Forms and Modes of the Free Software Society

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* Article: Forms and Modes of The Free Software Society. Magnus Lawrie. 6th June 2011

URL = http://ditch.org.uk/download/forms_and_modes_free_software_society.pdf


Excerpts

On Emerging Free Culture Media

Reboot FM

Magnus Lawrie:

"Such collaborative, democratic forms are a critical aspect of the envisaged peer-to-peer future. RebootFM is an established cultural radio station op- erating in Berlin, Germany. Since June 2010, 85 participating artists have released over 500 self-produced radio programmes. The station claims nearly 3000 followers on Facebook and Twitter and its programmes are also sourced as content for a number of commercial radio stations. RebootFM’s website states,

”The non-commercial frequency 88.4 MHz, gives different radio groups in Berlin the possibility to produce independent, non-commercial radio, longer and more continuously than was previously the case...new formats and meth- ods will be developed around connecting the variety of the city’s creative production to a wider and more international listener group” (RebootFM 2011)." (http://ditch.org.uk/download/forms_and_modes_free_software_society.pdf)


LaTele - Catalonia, Spain

Magnus Lawrie:

"In Catalonia, LaTele is a third-sector organisation of ’L’Assemblea per la Communicaci Social’ (ACS). ACS was established in 2003 with ”...the aim of creating television of social movements and to criticize and transform the dominant model of communication”. LaTele, self-described as ”the free television and television community of social movements of Barcelona” (LaTele 2011), broadcasts online and - since April 2011 - on TDT channel 37, to Barcelona and nearby. The emergence of this citizen television and campaign to ’occupy the waves’ is ”...creating channels of horizontal communication, collectively owned and managed by the organisations, groups and individuals involved in social criticism and transformation” (LaTele 2011), from which ’programming intiatives’ emerge.


From its position in the third-sector, ACS seeks changes in legislation relating to non-profit media:

”The current system of broadcasting only leaves space for public media controlled by political parties, media and private business controlled by a few business groups. We want to debate this model and participate in defining a new framework that leaves space for collective forms of communication and community, where citizenship is not just passive audience or consumer...” (LaTele 2011)" (http://ditch.org.uk/download/forms_and_modes_free_software_society.pdf)


Status, June 2011:

"To the degree that RebootFM and LaTele are institutions emerging from within the existing society, they can be identified as germ forms. Significantly, neither of these organizations eschew state financial support, though in the event only Reboot receives money (whilst ACS and LaTele are wholly self-supporting). In the current climate both are precarious positions to maintain. In the case of rebootFM, threats are in the form of proposed cuts to the job placements which enable many of the stations programmers to participate - a radio programme was devised to discuss this very issue. In the case of LaTele, a 30 second video titled ’we are not afraid of your pistol’ (LaTele 2011), unflinching shows the programme makers’ own situation. This video, of 27th May 2011, is taken on Barcelona’s Placa Catalunya: The camera pans sideways to frame a policeman of the notoriously brutal ’Mossos’; He faces the camera and wears full riot gear; The camera zooms to the man’s waistbelt, where a gun sits ready in his unclipped holster." (http://ditch.org.uk/download/forms_and_modes_free_software_society.pdf)