www.thing.net/~rdom/zapsTactical/zaps.html), that will enable mass public participation in Zapatista actions between now and the end of ARS Electronica. We are also building a Zapatista Spider to hit specific URLS. 1.3 Infrastructure and Swarm Tactics Digital Zapatismo also calls for the development of mobile infrastructures consisting of multiorganizational networks. This would be done by bringing together independent infrastructure nodes (The Thing in NYC , AZ in Austin, TX,CADRE Institute, San Jose, California, groups on La Neta, in Mexico, and nodes in Europe). These nodes would investigate the development of mobile infrastructures of defense and security of a server to be setup in a Zapatista Community in Chiapas. To protect Zapatista sites and actions from counter-attacks via remote firewall setups and the training of the Zapatista nodes in Chiapas. Finally, and most importantly, to develop a process by which the the myth of *CyberZapatistas* in Chiapas can be made into a Reality. To create a network of supplies to build a mobile digital infrastructure in the Lacondona jungle as soon as possible and by any means necessary. Ricardo Dominguez