Re:It's a hoax (Score 1)

Hi Folks,

here comes a little insight on the overall topic.
I hope this can boil up the discussion about industrial engagement in the linux and open source distribution a bit.


>Greetings,
>
>Below you will find a press statement from members of the
>.net jury of this years Prix Ars Electronica. You will read
>about the real paths that lead us, the jury, to award this
>years golden nica to the operating system linux.
>
>Best,
>
>Marleen Stikker
>
>______________________________________
>
>
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
> Linz, Sep 6, 1999
>
>
>Media Contacts:
>Marleen Stikker
>Centrum de Waag
>Amsterdam/ The Netherlands
>Tel: [phone]
>Fax: [phone]
>Email: [e-mail]
>Website: http://www.waag.org
>
>Dr. Christine Schoepf
>ORF Prix Ars Electronica 99
>Linz/ Austria
>Tel. [phone]
>Tel. [phone]
>Email: [e-mail]
>Website: http://prixars.orf.at
>
>
>
>ARS ELECTRONICA PLAYGROUND FOR CORPORATE STRATEGIES
>
>We, the "net." jury, have just learned that next years
>ars electronica festival will be titled "OPEN SOURCE".
>This has been inofficially agreed on by the direction of
>the ARS ELECTRONICA and the sponsors Siemens, Microsoft,
>Oracle and HP, e.a. From reliable sources we also learned
>that the decision was made weeks before the ".net"-jury
>decision on "linux".
>
>
>WHY WE ARE GOING PUBLIC
>
>Because we have also just learned that the above-mentioned
>IT-companies are involved in a linux distribution joint
>venture and a strategic alliance. Their joint venture startup
>will most probably become one of the leading linux
>distributors, directly attacking Red Hat and SUSE.
>
>This is the classic oligopolistic strategy.
>They cannot buy linux, nevertheless, they will take control
>over the distibution of the competitor.
>
>We were suspicious before, but now we are strongly convinced
>that there was indirect but heavy influence by corporate and
>ars electronica executives to reach the "linux" decision...
>
>
>THE JURY WEEK-END
>
>For the jury welcome dinner, a few corporate people had been
>invited, too. Everybody was discussing about where Ars
>Electronica could or should be going. For the corporate people
>the main hype was of course the .net category, e-commerce and
>the commercial impact of the "mass communications" medium
>internet... and they were all constantly talking about the
>creative potential of linux and its open source strategy.
>
>Then, at the actual jury meeting, deciding on a winner appeared
>to be quite a hard decision (not to say compromise). Whilst the
>majority of the jury had a clear favourite in the russian info-
>intelligence startup "etxtreme.ru", another juror started
>talking about "that we need to decide on something that is really
>taking two steps ahead, not some arty-farty stuff". So "linux" just
>came up as a smart solution. we took this path, we formulated our
>statement and came up with the source code as art work, with our
>position against "beautiful" web-sites. it was a strong moment.
>And we saw linux as the perfect continuum to the corporate artwork
>of etoy.com, the Ars Electronica winners of 1996.
>
>
>TERRORVISION AND THE LOGICAL CONCLUSION
>
>But the information about the secret linux distribution joint
>venture between Microsoft and Siemens in combination with next
>years topic made us alert.
>
>Our conclusion: the industry has strongly lobbied and put
>pressure on at least one jury member to award "linux". We now
>have to interpret this in persepective of next years ars topic.
>They pushed the topic. The idea is to use the art and science
>community to soft launch their linux activities and control
>open source strategies. They do understand that open source
>has evolved into a stronger development strategy and they have
>to jump that train early enough, in order to avoid another
>"internet" desaster.
>
>So as artists writers and scientists we are used as lab-rats
>and cheap alternative researchers. This is NOT what artists
>need and it is certainly not what Ars Electronica should be
>aiming at.
>
>
>NEXT STEPS
>
>We believe that investigative journalism is needed to further
>describe and interpret this incident..
>We definitely want to engage in bringing transparency into the
>"who`s, when`s, where`s, and for how much money" of this years
>decision making process of Prix Ars Electronica.
>
>For the press, we are available for background information and
>extended infos on the topic via email or at our on-the-fly press
>conference:
>
> sept 8, 1999, 1630h
> brucknerhaus in linz
>
>
>Regards,
>
> Derrick de Kerckhove
> Lisa Goldman
> Joichi Ito
> Marleen Stikker
>