Here are my slides from the Open Video Conference. I am not sure they are intelligible on their own but I imagine the video of the talk will be up on the site at some point in the near future. It is a basic overview of an article coming out in August in Cultural Anthropology entitled “Code is Speech: Legal Tinkering, Expertise, and Protest among Free and Open Source Software Developers (no lolcats in the article though, sadly).
The conference was a real interesting event with some great keynotes, panels, and conversations. I was, at first, surprised at the level of attendance, but it is a testament to the vibrancy of the state and promise of open video. I have a feeling that it will be the first of many.
update Videos of the talk are being uploaded here and a host of the recordings are already up here, which are in a non-flash format and apparently for my talk, they were able to capture a plof (that made me laugh early this morning when i could barely even open my eyes):
“More important: the official registration didn’t capture the sound of a bag of crisps that opened with a loud ‘plof’ on the third row.”
My partner Micah is pretty good with his hands, well, so long as they are attached to a computer. Otherwise, he is a bit lost. His father, however, is a master craftsman, rebuilding old cars, making his own houses, you know, the sort of stuff that really puts me in awe.
Thanks to his efforts, his family, notably his sister Emily Anderson, are about to kick off and commemorate Alice Ramsey who in 1909, did the unconventional, which is somewhat an understatement, and drove across the United States in what then was called a horseless carriage. Apparently, she loved to race cars and took that love to trek across what were really gnarly roads and earned the distinction as the first woman to do so.
Using the same model (Maxwell Model DA) that Alice drove, one that Emily’s Dad, Richard, restored (and it is the very last one in existence!), she will be starting off the drive in just a few days.
The whole family is pretty involved, so Bengt Anderson is making a film (short clip featured above), Micah has helped with the website side of things, and the ‘rents will be in the trailer (especially since Emily just had a baby).
Anyhow, more to write about cars and this trip but thought some folks might be interested in following her across the US. I am super bummed I am not in NYC to watch her go, but I will be watching with a lot of excitement from the Internets!
Courant Institute
251 Mercer Street (Warren Weaver Hall)
Room 109
TITLE: “The Struggle to Build a Digital Republic”
ABSTRACT:
David Bollier will speak about the themes of his new book, Viral
Spiral: How the Commoners Built a Digital Republic of Their Own (New
Press). The book is the first comprehensive history of the “free
culture” movement and “sharing economy” that is empowering ordinary
people, disrupting markets and changing politics and culture. Bollier
will talk about the rise of free and open source software, Creative
Commons licenses, the new forms of non-market creativity (Wikipedia,
blogs, remix music, videos) as well as fascinating innovations in open
science, open education and “open business models.” More about the
book can be found at the website www.viralspiral.cc. More about
Bollier can be found at www.bollier.org.
If you are into sustainable farming this movie will likely catch your fancy.There is a screening here in NYC at the end of May. Supposedly they are going to stream the movie online, which I certainly hope to be the case. A political documentary that is behind bars is really not so useful and is a contradictory project as well.
If you are into the idea of farming but live in the city, and New York City in specific, you can attend a Htink workshop on May 17th and start urban farming.
The Open Video Conference is happening in NYC/NYU in June and registration now open. The line-up looks fantastic so if you are inclined and are in the area, do drop by.
Courant Institute
251 Mercer Street (Warren Weaver Hall)
Room 109
TITLE: “The Struggle to Build a Digital Republic”
ABSTRACT:
David Bollier will speak about the themes of his new book, Viral
Spiral: How the Commoners Built a Digital Republic of Their Own (New
Press). The book is the first comprehensive history of the “free
culture” movement and “sharing economy” that is empowering ordinary
people, disrupting markets and changing politics and culture. Bollier
will talk about the rise of free and open source software, Creative
Commons licenses, the new forms of non-market creativity (Wikipedia,
blogs, remix music, videos) as well as fascinating innovations in open
science, open education and “open business models.” More about the
book can be found at the website www.viralspiral.cc. More about
Bollier can be found at www.bollier.org.
Bio
David Bollier is a leading American activist, author, blogger and
proponent of “free culture” on the Internet and the commons. He is an
editor of Onthecommons.org and Senior Fellow at the USC Annenberg
School for Communication. Bollier is also co-founder of Public
Knowledge, a Washington, D.C., organization that advocates for the
public’s stake in the Internet and copyright law, and the author of
Silent Theft, Brand Name Bullies, and four other books. He lives in
Amherst, Massachusetts.
VENUE:
Courant Institute
251 Mercer Street (Warren Weaver Hall)
Room 109
JITP-2010
“The Politics of Open Source”
May 6-7, 2010 – Amherst, Massachusetts
Full Paper Submission Due Date: January 10, 2010
Approach
Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FOSS) has made significant advances, both technically and organizationally, since its emergence in the mid-1980s. Over the last decade, it has moved from a software development approach involving mostly volunteers to a more complex ecology where firms, nonprofit organizations, government agencies and volunteers may be involved. Moreover, the production paradigm continues to expand to other areas of digital content (e.g., Creative Commons, Wikipedia, Connexions, etc.). In this conference we use the phrase “open source” to capture this broader phenomenon. The Program Committee encourages disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of open source, broadly defined.
“Politics” in the conference title, can have many interpretations. Political issues closely tied to the free and open source software movement(s) include: national government policies related to the adoption of open source technologies or questions related to interoperability and open standards, software patents, vendor lock-in, and copyright. These are central themes we expect may be discussed in this forum. In this context, we welcome international submissions since differences in the political perspective appear in international contexts. However, topics related to how the concept of openness has led to various interpretations, adaptations, and applications of “open source” in other domains, and political issues that surround these broader innovations, are also welcome. Specific topics might include, but are not limited to:
General topics related to the politics of open source:
+ How open source software or its principles are changing politics
+ Emerging transparencies in software, systems and society
+ Open source in the developing world and other international contexts
+ The political economy of open source
+ Digital divides and open source
Open source and the public sector:
+ Open source software and transparency in government
+ Government policies toward open source and open standards
+ Regulation and open source
Open source and democracy:
+ Open source and democratic engagement
+ Open source voting systems
+ Activism, political mobilization and open source
The expansion of open source into other domains:
+ Understanding how open source collaboration works and how it can be extended into other areas of collective action
+ Policy areas, such as the effects of free textbooks on education policy or the politics of “One Laptop Per Child”
+ The political implications of open source in other cultural domains
Keynote Speakers
We are pleased to confirm Eric von Hippel (MIT) and Clay Johnson (Sunlight Labs) as the daily keynote speakers for JITP-2010.
Paper Submissions
Authors are invited to prepare and submit to JITP a manuscript following one of the six submission formats by January 10, 2010. These formats include research papers, policy viewpoints, workbench notes, review essays, book reviews, and papers on teaching innovation. The goal is to produce a special issue, or double issue, of JITP with a wide variety of approaches to the broad theme of “The Politics of Open Source.” (more…)
