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cc-eyebeam - Re: [cc-eyebeam] Re: OpenLaw, Chilling Effects, Creative Commons

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Subject: Creative Commons-Eyebeam Forum 2003 November 12-19

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  • From: blogdiva AT culturekitchen.com
  • To: cc-eyebeam AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [cc-eyebeam] Re: OpenLaw, Chilling Effects, Creative Commons
  • Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 09:24:16 -0500 (EST)


Hi all,

Marek said:
Problem is, there is very little money in
artworks online or elsewhere, and opensource
is massively time-consuming, you have to make
sure your code is written to be understood,
and you have to document like crazy.

Painfully true. I am speaking now as a wife
of a Java coder.

Napier cannot participate in these forums
because he is working on art for an upcoming
show at Bitforms (December 12th is the
opening) but Daniel Howe will be
participating sometime somewhere in here and
I hope he talks more in detail about their
project,<b>The Open Java Project</b>

For years now Mark has been talking about
open-sourcing his work but was terribly
dissatisfied with the mess of Java code that
is really up for grabs on the web. The mess
being that no two applets out there can
really talk to each other so a coder ends up
with more of a blue print than an actual
resource. For years Napier has also been
trying to recruit net art coders to work on
creating an open source group. We even had a
go for a "CodeBase" at Rhizome. The problem
is:

(1) As Marek pointed out, many art coders are
protective or the work (or as I like to say
just plain old stingy).

(2) What's the point of open source if there
is no structure for coding, no protocol for
development, management, commenting and
attribution of the work?

So for the past year Napier & Howe have been
working on creating a system for coding
applets (and pardon my over-simplication)
like Lego blocks. This with the intent of not
only making it easier to develop code that is
reusable but also for making it easier for
others to code in Java as well. It's all very
fascinating and effing time consuming. Again,
speaking here as a wife of a Java coder (and
so god help me).

People have no idea the amount of time and
effort that goes into creating software art.
Outside of not doing it, the other
alternative is making it a social event.
Linux is not just open-source software. It's
a social event and you see that phenomenon
replicated in not just the widgets world that
Marek talks about but in the gaming world as
well. Look at the free market of objects for
Everquest, UltimaOnline, The Sims. Some
outfits charge for the objects,others just do
it for the fame of it (icons and fonts come
to mind as well). And people churn these out
like there is no tomorrow with nary a thought
that they'll get money for it. But there is
the fame and the recognition and that is a
huge factor in the open-source movement.

What makes the gaming, Linux and widgets
"markets" successful? They already have a
structure and protocol to follow. Hopefully
Daniel and Mark will create this for Java.

Why Java? I'll defer the technical stuff to
Daniel Howe. Main reason for us is that it is
not proprietary. And it is powerful. So much
so that much to my chagrin Macromedia is
coming out with a program that will
create XML apps using J2EE. Java in the hands
of Macromedia? Think the mess of web
standards at the hands of Microsoft and it's
enough to send chills down anybody's spine.
Even the wife of a Java coder.

Best,
Liza




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