At the individual level, the cognitive cloud resulting from these perceived differences inflated by unbridled globalization dynamics materializes itself in the form of aggregate economic consequences of thoughtless actions by confused users who do not see the point in struggling to read and understand contradictory Terms of Use, because the only thing that such contracts confirm in capital letters is that no matter how the user interprets these terms, s·he agrees to use the service at his·her own risk and peril. Intelligible enough a warning to send everyone back to the practices s·he considers as common sense, but largely insufficient to create a climate of confidence in the digital economy.

Addressing this core issue by the concept starts with setting up a matrix inventory of all legal agreements which pave the way along this digital content production and consumption journey, regardless of the user’s level of mastership, in order to make the overall room for contractual simplification apparent. To review your own legal internet watch practices, please refer to slide n°6/6 of the Slidefolio page (2), which proposes a matrix overview of my conceptual NetPlusUltra® perimeter, with the areas for recommended improvement highlighted in red.

The benefit of such a matrix is that it will enable to diagnose such ToU agreements - towards conceptual convergence of all parts of the whole - by reconsidering the latter as the many building blocks which determine the quality of the user experience, from the terms that apply to the ISP's standard or professional supply (depending on the EULA pertaining to the user’s operating system), through to the web hosting contract. Building a simple hierarchy of such contractual documents along the chart’s vertical axis, which represents the user’s progression on the difficulty scale, should be enough to make it all much more workable.

In light of all this, let us go back to square one, with a view to achieving an application of intellectual property which, like the rules of the road, will help all internet users to find their way on the grounds of the same reference framework. Rather than imposing an approach that would be far too mercantile (United States), bureaucratic (Europe), or collectivist (China), let us try to move away from what each system tries to establish as a supreme principle - selling (US), prescribing (Europe), and educating (China) - to reforge the whole network experience into a web incubation process which enables the author to protect the materialization of his ideas, provided the latter are admissible. This first move towards syncretic conceptualization leads us to the NetPlusUltra®-enabled codex (3) of what each and every internet user has every interest in respecting if his goal is 1) to be recognized for the quality of his work, 2) in order to sustain a living from his productions, 3) while at the same time participating in the democratic process by which knowledge is (supposed to be) transferred across generations.

Which brings us to the gateway into my Extranet+Ultra® forum (4) for knowledge professionals. As you can see: if the solidity of our user constructs depends on everything we should know for sure BEFORE we start anything, it is only with a specific objective in mind that we are in the right cognitive condition to put all this theory into practice. And if we mean by specific objective the willingness to realize an idea after careful consideration (mentalization) of all aspects of the necessary prior feasibility assessment, it seems to me, as the solution Intranet Service Provider, that the internet at large has everything to win from a global reset into a preconfiguration of admitted uses, as shown on the horizontal axis of this problem-solving matrix aiming at administrative, personal, social and professional optimization.

Unifying the existing user experience by the formula further implies to consider every new contractual building block that the user is expected to add to his management dashboard as a new self-explaining addendum to the previous one, for better knowledge consolidation of prior experience, regardless of which way the user progresses through the matrix: vertically (step by step), horizontally (group by group), or diagonally (from the bottom left square to the upper right corner). Like the web modules of my Metafolio (5), which is both a concept presentation and a declaration of web presence, each new legal agreement becomes a new interactive chapter conceived so as to simplify the user’s guide with a view to customization for a specific life project.

It is not until this clarification requirement is fulfilled in an entertaining fashion that our capacity to (re)create will be enabled to reprogram itself towards conceptual convergence into a system which is respectful of the cultural and artistic sensitivities of its members. This is where we exit the public domain of presenting a problem which we all share, to enter the private and independent domain of NetPlusUltra® users aware of the necessity to provide individuals with the means to preserve their moral integrity for the sake of economic peace between the peoples and the generations.

Daniela BERNDT

French / German

Further reading

1. https://www.nadoulek.net/droit-compare-de-la-propriete.html
2. Dashfolio 2015 > Weblog > Slidefolio
3. Dashfolio 2014 > Terms of Use
4. Extrafolio 2014 > Homepage
5. Metafolio 2014 > Homepage

Tags:Metafolio,Dot-eu,Dot-net,Dot-org