Organizing a public information space about the crimes of a totalitarian regime

1. Organizing a public information space about the crimes of a totalitarian regime Ioan Rosca, PhD. in educational technology telecommunication, computer, information and instructional systems engineer researcher and conceptual architect at LICEF, Teleuniversity, Montréal ioan.rosca@licef.teluq.uquam.ca INSCIT’2006, Merida, 26 october 2006

2. Summary Introduction • Context created by the fall of communism in Eastern Europe • The CE position and the passage from words to facts • Four project objectives: Description • Involved Romanian institutions and need for general interaction • Similar contexts • Current project situation • Conceptual architecture for the next phase • Contradictory conditions, provocative for IS Conclusion • Four cooperation tracks

3. The context created after 1989 • The fall of Eastern European totalitarian regimes has created a pressing need for organising the collective memory- as a base for citizens' spiritual revival, society redressing and necessary juridical actions. • Although in 1989, in Romania, a lot of victims, torturers and witnesses were still alive, the installed authorities have done almost nothing to unblock the justice. On the contrary, they locked the archives for 50 years, invoking "state interests", obliging the victims to die uncomforted and allowing to the culprits to prosper unhampered. • Those who study the "Pitesti phenomenon" (the organisation, in prisons, of demented tortures, from which the victims could escape only by becoming butchers and accepting to torture fellow sufferers) and understand that Romania has been exposed, for 45 years, to various forms of this procedure of in-chain compromising, realise the difficulties confronting the "Trial"… The repugnant conspiracy that still paralyses Justice is completing- through silence- the monstrous acts accomplished for decades, under the eyes of a powerless or indolent Europe. • The immense scale of the crime contributes to this sinister outcome, posing a difficult problem of ... informational management. Millions of victims, witnesses, torturers, accomplices, heroes, repressive acts and events to elucidate. Tens of kilometres of pursuit records, used by the former political police, on the verge of being (at last…) made available to the civil society. A network of National Archives managed rudimentary and malevolently, that hampers the correction of economical abuses (refusing the release of proof on properties confiscated from their rightful owners) to cover-up occult and corrupt selective retrocession machinations. Historians, exceeded by thousands of testimonials already published in books, journals and newspapers. Jurists not knowing up to what level of gravity the abuses and crimes should be amnestied, so that the remaining key culprits (left reasonably few) can be tried for their actions. • As this moral and juridical gangrene is about to be integrated in Europe, starting with 2007, it would be the case that Romanians be helped in the adequate organisation of the informational spaces necessary to treat it.

4. CE position: the passage from words to facts… The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe position • a first promising resolution in 1996: PACE Report 1096 (Measures to dismantle the heritage of former communist totalitarian systems) • the report advanced by Mr Göran Lindblad (on 25-01- 2006) PACE Report 10765 (Need for international condemnation of crimes of totalitarian communist regimes) • the disappointing PACE Resolution No 1481 (2006) (Need for international condemnation of crimes of totalitarian communist regimes). However, the document, admitting that"the fall of totalitarian communist regimes in central and eastern Europe has not been followed in all cases by an international investigation of the crimes committed by them“ and that "the awareness of history is one of the preconditions for avoiding similar crimes in the future“ will "hopefully encourage historians throughout the world to continue their research aimed at the determination and objective verification of what took place“. So, what next?

5. memorials (Sighet,etc) archives (CNSAS) actions (juridical, etc) associations (AFDPR etc) organizing collective memory helping these organizations: founds, infrastructure,advices books (series) SOMCRAC portal commissions (IICC etc) understanding effects of totalitarism on human condition reviews and newspapers institutes (INSTetc) historical, political, social, juridical,anthropological joint research (translation) TV and radio programs other dedicated sites analog spaces conferences forums organizing digital libraries to emancipate communities information science joint research Hungary www.rev.hu/index_en.html Poland www.ipn.gov.pl/index_eng.html Bulgaria www.geocities.com/decommunization/English/Main-eng.htm Russia psi.ece.jhu.edu/~kaplan/IRUSS/BUK/GBARC/buk.html Czech www.mvcr.cz/policie/udv/english/pripady/index.html Germany www.bstu.bund.de/nn_710332/EN/The__Law Estonia www.historycommission.ee/ applying action research and interdisciplinary approaches methodology and epistemology research Armenians www.armenian-genocide.org Cambodians www.yale.edu/cgp/databases.html Jews http://www.yadvashem.org/www.jewishgen.org/databases/Holocaust General www.preventgenocide.org/punish/http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide.htm Project position • SOMCRAC portal • ontology of state made terror • bibliographic records database • document public library • forums for analyze and action • connecting and matching tools

6. pro dynamical site structure forum memory forum php program dialog asp editor backup reference XML/relat metadata records input forms site generator site deplorer browser adm lib doc,html,pdf editors html, pdf document library edit generate deploy scanner+ OCR par ope local html structure public html site search consult scan observe,select decide,define, contact,answer correct export email propose react co gif,doc various information sources local mail box paper docs mail and direct contact Current situation (at www.procesulcomunismului.com)

7. Conceptual architecture published texts and media URL , ejournals external emails forums,chats activist expert witness victim external c3a site managed c2a members C1a central library C3 activities C1 documents C2 persons consult contact participate C1b archived emails forums,chats use E gate interop D structure and behaviour A semantic reference domains B1 thematic metadata records B2 forum connecting matching B3 mail user notes manage design define observe dialog decide scan correct edit publish define signal/ index find/ explore dialog coop commu react specs admin eng, pro co ope exp lib part

8. Contradictory conditions provocative for IS • Organizing coherently and urgently… an enormous and disorganized information space • Greatest openness for consultation… combined with severe privacy, liability and secrecy restrictions • Large publishing participation… with great risks of malicious actions • Complex and stable semantic reference space for indexing documents… modifiable to express progressive problem understanding • Abstract (general) taxonomies… to retrieve particular items • Coherent management of documents… from very diverse sources and types ( papers, tv, chats, actions, etc) • Interconnecting cooperating documentation spaces …working in.intranet fortresses of many institutions