Subject: AW: Press Release from Ars E. Jury
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1999 12:56:55 +0100
From: kultur.ooe@orf.at
To: elena@etxtreme.ru
 

Dear Elena,
referring to your mail to Christine Schöpf I am very sorry that your e-mail
address was used in connection with Prix Ars Electronica.
I can assure that the whole story is a Fake. Unfortunately, this is the
freedom on the internet - untrue stories are launched without having any
possibilities to know who are the distributors.
Talking to Joichi Ito, Lisa Goldman and Marleen Stikker they never sent this
press release to anybody. Marleen is also very confused that her address was
used on this release.

Once again I have to apology
Sincerely,
Gabriele Strutzenberger
 

> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von:  elena.email [SMTP:elena@etxtreme.ru]
> Gesendet am:  Donnerstag, 09. September 1999 02:46
> An:   christine.schoepf@orf.at
> Cc:   marleen@dds.nl; gabriele@aec.at; info@prixars.orf.at; ursula@aec.at;
> info@aec.at
> Betreff:      Press Release from Ars E. Jury
>
> Dear Mrs. Schoepf or to whom it may concern,
>
> From various sources we have learned that there is an e-mail by Ars
> Electronica in circulation which also talks about our company,
> etxtreme.ru (please find the mentioned email attached below).
>
> We have no idea whatsoever why etxtreme.ru is being put into context
> with Ars Electronica in this concern. We respect Ars Electronica and its
> work. Nevertheless, we as a company, are not very happy with being used
> as some sort of decoy by your festival´s jury.
>
> We are now encountering requests by journalists and media, and we are
> waiting for information on your side in order to properly respond to the
> media´s questions.
>
> In case of all this being a mistake or misunderstanding, or if this
> email is not originating from Ars Electronica, we still ask you to
> explain this incident.
>
> Sincerely,
>
>
> Elena
> _______________________________________________________
> Public Relations Department           elena@etxtreme.ru
>
>
>
>
>
> > Greetings,
> >
> > Below you will find a press statement from members of the
> > .net jury of this years Prix Ars Electronica. You will read
> > about the real paths that lead us, the jury, to award this
> > years golden nica to the operating system linux.
> >
> > Best,
> >
> > Marleen Stikker
> >
> > ______________________________________
> >
> >
> >        FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
> >        Linz, Sep 6, 1999
> >
> >
> > Media Contacts:
> > Marleen Stikker
> > Centrum de Waag
> > Amsterdam/ The Netherlands
> > Tel: (+31)20-5579898
> > Fax: (+31)20-5579880
> > Email: marleen@dds.nl
> > Website: http://www.waag.org
> >
> > Dr. Christine Schoepf
> > ORF Prix Ars Electronica 99
> > Linz/ Austria
> > Tel. (+43)732-6900-24218
> > Tel. (+43)732-6900-24270
> > Email: christine.schoepf@orf.at
> > Website: http://prixars.orf.at
> >
> >
> >
> > ARS ELECTRONICA PLAYGROUND FOR CORPORATE STRATEGIES
> >
> > We, the "net." jury, have just learned that next years
> > ars electronica festival will be titled "OPEN SOURCE".
> > This has been inofficially agreed on by the direction of
> > the ARS ELECTRONICA and the sponsors Siemens, Microsoft,
> > Oracle and HP, e.a. From reliable sources we also learned
> > that the decision was made weeks before the ".net"-jury
> > decision on "linux".
> >
> >
> > WHY WE ARE GOING PUBLIC
> >
> > Because we have also just learned that the above-mentioned
> > IT-companies are involved in a linux distribution joint
> > venture and a strategic alliance. Their joint venture startup
> > will most probably become one of the leading linux
> > distributors, directly attacking Red Hat and SUSE.
> >
> > This is the classic oligopolistic strategy.
> > They cannot buy linux, nevertheless, they will take control
> > over the distibution of the competitor.
> >
> > We were suspicious before, but now we are strongly convinced
> > that there was indirect but heavy influence by corporate and
> > ars electronica executives to reach the "linux" decision...
> >
> >
> > THE JURY WEEK-END
> >
> > For the jury welcome dinner, a few corporate people had been
> > invited, too. Everybody was discussing about where Ars
> > Electronica could or should be going. For the corporate people
> > the main hype was of course the .net category, e-commerce and
> > the commercial impact of the "mass communications" medium
> > internet... and they were all constantly talking about the
> > creative potential of linux and its open source strategy.
> >
> > Then, at the actual jury meeting, deciding on a winner appeared
> > to be quite a hard decision (not to say compromise). Whilst the
> > majority of the jury had a clear favourite in the russian info-
> > intelligence startup "etxtreme.ru", another juror started
> > talking about "that we need to decide on something that is really
> > taking two steps ahead, not some arty-farty stuff". So "linux" just
> > came up as a smart solution. we took this path, we formulated our
> > statement and came up with the source code as art work, with our
> > position against "beautiful" web-sites. it was a strong moment.
> > And we saw linux as the perfect continuum to the corporate artwork
> > of etoy.com, the Ars Electronica winners of 1996.
> >
> >
> > TERRORVISION AND THE LOGICAL CONCLUSION
> >
> > But the information about the secret linux distribution joint
> > venture between Microsoft and Siemens in combination with next
> > years topic made us alert.
> >
> > Our conclusion: the industry has strongly lobbied and put
> > pressure on at least one jury member to award "linux". We now
> > have to interpret this in persepective of next years ars topic.
> > They pushed the topic. The idea is to use the art and science
> > community to soft launch their linux activities and control
> > open source strategies. They do understand that open source
> > has evolved into a stronger development strategy and they have
> > to jump that train early enough, in order to avoid another
> > "internet" desaster.
> >
> > So as artists writers and scientists we are used as lab-rats
> > and cheap alternative researchers. This is NOT what artists
> > need and it is certainly not what Ars Electronica should be
> > aiming at.
> >
> >
> > NEXT STEPS
> >
> > We believe that investigative journalism is needed to further
> > describe and interpret this incident..
> > We definitely want to engage in bringing transparency into the
> > "who`s, when`s, where`s, and for how much money" of this years
> > decision making process of Prix Ars Electronica.
> >
> > For the press, we are available for background information and
> > extended infos on the topic via email or at our on-the-fly press
> > conference:
> >
> >      sept 8, 1999, 1630h
> >      brucknerhaus in linz
> >
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> >      Derrick de Kerckhove
> >      Lisa Goldman
> >      Joichi Ito
> >      Marleen Stikker
> >
> >
> > Contact:
> > Marleen Stikker
> > Centrum de Waag
> > Amsterdam/ The Netherlands
> > Tel: (+31)20-5579898
> > Fax: (+31)20-5579880
> > Email: marleen@dds.nl
> > Website: http://www.waag.org
> >