OPEN: CALL FOR PAPERS A special issue of M/C -- Media and Culture http://www.media-culture.org.au/ Since the rebranding of Free Software into Open Source in 1998, "open" has become the buzzword for all things progressive on and off the Internet. Open Law, Open Hardware, Open Culture, Open Publishing, Open Access or Open Archives are just some of the many concepts which are being retooled to serve the more or less defined public good in the Information Society. Yet, at the same time, multinational corporations have become major actors in the Open Source Software area and commercial publishers are beginning to seriously look into Open Access model. In the background of the recent enthusiasm with "open" lurks the "Open Society" concept of Karl Popper, whose political preferences for Margret Thatcher's neoliberalism are well known. OPEN aims to take a critical look at this concept of the "open". Is it a temporary buzzword that signifies nothing but an astute sense of salesmanship? Is it an alternative social concept, or just yet another step in making capitalism ever more flexible? What is it that makes something "open" and are some projects more "open" than others? Is "open" always better than closed? How does "open" relate to areas where we might value closure, for example, personal privacy? Can we imagine an even more open concept of social, cultural and economic life? For the upcoming OPEN edition for M/C, we are inviting papers between 1000 and 2000 words that critically examine the concept of "open" from any perspective. We invite equally theoretical investigations of the concept as empirical studies of particular projects with special regard to their "openess" or "closeness". Guest Editors for OPEN: McKenzie Wark, core faculty in media and communication, Lang College, New School University, and guest scholar, American Studies, New York University <mw35@nyu.edu> Felix Stalder, Lecturer in Media Economy at the New Media Department, Academy of Art and Design, Zurich, head of research at Openflows.org and co-moderator of the nettime mailing list. <felix@openflows.org> Article deadline: 19 March 2004 Release date: 21 April 2004 M/C - Media and Culture http://www.media-culture.org.au/ For more about M/C http://www.media-culture.org.au/about.html Submission guidelines http://www.media-culture.org.au/submission.html -------------------------- http://felix.openflows.org