The conference is scheduled for July 15-17, 1999, in Berlin.
“The “Wizards of OS” takes the current debate about Microsoft
and Linux as an occasion to examine the meaning of operating
systems as the foundation for the contemporary “information
society”. The event will emphasize the ways operating systems
function, their relationships to social systems (politics,
economics, culture, education, etc.) and the alternatives to MS
operating systems.”
“The event is scheduled for three days, each centering on
various ways of looking at OSs. The goal of the first day, oriented
around “computer science”, is to outline the current paradigm shift
toward distributed operating systems On the second, the “media
political” and “cultural” day, the interrelations of technical and
social systems are to be outlined and it is to be made clear that
the question concerning which concepts are behind the development
of operating systems is a political one. The third, the “hacker”
day will deal with public domain knowledge as an alternative to
free market monopolies and with standards. The goal of this day is
to examine and promote the idea of a collaborative and
copyright-free project supported by an open community for
developing a next generation OS.”
The event will be sponsored by the Institute for Computer
Science in Education & Society of Humboldt University Berlin,
the Institute for Aesthetics of Humboldt University Berlin, the
House of World Cultures Berlin, Telepolis, Individual Network
Berlin, the Berliner Linux User Group, the Berliner NeXT User
Group, and with the generous support of the Economic Senate of
Berlin.