Cc: The Open Source Group <tosg@planning.gov.lc>

Re: Now this Open Source business begins to make sense

In whatever language beer makes sense :-) and Open Source makes even
more sense :-) :-)

>--- Gregor Williams <gregorwilliams@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> 'Free' Danish beer makes a splash
> By Clark Boyd Technology correspondent
>
> BBC NEWS Last Updated: Thursday, 28 July 2005, 08:38
> GMT 09:38 UK
>
>The Danes love their beer, but increasingly they are looking beyond
>the old Danish standby, Carlsberg, to quench their thirst. The beer
>draws its inspiration from the open source movement Students from
>the Information Technology University in Copenhagen are trying to
>help by releasing what they are calling the world's first open
>source beer recipe.
> It is called Vores Oel, or Our Beer, and the recipe is proving to
> be a worldwide hit. The idea behind the beer comes from open source
> software. This is software whose code is made publicly available
> for anyone to change and improve, provided that those changes and
> improvements are then shared in turn. Perhaps the most well-known
> example of open source software is the Linux operating system.
> Microsoft, on the other hand, creates proprietary software, meaning
> the company does not tend to let others see how its software works.
> The Danish brewer Carlsberg takes a similar approach to beer.
> Rasmus Nielsen, who runs a Copenhagen-based artist collective
> called Superflex, wanted to challenge the idea of "proprietary" beer.
>
>Software and alcohol
>He was teaching a workshop on intellectual property and copyright at
>the Information Technology University in Copenhagen. It's the kind
>of beer that you feel afterwards that you've eaten a steak or
>something Rasmus Nielsen, artist Mr Nielsen asked his students to
>think about applying open source ideas to the non-digital world.
>"Why not take those ideas back to the old world, and try to apply
>them to other things as well?" asks Nielsen. Why beer? As the Vores
>Oel website says, why not? "It's a universal commodity that we like
>to think of as free, but unfortunately it isn't," says Mr Nielsen.
>"So, I thought it was an appropriate medium to confront these
>issues." A group of about 15 students at the university agreed.
>"Beer is an amusing subject in a university environment," says
>Thorarinn Stefansson, one of the students who signed up for the open
>source beer project. "It's something more stimulating than perhaps
>making something non-edible or non-drinkable."
>Heavy brew To get started, the students met with the author of a
>Danish book on home-brewing. Then, they came to an agreement on what
>kind of beer they wanted.
>They bought the ingredients, and brewed up 100 litres of it in the
>university cafeteria. Mr Stefansson says he and the other students
>decided to call it Our Beer, version 1.0. Denmark is better known
>for its Carlsberg beer "Like in the software industry, the first
>version is named version 1.0. It leaves room for improvement." Our
>Beer turned out to be a darker, heavier brew than your typical
>Danish lager. "It's the kind of beer that you feel afterwards that
>you've eaten a steak or something. I mean, it's not the kind of beer
>you'd want to be drinking for a bachelor party or something," says
>Mr Nielsen. The students did supply an extra kick to their beer.
>They added guarana, a South American berry that packs a caffeine-like punch.
>The students also created a label for the beer, and a website that
>comes complete with catchy, open source music and sound effects.
>Global interest Most important, the students released the recipe
>under what is called a Creative Commons licence. "You're free to
>change it," says Mr Nielsen. "But if you use our recipe as the basis
>for your beer, you have to be open with your recipe as well. That's
>the legal framework that follows the beer." You can even sell your
>own version, as long as you credit Our Beer for the recipe. The
>tipple has proved a hit. The Our Beer website has been a busy place,
>says Mr Nielsen. "We got loads of questions from small beer brewers
>in Mexico, Brazil, and even Afghanistan," he says. "Afghanistan,
>that was weird." One smaller Danish brewer is even planning on
>brewing up some of Our Beer to sell in the autumn. Both Mr Nielsen
>and his students hope that what people take away from the Our Beer
>project is that open source is not just for the digital world. Mr
>Nielsen says there is no reason that developing countries could not
>use the idea to manufacture, for example, their own HIV/AIDS drugs.
>
>Clark Boyd is technology correspondent for The World, a BBC World
>Service and WGBH-Boston co-production.
Nearby Thu Jul 28 16:32:54 2005