Differences between revisions 2 and 20 (spanning 18 versions)

1. Introduction

Source codes, or rather algorithms and algebra, are the tools of the digital craftsman in the modern age with over a thousand years of mathematical theories behind them. Only for little more than a quarter of a century have they 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 digital architectures: their inhabitants have the right to own them and adapt them to their needs.

The growth of the network rendered the non-propertarian alternative even more practical. What scholarly and popular writing alike denominate 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 intermediation, to everyone else. The global interconnection of networks eliminated the bottleneck that had required a centralized software manufacturer to rationalize and distribute the outcome of individual innovation in the era of the mainframe.

Software - whether executable programs, music, visual art, liturgy, weaponry, or what have you - consists of bitstreams, which although essentially indistinguishable are treated by a confusing multiplicity of legal categories. This multiplicity is unstable in the long term for reasons integral to the legal process. The unstable diversity of rules is caused by the need to distinguish among kinds of property interests in bitstreams. This need is primarily felt by those who stand to profit from the socially acceptable forms of monopoly created by treating ideas as property. Those of us who are worried about the social inequity and cultural hegemony created by this intellectually unsatisfying and morally repugnant regime are shouted down. Those doing the shouting believe that these property rules are necessary not from any overt yearning for life in Murdochworld - though a little luxurious co-optation is always welcome - but because the metaphor of incentives, which they take to be not just an image but an argument, proves that these rules - despite their lamentable consequences - are necessary if we are to make good software. The only way to continue to believe this is to ignore the facts. At the center of the digital revolution, with the executable bitstreams that make everything else possible, propertarian regimes not only do not make things better, they can make things radically worse.

Property concepts, whatever else may be wrong with them, do not enable and have in fact retarded progress. In the network society, anarchism (or more properly, anti-possessive individualism) is a viable political philosophy. One main problem with anarchism as a social system is about transaction costs. But the digital revolution alters two aspects of political economy that have been otherwise invariant throughout human history. All software has zero marginal cost in the world of the Net, while the costs of social coordination have been so far reduced as to permit the rapid formation and dissolution of large-scale and highly diverse social groupings entirely without geographic limitation.

2. History

Dyne.org appeared online in 2000 when Jaromil published his first free and open source project: the Hasciicam software, setting up a video stream made of letters and playing it out from the website. His creation has been widely appreciated both for its artistical value and for letting possible to broadcast live video using old hardware from a slow network connection.

Since then Jaromil, collaborating with a growing network of inventors, offered to the public new elaborated software for media production, configuring dyne.org as a free software atelier, a portal to Digital Creation and Media Art.

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.

Openness, knowledge sharing and freedom of creation: these have been 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 research and development, as well being supported for the development of the vision mixer software FreeJ. As a result of this activity a new video syncstarter technology has been co-produced, released as free and open source, and succesfully employed in a growing number of sync-started video installations.

In that respect a long lasting relationship was established with this organisation resulting in a patronage for the dyne.org foundation, which now starts to formally exist in 2005.

3. Definitions of terms

With the definition of Free and Open Source Software 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. From now on we'll refer to it with the 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.

With dyne.org foundation we describe a non-profit organisation which developes, employes and distributes FLOSS based software and hardware solutions.

With non-profit we specify that all the revenues are reinvested in research, development, employement and distribution of dyne.org software and hardware products. The Netherlands Media Art Institute garanties that the overhead never will be more than 5% of the turn over.

4. Mission Statement

DYNE.ORG stands

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.

To open the partecipation to online and onsite communities, leveraging the democratical and horizontal access to technology, lowering the economical requisites to its accessibility.

To foster employement of FLOSS in artistical creation, exploring new forms of expression and interaction and insuring the long term conservation of digital artworks.

To insure sustainability of FLOSS development, also when non-profiteable: being software a socially relevant media it should not be ideated and mantained only on the basis of its merchantability.

To promote the idea of Net Ecology: development should be aware of all environmental issues connected to it and, as such, keep the research focused on recycling technical equipment whenever possible, develop environmental friendly systems and find ways to optimize the use of energy sources employed.

5. Strategic, operational and long term goals

To open up new not for profit bazaars, to create and distribute FLOSS to a wider audience.

5.1. Strategic goals

To open up new not for profit bazaars.

The community of FLOSS users still consists mostly of insiders, while the potential of the developed software has reached a state of high compatibility with license based programs, offering solutions of higher quality in a growing number of cases.

To enforce general customers to make use of FLOSS we want to offer easy to use packages of applications at affordable prices that help sustaining their development and further research.

5.2. Operational goals

To introduce a wider audience to the advantages of FLOSS development and employment.

To guarantee the continuity of FLOSS creation and development we have to generate resources: money, people, infrastructure and knowledge.

To distribute the software we have to create communication strategies, attractive products, marketing and distribution channels.

6. products and combinations of markets (PCM's)

6.1. Products

6.1.1. Production of open source software

In the ArtLab - the research centre of the Netherlands Media Art Institute (NMAI) - a long term development program for open source software will be established and connected with the Artists in Residence program. This program will be defined by the dyne.org Foundation and the NMAI and financed by both partners.

6.1.2. Release of software - free of license

Conform to the protocol of FLOSS, the software developed will be made available online with its entire sourcecode.

Next to it, compilations of open source software will be brought together on hardware (CD-ROM, computer boxes etc.) as well offered as plug and play products and ad-hoc setups. To compile, produce and distribute the hardware commercial calculations will be charged. The risk and profit is divided between both partners.

The profit has by both to be reinvested in research and development, production and distribution and is excluded from any private profit.

6.1.3. Donor and Patron membership program

The foundation will offer a Donor program for individuals and a Patron program for organizations willing to financially support the development of FLOSS based solutions.

-  ⇤ ← Revision 2 as of 2005-08-30 12:56:03 → 
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  Editor: jaromil
  Comment:
+   ← Revision 20 as of 2005-10-13 18:12:33 → ⇥
  Size: 10274
  Editor: jaromil
  Comment:
-Deletions are marked like this.
+Additions are marked like this.
 Line 1:
-#acl DyneFoundationGroup:read,write,admin,delete,revert All:
+#acl DyneGroup:read,write,admin,delete,revert All:
#pragma section-numbers on
-Line 3:
+Line 4:
-.              Introduction
+= Introduction =
-Line 5:
+Line 6:
->I would first describe dyne org
Dyne.org ...... etc etc
+Source codes, or rather algorithms and algebra, are the tools of the digital craftsman in the modern age with over a thousand years of mathematical theories behind them. Only for little more than a quarter of a century have they 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.
-Line 8:
+Line 9:
-The Netherlands Media Art Institute has focused since the year
2002 on the development of free and open source software.
> In that respect a long lasting relationship was stablished with this
> organisation resulting in a patronage for the dyne.org foundation
(Description of this history, from the begining up to the working together
with Jaromil)
+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.
-Line 15:
+Line 12:
-.              Mission Statement
+Developing software means developing digital architectures:
their inhabitants have the right to own them and adapt them to their needs.
-Line 17:
+Line 15:
-To promote the idea of open source and knowledge sharing
communities by research and development, production and distribution.
+The growth of the network rendered the non-propertarian alternative even more practical. What scholarly and popular writing alike denominate 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 intermediation, to everyone else. The global interconnection of networks eliminated the bottleneck that had required a centralized software manufacturer to rationalize and distribute the outcome of individual innovation in the era of the mainframe.
-Line 20:
+Line 17:
-To provide new comunication tools, opening the partecipation to
online and onsite communities, leveraging the democratical access to
technology, lowering the economical requisites to its accesibility.
+Software - whether executable programs, music, visual art, liturgy, weaponry, or what have you - consists of bitstreams, which although essentially indistinguishable are treated by a confusing multiplicity of legal categories. This multiplicity is unstable in the long term for reasons integral to the legal process. The unstable diversity of rules is caused by the need to distinguish among kinds of property interests in bitstreams. This need is primarily felt by those who stand to profit from the socially acceptable forms of monopoly created by treating ideas as property. Those of us who are worried about the social inequity and cultural hegemony created by this intellectually unsatisfying and morally repugnant regime are shouted down. Those doing the shouting believe that these property rules are necessary not from any overt yearning for life in Murdochworld - though a little luxurious co-optation is always welcome - but because the metaphor of incentives, which they take to be not just an image but an argument, proves that these rules - despite their lamentable consequences - are necessary if we are to make good software. The only way to continue to believe this is to ignore the facts. At the center of the digital revolution, with the executable bitstreams that make everything else possible, propertarian regimes not only do not make things better, they can make things radically worse.
-Line 24:
+Line 19:
-To foster artistical research and creation with open source technologies,
exploring new forms of expression and interaction.
+Property concepts, whatever else may be wrong with them, do not enable and have in fact retarded progress. In the network society, anarchism (or more properly, anti-possessive individualism) is a viable political philosophy. One main problem with anarchism as a social system is about transaction costs. But the digital revolution alters two aspects of political economy that have been otherwise invariant throughout human history. All software has zero marginal cost in the world of the Net, while the costs of social coordination have been so far reduced as to permit the rapid formation and dissolution of large-scale and highly diverse social groupings entirely without geographic limitation.
-Line 27:
+Line 21:
-To insure sustainability of free software development, also when
non-profiteable: being software a socially relevant media it should not
be ideated and mantained only on the basis of its merchantability.
+= History =

'''Dyne.org''' appeared online in 2000 when Jaromil published his first
free and open source project: the ''Hasciicam'' software, setting
up a video stream made of letters and playing it out from the website.
His creation has been widely appreciated both for its artistical value
and for letting possible to broadcast live video using old hardware
from a slow network connection.

Since then Jaromil, collaborating with a growing network of
inventors, offered to the public new elaborated software for
media production, configuring dyne.org as a free software atelier,
a portal to Digital Creation and Media Art.

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.

Openness, knowledge sharing and freedom of creation: these have been
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 research and development,
as well being supported for the development of the vision mixer software
FreeJ. As a result of this activity a new video syncstarter technology
has been co-produced, released as free and open source, and succesfully
employed in a growing number of sync-started video installations.

In that respect a long lasting relationship was established with
this organisation resulting in a patronage for the dyne.org foundation,
which now starts to formally exist in 2005.
-Line 33:
+Line 58:
-.              Definitions of terms
+= Definitions of terms =
-Line 35:
+Line 60:
-.1 With the definition of free and open source software we refer
+With the definition of '''Free and Open Source Software''' we refer
-Line 41:
+Line 66:
-FLOSS (free libre open source software).
+'''FLOSS''' (free libre open source software).
-Line 43:
+Line 68:
-.2 With dyne.org foundation we describe a nonprofit organisation which
+'''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.

With '''dyne.org foundation''' we describe a non-profit organisation which
-Line 45:
+Line 77:
-solutions, especially related to art and comunication practices.
+solutions.
-Line 47:
+Line 79:
-All the revenues are reinvested in research, employement and disribution.
+With '''non-profit''' we specify that all the revenues are reinvested in research,
development, employement and distribution of dyne.org software and hardware products.
The Netherlands Media Art Institute garanties that the overhead never
will be more than 5% of the turn over.
-Line 51:
+Line 86:
-.        Strategic and operational goals
+= Mission Statement =
-Line 53:
+Line 88:
-To open up new not for profit markets and to create and distribute open
source software to a wider audience.
+DYNE.ORG stands
-Line 56:
+Line 90:
-.1        strategic goals
+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.
-Line 58:
+Line 94:
-      To open up new not for profit markets
+To open the partecipation to online and onsite communities, leveraging
the '''democratical and horizontal access to technology''', lowering the economical
requisites to its accessibility.
-Line 60:
+Line 98:
-      The community of open source users still consists mostly of insiders,
      while the potential of the developed software has reached a state of
      high compatibility with license based programs.
      To enforce general customers to make use of free software we want to
      offer easy to use packages of applications at affordable prices.
+To foster employement of '''FLOSS in artistical creation''',
exploring new forms of expression and interaction and
insuring the long term conservation of digital artworks.
-Line 66:
+Line 102:
-.2        operational goals
+To insure '''sustainability of FLOSS development''', also when
non-profiteable: being software a socially relevant media it should not
be ideated and mantained only on the basis of its merchantability.
-Line 68:
+Line 106:
-      To create and distribute FLOSS to a wider audience.

      To guarantee the continuity of FLOSS creation and development we have
      to generate resources: money, people, infrastructure and knowledge.

      To distribute the software we have to create communication strategies,
      attractive products, marketing and distribution channels.

2.3 With dyne.org foundation we describe a nonprofit organisation which
distributes all research and creations for free, but also offers the most
easy acces to all members of this community, even to those that do not
contribute to research, at political prices.
+To promote the idea of '''Net Ecology''': development should be aware of all
environmental issues connected to it and, as such, keep the research focused on
recycling technical equipment whenever possible, develop environmental friendly
systems and find ways to optimize the use of energy sources employed.
-Line 82:
+Line 112:
-.4 Donor and Patron membership program
+= Strategic, operational and long term goals =
-Line 84:
+Line 114:
-      The dyne.org foundation will offer a Donor program for individual and
      a Patron program for societies and institutions willing to financially
      support the development of free software.
      These programs will include the provision of simple internet services
      aimed to tie up the community of donors as well to publish their
      benevolent support: email aliases, forums and online social games will
      consitute the online specular realization of a social club.
+To open up new not for profit bazaars, to create and distribute FLOSS
to a wider audience.
-Line 92:
+Line 117:
-_______________
Contract between dyne.org and NIM
is about specific projects currently:
* Workshops - hour based
* Sync Starter (co-production)
* Video network (co-production)
* FreeJ (support by NIM)
______________
-Line 101:
+Line 118:
-The Netherlands Media Art Institute garanties that the overhead never
will be more than 5% of the turn over.
+== Strategic goals ==
-Line 104:
+Line 120:
-.         products and combinations of markets (PCM's)
+To open up new not for profit bazaars.
-Line 106:
+Line 122:
-.1 Products
+The community of FLOSS users still consists mostly of insiders,
while the potential of the developed software has reached a state of
high compatibility with license based programs, offering solutions
of higher quality in a growing number of cases.
-Line 108:
+Line 127:
-.2 Production of open source software
+To enforce general customers to make use of FLOSS we want to
offer easy to use packages of applications at affordable prices that
help sustaining their development and further research.
-Line 110:
+Line 131:
-      In the ArtLab - the research centre of the Netherlands Media Art
      Institute (NMAI) - a long term development program for open source
      software will be established and connected with the Artists in
      Residence program. This program will be defined by the dyne.org
      Foundation and  the NMAI and financed by both partners.
-Line 116:
+Line 132:
-.3 Release of software - free of license.
+== Operational goals ==
-Line 118:
+Line 134:
-      Conform to the protocol of the free libre open source movement
      the developed software will be made available online with its entire
      sourcecode.
      Next to it, compilations of open source software will brought together
      on hardware (CD-ROM, computer boxes etc.) as well offered as plug
      and play products. To compile, produce and distribute the hardware
      commercial calculations will be charged. The risk and profit is divided
      between both partners.
      The profit has by both to be reinvested in research and development,
      production and distribution and is excluded from any private profit.
+To introduce a wider audience to the advantages of
FLOSS development and employment.
-Line 129:
+Line 137:
-.7       Marketing
                  To be sure of a break-even or profit result we have to
      investigate the market.
+To guarantee the continuity of FLOSS creation and development we have
to generate resources: money, people, infrastructure and knowledge.

To distribute the software we have to create communication strategies,
attractive products, marketing and distribution channels.


= products and combinations of markets (PCM's) =

== Products ==

=== Production of open source software ===

In the ArtLab - the research centre of the Netherlands Media Art
Institute (NMAI) - a long term development program for open source
software will be established and connected with the Artists in
Residence program. This program will be defined by the dyne.org
Foundation and the NMAI and financed by both partners.


=== Release of software - free of license ===

Conform to the protocol of FLOSS, the software developed will be made
available online with its entire sourcecode.

Next to it, compilations of open source software will be brought together
on hardware (CD-ROM, computer boxes etc.) as well offered as plug
and play products and ad-hoc setups.
To compile, produce and distribute the hardware commercial calculations will be charged.
The risk and profit is divided between both partners.

The profit has by both to be reinvested in research and development,
production and distribution and is excluded from any private profit.


=== Donor and Patron membership program ===

The foundation will offer a Donor program for individuals and
a Patron program for organizations willing to financially
support the development of FLOSS based solutions.