First instance of the ITP program workshops was tonight, and we went over free software! I love this stuff, though I am not thinking so dearly about the relationship between positive and negative freedom and technological engagement.

Here is a shortlist — with links — of the programs we went over this evening.

Blender – 3D arts, animation, modelling. create films, animations, movies
GIMP – hi-res, high-end graphics application package. print photo editing [registry.gimp.org – extentions and plugins]
Scribus – desktop publishing, professional page layout
Kino [for linux] video editing
Shotwell [linux-only] photo manager/publisher
Latek – academic publications, set up templates
Audacity – audio editing. one of the best!!
Aviary — server-based, more user-friendly and more shareable
WordPress – self-server or web-server-based
Bluefish — HTML editing
Jack Pulse — real-time audio, multiple devices

And — after reading manifesto-type-textx like the Collaboration book and the Free Software license, the dyne.org folks have an interesting Occupy The Internet manifesto that we came across in our travels through freeware tonight.

Linux builds:

Mint — not most up to the moment but includes things that are annoying to install like your CD-rom driver.
Fedora project — most up to the moment build
Ubuntu — slickest and second most up to the moment [and there is Ubuntu studio for creative types]

I am verging on obsessed with activist media and graduate school is only making it worse.

Today I read a bit on this very Euro blog that has a conversation about youth, newness, social movements, politics, tactics, and how the 80s fucked us. The bolded terms above I studied last semester in Jasper’s Sociology of Social Movements course.

Then I went on and found a dated [?] series of sites, including: newmediaeducation.org and distributedcreativity.org whose mission is to “focus on collaboration in media art, technology, and theory with an emphasis on social contexts.” Take me with you!