LWN: Comments on "Wizards of OS 4 streams available"

What is "OS 4"?

proski — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 06:07:23 +0000

Thanks for the links! As funny as it is, the Wikipedia page is much more informative than the site itself. It's also devoid of the annoying *r.com ad, which is a huge advantage per se.

What is "OS 4"?

cantsin — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 21:32:32 +0000

(Disclaimer: I have been involved in the planning of the Wizards of OS conferences since their first installment in 1999, and in fact the person who initiated Jon Corbet's invitation this year.) The name "Wizards of OS" is of historical significance only just as LWN no longer covers only "Linux Weekly News". Originally, it was intended to be a conference about relations between computer operating systems and social systems, drawing heavily from sociological systems theory.

The first WOS conference in 1999 focused the topic on Free Software/Open Source, featuring among others Richard Stallman, Rishab Aiyer Ghosh and Tim O'Reilly as speakers, next to speakers with backgrounds in arts, sciences and politics. To my knowledge, it was the first conference to ever cover the extension of Free Software principles to other disciplines, comparing for example software patents to patenting in genetics, and including a panel on Open Content art. It also drew the attention of German politics and resulted in government funding for the development of GnuPG and, ultimately, the free software migration programs in German public administration.

The conferences continued in 2002, 2004 and 2006, sticking to the issue of "free culture" as an interdisciplinary efforts between software development, sciences, arts and politics. Keynote speakers included Eben Moglen and Lawrence Lessig; Wikipedia includes a more comprehensive list of previous speakers and an an article on the WOS. In the Germany and Europe, the conference is well known and has mainly served the purpose of educating non-computer geek artists, academics and activists on alternatives to current cultural "intellectual property" regimes.

What is "OS 4"?

k8to — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 19:59:28 +0000

The name is certainly clunky. I understand it has something to do with operating systems, but most of the reportage I've seen from these events ends up being stuff about free culture legislation and other stuff seemingly unrelated to the supposed topic.

Looking through the panels I see almost nothing on the topic of what I understand to be Operating Systems. Long Tail economies, read-write societies, freedom of innformation, and so on. This is all interesting to the right set of people, but what does it have to do with operating systems? It makes me wonder if there is some second track of talks that is less lofty and more titularly oriented.

The site's about: "The Wizards of OS are concerned with the emerging knowledge order of digital media. Their focus is on the potential of PC and Internet for fostering free communication and open collaboration in the creation of knowledge."

If the name _really_ stands for Operating Systems, which I am beginning to doubt, it seems entirely misnamed.

The OS stands for "operating systems"

coriordan — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 18:13:01 +0000

The conference's full name is "Wizards of Operating Systems", but it does have a free software slant.

What is "OS 4"?

arcticwolf — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 17:40:16 +0000

It's a conference which has taken place for the fourth time now (thus the "4"). I'd guess the OS stands for "open source".

What is "OS 4"?

proski — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 17:29:28 +0000

Is it a reincarnation of OS/2? Or is it something related to four-legged creatures or four-wheeled machines? Is The Fourth International behind it? And who are the wizards then?

Sorry, I have no audio around, and the website is not helpful at all.