REBOOT FM

[elektro80]

Thursday, November 20, 2003, 20:00, Bootlab, Ziegelstr. 20, Berlin

Bootlab kindly invites you to the launch of the reboot.fm project:
a full 100 days of FM radio in Berlin, beginning in February 2004.

A series of short introductions to reboot.fm will be given by
several people involved in the organizazion of the project: Pit
Schultz (Klubradio) will present the radio model we are developing
for reboot.fm, Sacha Benedetti (TwenFM) will give an overview
about current Berlin media politics between pirate and format
radio, Diana McCarty (bootlab) will focus on how reboot.fm is
going to collaborate with both local and international contibutors,
and Sebastian Luetgert (Partner gegen Berlin) will try to explain
what the current copyright frenzy means for running a radio.

A general overview is already available on our website: just go to
http://reboot.fm/index.cgi/about/project/index.about

What we're most interested in is of course your input -- so on
Thursday, we will not only try to answer your questions, but also
consider any suggestions you may have. In the end, reboot.fm will
hopefully be as much your project as it is "ours".

For the rest of the evening, we will have a bar and several DJs
Alice & Bob (micromusic.net) DJ Anna (AmSTARt),
so if you're more interested in the party side of reboot.fm,
you're very welcome as well.

See you,
the reboot.fm crew

http://reboot.fm


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

reboot.fm [German version above]

reboot - to restart a system that is not working anymore

100 days of radio - Berlin 2004

Reboot.fm(1) is an independent radio station that is going to broadcast on
104.1 FM in Berlin, February through April 2004, 24 hours a day. The radio
is being organized by several initiatives and individuals at and around
Bootlab(2), and it will be produced by a variety of local and international
contributors. If you like, you are welcome to join.

Not even a year after Juniradio(3), reboot.fm is the second phase of a=
larger
project: to establish the radio station that Berlin is so obviously missing=
--
the one that doesn't suck. The aim is to do just about everything that=
format
radio does not allow: to feature issues that matter more than just for 30
seconds, to give room to voices that have more to tell than just the latest
traffic jams, and to play music that is actually happening, not just=
jukeboxes
filled with the greatest hits of past decades.

Wireless peer-to-peer local area radio

Reboot.fm believes in the history of radio, and is certain that it has more
potential than just to broadcast junk. Radio was the Internet of the
Twenties(4), the Napster of the Eighties(5), and even today it is still the
medium of choice for any local scene that has different news to tell and
different music to play.

Reboot.fm is based on a decade of Internet knowlegde, and thus literally
connected to the net. This means more than just the obligatory live stream:=
it
means using the net as a tool for decentralized, collaborative production=
and
exchange. Reboot.fm relies on existing local nodes, in Berlin and elsewhere,
that are already producing potential radio shows in abundance, and provides
both an infrastucture to make them audible and a context to give them the
resonance they deserve.

Free Software for Open Radios

Reboot.fm is also a software development project(6), and as such, it is to
commercial radio software what Control-Alt-Delete is to the average Windows
computer: a reboot from scratch. Every product is determined by the
technologies that are used to create it, and thus we believe that talking
about Free Radio is impossible without talking about Open Source.

We think of Free Software as more than just a more transparent, more=
inclusive,
more secure and cheaper alternative to closed, commercial code. Beyond these
obvious advantages, Free Software takes into account that all software is
social software: the structures it creates shape the working environment of
its users. So, rather than to reproduce the technological restrictions that
reduce the job of most radio editors to the administration of an auto-pilot,
the aim is to make available a system that allows both individual and
collective decisions at any stage of the process. Yes, it going to be free.
Yes, you can mess
around with it. And yes, it will just work.

Listening to the radio is stealing music

Reboot.fm is, last but not least, part of the struggle for the free exchange=
of
cultural data and against restrictive copyright models. We are convinced=
that
neither radio producers nor radio listeners need Rights Management Systems
imposed on them that decide what they are allowed to copy, download, play or
listen to -- they are perfectly capable of managing all that on their own.

For reboot.fm, we are developing a licensing model(7) that will keep=
commercial
stations from making money from your unpaid work, but will allow the
distribution of programs among independent radios all over the world. We are
planning to set up a syndication network that will allow radio editors to
browse, preview, download and rebroadcast any radio program whose original
creator has agreed to make it distributable. In the end, radios do not only
produce live broadcasts, but also great archives -- and we don't see how=
these
can be legally bound to just gather dust.

Free as in free market, open as in open beer

Reboot.fm is aware of the contradictions that surround it: How can you keep=
a
radio free without relying on endless hours of unpaid work? How can you keep=
a
radio open without just broadcasting any random piece of nonsense? And how=
can
you deny the professionalism of commercial radio without sounding=
amateurish?

When it comes down to these questions, we know that we are working on=
problems,
not on solutions. The best result that we can imagine is a radio that makes
audible the very conditions under which it is produced. The selection of=
news
and music will differ from other stations, they will not be separated from=
each
other according to a strict set of rules, but mixed just as people think it=
is
appropriate. Some moderators will talk to fast, some records will have
scratches, and a lot of things will happen that normally never happen on the
radio. As a whole, Reboot.fm will be a radio that has edges, and that's not
really something we intend to fix.

(1) http://reboot.fm
(2) http://bootlab.org
(3) http://juniradio.net
(4) Brecht, Radio Theory
(5) Lovink, Listen or Die
(6) http://reboot.fm/software
(7) http://reboot.fm/license



Reboot.fm - a project at Bootlab, funded by Kulturstiftung des Bundes