Open Source industrial design in New York

Grow your own media lab (the graphic novel)

Text by James Wallbank
Pictures by Michael Tesh
Design by Scott Hawkins
Access Space, 2008
ISBN 978-0-95500-913-6
Access Space is an open access media lab based in Sheffield. Access Space encourages people to learn how to use hardware re-used from local companies and Free Software from the GNU project and others. This saves money and builds skills. Those skills can then be shared to build a self-reliant and sustainable community around the lab.

Since being founded in the year 2000 Access Space has thrived where many community and government schemes have failed. This has drawn attention from groups eager to understand and reproduce its success. This has led to the Arts-Council-funded study "Grow Your Own Media Lab", of which the final report is the graphic novel of the same name "Grow Your Own Media Lab (The Graphic Novel)" or GYOML for short.

GYOML is a 114-page A5 perfect-bound book. The cover is a vivid black and yellow composition. Part Principia Discordia, part Emigre, it will look equally at home in gallery bookshops and alternative press outlets. Curious browsers will be hard pressed to resist taking a look. Inside, the book is black & white throughout with an introductory text followed by alternating pages of titles and comic-book illustrations of case studies.

Most books that use a Creative Commons licence either don't specify the licence or use one of the more restrictive licences. You'd be surprised how many cheerleaders for Free Software and Free Culture have restrictive licences on their books. Kudos to Access Space for getting the licence right (the copyleft "Attribution-ShareAlike" licence) and making sure that it's explained clearly in the book's front matter. This ensures that GYOML continues the Access Space ethos of sharing cultural and technological wealth in a principled and practical way.

The comic-book illustrations by Michael Tesh are in fanzine style, a characterful and evocative aesthetic for a small press publication. I found myself smiling at the clear inner thoughts of some of the people Tesh depicts, and if you meet one of Access Space's personnel after seeing his depictions of them you'll feel you already know them. What makes Tesh's art the perfect illustration for the case studies is that he is an Access Space regular.

Rather than providing an instruction manual for using software, which the book's introduction rightly points out would quickly become outdated, GYOML presents a series of case studies of users of the lab and the situations that they encounter. The case studies include a shy teenager, a nervous work placement, a mature student and a refugee dissident, all people learning from and contributing to different aspects of the running of Access Space. This illustrates the value of Access Space's approach and explain how, and more importantly why, to recreate it.

Despite not being a software manual there is a surprising wealth of technical and administrative information delivered surprisingly painlessly mixed in with the case studies. Such as how and why to use computers that businesses will pay you to take away from them, how and why to use Free Software, and how and why to make a server to keep users' work safe if one of those reclaimed computers breaks down. The names of Free Software operating system and art software is mentioned, as is how to learn more about them, so it is easy to find out more. And I didn't know how to crimp an RJ-45 ethernet cable before reading GYOML. Now I do.

For all the talk of "grass roots activism" and "alternative governance" on mailing lists, in universities, and at conferences there is often a disconnect between the rhetoric of technological radicalism and actually doing anything in society. We can learn a lot from Access Space's determination to get their hands dirty and to use technology as a means to the end of empowering people. A few years ago I helped out at Remix Reading's open access lab, which was inspired to adopt Access Space's way of working, so I can say from personal experience that running a lab is a rewarding experience.

GYOML is an effective and persuasive exposition of the virtues of Access Space's way of doing things. It is inspirational, unpretentious and informative. We need more like Access Space, and GYOML shows us how to do it. Let a thousand media labs bloom.

A swarm of angles : Worlds will shatter

After the "one world one dream" unfaithfulness in Olympics, I am pleased to see the "worlds will shatter" open source trailer video from A Swarm of Angels, an open source collaborative feature film project started by the UK filmmaker Matt Hanson.


Worlds Will Shatter - The Unfold trailer from Nine Orders on Vimeo.

I have been tracking this project on this blog and am looking foreward to the finish work. It sure comes a long way from 2006 to phase 3 here. 1 million pound is not easy but Matt made it.

GNU is 25 years today.

Founder Stephen Fry made this video on this 25th birthday for GNU project that develop free software OS. "Freedom !! " Why is it so important and how you can help.

Call for contributor to write Digital Artists’ Handbook article on “Video Editing with Open Source Tools”

The Handbook aims to give artists information about the available tools but also about the practicalities related to Free Software and Open Content, such as collaborative development and licenses. All this to facilitate exchange between artists, to take away some of the fears of artists when it comes to open content licenses, sharing code, and allowing them to have a look at various ways of working and collaborating. The focus is on practical consequences, not on political implications.

The Handbook was launched in March 2008. A number of articles were commissioned for this launch, including introductions to all the main handbook sections. One area we are seeking to increase the depth of content in is "Working with Digital Video", and we are looking for someone to write an article on the topic of "Video Editing with Open Source Tools". An introduction to "Working with Digital Video" has been published at www.digitalartistshandbook.org/node/28. We would like the article to pick up on the ideas introduced in the final paragraph of the introduction, using a number of tools in way of examples:

"When you start working with free software as a videomaker, it is likely that you need to invest some time and energy in understanding certain basics of the video production process. Sometimes this might mean you have to look for alternative workflows, to dive 'under the hood' of a digital tool, or reconfigure an existing solution to suit your needs. Investigating the tools you use as a video maker is an important part of the job, it can help gain insights, it can be an inspiration to explore new ways of working and imagemaking." Peter Westenberg, Working with Digital Video, Digital Artists' Handbook, October 2007.

More information
For application, fee and more go to: www.folly.co.uk/node/1132

Digital Artists' Handbook

The Digital Artists Handbook is an up to date, reliable and accessible source of information that introduces you to different tools, resources and ways of working related to digital art.

The goal of the Handbook is to be a signpost, a source of practical information and content that bridges the gap between new users and the platforms and resources that are available, but not always very accessible. The Handbook will be slowly filled with articles written by invited artists and specialists, talking about their tools and ways of working. Some articles are introductions to tools, others are descriptions of methodologies, concepts and technologies.

When discussing software, the focus of this Handbook is on Free/Libre Open Source Software. The Handbook aims to give artists information about the available tools but also about the practicalities related to Free Software and Open Content, such as collaborative development and licenses. All this to facilitate exchange between artists, to take away some of the fears when it comes to open content licenses, sharing code, and to give a perspective on various ways of working and collaborating.

The digital artist handbook is brought to you by folly and has developed out of ongoing consultation with artists working with technology, which has shown a need for removing the barriers for artists to use digital tools. The project is supported by Arts Council England.

From August 2007 until January 2008, the editors of the Handbook were Marloes de Valk and Aymeric Mansoux of GOTO10.

Dwnload PDF

CREATIVE DIRECTOR, ANNOUNCES THEME: "OPEN CULTURE"

Claude Gosselin, Executive and Artistic Director of the Centre international d'art contemporain de Montréal (CIAC), is delighted to announce the appointment of Scott Burnham (Montréal/London) as Creative Director of La Biennale de Montréal 2009. The Biennale will take place throughout Montréal during May 2009 as a collaborative redefinition of a biennial, working within Burnham's theme for 2009: "Open Culture". As Scott Burnham explains:

"We are in the midst of a paradigm shift in our relationship to art and culture. In the same way that the Open Source software movement has driven technological innovation, the tools and philosophies at the heart of remix and mashup culture, Creative Commons licensing, the Free Culture movement, and the drive for open access and contribution to creative, scientific and educational intellectual property is transforming culture itself. The line between audience and artist is blurring to the point of invisibility – in its place is a democratisation of the creative process and the demystification of the artist as shaman. The 2009 Biennale de Montréal: Open Culture will be the international focal point for the exploration of this shift in culture."

The Third Chinese Blogger Conference will be held November 3-4, 2007, in Beijing

The Third Chinese Blogger Conference will be held November 3-4, 2007, in Beijing, China.

Please visit the official blog of cnbloggrrcon, http://cnbloggercon.org/blog, or follow the twitter agent of cnbloggercon at, http://twitter.com/cnbloggercon
As always this is a semi secrete event- Venue not yet announced, but the registration fee is RMB $150, on line registration $120
speakers:
1. 演讲者简介：Keso（洪波）: Keso（洪波）五季咨询合伙人、咨询师 IT自由评论人 曾任八一电影制片厂纪录片部、中央电视台军事部编导 1996年参与IDG投资的.. http://tinyurl.com/2z6kcn
2. 潘海东: 潘海东 现任互动在线（北京）科技有限公司 首席执行官。曾任中国最大的办公用品电子商务网站”亚商在线”首席信息官。在美留学.. http://tinyurl.com/24g87c
3. Joichi Ito (伊藤穰一): 伊藤穰一先生是美籍日本人，目前居住于东京。他是“创作共用”(Creative Commons)组织的轮值主席，也是..

Joichi Ito (伊藤穰一 Itō Jōichi, born June 19, 1966), more commonly known as Joi Ito, is an American-educated Japanese activist, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist.

Ito is the chairman of the board of Creative Commons and the chairman of Six Apart Japan. He is on the board of Technorati, Digital Garage, WITNESS, Pia Corporation, Socialtext and iCommons. He is the founder and CEO of the venture capital firm Neoteny Co., Ltd. In October of 2004, he was named to the board of ICANN for a three-year term starting December 2004. In August of 2005, he joined the board of the Mozilla Foundation. He served on the board of the Open Source Initiative (OSI) from March 2005 until April 2007. He currently serves as a Board Emeritus for OSI.[1] He was a founding board member of Ex’pression College for Digital Arts[2] as well as the Zero One Art and Technology Network.[3]

From Wikipedia

http://tinyurl.com/yudr64

4. 张利（vim） Title : 业余知识分子
年会演讲者及NPO专场主持人，演讲及专题主题：互联网时代的NGO
Website : http://vim.growup.net.cn
5. 刘晓原，北京市忆通律师事务所律师、中国卫生法学会会员、北京市法学会会员、百度知识专家团法律专家、新浪网驻站律师
http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/1239085290
6. Alan Tien
Alan Tien is the China GM for Geni. Prior to Geni, Alan was the China Country Product Manager for PayPal, an eBay company. During his 5 years at PayPal, he launched PayPal China and PayPal’s first set of APIs. He graduated from Stanford University with a BS in Electrical Engineering.
Alan Tien是Geni中国区总经理 。在此之前，曾任Paypal中国产品经理，在为PayPal工作的5年中，推出了贝宝和PayPal的第一套API，Alan毕业于斯坦福大学并获电子工程学士学位

More :
More info :China Web 2.0 Review: Meet Us On Social Application Panel, http://tinyurl.com/2a3fns
Netvibes page on CNbloggerCon:http://www.netvibes.com/cnbloggercon

Dead Language

From 18th to 22th October @ICA London:

Platoons of the latest replicas of Banksy roam the landscape, led by General Clone Banksy, a talentless nobody who once found a sample of Banksy DNA on an empty spray can. A rowdy gang of Tracey Emins wrestle half a dozen dazed Andy Warhols to the ground. It is the future and all forms of art are free, perfect replicas exist of every masterpiece ever created, copyright and ownership are meaningless, ideas are cheap and replicated ad infinitum. Artists have realised that their own identity is the only thing they can own or control, so fans become clones of artists in order to spread their art/identity. One final piece of uncorrupted art remains, yet to be copied: a living story told by Neonate Muses. Come and experience the living story and see how the world died with FoolishPeople's immersive, evolving performance in the ICA theatre. On the Saturday afternoon, a workshop with writer and director John Harrigan will give participants a chance to examine the core concepts of Dead Language: open-source myth, weaponised art and the future of intellectual rights within a dead culture.

"There's a layer to art and entertainment now that's stopping us thinking, it's coming between us and common sense": read Loma-Ann Bonner's interview with Foolish People's John Harrigan in Open Magazine.

www.foolishpeople.org

Interesting !!

九月十五日自由軟件日

自由軟件日是一個世界性宣揚及推廣自由軟件的慶祝日。世界各地都會在同一天, 二零零七年九月十五日, 透過不同的方法來教育大眾關於高質素自由軟件在政府、教育、商業各界的好處。

今年香港區的籌委會邀請了不同界別的人士來作演講嘉賓, 講座內容精彩絕倫。出席的講者有香港警務處－商業罪案調查科, 科技罪案組(電腦法理鑑證) 警察電腦法證專家－黃景祥先生; 香港理工大學電子計算機學系副教授－梁金能博士;香港生產力促進局, 資訊科技業發展部首席顧問－老少聰先生; 商界方面則有聯科系統有限公司總經理－甘文佳先生。

開源業界的團體則有Debian － 香港, Debian 及Linux 開發者－蘇建中先生來; 香港Linux用家協會主席－陳曉陽先生及開放系統研用協會會長－凌志聰先生。

是次該講座的詳情如下:

日期: 二零零七年九月十五日
地點: 香港九龍紅磡理工大學平台 TU 201 張安德演講廳
時間: 下午二時半至五時半
語言: 以廣東話講解，輔以英文名詞
講座人數: 120人
出席人士可參與現場抽獎

機會難逢, 萬勿錯過! 請即登記留座!!

>> 詳情及登記網址：http://sfd.swpearl.com/2007/

自由軟件日 - 國際網址：http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/
自由軟件日 - 香港區網址：http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/teams/asiaandmiddleeast/HongKong/chinese
查詢: hongkong.sfd@gmail.com

Open Source Exhibition open today

RIGHT CLICK: Open Source New Media Exhibition

24/5 – 13/6/2007
Venue 展出地點： Kapok Gallery
B/F, 9 Dragon Road, Tin Hau (next to Tin Hau Temple Road) [map]
Opening 開幕派對： 24/5/2007
7:00 pm with oversea artists’ attendance
Date 日期： 24/5 - 13/6/2007
10:00 am - 8:00 pm (Mon-Fri)；12:00 pm - 7:00 pm (Sat-Sun) * free admission
Inquiry 查詢： Jeff LEUNG (read.jeff@gmail.com / 96451104) ;
Kapok (info@ka-pok.com / 2549-9254)
Curator 展覽策劃 ： GuLLDY+Jeff LEUNG

Seminars 專題講座

Seminar 1 : OPEN SOURCE: FOUNDATIONS, SITUATIONS AND DIRECTIONS
Seminar 2 : Open Source Software Development: A case on Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID)
Seminar 3 : Artist Seminars
Seminar 4 : Who says “working-in-progress” cannot be opened? -Workshops Progress Sharing

Open Source in New Media Art

DIY (Do-It-Yourself) is not new to most design and art lovers. But when DIY goes digital, it is not as easy as it seems to be truly self-initiated without commercial software. The spirits of Open Source are to provide an open platform for digital media users to upload and download programming sources free of charge, and allow them to individualize these sources as their own designs and applications. Such free exchange of ideas and information ultimately gather collective experiences and creativities, which is much more meaningful then just doing things on one’s own.

GuLLDY and their co-curator Jeff LEUNG are pleased to present the exhibition “Right Click：Open Source New Media Art Exhibition”. Three international creative parties will present their interactive new media artworks based on Open Source programming and technology. What will be showcased are not only the completed works of art but also the entire processes as well as sources of the technology and the conceptual ideas applied to these works. In short, the exhibition aims to open and share with audiences every step involved in the productions of the exhibits, promoting the very spirits of DIY(Do-It-Yourself) and Creative Commons.

Creative parties including Daniel Shiffman (USA), Josh Minor (USA), mirco+playground (Taiwan) will present their works in the exhibition. Among these parties, Josh Minor and mirco+playground will come from aboard for the opening party and seminars, sharing their creations and creativities with audiences.

The exhibition is part of GuLLDY’s media art programme series subsidized by Hong Kong Arts Development Council. It will commence on 24 May at Kapok Gallery and will last until 13 June.

對不少設計或藝術愛好者而言，DIY(Do-It-Yourself) 不是新課題，但面對設計精密的數碼媒體，要不倚賴商業軟件去DIY 創作，卻可能是一大難題。「開放源碼」(Open Source) 的精神是為數碼媒體使用者提供免費平台，讓他們自由上載下載程式源碼，繼而自行轉化成個人化的使用和設計；又正如「資源共享」(Creative Commons) 所鼓吹的宗旨，難得是這種開放式的自由交流匯聚了集體創意和智慧，比一般的DIY 一人創作更有意思。

由GuLLDY( 玖樓陸兜友) 及策展人梁展峰共同策劃的「Right Click ：開放源碼新媒體展覽」將展示多位來自本地及海外的新媒體創作人以開放源碼為基礎的互動數碼設計。展覽除了展出他們的製作成品之外，還會由始到末的完全展示他們創作源頭和過程，當中可能包括原創的程式源碼或由其他人的源碼所改造和轉化的新程式，參觀者在參觀之餘還可以參與其中，回家DIY 創作，親身體會由開放源碼引發的無限創意。

Open Source Cinema- Wiki Film and CopyLeft

OpenSourceCinema.orgis a collaborative documentary project to create a feature film about copyright in the digital age. Watch the trailer video, it is just what Hong Kong digital copyright law maker should really look into. Opening Nanny is awesome and I bet John Lennon, Lou Reed are proud of the soundtrack too.

Check out the wiki film page from Bret(creator of open source cinema)

Great discussion between an avid open source developer and Bret himself :
">As an avid open source developer, I'm sometimes puzzled about how the Open Source concept is >bantered around, without any real understanding of how it works in the real world.

The concept of Open Source is expanding beyond software. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_content

>Opens Source software projects are often very restrictive in nature, and have very few people who are >actually allowed to contribute to the source tree; this usually happens only after many months or even >years of proving that they can cut it as a core developer.

This isn't a project like that ;) . Ultimately, the film Basement Tapes will be assembled by me, but this space (the website) should be about Creative anarchy. It isn't owned by anyone and should be fluid. This is the difference between art and software - art needs a LOT of influence.

>Sadly, we live in a world short on modesty, where millions of talentless people suffer from the delusion >that they have something to offer the world.

damn! Luckily, we live in a world where increasingly, millions of people REALIZE they have something to offer the world!

P.S.
Roots of Rebellion – Oswald, Negativland and Culture Jammers
We have been talking about cut up the other day and Windful asked me about the difference between editing, collage and cut up, I hope this video can give some insight.