worklab

Remembering / Honoring / Paying tribute to Aaron Swartz

This program is part of the project series “Aaron´s Law” that includes various artistic-technical projects dedicated to Aaron Swartz and developed in close cooperation with ACOnet/net:art coordination center. Along with Edward Snowden and Julian Assange, Aaron Swartz is considered one of the most important Internet activists to date, who strongly shaped and influenced the development of the Internet in his short lifetime. As a programmer and advocate for the Open Access Movement, Net Neutrality and civic awareness, he defended the exchange of information constructively across geographic borders via the web.

Aaron Swartz was conscious about the immense meaning of the words open access, open source and net neutrality for the creative development of art, design as well as science.

10 years after his death, we want to revisit what exactly happened and where are we standing today. Who is involved in these thought processes or is that all just wishful thinking?

Outcome: Open Source DIY-archiving tools

How can you organize your resources, digital files and objects avoiding technological lock-ins of being DRM-ed or service based monthly subscription models. Digital theorist Yuk Hui argues in the archivist manifesto for a technics of care, calling for the re-insertion of knowledge and skills for developing personal archives. It includes an infrastructure for the sharing of information on an individual level.

Lists of useful Open Source DIY Archiving Tools:

Omeka Classic: Omeka Classic is a web publishing platform for sharing digital collections and creating media-rich online exhibits. Create complex narratives and share rich collections, adhering to Dublin Core standards with Omeka Classic on your server, designed for scholars, museums, libraries, archives, and enthusiasts.

Display your own collection on-line

Management of users

Digitalizing previous materials

Crowdsource resources – ask in local libraries, university archives, share equipment (scanners, PCs, etc)

DIY book scanners: Book scanners can be as simple as a cardboard box rig, a camera on a tripod, and your hand as the controller. Or they can have multiple moving parts with computer-controlled capture and high resolution cameras. We are a community of people who build book scanners. https://www.diybookscanner.org/

Digitalizing book collections

Goobi: Goobi is an open-source software application for digitisation projects. It allows you to model, manage and supervise freely definable production processes and is used on a daily basis by many institutions to handle all the steps involved in creating a digital library. These include importing data from library catalogues, scanning and content-based indexing and the digital presentation and delivery of results in popular standardised formats – from book to online presentation. https://www.intranda.com/digiverso/goobi/goobi-overview/

Koha: Koha is the first free software library automation package. In use worldwide, its development is steered by a growing community of users collaborating to achieve their technology goals. Koha’s feature set continues to evolve and expand to meet the needs of its user base. https://koha-community.org

Digitalizing cultural artifacts

Kitodo: The Kitodo software suite supports all aspects of the digitisation process, from the production to the presentation and archiving of digital assets. It consists of several modules that can be used separately or in combination. Thanks to open interfaces and compliance with international standards, they are interoperable with each other and other systems. https://www.kitodo.org/

Document Indexing

Mayan EDMS: Mayan is a web-based free/libre document management system for managing documents within an organization. All functionality is available in its free public version. It has an active community of volunteers and third-party service and support providers. https://www.mayan-edms.com/

Video Archiving

Peertube: PeerTube allows you to create your own video platform, in complete independence. With PeerTube, no more opaque algorithms or obscure moderation policies! PeerTube platforms you visit are built, managed and moderated by their owners. https://joinpeertube.org/de/

Mobile archiving

Open Archive: OpenArchive is a collective of human rights technologists, ethnographers, and archivists dedicated to protecting media freedom. Our technologies are designed to preserve, amplify, and securely route mobile media to community-maintained collections in accessible public and private archives, outside the corporate walled gardens currently dominating the online media ecosystem. https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.opendasharchive.openarchive.release/

Commons: Images you upload via the app are added to Wikimedia Commons, a repository of freely-licensed media used to illustrate Wikipedia and its sister projects. By uploading your photos, you can help further the goal of spreading free knowledge around the world. https://f-droid.org/en/packages/fr.free.nrw.commons/

Website Archiving:

Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" to see how websites looked in the past.

Conifer is a web archiving service that creates an interactive copy of any web page that you browse, including content revealed by your interactions such as playing video and audio, scrolling, clicking buttons, and so forth.

... to be continued ...

if you think a tool is missing and should be added, please share it with us at @murpunktat@graz.social

Videos

About the Worklab

For years the work-lab is a core format in the artistic research program of ‘mur.at’. Worklabs are “un-conferences” that can last for several days, to which people are invited to participate via a public open call. Worklabs create a temporary space in which artists (= specialists in the field of technology, design, art, etc.) and external guests can discuss topics from the field of digital technology, art and its social implications. People from different fields and with diverse backgrounds meet here / in them and work together on ideas and designs that will become the starting point for future projects, publications and productions of the current and coming years. The work-labs are both incubators for specific work and open think tanks where ideas, tools, as well as practical and creative approaches are developed and tested.