[ox] WOS-Workshop, 22.9.: "Information wants to be free"
- From: "Volker Grassmuck" <vgrass rz.hu-berlin.de>
- Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2000 17:33:59 +0200
The Wizards of OS
"INFORMATION WANTS TO BE FREE"
The Digital Knowledge Order between Rights Control Systems and Information
Commons
Die digitale Wissensordnung zwischen Rechtekontrollsystemen und WissensAllmende
http://mikro.org/Events/OS/interface5/
22.09.2000
Kunstverein Hamburg
Klosterwall 23, Hamburg
Eintritt 15 DM / ermaeszigt 10 DM
(teilweise in englischer Sprache)
LiveWebcast (in Quicktime) am 22.9., 12:0019:30 auf
http://www.interface5.de/home/broadcast/broadcast_index.html
organized by Wizards of OS
(mikro, Humboldt University Informatik & Gesellschaft)
Wolfgang Coy & Volker Grassmuck
Workshop within the Interface 5
(Schedule, speakers info & abstracts below)
English
The 'Commons' is an old term for a communcal form of property. In the field of
intellectual property, the GNU General Public License (GPL) creates a similar kind of
Knowledge Commons that allows people in open cooperation to develop and nurture a
wealth of software. While the "Wizards of OS. Open Sources and Free Software" in July
1999 in the House of Cultures of the World Berlin took Free Software as its focus, this
Wizards of OS Workshop widens its scope to include other forms of free information
in science and in the arts, in the libraries and in the sky above. Today, the term
Commons is usually used in the context of environmental policies. In the interest of our
informational environment the workshop asks for opportunities and chances for equal
access and informational sustainability.
Deutsch
'Allmende' ist ein alter Begriff fuer kommunitaeres Eigentum. Im Bereich des geistigen
Eigentums schafft die GNU General Public License (GPL) eine aehnliche Form von
Wissens Allmende, die es Menschen erlaubt, in offener Kooperation miteineinander
einen Reichtum an Software zu entwickeln und zu pflegen. Waehrend die "Wizards of
OS. Open Sources and Free Software" im Juli 1999 im Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin
ihren Schwerpunkt auf die Freie Software legten, umfaszt dieser Wizards of
OSWorkshop einen breiteren Bereich von freiem Wissen in der Wissenschaft und
der Kunst, in den Bibliotheken und Himmel ueber uns. Heute wird der Begriff Allmende
gewoehnlich im Zusammenhang der Umweltpolitik gebraucht. Im Interesse unserer
informationellen Umwelt fragt der Workshop nach den Moeglichkeiten und Chancen
fuer einen gleichen Zugang und eine informationelle Nachhaltigkeit.
SCHEDULE
12:00 Welcome / Introduction,
Wolfgang Coy, Professor for Computer Science and Society at Humboldt University,
Berlin
Volker Grassmuck, mikro & CS Humboldt Uni Berlin & Professor Media Art,
Hochschule fuer Grafik und Buchkunst, Leipzig
12:30 "Informationsfreiheit und urheberrechtlicher Interessenkonflikt" [in German]
Gabriele Beger, Copyright Attorney of the Federal Union of German Library
Associations
13:30 "Wissenskommunismus: Anachronismus oder Futurismus fuer das
Informationszeitalter" [in German]
Helmut Spinner, Institute of Philosophy, University Karlsruhe
14:30 break
14:45 "AntiCopyright in Subcultural Art Currents" [in German]
Florian Cramer, Literature Scientist, Free University Berlin and Neoist Activist, Berlin
15:45 "Makrolab The Library in the Sky" [in English]
Marko Peljhan, Makrolab, Ljubljana
16:45 break
17:00 "Information as a prime and primarily relational value" [in English]
Sally Jane Norman, New Zealander/ French performing arts theorist, Paris
18:00 "An Informational History of the World" [in English]
Phil Agre, Department of Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles
19:00 panel discussion
ab ca. 20:00 Screening: Craig Baldwin, "Sonic Outlaws" (USA, 1995, 80 Min.)
SPEAKERS
*********************************
GABRIELE BEGER
<beger zlb.de>
Homepage: <http://www.zlb.de/bibliothek/standorte/beger.htm>
Copyright Attorney of the Federal Union of German Library Associations; Director of
the Berlin City Library in the Foundation Central and State Library Berlin; Head of the
Dpt. Media Center of the Central and State Library Berlin; teaches library, information
and documentation law at Humboldt University Berlin and at Fachhochschule Potsdam;
Managing Chairwoman of the Berlin Association within the German Library
Association; Chairwoman of the Law Commission of EDBI (Ehemaliges Deutsches
Bibliotheksinstitut); member of the German Culture Council; member of the curatorium
of the Literary Colloquium Berlin.
INFORMATIONSFREIHEIT UND URHEBERRECHTLICHER INTERESSENKONFLIKT
"Verhindern kann man virtuelle Bibliotheken nicht, also muss man sie lizenzieren -
hier besteht dringender Handlungsbedarf."
Die Informationsfreiheit, das Recht eines jeden Buergers, sich ungehindert und
unabhaengig von seiner sozialen Stellung aus veroeffentlichten Quellen zu informieren,
stellt ein fundamentales Menschenrecht dar. In mehreren internationalen Abkommen
haben sich Staaten zu ihrer Einhaltung verpflichtet. Die Bundesrepublik Deutschland
hat dieses Grundrecht in Art 5 ihrer Verfassung niedergeschrieben. Urheberrechtliches
Schaffen basiert auf der Ausuebung der Informationsfreiheit. Ohne
Auseinandersetzung mit vorhandenem geistigen Schaffen waere eine
Weiterentwicklung in Wissenschaft, Kunst und Literatur nicht moeglich. Freie
Information sichert Fortschritt, qualifizierte Arbeitskraefte und damit
Wirtschaftsstandorte.
*********************************
HELMUT SPINNER
<rc01 rz.unikarlsruhe.de>
Homepage: <http://www.unikarlsruhe.de/~philosophie/spinner.html>
Head of the Institute of Philosophy, University Karlsruhe, head of Studium Generale.
Research areas: philosophy and sociology of science and technology, modern and
contemporary philosophy.
KNOWLEDGE COMMUNISM: ANACHRONISM OR FUTURISM FOR THE
INFORMATION AGE
*********************************
FLORIAN CRAMER
<paragram gmx.net>
Homepage: <http://userpage.fuberlin.de/~cantsin>
Born 1969, studied general and comparative literature science, art history and German
philology in Berlin, Konstanz and Amherst/Massachusetts (USA), teaches at the
Institute for General and Comparative Literature Science, Free University Berlin.
Participated in the "Festivals of Plagiarism" und "Neoist Apartment Festivals" since
1989, published in PhotoStatic/Retrofuturism, YAWN, SMILE, works on neoism.org
since 1995, arcticles on Neoism in: Stewart Home and Florian Cramer, The House of
Nine Squares, London: Invisible Books, 1997, and in: Mario Mentrup (ed.),
Printidentitaeten, Berlin: Maas Verlag, 2000
Since 1996 various talks and essays on literature and computer. PerlProgrammer,
GNU/Linux user since 1996 and speaker at events by Berliner Linux User Group
(BeLUG). His website "Permutationen" was awarded the Special Price by the Pegasus
'98 jury.
ANTICOPYRIGHT IN SUBKULTURELLEN KUNSTSTROEMUNGEN
In den spaeten 1980er und fruehen 1990er Jahren organisierte sich eine kuenstlerische
Subkultur aus dem Umfeld von Mail Art und experimenteller Cassettenmusik um die
Schlagwoerter von "plagiarism" und "anticopyright". Interessanter vielleicht als die
Bilder, Toene und Performances, die im Namen dieser vorgeblichen Bewegung
produziert wurden, ist die theoretische Debatte, die ihre Akteure unter anderem in den
Zeitschriften "PhotoStatic/Retrofuturism", "YAWN" und "VAGUE" fuehrten. Die
historischen Bezuege gehen zurueck bis LautrÚamont, erweisen sich aber bei genauerer
Betrachtung als Kette von interessanten Fehllektueren. Nicht minder aufschluszreich
sind die Differenzen und Ueberschneidungen des AnticopyrightAktivismus mit Freier
Software und ihrem "Copyleft", mit Literaturtheorien des Einflusses und der
Intertextualitaet, mit poetischem "playgiarism", der "Appropriation Art" der 1980er und
der Netzkunst der 1990er Jahre. Der Rueckblick auf diese Diskurse erweitert und
schaerft, so meine These, die Sinne fuer Probleme der Kontrolle und der
Reproduzierbarkeit von Zeichen im Zeitalter ihrer Digitalisierung.
*********************************
MARKO PELJHAN
<marxx ljudmila.org>
Media artist, born in Nova Gorica, Slovenia 1969. Founder of the organization Projekt
Atol and PACT (Projekt Atol Communication Technologies) in the frame of which he
carries on his research in the fields of performance, technology applications, radio,
sound, video, film, lectures and situations. He also works as programs coordinator of
Ljudmila Ljubljana digital media lab <http://www.ljudmila.org>) and as operations
coordinator of the Makrolab project <http://makrolab.ljudmila.org/> which was shown
at dokumenta X and in Adelaide, Australia. His latest project is INSULAR Technologies
(International Networking System for Universal Long distance Advanced Radio)
<http://www.insular.net/>.
MAKROLAB THE LIBRARY IN THE SKY
Project Makrolab (1997, ongoing, <http://makrolab.ljudmila.org/>, also at
<http://www.kudfp.si/~luka/makrolab/> Makrolab is designed as an autonomous,
modular communications and living environment, which is powered by sustainable
sources of energy (solar and wind power). It is designed for a long existence in an
isolated environment and can withstand extreme natural conditions. Research into
telecommunications as the main aspect of the project is concentrated on the discovery
and recording of the events which take place in the densely populated abstract areas of
the electromagnetic spectrum. The electromagnetic spectrum is a part of the global
sociopolitical space, which is invisible and immaterial on one hand but presents a
productive factor of general living and social conditions on the other. It can be sensed
only by the means of suitable interfaces and specialized knowledge. The
telecommunication activities of makrolab are created as the process of transcribing
invisible and vague microenvironmental activities into traditional, threedimensional
textures documents.
Brain Springer, together with whom Marko Peljhan conducted the Makrolab Project an
Dokumenta X wrote: "We approached the sky above the Lutterberg as a living library
out of the shelves of which voices, images and data communications streamed down to
us."
*********************************
SALLY JANE NORMAN
<norman wanadoo.fr>
New Zealander/ French cultural theorist and practitioner working in performing arts,
new media and technology; holder of a doctorat de IIIe cycle and doctorat d?état in
theatre studies (Université de Paris III); scientific director of the 1993 Louvre
international conference on "New Images and Museology"; instigator of performance/
technology events (Institut International de la Marionnette, CharlevilleMézières;
Zentrum fuer Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe; Studio for ElectroInstrumental
Music STEIM Amsterdam); collaborator on ESPRIT art and technology projects at
the ZKM (199799); artistic advisor to STEIM; member of the European Cultural
Backbone; director of the Ecole Supérieure de l?Image, Angoulême/Poitiers, France.
INFORMATION AS A PRIME AND PRIMARILY RELATIONAL VALUE
Current attempts to use digital tools to inventory humanity's material and immaterial
assets, to merchandise as information products elements of our hitherto inalienable
cultural heritage, are both threatening and absurd. Threatening, insofar as corporate
avarice already weighs heavily on certain kinds of previously accessible, shareable
knowledge and experience. Absurd, insofar as the digital visionaries driving this
commodification race are as shortsighted as Midas: information which is processed as
discrete packets of goods, cut off from the res publica from which it emerges and
whereby it survives and evolves, is doomed. Turning information into nuggets of
discrete digital gold is tantamount to killing it. Because information is only meaningful
in the context of human relations: it is generated, nurtured, and transformed in short,
brought and kept alive through intercourse via active, interactive human minds.
My presentation attempts to focus on the participatory, social quality of information,
and to stress the vanity and danger of information hoarding that fails to recognise
this vital quality.
*********************************
PHIL AGRE
<pagre ucla.edu>
Homepage: <http://dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/people/pagre/>
Philip E. Agre is an associate professor of information studies at University of
California, Los Angeles. He received his PhD in computer science from MIT in 1989,
having conducted dissertation research in the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory on
computational models of improvised activities. Before arriving at UCLA he taught at
the University of Sussex and UC San Diego, and has been a visiting professor at the
University of Chicago and the University of Paris. He is the author of "Computation
and Human Experience" (Cambridge University Press, 1997), and the coeditor of
"Technology and Privacy: The New Landscape" (with Marc Rotenberg, MIT Press,
1997), "Reinventing Technology, Rediscovering Community: Critical Studies in
Computing as a Social Practice" (with Douglas Schuler, Ablex, 1997), and
"Computational Theories of Interaction and Agency" (with Stanley J. Rosenschein,
MIT Press, 1996). His current research concerns the role of emerging information
technologies in institutional change; applications include privacy policy and the
networked university. He edits an Internet mailing list called the Red Rock Eater News
Service that distributes useful information on the social and political aspects of
networking and computing to 4000 people in 60 countries.
AN INFORMATIONAL HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Information technology, we have often heard, is bringing about an idealized market
economy of global scope. Underneath this conventional story is a routinized argument
about the role of information in markets: that information technology reduces
economies of scale and thereby reverses longterm historical tendencies toward the
centralization of economic power. This argument, however, does not make sense. I will
use economies of scale as the point of departure for a strikingly different reframing of
the conventional story about the nature of globalization.
*********************************
Wizards of OS <http://mikro.org/wos/>
mikro e.V. <http://mikro.org/>
Humboldt University Informatik & Gesellschaft <http://waste.informatik.huberlin.de/>
Interface 5 <http://www.interface5.de>
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http://mikro.org/Events/OS/text/gesch-freie-sw.html
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