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Title: 'I think that conversations are the best, biggest thing that free software has to offer its users'

Description: 
An extensive collection of conversations between developers and designers involved in the wider ecosystem of Libre Graphics. Speaking to each other about tools for typography, lay-out and image processing they render a portrait of a community gradually understanding the interdependencies between Free Software and design. 'Conversations' is edited in collaboration with Christoph Haag http://lafkon.net

TO-DO

• T ranscriptions to be done :
  • Conversations: The Making Of - ?
  • Performing Libre Graphics - AM/PW
  • Collision - FS
  • ???? Scribus usability design - FS (?)
  • John Haltiwanger, ConText (TITLE) - CH - working on it
  • Dave Crossland - ???
  • Dmitry Kleiner - ???
• Interviews to be done:
  • Conversations, The Making Of
• Editing to be done:
  • Constant Variable: Etat des lieux - FS - almost done
  • OSP git interview (TITLE) - FS - almost done
  • Tying the story to data - FS
  • Tools for a read write world - FS
  • The Construction of a book [ADDED] - FS - DONE
• All introductions: Check, rewrite, write : location/context; who's there - working on it
• unicdoes: figures, (introduction)
• English editing? Or at least spell check?
• Write general intro -> Larisa Blasic - working on it
• All interviewers and interviewees need to be contacted to re-confirm license and republishing -> FS in September
• 
  
• Title

-----------------------------------

2014

The m aking o f conversations
Christoph Haag, Xavier Klein

Discussion, interview about process of making this book/collection and the ideas that inspired it.  
So I should interview you two? Or Xavier interviews Christoph? ;)

• Transcription: NOT DONE
• Audio: http://snelting.domainepublic.net/files/Call%20with%20wuffdibuff,%20Mit%20Aug%2006%202014,%2010:43:21.mp3
• image: screenshot of the etherpad page with this interview
• Image: some process, sketch, design images?

Constant Variable: Etat des lieux
Christoph Haag, Michael Murtaugh, Eleanor Greenhalgh, Claire Williams  

Making a medly of the answers; quite nice. Needs a good intro to situate it : Variable, Constant, Urana.

• Edited version: NOT FINISHED http://note.pad.constantvzw.org:8000/group.html/20/pad.html/g.y0XQmroqxr3RE7Y8$Urana_edit
• Transcription: 
  • http://note.pad.constantvzw.org:8000/p/g.y0XQmroqxr3RE7Y8$Interview-%20Christopher%20Haag%20by%20Urana
  • http://note.pad.constantvzw.org:8000/group.html/20/pad.html/g.y0XQmroqxr3RE7Y8$Interview-%20Micheal%20Murtaugh%20by%20Urana
  • http://note.pad.constantvzw.org:8000/group.html/20/pad.html/g.y0XQmroqxr3RE7Y8$Interview-%20Eleanor_Greenhalgh_by%20Urana%20-cryptocat-
  • http://note.pad.constantvzw.org:8000/group.html/20/pad.html/g.y0XQmroqxr3RE7Y8$Interview-%20Claire%20Williams%20by%20Urana

Performing Libre Graphics
Femke Snelting

Interviewed by Cornelia Sollfrank. Would be good to add this; it is more general and meta. Context: Giving what you don't have

• Transcription: NOT DONE
• Audio/video (not on-line yet)
• Image: http://snelting.domainepublic.net/files/femke_2.jpg

2013

Distributed Version Control
OSP

Transcribed by Gijs; needs editing/shortening

• Edited version: 
• Transcription + audio: http://activearchives.org/aaa/resources/2227/
• mdsh version: http://pad.constantvzw.org/public_pad/conversations.versioning
• Image: 

The construction of a book (Aether9)
OSP

• Edited version: DONE
• mdsh version: http://pad.constantvzw.org/public_pad/conversations.aether9
• Image: 

Tools for a Read-Write World
Miguel xxxxx, Julien Deswaef, Carla Bosermans, Eleanor Greenhalgh

Collection of fragments from Interactivos. Needs to be checked. Transcriptions: ginger coons

• Edited version / selection: http://snelting.domainepublic.net/interviews/fragments.txt
• mdsh version: http://pad.constantvzw.org/public_pad/conversations.futuretools
• Transcriptions: http://snelting.domainepublic.net/interviews/interviews.odt
• Image: http://gallery3.constantvzw.org/index.php/Tools-for-a-Read-Write-world/IMG_0318

2012

Collision
Pierre Huyghebaert

Quite beautiful and intimate conversation with Pierre. Needs some attention to edit, subtle clarifications needed. PH: "fear of disappointment"

• Edited version: NOT DONE
• Transcription: NOT DONE
• Audio: http://snelting.domainepublic.net/interviews/collision_one.ogg
• Image: http://gallery3.constantvzw.org/index.php/Collision/IMG_4940

Unicodes
Denis Jacquery

Not technically an interview, but transcribed lecture. Published earlier in Reader and LG-mag

• Edited version: http://reader.lgru.net/texts/unicodes/
• mdsh version: http://pad.constantvzw.org/public_pad/conversations.djacquerye
• Audio + transcription: http://activearchives.org/aaa/resources/1436/
• Image: http://gallery3.constantvzw.org/index.php/LGRU/P1000546

2011

Meaningful transformations
Tom Lechne r

We discovered the work of Tom Lechner for the first time at the Libre Graphics Meeting 2010 in Brussels. Tom traveled from Portland, US to present Laidout, an amazing tool that he made to produce his own comic books and also to work on three dimensional mathematical objects. We were excited about how his software  represents the gesture of folding, loved his bold interface decisions plus were impressed  by the fact that Tom decided to write his own programming framework  for it. A year later, we met again in Montreal, Canada for the 2011 Libre Graphics Meeting where he presents a follow-up. With Ludivine Loiseau (amateur bookbinder and graphic designer) and Pierre Marchand (artist/developer, contributing amongst others to podofoimpose and Scribus) we finally found time to sit down and talk.

• Edited version: http://blogs.lgru.net/ft/conversations/meaningful-transformations
• mdsh version: http://pad.constantvzw.org/public_pad/conversations.tlechner
• Transcription + audio: http://activearchives.org/aaa/resources/1435/
• Image: http://blogs.lgru.net/ft/wp-content/uploads/sphere-600x450.jpg

Just Ask and That Will Be That
Asheesh Laroia

This conversation took place at the last day of the Libre Graphics Meeting 2011 in Montreal. In the panel 'How to keep and make productive libre graphics projects?', Asheesh had responded rather sharply to someone in the audience who remarked that only a very small number of women was present at LGM: "Bringing the problem back to gender is avoiding the general problem that F/LOSS has with social inclusion".
Another good reason to talk to him are the intriguing 'Interactive training missions' that he has been developing as part of the OpenHatch.org  project. I wanted to know more about the tutorials he develops; why he decided to work on 'story manuals' that explain how to report a bug or  how to work with version control.
Asheesh Laroia is someone who realizes that most of the work  that makes projects successful is hidden underneath the surface. He volunteered his technical skills for the UN in Uganda, the EFF, and Students for Free Culture, and is a Developer in Debian. Today, he lives  in Somerville, MA, working on OpenHatch.org. He speaks about his ideas  to audiences at international F/LOSS conferences.

• Edited version: http://blogs.lgru.net/ft/conversations/just-ask-and-that-will-be-that
• mdsh version: http://pad.constantvzw.org/public_pad/conversations.alaroia
  • first part http://activearchives.org/aaa/resources/839/  
  • second part http://activearchives.org/aaa/resources/838/  
• Image: ...

Tying the story to data
Evan Roth, GML

In the summer of 2010, Constant commissioned artist and researcher Evan Roth to develop a work of his  choice, and to make the development process available in some way. He decided to use a part of his fee as prize-money for The GML-Recorder Challenge, inviting makers to propose an open source device ‘that can unobtrusively record graffiti motion data during a graffiti writer’s normal practice in the city’.
In three interviews that took place in Brussels and Paris within a  period of one and a half years, we spoke about the collaborative powers  of the GML-standard, about contact points between hacker and  graffiti-cultures and the granularity of gesture. The text is based on conversations between Evan Roth (ER) and Femke  Snelting (FS), Peter Westenberg (PW), Michele Walther (MW), Stéphanie Villayphiou (SV), John Haltiwanger (JH) and momo3010.

• Edited version: http://blogs.lgru.net/ft/conversations/tying-the-story-to-data
• mdsh version: http://pad.constantvzw.org/public_pad/conversations.eroth
• Transcription, notes + audio:
  • http://activearchives.org/aaa/resources/183
  • http://activearchives.org/aaa/resources/193
  • http://sound.constantvzw.org/various/evan_roundthreeA.mp3
  • http://sound.constantvzw.org/various/evan_roundthreeB.mp3
• Image: http://blogs.lgru.net/ft/wp-content/uploads/gml-handshake.jpg

2010

ConTeXT
John Haltiwanger

• Edited version: NOT DONE
• Transcription: working on (Christoph)
• Audio: http://snelting.domainepublic.net/interviews/john.mp3
• Image:

2009

Even when you are done, you are not done
Chris Lilley

At the Libre Graphics Meeting 2008,  OSP sat down with Chris Lilley on a small patch of grass in front of  the Technical University in Wroclaw, Poland. Warmed up by the early May sun, we talked about the way standards are made, how ‘specs’ influence  the work of designers, programmers and managers and how this process is  opening up to voices from outside the W3C.
Chris Lilley is trained as a biochemist, and specialised in the  application of biological computing. He has been involved with the World  Wide Web Consortium since the 1990?s, headed the Scalable Vector  Graphics (SVG) working group and currently looks after two W3C activity areas: graphics, including PNG, CGM, graphical quality, and fonts,  including font formats, delivery, and availability of font software.

• Edited version: http://ospublish.constantvzw.org/conversation/even-when-you-are-done-you-are-not-done
• mdsh version: http://pad.constantvzw.org/public_pad/conversations.clilley
• Audio + transcription: http://activearchives.org/aaa/resources/1438/
• Image: http://ospublish.constantvzw.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/grass-400x300.jpg

We will get to know the machine and we will understand
Juliane De Moerlooze

“When you hear people talk about women having more sense for the  global, intuitive and empathic… and men are more logic… even if it is  true… it seems quite a good thing to have when you are doing math or  software?”
This conversation with Juliane de Moerlooze was recorded in March 2009. Juliane is a Brussels based computer scientist, feminist and Linux user of the first hour. She studied math, programming and system administration and participates in the Samedies (a group of women maintaining their own server). In February 2009, she was voted president of the Brussels Linux user group.

• Edited version: http://ospublish.constantvzw.org/conversation/we-will-get-to-know-the-machine-and-we-will-understand
• mdsh version: http://pad.constantvzw.org/public_pad/conversations.jdmoerlooze
• Image: http://www.geuzen.org/female_icons/wp-content/uploads/juliane_small.jpg

2008

What's the thinking here
Femke Snelting

"One of the things that is notable about OSP is that the problems that you encounter are also described, appearing on your blog. This is something unusual for a company attempting to produce  the impression of an efficient ’solution’. Obviously the readers of the blog only get a formatted version of this, as a performed work? What’s the thinking here?"
This interview about the practice of OSP was carried out by email between March and May 2008.
Matthew Fuller writes about software culture and has a contagious interest in technologies that exceed easy fit solutions. At the time, he was David Gee reader in Digital Media at the Centre for Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths College, University of London, and had just edited Software Studies, A Lexicon (MIT Press, 2007), wrote Media Ecologies: Materialist Energies in Art and Technoculture (MIT Press, 2005) and Behind the Blip: Essays on the Culture of Software.

• Blogpost: http://ospublish.constantvzw.org/conversation/what%E2%80%99s-the-thinking-here
• Edited version: http://www.spc.org/fuller/interviews/open-source-publishing-interview-with-femke-snelting/
• mdsh version: http://pad.constantvzw.org/public_pad/conversations.fsnelting+mfuller
• Image: ...

Data analysis as a discourse
Michael Terry

At the Libre Graphics Meeting 2008 in Wroclaw, just before Michael Terry will presents his project ingimp to an audience of curious Gimp developers and users, we meet up to talk  more about ‘instrumenting The Gimp’ and about the way Terry thinks data  analysis could be done as a form of discourse.
Michael Terry is a computer scientist working at the Human Computer  Interaction Lab of the University of Waterloo, Canada and his main  research focus is on improving usability in open source software. We  speak about ingimp, a clone of the  popular image manipulation programme Gimp, but with an important  difference: ingimp allows users to record data about their usage in to a  central database, and subsequently makes this data available to anyone.
This conversation was also published in the Constant publication Tracks in electr(on)ic fields

• Edited version: http://ospublish.constantvzw.org/conversation/data-analysis-as-a-discourse
• mdsh version: http://pad.constantvzw.org/public_pad/conversations.mterry
• Image: http://ospublish.constantvzw.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/terry1.jpg

TITLE
Dave Crossland

OK, will do an attempt ... This  is probably not going to work; I would be surprised if Dave would ever  accept this old text to be published. I'd like to publish it exactly   because of that ... First time understood power of webfonts for Libre Graphics.

• Edited version: NOT DONE
• Transcription: NOT DONE
• Audio: 
  • http://snelting.domainepublic.net/interviews/Dave_Crossland_A.mp3
  • http://snelting.domainepublic.net/interviews/Dave_Crossland_B.mp3
• Image: http://ospublish.constantvzw.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/dave2.jpg

2007

Why you should own the beercompany you design for
Dmitry Kleiner

Would be great to have this one in http://ospublish.constantvzw.org/blog/conversation/why-you-should-own-the-beer-company-you-design-for -> would like to include the comments

• Edited version: NOT DONE
• Transcription: NOT DONE
• Audio: http://ospublish.constantvzw.org/documents/kleiner.mp3
• Image: http://ospublish.constantvzw.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/kleiner.JPG

I think the ideas behind it are beautiful in my mind.
George Williams

Rare conversation with George Williams, developer of FontForge, the editing tool for fonts. We speak about Shakespeare, Unicode, the pleasure of making beautiful things and pottery.

• Edited version: http://ospublish.constantvzw.org/typo/i-think-the-ideas-behind-it-are-beautiful-in-my-mind
• mdsh version: http://pad.constantvzw.org/public_pad/conversations.gwilliams
• Transcription + audio: http://activearchives.org/aaa/resources/1439/
• Image: http://ospublish.constantvzw.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/george.JPG
• Image: 'I have pictures of my pots if you’d like to see them?' ?
• Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FontForge_2012.png

A user should not be able to shoot himself in the foot
Andreas Vox

While in the background participants to the Libre Graphics Meeting 2007 start  saying goodbye to each other, Andreas Vox makes time to sit  down with us in the lounge of the xxxxx in Montreal, Canada. We want to talk to him about Scribus, the  open-source application for professional page layout. Not only as users  that do design with it, but also because Scribus helps us think about  links between software, free culture and design.
Andreas is a mathematician with an interest in system dynamics, who  lives and works in Lübeck, Germany. Together with Franz Schmid, Petr  Vanek (subik), Riku Leino (Tsoots), Oleksandr Moskalenko (malex), Craig  Bradney (MrB), Jean Ghali and Peter Linnel (mrdocs) he forms the core  Scribus developer team. He has been working on Scribus since 2003 and is  currently responsible for redesigning the internal workings of its text layout system.

• Edited version: http://ospublish.constantvzw.org/conversation/a-user-should-not-be-able-to-shoot-himself-in-the-foot
• mdsh version: http://pad.constantvzw.org/public_pad/conversations.avox

2006

Tools of the trade
Ricardo Lafuente

Ricardo Lafuente is a designer and developer based in Porto, Portugal, where he runs the Manufactura Independente studio with Ana Carvalho. At the time, he was in the process of finishing a text about the way typography, (open source) tools and design economies feed off and into each other. The conversation is based on an e-mail exchange.

• Edited version: http://ospublish.constantvzw.org/typo/tools-of-the-trade
• mdsh version: http://pad.constantvzw.org/public_pad/conversations.rlafuente

You need to copy to understand
Harrisson

One of the co-conspirators of the OSP adventure, is a Brussels graphiste going under the name Harrisson.  His interest in open source software flows with the culture of exchange  that keeps the off-centre music scene alive, as well as with the  humanist tradition persistingly present in contemporary typography.
Harrissons’ visual frame of reference is eclectic and vibrant, including  modernist giants, vernacular design, local typographic culture, classic  painting, drawing and graffiti. Too much food for one conversation.

• Edited version: http://ospublish.constantvzw.org/typo/you-need-to-copy-to-understand
• mdsh version: http://pad.constantvzw.org/public_pad/conversations.harrison

If the design thinking is correct, the tools should be irrelevant
Pedro Amado

(Type) designer Pedro Amado from Portugal is amongst many other things initiator of TypeForge, a website dedicated to the development of ‘collaborative type’ with open source tools. At the time this conversation was taking place, he was working as design technician at FBAUP,  and about to finish a MA with a paper on collaborative methods for the creation of art and design projects. When I e-mailed him about open  font design and how he sees that developing, he responded with a list of  useful links, but also with: “Developing design teaching based on open source is one of my goals, because I think that is the future of education.” 
This text is based on the conversation about design, teaching and software that followed.

• Edited version http://ospublish.constantvzw.org/education/if-the-design-thinking-is-correct-the-tools-should-be-irrelevant
• mdsh version: http://pad.constantvzw.org/public_pad/conversations.pamado

-----------------------------------------

DESELECTED

A map of Africa
Ludivine Loiseau, Pierre Marchand, Pierre Huyghebaert
I  like this interview/subject a lot but it is very fragmented; might need  a lot of editing. Not sure I'll manage after so much time?

• Edited version: NOT DONE
• Text: CAN'T FIND IT FOR NOW; SHOULD BE SOMEWHERE
• Audio (partial): 
  • http://snelting.domainepublic.net/interviews/carte_africa_01.wav
  • http://snelting.domainepublic.net/interviews/carte_africa_02.wav

Objectology (TITLE)
Jara Rocha

• Transcription: NOT DONE
• Audio: NOT DONE

Scribus usability design
Claudia Krummenacher

Scribus. Not sure it is that interesting but single woman active in Scribus. Might need to make it interesting?

• Edited version: NOT DONE
• Transcription: NOT DONE
• Audio: http://sound.constantvzw.org/various/claudia.MP3

-----------------------------------------

TYPOGRAPHY SELECTION :

• LUCULENT : http://eastfarthing.com/luculent/
• VOLLKORN : http://vollkorn-typeface.com/
• PT SANS : http://www.paratype.com/public/
• AUTOPIA : http://autopia-type.tumblr.com/    https://github.com/Antoine-Gelgon/Autopia-TTF-v1.1

-----------------------------------------


DISCUSSING TITLE

• Title of this collection
  • Speaking about practice
  • Tools for a read-write world: conversations about Libre Graphics
  • Tools shape practice, practice shapes tools
  • Future Tools: conversations
  • tools/shape/matter
  • conversations: 2006-2014   ("I think that 'conversations' are the best, biggest thing that F/LOSS  has to offer its users, in comparison with proprietary software." http://blogs.lgru.net/ft/conversations/just-ask-and-that-will-be-that)
  • in conversation
  • con.s/v.er.v/s.ations (conversations <-> conservations)
  • under discussion
  • recordings
  • something with "log" (e.g. cat a log)
  • transcripts
  • voices
  • collected words (2006-2014)

tool
practice 
conversation

Tools + Practices. Conversations with Alex  Leray, Andreas Vox, Asheesh Laroia, Carla Bosermans, Chris Lilley,   Christoph Haag, Claire Williams, Claudia Krummenacher, Denis Jacquery,   Eleanor Greenhalgh, Eric Schrijver, Evan Roth, Femke Snelting, George   Williams, Gijs de Heij, Harrisson, John Haltiwanger, Juliane De   Moerlooze, Julien Deswaef, Ludivine Loiseau, Matthew Fuller, Michael   Murtaugh, Michael Terry, Miguel xxxxx, Pedro Amado, Pierre Huyghebaert,   Pierre Marchand, Ricardo Lafuente, Stephanie Vilayphiou, Tom Lechner,   Xavier Klein

tools+practices.conversation.rlafuente
tools+practices.conversation.egreenhalgh
tools+practices.conversation.eschrijver+pmarchand+lloiseau

hmm finding that title a bit dry ... academic sounding
like to have a bit more 'direction' like with tool for a read-write world or tools shape ...


Tools for a read-write world. Conversations with ...

tool/shapes/practice. conversations with ...


tool/shapes/matter
(i like the ambiguity of matter)
(and shapes ;-))

hmm. too undirectional, as in: tools are subject matter, whether they shape or matter. (aaargh!)
so that's why the circular is needed or the R-W world (both not very elegant, I know)

ok, other direction:
    
"I think that conversations are the best, biggest thing that free software has to offer its users"
With:  Alexandre Leray, Andreas Vox, Asheesh Laroia, Carla Bosermans, Cornelia  Sollfrank, Chris Lilley, Christoph Haag, Claire Williams, Claudia  Krummenacher, Denis Jacquery,  Eleanor Greenhalgh, Eric Schrijver, Evan  Roth, Femke Snelting, George Williams, Gijs de Heij, Harrisson, John  Haltiwanger, Juliane De Moerlooze, Julien Deswaef, Ludivine Loiseau,  Matthew Fuller, Michael Murtaugh, Michael Terry, Miguel xxxxx, Pedro  Amado, Pierre Huyghebaert, Pierre Marchand, Ricardo Lafuente, Stephanie  Vilayphiou, Tom Lechner, Xavier Klein

conversations.rlafuente
conversations.egreenhalgh
conversations.eschrijver+pmarchand+lloiseau

"I think that conversations are the best, biggest thing that F/LOSS has to offer its users"
"I think that conversations are the best, biggest thing that F/LOS software has to offer its users"
"I think that conversations are the best, biggest thing that Free Software has to offer its users"
"I think that conversations are the best, biggest thing that free software has to offer its users"
"I think that conversations are the best, biggest thing that Free, Libre and Open Source software has to offer its users"
"I think that conversations are the best, biggest thing that Free and Open Source software has to offer its users"

I think 'free software' is less bad than 'FLOSS'. Somebody, please, shoot this pitiful acronym through the head and put it out of our misery.
haha
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_terms_for_free_software
that's eric raymond
ah, interesting. ok, we can use all that for the intro, right?
so we use conversations as the pragmatic term and figure out the exact title and can relate to it in the introduction
ok. for now:
"I think that conversations are the best, biggest thing that free software has to offer its users"

------------------