The blogger team would really like to thank everybody that worked to make Winter Camp happen, especially the INC team! We had a great time. Thank you very much!

As I described in an earlier post, FLOSS Manuals focuses on the documentation of Free / Libre / Open Source Software. In the final plenary session, Adam gave us a short history of his collective and then went deeper into the outcomes of their week of labour, which they presented via a diagram.
FLOSS Manuals outcomes’ of the Winter Camp are both internally, located within the organizational structure of the network and externally, located within the new FLOSS Friday – sessions. How these new organizational structures will turn out and when their new project will actually start, we will soon read on their website. So it might be a good thing to keep an eye open at the upcoming projects page.

// Idiocracy // Dyne.org // Freedom of Creation //

Based on an interview with Denis Jaromil Rojo

Dyne.org is a decentralized, open, nomadic and displaced network, that exists through and in cooperation with multiple networks. Dyne.org mainly operates like a fluid grassroot power, through institutions. This means that the network will and can never be institutionalized (because this would mean settling down). Jaromil, who founded Dyne.org in 2000, acknowledged however, that it is impossible to refuse institutionalization completely, most importantly because this would lead to the exclusion of certain resources. Dyne.org has chosen to become a foundation, which gave the network a solid base for activities and the possibility to work together with other foundations and institutions like Montevideo (who now offers server space). In fact, having a foothold as a foundation and working together with other art institutes also gave Jaromil the status of migrant instead of deserter.
The main purpose of Dyne.org is providing people, activists and artists alike, with free software (as in freedom of speech). They hope to share knowledge in any context, whether with state owned companies as well as NGOs, or with local indigenous people. Although having a disposition with institutions seems disruptive for a network like Dyne.org, this is not the case. Instead, over time it has proven to be very effective to weave through big, corporate and state owned networks. An example of the impact to act like such a virally weaved network can be found in the case of netstrike.it, when the people were asked to petition their opinion online. Because members of the Dyne.org network worked in state owned telecommunication corporations, they were informed of the government ordering this particular company for releasing the ip-addresses of people giving their opinion. This is how the network could prove that the 42 people that were arrested with charges of conspiracy and “subversive association”, were actually arrested for voicing their opinion on the internet.

Dyne.org aims to develop software that can run on old (or less advanced) hardware, to oppose the consumer approach. A lot of the members of Dyne have their roots in the demoscene (a subculture focused on maximising hardware with software). This has proved to be very useful in a society in which we have moved towards small power devices and ‘mini’ graphics, like mobile phone applications. Today we have to invest in really expensive processors. But not only buying these expensive machines means supporting this consumer society; the fact that while we are using our new and expensive machines, half of our CPU is pirated by blinky advertisements displayed on websites is both unfair and inefficient.
Another negative example of the globalized “fail” economy can be found within the videogame console industry, which right now is the biggest device industry. A problem with these technologies is that they are not open to learn, change, sell and resell. We cannot use them to re-appropriate content and more importantly, to create local economies. In comparison to televisions, whose technologies are fairly documented, open and standardized, game consoles are black boxes. We cannot open and repair them – it is illegal.
We need to realize that when we purchase an object, there should be no strings attached. For the purposes of a self organized, local economy, it should be illegal to close devices like it is done right now. We need to start being able to mod consoles with the help of mod chips and legalize modding shops in which we can buy and resell our home-made mod consoles. There is also an architectural issue to this point because right now, every city is starting to look the same. Our cities are hijacked by the same advertisements and big commercial billboards and store windows. If people could legally create mod consoles, they would be able to start their own shops and create their own, local pirate economies as well as a difference in the look of the town that is starting to obey a preset template architecture.

During Winter Camp, it was the first time that all the programmers of Dyne.org were involved and got to meet each other (except for kysucix). It is striking to see how so many different people at the same time share a common goal; a grassroot hacker community providing access to technology, education and freedom.
The background of the members is very diverse; they range from radio makers to humanitarian organizations, medical researchers and musicians. Their main goal in participating in Winter Camp is to connect all developers involved in free online streaming technology FreeJ, which is based on a new free codec (“Ogg, Theora”). FreeJ is a vision mixer, an instrument for realtime video manipulation used in the fields of dance theater, VJ-ing, medical visualizations and TV. It lets you interact with multiple layers of video, filtered by effect chains and then mixed together. The resulting video mix can be shown on multiple and remote screens, encoded into a movie and streamed live to the internet, all using free software and codecs. The project is sponsored by the Digitale Pioniers Foundation.

One of the members working on FreeJ is Asbesto from Sicily. Asbesto is in charge of Freaknet (the hacklab of Dyne.org) where he runs the museum of working computers (obsolete computer systems that have been restored into beautiful working order). I really enjoyed meeting him because over the last years I have come across more initiatives like this, notably the MO5 (paris), the Cyberpipe (Ljubljana) and I think the work they do to restore and document these old machines is often very underappreciated.
Also working on the FreeJ project is the Mexican audio / visual artist Vlax. His roots are a basic ingredient to everything he works for, which comes down to creating audio as well as video and the distributing of knowledge on media that facilitate the freedom of speech. During Winter Camp I found Vlax often busy with his microphone, because the many sound of Amsterdam (the First World he was ‘going to try to figure out’) were new to him. The sounds he recorded were beautiful and made me aware of my earlids (that filter out the sounds that I think are normal). After this discovery, Vlax told me about his reasons for being part of Dyne.org. He, alongside 800,000 other Oaxacans took active part in the rebellions against the exclusion of the indigenous population by the Mexican state Government (the most recent rebellions took place in 2006 and resulted in the death of 26 activists). By pirating state radio and television and starting new radio stations, the Oaxacans learned “to speak”; how to have a voice. Vladimir describes that now the Oaxacans have learned to speak, they need to learn how technology works from its source, so they can maintain having a voice. He is trying to create, translate and distribute this knowledge to make this possible in the future. Overall he works to generate and distribute new (old) sounds into the world.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In the final plenary session the network showed a visualization (made by Crash) from the edits of FreeJ software files from the starting point of the project (November 2001) until now. This video was very interesting because it very clearly shows the workflow on a central project and the major players taking part in the creation of this big project. But you can also recognize a demoscener attitute, which is often very competitive. Demosceneres or not, they are definately a very social network of people.
No Estamos Solos!

During Winter Camp, The Genderchangers network planned to figure out their identity, work on a manifesto, a slogan and a new website. Today, during their final presentations, it seemed the Genderchangers almost finished their todo list. They now know what they are; the Genderchangers are wtF and super cool!

They prented us with their manifesto, in the form of a movie and also started on improving their website. On top of this, they created buttons and t-shirts. It seemed they had a very productive week, in which they strengthened their network ties and identity.

The Genderchangers Manifesto : wtF
Women, Technology and Freedom
Genderchangers have a critical curiosity about technology.
Genderchangers know stuff.
Genderchangers have attitude!
We rock. We are super cool. We are really sexy. We are fun.

more here

Click here to view the embedded video.

Another release by GOTO10: pure:dyne, an operating system on a USB key.

Available for only 8 euros during Winter Camp, or bring your USB stick and they will help you DIY.

From the GOTO10 website:
pure:dyne is happy to announce the release of this super-cute, super small 2gb liveUSB! Pre-loaded with the latest pure:dyne system (with 1.2gb space left over for storing your settings and files). A slick, slim, mini USB measuring just a few mm thick.

pure:dyne is an operating system developed to provide media artists with a complete set of tools for realtime audio and video processing. pure:dyne is a live distribution, you don’t need to install anything. Simply boot your computer using the live CD and you’re ready to start using software such as Pure Data, Supercollider, Icecast, Csound, Fluxus, Processing, Arduino and much much more.

pure:dyne will work on any PC laptop, desktop, and single-board computers, including the intel-based Mac, Asus’ Eee PC, and any x86 netbooks.

explanation of a fork, or?

On the second day of Winter Camp, Denis Jaromil Rojo was asked to be a keynote speaker at the plenary session. He kept it short and just published some open source for thought.

First of all, the Rasta Soft man wanted us to contemplate the question of unrestricted distribution of media. Does this mean the end for people that are trying to make a living from creating media content?

Jaromil proceeded his poetic plea by propagating what he called a ‘Peer to Peer economy’, which he described by three statements:
-Refuse scarcity! Abundance is no longer our enemy, it is our friend.
-Refuse the big success! Don’t aim for the big audience or the big mass media, but instead connect specific communities with low cost and low latency distribution.
Our generation is looking for people that are moving outside of the stage.
-Refuse the broadcast quality! Embrace modesty, involve people and follow the vector of quality, don’t pursue its mirage. Publish the unfinished.
This workflow enables an open source publishing format, in which we can publish a sketch or something that is not completely detailed and leaves space for people to add their own perspective or content (collaboration in favor of competition).
Recycle, Re-use!

Various Artists – /Substrate/
GOSUB10-001

Today (6/3) GOTO10 launches Substrate (an inaugural release) on their new netlabel GOSUB10. A 12-track compilation of music from across the electronic music genre, it features friends and family of the GOTO10 collective, illustrating the strong networks by which the label will grow and provide insight into future directions.

/Substrate/ features tracks by: Earweego, krgn, vacca, 0xA, Bazterrak, Frank Barknecht, Yee-King, Soudo, Julian Brook, Martin Howse, Rob Canning and Ultrageranium.

Dedicated to new electronic music and audio/visuals, the GOSUB10 label will feature an eclectic group of musicians drawn together by their shared use of Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS). Freely distributed by stream, download and special DVD releases, and made available through an open license, GOSUB10 is run by the GOTO10 collective – an international group of artists, musicians and programmers, dedicated to FLOSS and digital arts. Brought to life in a intensive three day work sprint, the GOSUB10 netlabel is a natural extension of GOTO10′s activities supporting and promoting digital art alongside FLOSS tools through workshops, festivals, exhibitions, writing, and more.

text by Heather Corcoran.

When I joined the FLOSS manuals workshop on Thursday morning, I wasn’t sure what to expect. FLOSS manuals were a pretty obscure territory for me. I decided to settle in a corner and observe the members to gradually learn more about the network, their goals and strategies.

The workshop was managed by Adam Hyde. Adam is an artist, broadcaster and educator, who combines his understanding of radio art and broadcast technologies with software development and open source radio streaming. As a result of his involvement with FLOSS (Free/Libre/Open Source Software) radio (Radioqualia) he encountered a basic lack of FLOSS Manuals on radio distribution technologies in specific and other software in general. This is the reason why Adam founded FLOSS Manuals in 2006.

The workshop revolved around the organization and more technical matters involving an upcoming Book Sprint, a concept I had never heard before. A Book Sprint is a get-together of a group of people that aim to rapidly develop a finished, comprehensive text, that can be distributed as a book or edited and downloaded online. In the month May alone, four Book Sprints (and subsequent publications) are planned on Linux, Pure Data, Firefox and Open Translation Tools. This practice has resulted in a rapid growth of publications by FLOSS Manuals.

One of the results of the past Book Sprints is a manual on How To Bypass Internet Censorship. This (partially technical) manual is written in 5 days and consists of 200 pages describing the very basic steps to more complex actions an individual can take to avoid or circumvent internet censorship implemented by for instance governments and schools. An example of a very direct tool that can be used to get around censorship is the use of translate sites like Babelfish for surfing otherwise (locally) blocked websites. How To Bypass Internet Censorship is available as download or as a print-on-demand.

This form of publication leaves space for remixing the book. Users can add and change content and choose to publish combination’s of different chapters available on the website via the self-publish services from Lulu. Still, the physical publications create a different form of access and enables FLOSS Manuals to reinvest money back into the collective.

In 2007 the Digitale Pioniers awarded the FLOSS Manuals initiative with a grant to translate their work into Farsi (Persian), and other languages. Anybody can join FLOSS Manuals by registering online or by signing up to the mailinglist. Over the past 2 years, 200 people registered of whom 30 are more or less actively involved with the work, and communicate mainly through IRC and a mailing list. Right now the network’s main problem is its fast growth, the capacity of the servers and the correction process of new information.

This post is partially based on an interview between Gabriella Coleman and Aymeric Mansoux (GOTO10) that took place on the first day of Winter Camp.

Aymeric Mansoux is both artist and musician. His main interests revolve around online communities, software as a medium and the influence of FLOSS in the development and understanding of digital art. His favorite projects is Metabiosis (in collaboration with Marloes de Valk, who is also part of GOTO10). Metabiosis is an artistic experiment for those who are curious about so-called generative and self-organizing systems in the ever growing ecosystem of connected machines.

In 2003 the two friends Thomas Vriet and Aymeric Mansoux (both from Poitiers) decided to combine the best of Anatomic (by Sher Doruff and Guy van Belle) and the Futuroscope. The outcome was the GOTO10 collective, a group of international artists and programmers, dedicated to Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS) and the exploration of the blurry line between art and software programming; a platform for ideas.
GOTO10 was also created as a reaction to the art scene of that time, in which writing software was almost never considered to be an artistic practice. The collective has no physical location, except for the servers (which they call ‘the playground’); the collective exists only within the decentralized network of machines, in mailinglists and IRC, Wikis, the Ticket System and biannual organized meetings.

Entrance to the collective is only granted to friends of the group that have proven their abilities and insights in collaborative projects throughout the years. This creates a highly comrade-based dynamic within this group of predominantly black haired man. GOTO10s current amount of members is 11 (+one), but the number has fluctuated and is subject of debate. In the collective, there is no need for anybody to do anything, except for basic housekeeping, which means the maintenance of bits of software on the server, the documentation and archiving of projects and the drafting of CVs for applications. The handling of a project depends on the members that want to participate at any time. Stress is dealt with very effectively; when a key-participant is too busy, the project is put into hibernation. This is mainly done because the entertaining and friendship aspects of the GOTO10 have proven themselves the most fruitful components for labor.

The survival of GOTO10 has not always been as natural, unforced and easygoing as it sounds. The collective has struggled through growing pains that were accompanied with their usual identity crisis: was the collective running to become a professional organization or should it stay GOTO10 (‘the family’)? The crisis lasted for 2 years and led to the unloading of some of its members before finally resulting in the decision to prioritize a friendship. Even so, the collective is still figuring out their actual identity and formation. Because GOTO10 has decided never to turn into an institution, the collective is always looking for collaborations on bigger projects. For example they once ‘out-sourced’ part of the “make art” festival to Piksel, and often work together with curators and producers who help them with funding. They are, as they say themselves, a migrating laboratory’ that ‘puts Trojan projects inside other projects’.

At this point, GOTO10 survives on big and small funding; their servers are for instance donated by de Waag, Bek and DEK Space, whereas the “make art” festival was once funded by the French DICREAM fund and the latest pure:dyne by Arts Council England. GOTO10 also tries to redistribute resources to other collectives, like for instance free streaming services.

During Winter Camp, GOTO10 plans ‘to have several group hugs, to eat tons of stroopwaffels, to gossip about every networks and drink beers.’
They will also try to resurrect their initial (and since then ever-hibernating) project GOSUB10, a FLOSS-based netlabel, and work on Art.deb, a file package repository of FLOSS art.

GOTO10 is a very well networked collective, which has become apparent by the many connections the collective has with other participants in Winter Camp:
- GOTO10 collaborated with Ushi Reiter from Genderchanger for liwoli09 in Linz.
- GOTO10 collaborated with James Wall Bank from bricolabs for workshops and code sprints at access-space.
- GOTO10 collaborated with Rama from the dyne.org network for integrating streaming software in pure:dyne.