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Dear List, Thanks Aymeric for a very good and focused question - it's something I've been wondering about myself for a long time, and I should say up front that I don't think I have the answer, but have been unpicking some examples that might come close. So, as you say, only projects which are about a group of people producing something usable (like software) over period of time, using the _production methods_ of Open Source would come anywhere close, which kind of rules out examples like performance art, happenings, etc. So, examples where groups of people produce things (not necessarily software) with degrees of openness of the source code, such as recipe sharing and adapting recipes for food might work to a certain degree, and I like the parallels that actually sometime recipes are guarded secrets, and there is still competitive behaviour and hierarchy of expertise involved, just like programmers. And, too many cooks spoil the broth. However, the parallel breaks down at a certain point, because cooks are not actually taking somebody's actual cake, and changing the ingredients, because by that time it is already cooked and can't be dismantled. The patchwork quilt analogy also breaks down at a certain point, because that is more of a modular slotting together rather than being able to unpick and remake other people's patches (they would be pretty pissed off if you did). So, maybe the closest thing would be a genuinely collectively produced (not interactive, not participative, but collectively produced) piece of art, where the methods of production were public, and equally understood, would come close, but these things are rare, and the group would usually be very small. And I can't think of an example ..... any ideas? There are certainly artists collectives, but waht they produce is usually an organisation, not an art object ... Yours, Beryl > Now, to come back to what has been said on this list before, > > I personnaly think that FLOSS, art and cultural organisations, > while being in some circumstances connected, are three distinct things, > and I'm not convinced that FLOSS is something that can be applied > litteraly to non digital matter. In other words, software is a medium > in > itself, people are producing software, but people are not software. > > I would be interested if anyone on this list has concrete examples > where > FLOSS has been used to model a non digital > project/community/organisation, > beyond the simple inspiration that can provide the openness suggested > by > FLOSS models and the simple use of FLOSS for production/admin tasks. > > Best Regards > Aymeric Mansoux. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------- Beryl Graham, Professor of New Media Art School of Arts, Design, Media and Culture, University of Sunderland Ashburne House, Ryhope Road Sunderland SR2 7EE Tel: +44 191 515 2896 [log in to unmask] CRUMB web resource for new media art curators http://www.crumbweb.org