[-empyre-] radio free linux

[Felix Sattler <felix@querformarte.de>]

>
Dear -empyreans-,

adam wrote:
> Anyways, we did a project which addresed this issue (amongst other 
> issues)
> called 'Free Radio Linux' (http://www.radioqualia.net/freeradiolinux). 
> The
> project used Ogg Vorbis, a free (as in 'media') codec and we found,
> surprisingly that there were _plenty_ of people that went to the 
> trouble
> of installing the codec. In short, we crashed three streaming servers 
> in
> the first two days because of the demand of the ogg stream (well beyond
> what we were expecting).

I believe there is generally a growing interest in open source software 
and people do not any longer mind the trouble of going through the 
installation procedures.
Maybe it is both sides opening up. The developers trying to include a 
larger non-specialist community by providing installers and packaging. 
The public by accepting that getting software which is under constant 
development, available for (almost) free and for all platform means a 
bit of action.
It's probably the beginning of a real shift from a passive consumerist 
attitude towards active involvement. Which brings me straight streaming 
and the Free Radio Linux project.

adam wrote:
> The project also, was a sly ribbing to Open Source (lets not get so 
> holy
> about it ;-) ), and also it highlighted what I think is a very 
> interesting
> co-relation - the idealogical intersection, and parallal aims of Free
> Software and Free Radio. It seems to me there is more to this alliance
> than meets the ear and eye...at the core is the thought that both
> movements utilise technolgy as a focus for pursuing freedom of
> information.

An obvious connection between open source and streaming may relate to 
our thread on "bandwidth aesthetics" as streaming media implies a 
natural tendency towards revealing structures below the surface of the 
image/sound.

However I think what makes this project really fascinating is the 
interest in listening to the open source code which most listeners 
weren't able to decipher.
It's there and it´s open to see for everyone, even more, it is being 
broadcasted - and we are not understanding a single line of it (that's 
were the humor lies for me). Still, if your were reading the 
ascii-gibberish of compiled windows source I guess nobody would bother 
to listen to. It rather be a humiliating experience, being laughed upon.
With linux source code however there seems to be an offer and a 
question for getting involved at the same time. Probably here it 
connects with streaming.
Here, the symbolic meaning of the gesture is more important than an 
actual possibility to understand. By broadcasting it comes to sharing 
with other and leaving the secluded realm of programming_people.
The use of the Ogg-codec then and its acceptance by the audience 
signals that we got the message that in oder to understand things and 
be part of things we must get active ourselves. Funny though that even 
if the Ogg-Stream wasn't decoded again it didn't make a big difference 
in terms of understanding. So a codec which is open encodes stuff that 
is open, still we understand less than if we connect to apple's movie 
trailers....but we know we could, it is in our very own damn hands and 
this is were I see the fascination arising.

Felix