eu voto no meta!
Felipe Fonseca wrote:
MetaReciclagem concorrendo ao prix ars 2006.
Falei sobre alguns de vocês no texto. Não sobre todos,
porque não dá...
f
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: * [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>*
Date: Mar 24, 2006 2:43 PM
Subject: Prix Ars Electronica - Entry Form
Dear Mr. Fonseca!
Thank you for your entry for the Prix Ars Electronica 2006.
You submitted the following information:
Title / Name of the Project: MetaReciclagem
Type of project: Community-Projekt
Description of the project: MetaReciclagem is not an independent
collective. MetaReciclagem is not (and as for today never needed to be)
a formal NGO - even though it is effectively an organization that is
both non-governmental and nonprofit. MetaReciclagem does not define a
group of people, but instead a name that some people use to identify and
refer to an open methodology about the re-appropriation of technology to
foster social transformation in different parts of Brasil.
MetaReciclagem becomes concrete in three kinds of instances:
1)Spores are physical labs where people develop MetaReciclagem, both in
technical and theoretical aspects. Since 2002, nearly ten different
spores have been created in different cities.
2)MetaReciclagem Online Infrastructure is the environment where
conversations about MetaReciclagem take place. It is responsible for the
maintenance of a strong connection between all the main instances of
such a decentralized project. It consists also of some online
environments created to face the demand for interaction environments in
which people can exchange information and practices related to
MetaReciclagem.
3)ConecTAZes are permanent or temporary labs that "benefit" from
MetaReciclagem actions. They range from a lowtech paper-and-pencil
collaboration workshop to a Linux InstallFest or a video installation in
an arts festival. ConecTAZes often (but not always) become or generate
independent multimedia telecenters.
Running across all the three levels of MetaReciclagem are some special
projects that require resources from more than one spore or that consist
of plenty of ConecTAZes. Examples are the development of brasilian
Ministry of Culture's Cultural Points – 600 multimedia centers spread
around the country, the Ministry of Communication's GESAC program -
satellite internet access - or the Casas Brasil project – 90 expanded
telecenters, with multimedia infrastructure and computer recycling labs.
MetaReciclagem actions and members influenced these three projects,
among many others.
URL of the project: http://metareciclagem.org
Project details
Objectives: The collective objective of MetaReciclagem, if it's possible
to name one, is to develop a de-constructive approach to the
technological discourse, promoting the re-appropriation of ICTs upon
processes which lead to a closer relationship between people and
technology. Most people join MetaReciclagem network because of a special
interest in a particular subject related to technology or media
appropriation, and soon starts collaborating in an emergent organization
that allows the expansion of their own ideas. What most members of
MetaReciclagem project have in common is a need to develop free (open)
infrastructure and new uses to technology.
Language and Context: MetaReciclagem is deeply related to different
kinds of local context in Brasil: from projects based on the paradigm of
digital inclusion to ones related to multimedia production and art
interventions. For instance, a spore of MetaReciclagem has been created
in a communitary center in Sacadura Cabral, a slum in Santo André, and
maintained for almost an year by people from the community. Other spore
of MetaReciclagem has been developed together with the Brasilian
Organized Hip Hop Movement (MHHOB) in Teresina, Piauí, providing the
infrastructure for the creation of three telecenters. Piauí is the
poorest state in Brasil. On the other hand, MetaReciclagem is also
planning an experimental laboratory inside USP, one of the largest
universities in Brasil, and members of MetaReciclagem often provide the
infrastructure for artistic interventions or collective celebrations (
a.k.a. parties). And there are at least a dozen other places in which
MetaReciclagem is being developed and applied.
Project history: MetaReciclagem was created as the infrastructure
solution to a wide range of demands from Projeto Metá:Fora, a
"collaborative incubator" that in 2002-2003 aggregated almost two
hundred people all around Brasil around the development of projects that
dealt with art, media, education and technology, under a perspective
that knowledge should be free and re-usable. Its members came from
different areas: journalists, artists, designers, software developers,
social scientists and others. Nearly 25 projects have been created,
structured and developed collectively. Among them, the first brasilian
Tactical Media event (prov0s, 2002), a collaborative website about
nonprofits and entrepreneurship ( metaong.info <http://metaong.info>),
an online publication on technology, economy and society (buzzine),
research related to a de-centralized laboratory of language, narratives
and art experimentation (memelab), public interventions
(recicle1politico), webradio experiences and conecTAZes – multimedia
celebrations, like neuromob :: book xchange, a party / bookcrossing.
During projeto Metá:Fora's short life span, we reached a point where we
needed some kind of infrastructure to develop the projects. At the time,
we were trying to bring the perspective of collaborative production and
collective creativity to the world of digital inclusion, and we needed
computers to test some hypothesis. We thought of asking for a donation
to a north-american institution that got used computers from companies
and delivered them to NGOs, but the bureaucracy was too complex. Someone
reminded us that brasilian companies also dumped lots of computers every
year, and the idea of MetaReciclagem was born: we would get those
computers, recycle them using F(L)OSS and deliver them to social projects.
At first, we made an agreement with Agente Cidadão, an NGO that manages
donations in São Paulo: we would take care of every technological device
they received (from computers to old VCRs or faxes), in exchange for a
place to work and internet connection. We then started working within
their network of nearly one hundred NGOs. With time, we conquered other
spaces: the Parque Escola (School Park), in Santo André, and a
laboratory downtown São Paulo, in Olido Gallery.
Based on our defense of the idea of free knowledge, in a given moment we
realized that MetaReciclagem was not a group identity for some people in
São Paulo, but rather a de-centralized methodology that should be
appropriated, replicated and re-created everywhere, by whoever would
want to. Since then, MetaReciclagem has got many different faces: from a
one-man spore with no computer in the coast of Bahia to a educational
approach strategically adopted by huge projects developed by the
Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Communications.
Involved People: The access to MetaReciclagem project is completely
open: we have a mailing list and a wiki, and most colllective decisions
are made there. There are not fixed positions or responsabilities, as
everything is de-centralized and self-organized. Hierarchy, if there is
any, is based on reputation. Some of the people who created
MetaReciclagem have some influence over the others, but the same is true
for others who joined the network six months ago. There's usually a
group of nearly a dozen engaged people, who dedicate a good part of
their lives to develop MetaReciclagem, another twenty or thirty who
collaborate, say, once a week or twice a month, and the other hundred
lurkers. But these numbers vary from time to time. The mailing list
(today) has 158 members, and plenty of other people develop
MetaReciclagem in the spores.
Lessons learned: Since the project started, we have faced a lot of
difficulties. Perhaps the worst is the fact that we developed a way of
organizing that has no legal counterpart. We took a while to decide for
an emergent approach: there is a set of principles on what is
MetaReciclagem, based on which anyone can decide whether what they do is
or ain't part of the project. The advantage of that positioning is that
we were able to be present in different organizations: some NGOs, one or
other companies, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of
Communications, universities, the city administration of São Paulo. If
we were to incorporate into one NGO, we could not have the autonomy to
be in all those places. We organized MetaReciclagem not as an
organization, but a movement instead. The downside is that we always
have problems in getting funding, as we have no legal existence as a
group. That makes us too dependent on political issues of specific
partnerships. We are not able to force collective decisions, because in
every instance we are, we're more individuals than a group. Sometimes,
the fragmentation overcomes the threshold of understandable complexity.
But then again, there are more advantages: since we don't have a static
structure, there is no routine, and creative dynamics is maintained. We
are always re-inventing what MetaReciclagem is and what it does. The
collective innovation is an ongoing process.
Technical Information
Technological basis: Since the beginning, MetaReciclagem decided to use
free and open source software for everything, not only for economical
reasons, but because of its flexibility and freedom to understand the
code. It is true even for uses that are not that easy of software: for
the autolabs project, a project on mediatic alfabetization, and later
for the Pontos de Cultura project, MetaReciclagem members had to
struggle against the resistance of people who were already used to buy
pirated software to their projects. There was always the excuse that
using pirated software was a tactical, protest use of technology, with
which we never agreed: teaching 300 youngsters to use pirated software,
we're creating a new generations of slaves to the proprietary software.
If we use free and open source software instead, we are bringin more
people to its development, even if their only contribution is test
software.
In that sense, all the projects we have developed are based on GNU/Linux
environments and f(l)oss. Audio workstations are configured with Jack +
Ardour, rezound, audacity, hydrogen and many others; graphic workstation
with scribus, sodipodi, the gimp, blender and inkscape; and video
workstations with kino, cinelerra, jahshaka and others. The telecenters
often use a TC-TS (Thin Client - Thick Server) to optimize the use of
old computers. All of our online environments are developed with free
scripts for LAMP, such as drupal, wordpress, scuttle, mailman and others.
Solutions: MetaReciclagem is not exactly a software, but a
de-constructive approach to all possibles uses of technology, including
software. Our uses of software usually look for the development of
different ways to make people talk to each other. In that sense, a
telecenter running on Linux with instant messenger clients or a mailing
list available on the web are the same thing.
Implementations: Our online environments are available on the world wide
web:
http://wiki.metareciclagem.org <http://wiki.metareciclagem.org>
http://lista.metareciclagem.org
http://agregador.metareciclagem.org
http://blog.metareciclagem.org
Local implementations of MetaReciclagem tech methodology can be found in
all the current spores and ConecTAZes: Galeria Olido, in São Paulo
downtown; Centro de Referência do Movimento Hip Hop, in Teresina; Bailux
in Arraial d'Ajuda; the development center for the Pontos de Cultura
project, west zone of São Paulo; IP media center, in Lapa, Rio de
Janeiro; the Humanist Place in Santa Cecília, São Paulo; and many others.
Users: Anyone willing to create different uses of information technology
– from a charity aiming at providing internet access for its community
to artists who wish to experiment the limits of technology and human
interaction.
License: Everything we develop is published under open licenses, even
non-technical production. All the documentation in our wiki is under a
GNU-FDL license, including the projects, methodologies and texts.
Statement of Reasons: Because we are successfully influencing thousands
of people about how to handle technology in a more human way and made
them aware that technology is not a black magic box (it might be, but
then everyone can be its wizard).
Planned use of prize money: MetaReciclagem, as a network, has many
needs. The most important are developing further the methodology and
ellaborating documentation. We have already started to draft an outline
of the Green Book on MetaReciclagem, but we must provide ways for people
to dedicate to it. If we get prize, the Green Book would be product of
the prize money.
--
FelipeFonseca
.''`.
: :' :
`. `'`
`- Orgulhoso ser MetaRecicleiro
http://fff.hipercortex.com
http://metareciclagem.org
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