FOSS R&D @ NIMK
April 15, 2008
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Dyne.org is a non-profit effort lead by a grassroot committee of hackers dedicated to development of free and open source software for the freedom of expression.
Dyne.org appeared online in 2000 when the HasciiCam software was published: an invention widely appreciated for its artistic value and for making possible to broadcast live video using old hardware from a slow network connection.
Once upon a time dyne.org homepage consisted of its skin-like coloured background, the upper menu recited "korova, muse, ascii, proximity, theorema, timezones, conspire" while a transforming Moebius band decorated the center of the page, tagged with a quote from Gertrude Stein
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| a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose |
Inspired by a mix of software and poetry, a growing network of developers released to the public software made to insure freedom of expression, configuring dyne.org as a free software atelier, a portal to Digital Creation and Media Art.
dyne.org software is redistributed by: Free Software Foundation (USA), Ircam, Centre Pompidou (FR), Vienna Univ. of Technology (AT), Providence Univ. Taichung (TW), Tecnhische Univ. Ilmenau (DE), Netherlands Unix User Group (NL), Instituto de Computação Uni de Campinas (BR), NIC Funet (FI), Heraklion University Crete (GR), W3Media Open Source Mirror (NL), Ibiblio public library and many others.
Ranging from radio makers, humanitarian organizations, video artists, medical researchers, media activists and educators, a large amount of people employed and redistributed dyne.org software worldwide, free of charge, echoing to the freedom spirit of this autonomous initiative.
Despite the fact in its early days (and until now) dyne.org was never boosted with merchandising or money, several young hackers pioneered the constitution of a wide horizontal network.
Openness, knowledge sharing and freedom of creation have been the philosophical principles guiding the evolution of dyne.org, hosting creations that have been conceptualised not for a profit, but for their role within society.
One dyne is the force required to cause a mass of one gram to accelerate at a rate of one centimeter per second squared in the absence of other force-producing effects.
A dyne is 1.000.000 times a newton.
The dyne measure has been established by Heraclitus, a greek philosopher born at Ephesus around 540 b.C., whom once also said that much learning does not teach understanding.
Panta rei
By using the term hacker we mean:
Grassroot is a spontaneous, non-hierarchical and passional way to participate and do things, which you can see as deeply different if not opposed to the Corporate way.
The fundamentals of this network are identities, defining themselves with and through their activity: dyne.org is not represented neither subsumes them. Each identity emerges by the code that has published.
Theory and practice can't be separated in our network of autonomous peers: while the participation is open, development tools and documentation are shared so that anyone can train independently to interact with others.
FOSS implies 4 fundamental freedoms: the freedom to run the program, for any purpose; the freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs; the freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbour; the freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits.
With the definition of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) we refer to all software licensed and distributed under the GNU General Public License, as published by the Free Software Foundation. In fact, free has to be intended as "Libre", free as of speech, not simply gratis, coming with all possibilities to redistribute, modify and adapt the software without any fee.
We consider this total freedom (as in libre, not simply as in gratis) extremely important, as it leaves people autonomous in creating their own local economies to self sustain development efforts. Being free to modify, redistribute and even resell immaterial goods renders local efforts independent from neo-colonialist economies: players weakened by the global market can develop independently, still cooperating on a globally shared source base.
The reuse of old technology, the preservation of old computer and of our "digital past" (software, documentations and media supports) is for us a way to stop the unsustainable consumerist way of producing technology nowadays.
For our software creations we use programming techniques based on the GNU and BSD traditions of coding, which are carefully cultivated even by the youngest programmers of our community.
To promote the idea and practice of open source knowledge sharing within civil society: by fostering research, development, production and distribution of FOSS solutions.
To open the participation to on-line and on-site communities, leveraging the democratic and horizontal access to technology, lowering the economical requisites to its accessibility.
To foster employment of FOSS in artistic creation: exploring new forms of expression and interaction, disseminating new languages that can be freely adopted and re-elaborated by everyone, insuring the long term conservation of digital artworks.
To support FOSS development, also when non-profitable: being software a socially relevant media it should not be invented and maintained only on the basis of its merchantability.
The community of FOSS users still consists mostly of insiders, while the potential of the developed software has reached an outstanding quality that can improve computing tasks in a growing number of applications.
FOSS solutions offer a wider degree of freedom: software that can be adapted to specific needs and can evolve following the needs of the community of its users and developers.
Given the social relevance of software, it's an important strategic goal for dyne.org to provide FOSS based solutions, especially where software gets employed for communication, to enhance freedom of speech and expressive practices that are not depending from established powers and corporations.
Development should be aware of all environmental issues connected to it and, as such, keep the research focused, whenever possible, on recycling technical equipment that is already existing, develop environmental friendly systems, find ways to optimise the use of energy sources employed.
In our workshops and similar educational activities we enforce use of FOSS in communication and artistic creation: exploring new forms of expression and interaction, disseminating new languages that can be freely adopted and modified, ensuring to everyone the long term conservation of people's creations.
Concerning education, we believe that independence from commercial influences is crucial to not endorse or promote mercantile interests within public institutions.
The workshop consists in an hands-on experience employing GNU/Linux for digital artisanship and tactical media, exploring various ideas and practices of crafting and recycling technologies, to stimulate students towards the invention of novel forms of interactive computing and social networking.
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 2000 - 2008
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