[Scottish] FOSS Cafe

[Simon Yuill]

_FOSS Cafe_
time: 3pm Sunday 9th May, 2004
venue: MONO Cafe, 12 Kings Court, King Street, Glasgow
entrance: FREE



FOSS Cafe is an informal introduction introduction to Free Open Source 
Software (FOSS) and some of the wider issues surrounding it. Presented 
as part of the MACHINISTA festival, it will feature talks by James 
Wallbank (Lowtech, UK) discussing Lowtech's work promoting free 
software for artists and local communities and the recycling of old 
computers, Bob Kerr (Edinburgh Linux Users Group, UK) discussing his 
initiative to bring free software into Scotland's public libraries and 
its relevance to non-profit organisations, and Lawrence Liang 
(Alternative Law Forum, India) talking about free software in India and 
its relationship to issues of piracy, copyright and globalisation.  
Members of Linux groups from across Scotland are invited to attend as 
well as artists and visitors to the MACHINISTA festival.

FOSS Cafe is a semi-social introduction to FOSS where people who are 
interested but new to the topic can meet with more experienced people.  
The discussions will be introduced and chaired by Simon Yuill, a 
Glasgow-based artist and programmer who works with FOSS technologies. 
Later this year, the CCA will be hosting YOUR MACHINES, a series of 
hands-on workshops providing introductions to the kinds of creative 
work that can be produced through FOSS technologies, ranging from 
wireless networking to programming live audio-visual interactive works.


Speakers:

Lawrence Liang
http://www.altlawforum.org/

Lawrence Liang is a researcher with the Alternative Law Forum, 
Bangalore, where he coordinates the research project on "IP and the 
Knowledge/ Culture Commons". His area of work is on non legal media 
practises, popular culture and law. He is working on a long-term 
research project for ALF on Intellectual Property and the Public 
Domain. The project is funded by a SARAI research grant. He is also 
associated with the Centre for Study of Culture and Society (CSCS) on a 
year long seminar course on Law and Culture. He is currently doing a 
research residency at the Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam.



Bob Kerr
http://www.edlug.ed.ac.uk/

Bob Kerr is a member of the Edinburgh Linux Group.  He recently 
introduced the distribution of the free software "OpenOffice" 
throughout the Scottish Library system.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/12/18/openoffice_cds_live_for_lending/

http://www.newsforge.com/software/03/12/14/1545216.shtml



James Wallbank
http://www.lowtech.org

James Wallbank is the director of Lowtech, an organisation set up by 
arts group Redundant Technology Initiative in 1997. Based in Sheffield, 
UK, Lowtech is an attempt to find a new, more positive way to engage 
with the ever changing and potentially divisive world of information 
communication technology. As such, Lowtech is a leading advocate of 
universal access to low or no-cost information technology, working with 
zero-cost technology rescued from the trash, and free, open-source 
software that costs absolutely nothing. Their Access Space is the first 
public access internet laboratory to be run entirely with free 
software. Lowtech believe that free technology is something which 
everyone can get involved with.



FOSS Cafe has been supported by the CCA, Machinista and the Scottish 
Arts Council.  CCA is Glasgow's Centre for Contemporary Arts, six 
flexible arts spaces presenting the very best in contemporary visual 
art, performance, film, music, club nights and more.


============================
YOUR MACHINES
http://www.yourmachines.org

CCA
http://www.cca-glasgow.com

MACHINISTA
http://www.machinista.org.uk
============================