FOSS stands for Free Open Source Software. The term combines the terms Free Software and Open Source which represent two related approaches to the ways in which software should be developed and distributed. You will also see it called FLOSS where the L stands for libre to strengthen the idea of free as in freedom, or as Richard Stallman puts it: "free as in free speech".
The links below are intended as an introduction to the topic for people who may be entirely new to it, or interested in learning more about it. They also provide some info on its relationship to contemporary arts practice. This list is neither definitive nor exhaustive and there are many other resources available online.
INTRODUCTORY TEXTS
_The Free Software Definition_
The "classic" introduction to Free Software:
http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
_The Open Source Definition_
This is a succinct outline of Open Source software. There are aspects of the principles given here which many people
disagree with (such as whetheror not to support/oppose commercial software), but it serves as a decent enough introduction.
http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php
_licenses_
At the heart of Open Source is the use of copyright (or copyleft) licenseswhich seek to ensure the "free" use of software in contrast toconventional "restricted" commercial licenses.
http://www.fsf.org/licenses/license-list.html
_The GNU Project_Richard Stallman
One of the pioneering Open Source/Free Software projects, by one of thepioneers of Free Software philosophy.
http://www.fsf.org/gnu/thegnuproject.html
_Free Culture_Lawrence Lessig
Relating to the broader issues of Open Source and intellectual propertyrights and why over-zealous commercial control of culture and innovationis generally bad for society as a whole.
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/
policy/2002/08/15/lessig.html
_Open Source Intelligence_Felix Stalder and Jesse Hirsh
Comparing some approaches which effectively put into practice ideassimilar to those which Lessig promotes, applying the Open Source model ata wider level.
http://news.openflows.org/article.pl?sid=02/04/23/1518208
_A Politics of Intellectual Property: Environmentalism For the Net?_James Boyle
Relates discussions over intellectual property from an Open Sourceperspective to bio-informatics and genetic science issues. Argues thatenviromentalism provides a suitable model for understanding the relevanceof supporting a free public domain and open source ethos.
http://www.law.duke.edu/boylesite/intprop.htm
_Creative Commons_
Set up by Lessig, Boyle and others, Creative Commons promotes the conceptof a collective "commons" for culture and knowledge, similar to the olderconcept of "common land" (an area of land set aside from private ownershipfor the collective good of the community). One of thefeatures of Creative Commons is that it provides the tools for individualcreators to define their own licenses, thereby facilitating an Open Sourceapproach to legal practice.
http://creativecommons.org
OPEN SOURCE + ARTISTIC PRACTICE
_Free Software as Collaborative Text_Florian Cramer
If you only want to read one text I'd recommend this, provides anintroductory definition of Open Source and Free Software, a bit of historybehind their development, and their relationship to artistic practice anda broader concept of "net cultures".
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~cantsin/
homepage/writings/copyleft/free_software/
free_software_as_text/en//free_software_as_text.html
_Art meet Net, Net meet Art_Matthew Fuller
Not directly dealing with Open Source but espouses related principles. Agood text on exploring the relations between internet and gallery-based art.
http://www.tate.org.uk/netart/mat1.htm
_The Hi-Tech Gift Economy_Richard Barbrook
Again not overtly "Open Source" in topic but closely related. Takes abalanced, but optimistic, view of the internet as a legacy of Situationismand anarcho-communism.
http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue3_12/barbrook/
_Culture Without Commodities: From Dada to Open Source and Beyond_Felix Stalder
Kicks off with Greil Marcus's "Lipstick Traces" and parallels some ofBarbrook's text but with a more specific relation to Open Source and otherrecent developments.
http://residence.aec.at/kop/writers/html/w3texts.html
_read_me 2.3_ & runme.org
"read_me" is a festival of software art, this site contains a selection ofessays relating to the medium and the featured projects from this year'sfestival. Runme is a related online repository of software art.
http://www.m-cult.org/read_me
http://www.runme.org/
CRITIQUE
_The Californian Ideology_Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron
The Open Source movement, like any large-scale ideologically informedmovement, is a broad one with many differing views, some of which conflictwith the views of others who also support it. One such aspect of that inrelation to Open Source are the synergies between many American OpenSource advocates, such as Eric Raymond, and "libertarian" free-marketideologies (Raymond is also part of the pro-gun lobby). This article byRichard Barbrook and Andy Cameron is a critique of that. The first url isfor a site with the article and various responses to it, the second to asingle page version that is easy to print.
http://www.hrc.westminster.ac.uk/hrc/theory/
californianideo/index/t.4.html
http://www.alamut.com/subj/ideologies/
pessimism/califIdeo_I.html
ORGANISATIONS + INDIVIDUALS + WEBSITES
The Free Software Foundation
http://www.fsf.org/
OpenFlows
http://www.openflows.org/
Detritus
http://www.detritus.net/
Scottish Linux Users Group
http://www.scotlug.org.uk/
Lowtech
http://www.lowtech.org
dynebolic
http://dynebolic.org/
slashdot
http://slashdot.org/
Freshmeat
http://freshmeat.net/
Sourceforge
http://www.sourceforge.net
Richard Stallman
http://www.stallman.org/
Eric Raymond
http://www.catb.org/~esr/
Lawrence Lessig
http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/lessig/
Felix Stalder
http://felix.openflows.org/html/left.html
