[Air-l] OPEN: Call for Papers (M/C)

[Felix Stalder]

OPEN: CALL FOR PAPERS
A special issue of M/C -- Media and Culture
http://www.media-culture.org.au/

Since the rebranding of Free Software into Open Source in 1998, "open" has
become the buzzword for all things progressive on and off the Internet.
Open Law, Open Hardware, Open Culture, Open Publishing, Open Access or
Open Archives are just some of the many concepts which are being retooled
to serve the more or less defined public good in the Information Society.

Yet, at the same time, multinational corporations have become major actors
in the Open Source Software area and commercial publishers are beginning
to seriously look into Open Access model. In the background of the recent
enthusiasm with "open" lurks the "Open Society" concept of Karl Popper,
whose political preferences for Margret Thatcher's neoliberalism are well
known.

OPEN aims to take a critical look at this concept of the "open". Is it a
temporary buzzword that signifies nothing but an astute sense of
salesmanship? Is it an alternative social concept, or just yet another
step in making capitalism ever more flexible? What is it that makes
something "open" and are some projects more "open" than others? Is "open"
always better than closed? How does "open" relate to areas where we might
value closure, for example, personal privacy? Can we imagine an even more
open concept of social, cultural and economic life?

For the upcoming OPEN edition for M/C, we are inviting papers between 1000
and 2000 words that critically examine the concept of "open" from any
perspective. We invite equally theoretical investigations of the concept
as empirical studies of particular projects with special regard to their
"openess" or "closeness".

Guest Editors for OPEN:
McKenzie Wark, core faculty in media and communication, Lang College, New
School University, and guest scholar, American Studies, New York
University
<mw35 at nyu.edu>

Felix Stalder, Lecturer in  Media Economy at the New Media Department,
Academy of Art and Design, Zurich, head of research at Openflows.org and
co-moderator of the nettime mailing list.
<felix at openflows.org>

Article deadline: 19 March 2004
Release date: 21 April 2004

M/C - Media and Culture
http://www.media-culture.org.au/

For more about M/C
http://www.media-culture.org.au/about.html

Submission guidelines
http://www.media-culture.org.au/submission.html




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http://felix.openflows.org