BALTIC+

Mute: Culture and Politics after the Net: Vol 2 No.1

Mute: Culture and Politics after the Net: Vol 2 No.1
Publication Date
Description Free Labour Or Social Sculpture? // If the production and dissemination of Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) is a social movement, then what is its constituency and what is it fighting for? Is FLOSS a harbinger of communism, a new form of commons, or the avant garde of capitalism? Mute canvassed a small but varied selection of cultural producers about the role and significance of FLOSS in their projects Patently Obvious // The OpenMute project explains its approach to the public domain after four years of using and contributing to FLOSS FLOSS Redux: Notes on African Software Politics // The info-technological development of Africa is providing a critical laboratory for testing the utilitarian and egalitarian claims of the FLOSS community. The question of whether to adopt a free or proprietary route quickly expands beyond the immediate consideration of set up costs. Soenke Zehle considers how FLOSS fares in the competition to be the fittest 'tropical' technology, assesses different visions of continent-wide development, and examines FLOSS's own ambiguous economics Reality check: Are We Living In An Immaterial World? // Immaterial Labour is seen by (post)Marxists and capitalists alike as the motor of the new economy. Steve Wright recovers Marx's theory of value from critics such as Antonio Negri to ask whether it is as 'immeasurably' productive as is claimed? Freedom's Standard Advanced? // Creative Commons (CC) advocates such as Lawrence Lessig have become fixtures on panels discussing Free Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS). Frequently they are seen as representatives of the growing movement to translate the principles of free software to the world beyond code. Creative Commons advocates, directors, and supporters increasingly describe the project as an attempt to apply the principles of free software, appropriately adapted, to less technical forms of creative expression like music, writing, and the visual arts. Copy That Floppy! // The Pirate Bay, a tracker website based in Sweden, has become the most popular BitTorrent site in the world and now receives more daily hits than CNN. The Pirat Byran (Pirate Association) is its sister organisation, and promotes information piracy and its culture through discussions, media advocacy and legal advice. Mute talked to Palle Torsson of Pirat Byran about filesharing culture in Sweden and the 'grey commons' Charters of Liberty in Black Face and White Face: Race, Slavery and the Commons // The Magna Carta is renowned as the 'Charter of Liberty' which inspired modern constitutional safeguards against the power of the State. But its smaller companion, the Charter of the Forest, enshrining the customary rights of the commoners to land and resources, has been overlooked. Cutting between the political struggles of the early 1970s and the 1720s, Peter Linebaugh shows how the struggle against enclosures in the woods of England is inextricably linked with the struggle against slavery in the Atlantic State Wide Shut // A recent report, Wide Open, by the think tank Demos takes the metaphor of open source and runs with it – right into the closed kernel of the modern state. Gregor Claude examines the debris Gender Dimensions of Floss Development // The FLOSS ideal of equality, inclusivity and freeness is sadly let down by the gender imbalance of its participants, with women comprising just over 1 percent of FLOSS developers. Yuwei Lin analyses the causes of the gender digital divide and suggests a way to help close it
Quantity 1
Format Magazine
Language English
Issue Mute: Culture and Politics after the Net: Vol 2 No.1
Publication Mute

Other Artists

Other Recent Periodicals