117 lines
4.1 KiB
Markdown
117 lines
4.1 KiB
Markdown
# CIVICVS Foundation Document
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## Document ID
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CFD-MI-2025-MEDIA-INFRASTRUCTURE
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---
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## Title
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Media Infrastructure: Preservation, Fragility, and Civic Value
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---
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## Category
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**Foundation Exemplar** — Media Infrastructure (MI) as Civic Artifact
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---
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## Purpose
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To establish **Media Infrastructure (MI)** as a civic category within CIVICVS.
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Civic artifacts do not exist in a vacuum; their **durability and legitimacy depend on the medium** in which they are created, transmitted, and preserved. This document provides a stable taxonomy for analysts to classify artifacts according to their media infrastructure, and prescribes civic rules for handling each type.
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---
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## Media Infrastructure Types
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### 1. **Print Media**
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* **Examples:** Books, newspapers, journals, printed emails.
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* **Civic Value:** Highest permanence. When archived, print is immutable by origin.
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* **Forensic Note:** Alterations are always detectable under forensic analysis.
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* **Analyst Rule:** Print evidence is preferred whenever available.
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---
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### 2. **Proprietary Audio/Video**
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* **Examples:** Encrypted streaming, DRM formats, closed-platform video/audio.
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* **Civic Value:** Low. Primary purpose is profit by concealment; content is irrelevant to publisher.
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* **Civic Risk:** Fragile, mutable, inaccessible; can be revoked or altered at any time.
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* **Analyst Rule:** Must not enter the civic evidence stream.
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---
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### 3. **Centralized Platforms**
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* **Examples:** Twitter/X, Facebook, YouTube.
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* **Civic Value:** Moderate, but inherently fragile.
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* **Civic Risk:** Not moderation, but **censorship**; content is mutable and controlled by platform owners.
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* **Analyst Rule:** Archive immediately; never rely on live-state availability.
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---
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### 4. **Decentralized Protocols**
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* **Examples:** ActivityPub (Mastodon), Diaspora, Zot/ZAP.
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* **Civic Value:** High resilience due to distributed preservation.
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* **Special Note:** Zot/ZAP’s nomadic identities and migrations make it the most reliable for independence and anonymity.
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* **Analyst Rule:** Favor decentralized protocols when sourcing civic artifacts.
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---
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### 5. **Owner-Operated Forums**
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* **Examples:** Personal blogs, self-hosted sites, independent boards.
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* **Civic Value:** True **Free Speech platforms** — not censorable by third parties.
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* **Civic Risk:** Fragile, dependent on individual maintenance.
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* **Analyst Rule:** Archive comprehensively; value lies in autonomy, not permanence.
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---
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### 6. **Private Networks**
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* **Examples:** Slack, Discord, WhatsApp, closed groups.
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* **Civic Value:** Limited. Provide balkanized discourse silos.
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* **Civic Risk:** Semi-closed, easily erased, poor for rational civic record.
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* **Analyst Rule:** Treat artifacts here as ephemeral and incomplete.
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---
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### 7. **Routing Protocols & Distributed Storage**
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* **Examples:** VPN, Tor, IP-less routing, IPFS, blockchains.
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* **Civic Value:** The **future infrastructure** of civic independence.
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* **Civic Risk:** Provenance complexity; anonymity can weaken verification.
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* **Analyst Rule:** Strong for durability (IPFS/blockchains), but provenance must be double-anchored (timestamps, signatures).
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---
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## Analyst Notes
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* **Durability vs. Provenance:** Analysts must weigh whether a medium preserves permanence or enables forgery.
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* **Profit vs. Civic Purpose:** Proprietary technologies are built for profit, not truth — and thus degrade civic value.
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* **Free Speech vs. Fragility:** Owner-operated forums are fragile but vital as civic speech environments.
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* **Future Potential:** Distributed protocols (IPFS, blockchains, Tor) offer pathways for a permanent civic infrastructure, though provenance standards remain essential.
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---
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## Civic Consequence
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By classifying **media infrastructure** as a Foundation category, CIVICVS ensures that analysts always account for the **medium of preservation** as part of artifact legitimacy.
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* Print remains the gold standard.
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* Proprietary media must be excluded.
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* Decentralized and distributed protocols represent the civic future.
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* Centralized platforms and private networks are fragile and censorable, requiring immediate archiving.
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---
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✅ **Status:** Foundation Document filed.
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**Category Established:** Media Infrastructure (MI).
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