Wizards of OS 3
Mission Accomplished -- Towards New Goals

international conference at the
Berliner Congress Centrum
June 10-12, 2004

WOS 3 -- Abstract

The Wizards of Operating Systems (WOS) is a series of conferences and symposia on free knowledge. WOS 1 (1999) focussed on free software. WOS 2 (2001) asked for other categories of knowledge that might be created, distributed and used in an open and collaborative model similar to that of free software. Since then, what was still a promise (Wikipedia, Open Courseware) or an „unrealistic" idea (opening the archives of public broadcast) has been achieved. Wikipedia and Open Courseware have grown from a proof of concept into valuable resources. The BBC has announced that it will open its archive for free access and use. Free Access Science has grown into a powerful movement. Free hardware, at the time of WOS 2 present only in the form of the FreeCPU project, has grown into quite a movement as well. In the legal realm, the Creative Commons licenses have been spreading to new national legal systems and categories of creative practice, e.g. sampling.

WOS 3 therefore will be able to showcase a whole range of success stories of free knowledge. It will provide a platform for discussing current challenges, promote exchanges across disciplinary boundaries, convey practical know-how, and, of course, provide space for beer-to-beer networking.

WOS 3 will not only be a celebration of missions accomplished but is setting out towards new goals. The knowledge order of digital media has become thoroughly globalized. Many individual projects of free software and free content operate globally as well but until now, few of them are actively involved in shaping their knowledge environment on a global level. One form in which the challenge poses itself is through the accession of ten countries to the European Union in 2004. Under the focus „WOS goes East", WOS 3 will reach out to learn about the conditions of free knowledge in Eastern and Southeastern Europe, help exchange experiences from ongoing free knowledge movements, and promote networking of information freedom activists everywhere.

While free software is currently undergoing a roll-back in public administration policies in the West, countries like Brazil, Peru, India, and China have taken a strong stance in favor of free software in public administration and e-government. WOS 3 will reintroduce this trend into the Western debate under the motto of „Learning from the Developing World."

The ultimate goal as expressed by authors like James Boyle and Peter Drahos, is a powerful unified movement for the protection of the global digital knowledge commons. WOS 3 provides a platform to further this goal.