|
home · articles · the art of free software |
New upgrades to icommons.org
We have some exciting new upgrades to icommons.org to report! The latest updates to the site include:
- The ability to upload vertical pictures along with horizontal pictures to the site. We've also set the minimum picture size from 600 to 420 pixels, and you can upload both jpgs and pngs.
- Additions to our list of embedded videos that can be supported on the site - now video... more
|
| |
The Art of Free Software
|
| |
| Neek = nerd + geek, by by bootload, flickr.com |
 |
The "Why artists don't use more free software" panel was a strange beast. Swinging between polarised positions and shared understanding it left me feeling little progress had been made. There was the usual free software righteousness and artistic stubbornness. "I just want it to work" people would complain, "you have to make it work" the geeks would reply. And yes it should work and yes artists should be more involved in helping make it work, but there is something more....
I think my problem with how this panel went was it's basic premiss of "free software tools need to be made better for artists to use them and that artists need to assist in this process." This is entirely true but I also think it misses the point. It seems that the language of consumerism has taken over in this area, even amongst those that are sympathetic to CC. Free software isn't trying to create a consumer experience where you just get a tool and your consumer satisfaction. Yes the tools must work and be easy to use and much effort needs to be done in this area. This process however is ongoing, there is not a point at which free software will be complete because the tools will always need improving.
It might be better to understand Free software as process that changes how people view themselves, their peers and their relationship to technology. It's not about consuming technology, it about a transformation in subjectivity to actor and participant. Fundamentally is about creating a new social language.
We can extrapolate here to the world of free culture. Free culture or free art is not just about adding a CC licensing to your work, I think the bare minimum should be a little higher. It should also be about the platforms and tools you use and the collaborative and collective methodologies you employ. Fundamentally free culture should articulate a shift in social relations, of how we produce and work together. Free software is one space in which to create a rupture in how we understand our relationship to others and to technology. It shouldn't be seen as a moral imperative but a social imperative, one that adds a richest that is otherwise unavailable, a process not driven by guilt but by possibility.
Free Art is not a license or a software application, it's a social process produced through the creation of a new forms of cooperation.
tags: dubrovnik croatia culture floss foss free-culture art summit07
|
|
| |
comments  |
 add a comment |
|
| |
 |
If i get your point - you haven't stated it explicitly, with free software the user is not just a user. The problem is, try telling that to a person who can't craft code - no matter how much they might want to, as you call it, "tranform subjectivity", what can they do? I know, i know, submit bug reports, etc. - but how satisfying is that? There is a deep divide there, due to widely divergent skills and unless FS communities work on being more inclusive toward non-coders, whom they often treat with contempt, this will not change. One idea that I really like is that of mentors - programmers, even brilliant ones, agreeing to tutor normal users around them on using their apps - and getting in return much needed usability feedback.
Alek Tarkowski · Warszawa (Poland) · Jun 23rd, 2007 5:49 am
4 out of 4 people believe this is useful
your take:   |
 |
There are many more things that non-coders can do, y'know. Major desktop communities like KDE have teams/individuals for: code, documentation, art work, promotion, marketing, project management, community governance, usability, accessibility, event organisation and probably more besides!
Anyway, I really liked Andrew's article. I just want to reformulate part of it to respond to the above concerns.
The task for free culture advocates isn't just to go about promoting the use of one or other CC license. It is to create spaces in which people can engage in cultural activities more freely than before, and to advocate an ethic of participation. It doesn't matter that 95% of the population won't ever contribute to a free software project, the important thing is (a) that there aren't harmful legal restrictions preventing participation and so establishing the user/producer relationship; and (b) that existing participants see a serious positive obligation to reach out and help people to overcome other barriers to their participation.
The same goes for free culture spaces - they should be about inclusivity, training, friendliness, finances and so on as much as licenses.
We also don't want to fetishise participation at the expense of good art -- mashups and collage are fun and worthy, but hardly the pinnacle of artistic practice.
tchance · London (United Kingdom) · Jun 25th, 2007 5:41 pm
1 out of 1 person believes this is useful
your take: |
 |
I'd rather call this problem a hook-on issue. Let me present a small case, what if you taught a couple of people whom have never touched a computer to use that machine.
On their PCs, you installed and taught them Ubuntu Linux and by default they gained access to software like GIMP (The GNU Image Manipulation Program alternative to Photoshop) or downloaded other tools like Inkscape, Scribus, Xaraextreme or even 3D Tool like blender, you just gave them remarkable skills and productivity that would have otherwise costed nearly US$50k.
Hey break free of the thought of the basic undertanding, contribute back, you are already contributing by just using the software created by us. You are contributing to the FOSS movement by sharing the software you use for yourself with others. User interaction and interface design is continuously improving because the effect is out there and we are getting good responses.
Don't wanna contribute code since ya can't code, don't, you can contribute in many other meaningful ways that even us coders don't have time to do ourselves because the world is a software development ball field and we are all the players and each player has to look after something. Some look after Coding and Stadards, other after quality, some after patching, others after documentation and trust me that most of the documentation guys have never created a single line of code and then of course what would be software without users!
Get the hang of it bro!
Fouad Bajwa, FOSS advocate & writer · Lahore (Pakistan) · Aug 20th, 2007 8:49 am
your call: is this comment useful?
your take: |
|
|
|
| |
add a comment: you must be logged on in order to comment. please log in or register at iCommons.org and and your comments right after.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
send
printer-friendly version
invite to vote