Syndicate: FWD: <nettime> Wizards of OS -- Open Sources and Free Softwar

[Eric Kluitenberg <epk@xs4all.nl>]

From: "Volker Grassmuck" <h0724elw@rz.hu-berlin.de>
Date: Sun, 6 Jun 1999 17:45:38 +0000
Subject: <nettime> Wizards of OS -- Open Sources and Free Software

Wizards of OS #1
Open Sources and Free Software
July 16 - 17, 1999
House of World Cultures, Berlin

http://www.mikro.org/wos

The rise of free software -- notably GNU/Linux -- is the most
astonishing recent development in the computer world. The consequences
can hardly be forseen. Is the Linux boom ringing in the sell-out of
free software? Or are we now witnessing the challenging of information
capitalism which is based on "intellectual property"? Is a truly new
economy taking shape or is open source simply the software business
model of the flexible service society?

Whether free software is only about the freedom of programming code,
or -- as GNU founder Richard M. Stallman puts it -- also about the
question what kind of society we want to live in, is the subject of
the conference "Wizards of OS" that will take place on July 16 and 17,
1999 in the House of Worlds Cultures in Berlin. Wizards of OS #1 is
the first event in Germany to focus on the culture, philosophy,
politics and economics of free software. The overriding theme is: Free
software between a social movement and the market economy. Two worlds
meet. In the encounter of cooperative and corporate cultures, there is
more at stake than the question of who is developing the better
software.

The Wizards of OS offer presentations and public discussions on the
following subjects:

 - Free Software Licenses versus copyright, patent and trademark law;
 what sort of license models are available and what are their
 advantages and disadvantages?

 - Open source cryptography versus "security through obscurity": which
 model is safer?

 - Free software and the fair exchange of knowledge between richer and
 poorer nations.

 - Free software in education.

 - What is the strength of open standards setting like on the
 Internet, where are its limits?

 - How can the mechanisms of free software be applied to other forms
 of knowledge, to text, images, music and multimedia art?

- What kind of parallels to the privatization of public knowledge can
be found in the other digital revolution, in genetics? Seeds have also
been exchanged and further developed by farmers since the beginning of
agriculture, but today, chemical and pharmaceutical companies such as
Monsanto -- which likes to refer to itself as the "Microsoft of
biotechnology" -- claim property rights on the source of life.

Furthermore, prominent free software projects will be introduced by
their developers: the free implementation of the X-Windows System
XFree86, the user interface KDE, the Web server Apache, the script
language Perl, and the other free Unix BSD.

This will be followed by presentations of companies that do business
with free software: the Linux distributor SuSE, medium-sized Linux
support firms such as Lunetix and Innominate, the publishing house
O'Reilly, the commercial software company Intershop that offers its
eCommerce solutions under Linux, the daily newspaper "die
tageszeitung" that is being produced on a Linux-based editorial
system, the equipment maker for building materials, process
engineering and wood processing technology Babcock that utilizes Linux
in its networks, and Apple and Sun that have recently begun to allow
people to peek into their source code.

May the Source be with you!


PARTICIPATION FEE

one day DM 30 / two days DM 50
reduced fee: one day DM 15 / two days DM 25

In order to register, please make over the fee to:
mikro e.V., Berliner Sparkasse, Account No. 720007038,
Intn'l Bank Code (BLZ)  100 500 00, purpose "WOS"
and send an e-mail with your name and registration to:
info@mikro.org


CONTACTS

program:
Volker Grassmuck <vgrass@rz.hu-berlin.de>

financial organization and execution:
Thorsten Schilling <info@mikro.org>

press contact:
Tilman Baumgaertel <tilman_baumgaertel@csi.com>


ORGANIZED BY

mikro e.V.  -- Institute for Computer Science, Working Group for
Computer Science in Education & Society of Humboldt University Berlin
-- Institute for Aesthetics of Humboldt University Berlin -- Center
for Art and Media Technology (ZKM), Karlsruhe

in cooperation with:
House of World Cultures Berlin -- Telepolis -- Individual Network
Berlin -- Berliner Linux User Group -- Berliner NeXT User Group --
Interface 2000 -- V2_Lab, Rotterdam -- context m.
mind.media.development, Berlin

SPONSORS

Berliner Senatsverwaltung fuer Wirtschaft und Betriebe -- Zentrum fuer
Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe -- Oracle Deutschland GmbH --
O'Reilly Verlag Deutschland - - Intershop Communications GmbH --
Technologiestiftung Berlin/Protime -- Midat Maerkische Informatik &
Datentechnik GmbH -- Lehmanns Fachbuchhandlung GmbH -- V2_Lab,
Rotterdam

Media Partners:
Telepolis -- Mediacube GmbH
................................................................
   vgrass@rz.hu-berlin.de
   home: http://waste.informatik.hu-berlin.de/Grassmuck/
   mikro: http://www.mikro.org
   Wizards of OS: http://www.mikro.org/Events/OS
................................................................

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