[Basekamp Events] Freenode - Apr 6 2010

[scott at basekamp.com]

======== FREENODE ============================================================

[1] April 6, 2010 - 6:00pm - 8:00pm EST
Hi Everyone,

This Tuesday is another event in a year-long series of weekly conversations  
and exhibits in 2010 shedding light on examples of Plausible Artworlds.

So far the series has featured projects and initiatives whose  
self-understanding is somehow “art” related, however tenuous their  
relationship to artworld-making may be. This week, however, we shift away  
self-described “art” worlds altogether to strike up a conversation with  
the ‘volunteers’ at freenode (chat.freenode.net) – an Internet Relay  
Chat (IRC) network freely provided to a variety of groups and organizations.  
IRC itself is a bit like skype without the business model — that is, a form  
of real-time conferencing, essentially designed for group communication in  
discussion forums, called channels.

freenode, formerly known as Open Projects Network, is a popular IRC network  
used to discuss peer-directed projects — such as Plausible Artworlds  
amongst countless others. freenode provides discussion facilities for the  
Free and Open Source Software communities, for not-for-profit organizations  
and for related communities and organizations. In 1998, the network had about  
200 users and less than 20 channels. Ten years down the line the network  
currently peaks at just under 60,000 users and 10,000 channels, making it the  
largest free and open-source software-focused IRC network.

Though some aspects of freenode philosophy are specific to the workings of  
its medium, because the network exists to provide interactive services to  
peer-directed project communities, some of the group’s basic principles may  
prove invaluable to rethinking we we are calling artworlds. They include:
 * Community members benefit from better access to each other. Putting a
   number of projects in close proximity in an interactive environment
   creates linkages and exchange between developers and projects.
 * Communication and coordination skills are important to community projects.
   Peer-directed projects work because the paradigm works. Developers and
   community members are not unusually gifted at project coordination and
   communication. But improving those skills can make projects work better.
 * Friendly interaction is more efficient than flaming. Calm, relaxed
   discourse without angry contention provides for better exchange of
   information.
 * Project developers are self-driven. No one guarantees whose work will be
   used nor whether a project is worth doing. There is no single right
   approach to any design, implementation or support problem, and friendly
   competition is a fundamentally good thing.
 * Peer-directed project communities need to grow. Many valuable
   peer-directed projects chronically lack skilled, motivated developers with
   time to devote to them. The potential base for peer-directed project
   communities includes anyone with the skills and interest to participate.
 * Licensing must be free. For peer-directed projects to succeed, their
   creative output must be widely available and usable without significant
   restriction.


Many of the “plausible artworlds” we’ve been looking at could be  
described, strictly speaking, as “free nodes” of common desire, skill  
sets and exchange. Beyond its mere name, it may well be that freenode’s  
modus operandi too can shed light on the dynamics of more plausible  
artworlds.

See you all then!

Join us every Tuesday night – in person, or on Skype, skypename:  
‘basekamp’
If you come to the potluck chat in person, be sure to bring a dish :)
Basekamp space: 723 Chestnut St, 2nd floor, Philadelphia usa

Click to join this week’s Potluck Chat on Skype:
http://bit.ly/cjJnRF

Follow Plausible Artworlds:
http://twitter.com/basekamp
http://basekamp.com/info

Comment here
http://basekamp.com/about/events/freenode#comments [2]

/Plausible Artworlds is a project organized by Basekamp and Stephen Wright,  
and has been funded by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the  
Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative./


[1] http://basekamp.com/about/events/freenode
[2] http://basekamp.com/about/events/freenode#comments
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://basekamp.com/pipermail/bk-event-list_basekamp.com/attachments/20100405/40125b2e/attachment.html>