Call for Contribution
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Wealth by copyleft
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Creativity in the digital age
=============================

3. Oekonux Conference

May 20th-23rd, 2004

Department of Philosophy at Vienna University

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Project Oekonux
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In Project Oekonux [http://www.oekonux.org/] and in the neighboring
OpenTheory [http://www.opentheory.org/] different people with
different opinions and different methods study the economic and
political forms of Free Software.

An important question is, whether the principles of the development of
Free Software (without exchange in the core, self-organized, common
and unlimited participation in the production knowledge) may be the
foundation of a new economy which is no longer based on the dogma of
economic scarcity. New economy may also mean the basis for a new form
of society. So Oekonux is not only concerned with Free Software but
with the relation of Free Software and transformation of society. From
the far ranging Oekonux debate new views on past transformation
processes of society and a completely new theory of transformation of
society emerge - e.g. the germ form hypothesis.

A closely related question is, whether, where and how in the given
economic and societal framework a culture of Free Information Goods
emerges and thus makes the principles of the development of Free
Software fruitful for other areas. Are the principles of the
development of Free Software a temporary or integratable phenomenon or
do they spread in other areas of society sooner or later.

The conference
--------------

The motto of the conference "Wealth by copyleft -- Creativity in the
digital age" points especially to these questions:

o    How do the production methods of Free Software affect science,
     art, education, production?

o    Does the wealth of the information society come from patents and
     "Creative Industries"? Or does Copyleft gain legitimization for a
     more powerful and sustainable source of wealth beyond the logic
     of money?

o    Which coalitions do evolve in these processes and on which basis
     do they work?

o    Special interest receives the relation of Free Selbstentfaltung
     and societal agreements: How do self-organized societal relations
     come into being and how do they grow? How does cooperation and
     self-organization function at all? Especially: How are conflicts
     and power handled?

Meanwhile for these and similar questions the Oekonux community became
an internationally recognized focus point. From the simple mailing
list this virtual community slowly develops into a collective research
project - without a prior project management. Factual needs and their
perception shall determine the next step. A slowly emerging consensus
and the work of accepted maintainers are the moving spirit. This is
producing theory just as Free Software.

After the success of the 1. [http://erste.oekonux-konferenz.de/] and
2. [http://second.oekonux-conference.org/] Oekonux conference the 3.
Oekonux conference [http://third.oekonux-conference.org/] takes place
in cooperation with the Institute for Philosophy in Vienna. Besides
the questions raised above contributions to these topics are welcome.

o    Free Software

     Experiences from projects, success stories, but also conflicts,
     contradictions (for example making money vs. self-unfolding, wage
     labor vs. Free Doing, etc.) as well as studies about the
     phenomenon of Free Software.

o    Technological development

     Examples of development of technology with a potential similar to
     Free Software. What significance do Free Standards have? What may
     such a technological development mean for ecological questions?

o    Alternative and anti-economy

     Theoretical models of the abolition of exchange, labor, and
     money. Practical experiences in projects on the height of the
     technological and social development. Contradictions of theory
     and practice.

o    How can Oekonux become practical?

     Interesting are suggestions for concrete projects, which try to
     practice our ideas. Free Licenses for other fields, gratis shops,
     ...

For all contributions the relation to the topic field of Oekonux
should be recognizable.

The planned conference shall give room to bundle, collectively
re-discuss and make fruitful for all, thoughts which developed in
different places independently. Besides getting to know one other in
talks and workshops the respective current state of the discussion
shall be presented. Moreover there will be a concentrated introduction
in the content of the Oekonux debate.

Speakers wanted
---------------

People interested in giving a talk, preparing a workshop or moderate a
discussion round please submit a short outline of their intentions to
Project Oekonux [mailto:projekt@oekonux.de]. (Mails to this address
are archived on the web. Please ask there if there is a problem with
this.) If someone wants to add some other kind of contribution please
also contact this address.

Deadline for such outlines is

March 1st, 2004

Decision about the chosen contributions is until March 31th, 2004.

The conference languages are German and English. Translators are
needed!