[dundee] Understanding FLOSS

[Rick Moynihan]

2009/5/8 Donna Holford-Lovell <d.holford-lovell at abertay.ac.uk>:
> HI

Hi Donna,

> I have been thinking .... Which sometimes hurts.... You may know that I have
> been looking at the ideology/methodology of FLOSS and applying this to an
> art practice. I have had some excellent responses but I am still getting the
> impression that the art world are just not getting it.
>
> Obviously there are differing cultures and philosophies within the term
> FLOSS but both could offer a very new and productive way of working within
> the art sector. Some in the art sector say that it already exists in the
> practice and from the other camp that artists just don’t understand. ???? My
> question is ‘which one is it’?
>
> I was wondering if anyone was up for helping to organise a small series of
> talks that would cover this area and go someway to clarifying it. Try to
> come at from the philosophical side, yes the product is important but really
> try to understand its process. How can we learn and implement it to other
> areas.

This sounds like a good idea and something I'd be keen to try and help
with.  In many ways I suspect the problem is that there is *SO* much
to talk about, e.g.

1) The Stalman philosophy - what "Free(dom)" means

  1.1) As a user/consumer

  1.2) As a producer

2) The Open Source perspective... (seperating openness from the
politics of Free(dom) and FSF)

3) Adhoc collaboration, decentralised control and what Benkler calls
'Commons Based Peer Production'

4) Community - why it's needed, how it works and how the bazaar
differs from the cathedral.

5) As Gordon said, how using 'free' tools can empower you as a creator
mould the tools into what you need... The tangible benefits to
freedom.

6) The "Copy Fight" between copyright and copyleft, licensing and
'Intellectual Property'

7) Application of FLOSS ideas to other disciplines.

In my experience the trouble with explaining this is the strong
interconnection between ideas, which can result in very abstract
explanations for very real things.  Often you end up trying to explain
everything at once which can lead to what you're describing sounding
like communism, techno-babble or a political rant about how much
better the world could be.

If you do organise an event like this, I'd suggest that in order not
to present mixed messages you ensure each talk is tightly focused
around a few key points and that the whole series of talks presents a
focused well reasoned message that explains: FLOSS as it is, how it
the ideas have been translated across disciplines, and what might
happen

Anyway, I have previously given a talk (20/25mins) entitled "Freedom &
Control" which might give a good feel for point 1...  Some of the
people on this list have seen it, so they're probably better placed at
suggesting whether or not it would be suitable as part of a talk
series such as this...  The talk was intended to present an extreme
and radicalised introduction to Freedom, with references to the fears
(1984,orwelian-societies, MS domination, ever expanding
copyright/patent laws etc...) and aspirations (Free knowledge,
collaboration etc...) of the FLOSS community.

I've been meaning for a long time to prepare another talk on
'practical participation' in open source communities, but I'm
incredibly busy and haven't yet had the time to research it...  This
might also be useful in shedding some light on what the open source
process is.

> We can run it at the HMC, maybe as part of the Linux meetings? Happy to look
> at providing funding etc ..... Be good to hear your thoughts

This looks good...  If you have access to funding and can pay expenses
(travel, board etc...) then it might be possible to get some other
speakers on board...  There are certainly some people I know of who we
might be able to approach.

Keen to help in anyway I can,


R.

> Best Donna
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------
> Donna Holford-Lovell
> Cultural Projects Officer
>
> University of Abertay Dundee
> Bell Street, Dundee, DD1 1HG
> Tel: 0044 (1)382 308 777
> www.abertay.ac.uk/exhibitions
>
> The University of Abertay Dundee is a
> charity registered in Scotland, No: SC016040
>
> _______________________________________________
> dundee GNU/Linux Users Group mailing list
> dundee at lists.lug.org.uk  http://dundee.lug.org.uk
> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/dundee
> Chat on IRC, #tlug on dundee.lug.org.uk
>