_FOSS Cafe_ time: 3pm Sunday 9th May, 2004 venue: MONO Cafe, 12 Kings Court, King Street, Glasgow entrance: FREE
FOSS Cafe is an informal introduction introduction to Free Open Source Software (FOSS) and some of the wider issues surrounding it. Presented as part of the MACHINISTA festival, it will feature talks by James Wallbank (Lowtech, UK) discussing Lowtech's work promoting free software for artists and local communities and the recycling of old computers, Bob Kerr (Edinburgh Linux Users Group, UK) discussing his initiative to bring free software into Scotland's public libraries and its relevance to non-profit organisations, and Lawrence Liang (Alternative Law Forum, India) talking about free software in India and its relationship to issues of piracy, copyright and globalisation. Members of Linux groups from across Scotland are invited to attend as well as artists and visitors to the MACHINISTA festival.
FOSS Cafe is a semi-social introduction to FOSS where people who are interested but new to the topic can meet with more experienced people. The discussions will be introduced and chaired by Simon Yuill, a Glasgow-based artist and programmer who works with FOSS technologies. Later this year, the CCA: will be hosting YOUR MACHINES, a series of hands-on workshops providing introductions to the kinds of creative work that can be produced through FOSS technologies, ranging from wireless networking to programming live audio-visual interactive works.
Speakers:
Lawrence Liang http://www.altlawforum.org/
Lawrence Liang is a researcher with the Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore. He cor ordiantes a research project on "IP and the Knowledge/ Culture Commons". His area of work is on non legal media practises, popular culture and law. He is working on a long-term research project for ALF on Intellectual Property and the Public Domain. The project is funded by a SARAI research grant. He is also associated with the Centre for Study of Culture and Society (CSCS) on a year long seminar course on Law and Culture. He is currently doing a research residency at the Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam.
Bob Kerr http://www.edlug.ed.ac.uk/
Bob Kerr is a member of the Edinburgh Linux Group. He recently introduced the distribution of the free software "OpenOffice" throughout the Scottish Library system.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/12/ 18/openoffice_cds_live_for_lending/
http://www.newsforge.com/software/03/ 12/14/1545216.shtml
James Wallbank http://www.lowtech.org
James Wallbank is the director of Lowtech, an organisation set up by arts group Redundant Technology Initiative in 1997. Based in Sheffield, UK, Lowtech is an attempt to find a new, more positive way to engage with the ever changing and potentially divisive world of information communication technology. As such, Lowtech is a leading advocate of universal access to low or no-cost information technology, working with zero-cost technology rescued from the trash, and free, open-source software that costs absolutely nothing. Their Access Space is the first public access internet laboratory to be run entirely with free software. Lowtech believe that free technology is something which everyone can get involved with.
FOSS Cafe has been supported by the CCA, Machinista and the Scottish Arts Council. CCA is Glasgow's Centre for Contemporary Arts, six flexible arts spaces presenting the very best in contemporary visual art, performance, film, music, club nights and more.
============================ YOUR MACHINES http://www.yourmachines.org
CCA http://www.cca-glasgow.com
MACHINISTA http://www.machinista.org.uk ============================
------------------------------------------------- a m b i t : networking media arts in scotland post: [EMAIL PROTECTED] archive: http://www.mediascot.org/ambit info: send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and write "info ambit" in the message body -------------------------------------------------
