Information InFiltration. Pronounced: "Discordia r us."

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About Filter-It-Yourself
 
Filter-It-Yourself

Every attempt to communicate an idea has to start somewhere, and the person or persons seeking to communicate must have at least a vague notion of whom they want to reach. However, the starting point and the intended recipients are often not explicitly defined, especially if the communication is supposed to be neutral and objective. Discourse usually appears most effective, if communicator and recipients belong to the same subset of society, such as a certain academic discipline, a specific profession or special interest group. If there is a shared basis for communication, it may not be necessary to explicitly name starting points, intended recipients, certain premises, in order to reach an understanding. Yet if this shared basis for communication is placed in a larger context, read from the perspective of a different standpoint, then meanings, intentions, consequences can shift. Unintended or unimagined connections can arise, and unexpected overlaps can lead to strategic alliances, open up previously unnoticed spaces, or reveal hidden pitfalls and obstacles.

Discordia refers to this process as filtering. This is a way of dealing with information to probe its usability, malleability, applicability. The idea of filtering information presupposes that the information is read from a certain perspective, based on certain views or values, involvements or ideologies. In other words, a certain "filter" determines the perspective. Some examples of filters could be feminist critique, postcolonialist analysis, neoliberal apologetics, transversal activism, etc. The point is not to seek an arbitrary relativism of any and all positions, but rather to collectively subject available existing information to different types of critiques to discover connections and divergences that are not immediately obvious, and reveal possible implications and consequences in a broader framework.

The Filter-It-Yourself section is an experiment in the practical application of this filtering principle. Here users are invited to take stories and comments from other areas of Discordia, to link to articles found elsewhere on the Internet, or to present positions, statements, proposals from their own fields of experience and expertise, and then run these through an explicitly stated filter of their choice. In other words, users critique, analyze, discuss the information at hand from a certain perspective that is identified at the beginning of the post. As one of Discordia's experimental features, this section depends on the intelligence and initiative of the users, rather than software mechanisms, since the latter would necessarily limit the choices to the developers' experience and awareness of possible mental filters.

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