Fwd: WOS-Workshop, 22.9.: "Information wants to be free

[Christiane.Schulzki@t-online.de (Christiane Schulzki-Haddouti)]

                                    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>


bitte weiterverbreiten
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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    Wizards of OS: Information wants to be free
    Workshop, 22.09.2000, Kunstverein Hamburg
    http://mikro.org/Events/OS/interface5/

    Die Wissens-Allmende
    http://mikro.org/Events/OS/interface5/wissens-almende.html
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-