Free Software Matters

see recent post ....

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2003/07/274442.html

I though I would just say some people use words 'Free Software' and 'Open Source' interchangeably like some use 'communism' and 'Leninism'. Open Source is the attempt to sell idea of free software to capitalists. This difference is explored in the Revolution OS film. When i showed the film someone complained to me that film looked at commercialisation of Linux too much but a film about russian revolution does does not have to make out USSR was a workers paradise to show us how it was an improvement on the Tsar and but looking at all of what ahppened helps us work at what elements and ideas to support and promote. Open Source does give me practical beneifts, I am glad of thinks been brought to my desks but I am a support of Free Software and part of Free Software movement not the Open Source movement, but I work with the open source movement and support much of what they do.

The film is mainly good for it looking at human story of people involved in adventure of Free Softare and GNU/Linux.

Check oy my free software links page:
 http://j12.org/sb/freesoft.htm

then after that you may want to check more links relating to wider issues that cross over in terms of approach:

_Free Culture_
Lawrence Lessig

Relating to the broader issues of Open Source and intellectual property rights and why over-zealous commercial control of culture and innovation is generally bad for society as a whole.

 http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/policy/2002/08/15/lessig.html

_Open Source Intelligence_
Felix Stalder and Jesse Hirsh

Comparing some approaches which effectively put into practice ideas
similar to those which Lessig promotes, applying the Open Source model at a wider level.

 http://news.openflows.org/article.pl?sid=02/04/23/1518208



_A Politics of Intellectual Property: Environmentalism For the Net?_
James Boyle

Relates discussions over intellectual property from an Open Source perspective to bio-informatics and genetic science issues. Argues that enviromentalism provides a suitable model for understanding the relevance of supporting a free public domain and open source ethos.

 http://www.law.duke.edu/boylesite/intprop.htm


_Creative Commons_

Set up by Lessig, Boyle and others, Creative Commons promotes the concept of a collective "commons" for culture and knowledge, similar to the older concept of "common land" (an area of land set aside from private ownership for the collective good of the community - a concept which the good people of Cranston appreciate:  http://www.ablab.org/cran/ston.html ).

 http://creativecommons.org

_Free Software as Collaborative Text_
Florian Cramer

Provides an introductory definition of Free Software, a bit of history
behind their development, and their relationship to artistic practice and a broader concept of "net cultures".

 http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~cantsin/homepage/writings/copyleft/free_software/free_software_as_text/en//free_software_as_text.html


_Art meet Net, Net meet Art_
Matthew Fuller

A text on exploring the relations between internet and gallery-based
art.

 http://www.tate.org.uk/netart/mat1.htm



_The Hi-Tech Gift Economy_
Richard Barbrook

Takes a balanced, but optimistic, view of the internet as a legacy of Situationism and anarcho-communism.

 http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue3_12/barbrook/


_Culture Without Commodities: From Dada to Open Source and Beyond_
Felix Stalder

Kicks off with Greil Marcus's "Lipstick Traces" and parallels some of
Barbrook's text.

 http://residence.aec.at/kop/writers/html/w3texts.html


_read_me 2.3_ & runme.org

"read_me" is a festival of software art, this site contains a selection of essays relating to the medium and the featured projects from this year's festival. Runme is a related online repository of software art.

 http://www.m-cult.org/read_me
 http://www.runme.org/



CRITIQUE

_The Californian Ideology_
Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron

The Open Source movement, like any large-scale ideologically informed
movement, is a broad one with many differing views, some of which conflict with the views of others who also support it. One such aspect of that in relation to Open Source are the synergies between many American Open Source advocates, such as Eric Raymond, and "libertarian" free-market ideologies (Raymond is also part of the pro-gun lobby). This article by Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron is a critique of that. The first url is for a site with the article and various responses to it, the second to a single page version that is easy to print.

 http://www.hrc.westminster.ac.uk/hrc/theory/californianideo/index/t.4.html

 http://www.alamut.com/subj/ideologies/pessimism/califIdeo_I.html

A significant development at the Evian / Geneva anti G8 (june 03) protests was the inclusion of the freedom of information as a central theme in one of the demonstrations.

A ‘NoBorders’ demonstration about the freedom of movement and immigration and asylum issues also visited the WTO headquarters and WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation) HQ. With banners reading “Open Source” and “Freedom of Information” it firmly placed communication rights and intellectual property on the agenda and represented a important new alliance ahead of the World Summit on Information Society due to be held in Geneva in December 2003 (see  http://www.crisinfo.org). Alongside more academic forums that will counter the summit there will be a more experimental media lab convergence.

Report of noborders demo
 http://www.indymedia.ch/fr/2003/06/10351.shtml

Indy feature on the day:
 http://www.uk.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=72504&group=webcast

Video:
 http://www.expertbase.net/tour/archive.php

Also see:
Next 5 Minutes - International Festival of Tactical Media
Amsterdam 11 - 14 September 2003
 http://www.n5m.org

Related:
 http://www.internetrights.org.uk
 http://www.dsec.info/call_10.php

so this is news from the streets? or just geeks playing? come on what relevance dose this have to the working class communtys of sheffield? here we have an oppertunaty for local communatys to say what is going down in there communtys instaed we are left again with the Concentric circles of the middle class haveing a mass-debate with them selfs:

When activism grows as we get closer to the revolution then each and every town and village will need it's own IMC.
Sparxie

here we have a real oppertunaty to give the working class a voice instaed the front page articals are just more blatent self promotion for boys with there apple mac toys:

over 3000 plus commputers a day go into land full now if we was to follow the exaple of  http://lowtech.org and others we could empower the working class: of course you have no intrest in doing so because your nice cosy world be disturbed:

i shall be there saturday asking much the same as i'm asking here?

mozaz

what is the above comment about?

> so this is news from the streets?

yeah, it is, mate. it's an indymedia event, innit.

> or just geeks playing?

it's a film about linux - the same as they use at www.lowtech.org. we're promoting it.

> come on what relevance dose this have to the working class communtys of sheffield?

the same relevance that www.lowtech.org have I suppose.

> here we have an oppertunaty for local communatys to say what is going down in there
> communtys instaed we are left again with the Concentric circles of the middle class
> haveing a mass-debate with them selfs:

how do you know the class background of the organisers? or is the showroom an inherently middle-class venue? how so?

> When activism grows as we get closer to the revolution then each and every town and
> village will need it's own IMC.
> Sparxie

surely when you get your revolution there'll be _no_ need for IMC as the workers will control the means of mass communication.

> here we have a real oppertunaty to give the working class a voice instaed the front page
> articals are just more blatent self promotion for boys with there apple mac toys:

what are you on about? the article was submitted from a linux platform by a linux user. i can't tell whether you are pro- or anti-Linux...

> over 3000 plus commputers a day go into land full now if we was to follow the exaple of
>  http://lowtech.org and others we could empower the working class: of course you have no
> intrest in doing so because your nice cosy world be disturbed:

lowtech are pro-linux, this is a pro-linux event open to all classes of society. we are trying to increase linux usage in the uk and the world.

> i shall be there saturday asking much the same as i'm asking here?

what, complete and utter shite?

> mozaz

quick comment to the above critisism.
It is an extremely important issue, although the value of its importance will most likely lie in the future then in the present.
If working class people, and activists would be more clever, they would try to avoid MS Windows, as the price for programms are so expensive, and they can usually achieve the same aim with some "free software" which is either totally free or much, much cheaper.
Moreover, the above article stresses also the importance of a community, and how working together can always take on big cooperations- not only by demonstrations and boycotts, but also by cleverness and wit. With windows you are a lone fighter, where every help has a price, with Linux you get a community which helps and educates each other for the benefit of all.

oh dear.. well i do know some of the people involved here: those who are working class own the means of production karl marx..

fact: indymedia is a ghetto of geeks i know thats what i'm involved with as with any concentric circle - it's only of intrest to those in the know..

the internet gives the working class an opertunaty we never had before but lets face facts only 45% on average own a computer, about 38% of them are on line. now, i'v never been that good with stats (working class thicko) i would argue that a good per-cent of those 38% are middle class..

now with linux we have a real opertunity to get the working class on line and if we use some of those 3000 plus computers that go into land fill...

for me, linux is a real revolution as with all revolutions it is those who are confident and with it who participate:

now our class, the working class have there confidance and self worth kicked the shit out of them from being born to school and work..

we only need to look at all revolutions of the past and see how they have served the intrest of the few, russia 1917 comes to my mind..

likewise with this revolution it is only serving the intrest of those in the know and not the wider community, sad fact is that indy-media has become just another ghetto of geeks where if the working class was welcome would they desire to stay involved when they are excluded because they do not have the same knowledge as us?

why do i know this? ask my mates who dislike everything about the concentric circles of middle class here in sheffield and sadly this has just become another one of those fucking circles..

mozaz

Mozaz does make some good points. By getting excessively geeky, you can end up reinforcing the 'digital divide' (I hate that term). Its a puzzler.

Useful info on open source in BVEJ newsletter.

BVEJ newsleter August 2003

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2003/07/274906.html

A screening should also be taking place on 17 August in Suffolk. Watch  http://www.alug.org.uk/ in a couple of days for more info. More helpers in East Anglia also welcome.