Definitions of terms
Our definition of Free and Open Source Software refers to all software licensed and distributed under the GNU General Public License and all other licenses considered Free by the Free Software Foundation. Free has to be intended as "Libre", free as in free speech, not simply gratis. Free software must let users redistribute, modify, and adapt software without any fee.
From now on we'll refer to such software as acronym FLOSS (free libre open source software).
FLOSS 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 neighbor.
- The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits.
The dyne.org foundation is an organization which develops, uses and distributes FLOSS software and hardware solutions.
By nonprofit we specify that all the revenues are reinvested in research, development, use and distribution of dyne.org software and hardware products.
Panorama
Source code, or rather algorithms and algebra, is the tool of the digital craftsman with over a thousand years of mathematical theories behind it. Only for little more than a quarter of a century it has acted as software. Software is a means of creating art and communicating. It is a metaliterature which defines how meaning can be carried and (re)produced by multiplying the possibilities of communication.
Just as software is a means of metacommunication, so it represents a Parole, deriving its execution from a Langue: the grammatical and linguistic universe of the code. Although many see the source code as merely an obscure cryptogram, it has an indirect effect on the way we communicate and even more on the efficiency with which we do so.
Developing software means developing communication architectures whose inhabitants have the right to access, recombine, evolve and adapt to their needs.
The growth of the Internet has made nonproprietary alternatives even more practical. What scholarly and popular writing alike characterize as a thing ("the Internet") is actually the name of a social condition: the fact that everyone in the network society is connected directly, without intermediaries, to everyone else.
History
Dyne.org appeared online in 2000 when Jaromil published his first free and open source project: the Hasciicam software, which set up a video stream made of letters and played it out from the website. His creation has been widely appreciated both for its artistical value and for making it possible to broadcast live video using old hardware with a slow network connection.
Since then Jaromil, collaborating with a growing network of inventors, has offered to the public newly written software for media production, configuring dyne.org as a free software atelier, a portal to Digital Creation and Media Art.
Many people, ranging from radio makers, humanitarian organizations, video artists, medical researchers, media activists and educators, use and distribute dyne.org software worldwide, free of charge, echoing the spirit of freedom of this autonomous initiative.
Openness, knowledge sharing and freedom of creation are the philosophycal principles guiding the evolution of dyne.org, hosting creations that have been conceptualized not for a profit, but for their role within society.
In 2003, Jaromil started collaborating with the Netherlands Media Art Institute (NMAI) focusing on video streaming, developing a digital video syncstarter and the vision mixer software FreeJ.
As a result, a relationship was established between NMAI and dyne.org, which resulted in NMAI becoming a formal patron of the dyne.org foundation established in 2006.
Mission Statement
DYNE.ORG intends to promote the idea and practice of open source knowledge sharing within civil society by fostering research, development, production and distribution of FLOSS based solutions: by opening the participation to online and physical communities, leveraging democratic and horizontal access to technology and lowering economic requirements for accessibility.
To produce software that runs faster and better on old computers, as the possibility to recycle hardware is an important ecological issue we claim legitimacy for all possible tweakings of electronical devices existing.
To foster use of FLOSS in artistical creation: exploring new forms of expression and interaction, disseminating new languages that can be freely adopted and modified, and ensuring everyone the long term conservation of digital artworks.
To insure sustainability of FLOSS development especially for nonprofits. Since software a socially relevant media, it should not survive solely on the basis of merchantability.
Achievements
After 5 years of its existance, dyne.org distributed an operating system that has been printed in more than 500.000 copies around the world (rough estimation on downloads and magazine publications), while every day almost 5000 people hits our websites. In 2005 dyne:bolic has been elected in the top 10 open source projects of the year.