The Eyebeam OpenLab:
R&D for the Public Domain
Overview
The Eyebeam OpenLab is a home for artists, engineers and hackers pioneering open source creativity. The first initiative of its kind, the lab is focused entirely on incubating experimental technologies and media that directly enrich the public domain. With funding from the MacArthur Foundation and others, Eyebeam has awarded fellowships to a talented, interdisciplinary group of OpenLab fellows who work in a new facility equipped with a laser cutter, 3D printer, workstations, web servers, and electronics workbenches. These fellows are already generating ideas and building new projects, extending the innovative work of Eyebeam R&D.
Areas of Research
The Eyebeam OpenLab is dedicated to public domain R&D. All our work is distributed under open licenses that allow other artists, hackers, and engineers to remix our work, contribute to our projects, and build on top of our efforts. Specifically, our code is released under GPL, our content is distributed under Creative Commons, and our hardware is released with DIY instructions.
Our work is focused in the following areas:
1. Open Networks
2. Open Information
3. Open Content
4. Open Source
5. Open Fabrication
Previous projects include FundRace.org, a popular website that promotes transparency by allowing anyone to see the political contributions of their neighbors, friends and coworkers; ForwardTrack, an innovative social network platform that tracks and maps the diffusion of email forwards, political calls-to-action, and online petitions; reBlog, open source blogging software for people who prefer curating content to writing original posts; and the Contagious Media Showdown, an open competition with real prizes to see who can make the most popular website distributed entirely through word-of-mouth. Projects supported by Eyebeam R&D have been acknowledged with two Golden Nica awards from Ars Electronica, a Webby Award for Net Art, and coverage in the Time, Newsweek, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Economist, the CBS Evening News, the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and the Paula Zahn Show.
(Read the whole OpenLab Launch Series)