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.