Hi Rhizomers:

I am hoping to start a discussion here on Raw about Rhizome's financial
situation and a possible solution. This email is rather long, but I'd
appreciate it if you'd take the time to read it through, give it some
thought, and let me know what you think.

First, some background information. It will cost about $400,000 to operate
Rhizome.org this year. Here's how we spend it: $6,000 on administrative
fees (mostly processing credit card gifts); $122,000 on operating expenses
(phone, rent, web hosting, office supplies, etc.); $177,000 on payroll
costs (salaries, health insurance, payroll taxes, etc.); $93,000 on
professional fees (writers, commissions, consultants, etc.). These numbers
may seem high to some of you, but we actually run a very lean, efficient
operation. It simply costs a lot of money to run a nonprofit organization
that offers as many programs to as many people as we do.

In the past, most of our revenue has come from foundations, but foundation
support is shrinking. We had hoped to make up the difference through earned
income from web hosting and online education, but those services are
getting off to a slow start. We have also, as you surely know, tried asking
for voluntary contributions. But so far this year only about 1% of our
19,000 members have made gifts.

The Rhizome Board of Directors met for its quarterly meeting last Friday.
The main topic was how to solve our financial problems. I proposed putting
the organization into hibernation mode. This would entail shutting down the
office, laying off the staff and discontinuing most of our programs. We
would keep the web site up, ask the SuperUsers to continue to publish
texts, and keep Raw online. But everything else would stop: no more Digest
or Net Art News, no more commissions, no more events. We'd stop adding new
projects to the ArtBase, stop improving the web site (we have a long list
of bugs to fix and features to add) and stop planning new programs.

The Board felt that hibernation would be a big mistake. Once we went into
hibernation, they argued, it would be very hard to re-emerge and rebuild
momentum. Foundations would lose confidence in us (not to mention the fact
that we wouldn't have anyone to write the grants). Most important, our
ability to fulfill our mission would be compromised.

Then someone suggested charging a membership fee. This idea has been
proposed before, and I have always opposed it. Rhizome is for everyone, I
argued, not just for those who can afford it. I argued that we'd lose
thousands of members and that our community would become less diverse.

Then we looked at the numbers. The gap between our expenses and what we can
raise from foundations, the government, earned income and other sources is
about $100,000. That's about $5 per member. If every member gave $5,
Rhizome would be financially stable. We could continue to grow and serve
the community.

The board argued that we pay to subscribe to magazines, to enter museums
and to see performances. We pay to attend festivals and conferences. Why
shouldn't we pay for Rhizome? Because it's online?

Consider this hypothetical scenario. Let's say we introduced a
sliding-scale membership fee starting at $11 per year with "thank you
gifts" (T-shirts, etc.) at higher levels. By paying $11 a year (or more if
you could afford it), you get access to everything: Raw, Rare, Digest, Net
Art News, the Calendar, Opportunity Listings, ArtBase, Commissions, etc.
Maybe we'd keep Raw free. Maybe we'd give new memebers a free trial period
so they could check out the goods before they have to pay.

Would you pay the fee?

What do you think about the idea of a sliding-scale membership fee for
Rhizome.org? Good idea? Bad idea?

Do you think it would be better to go into hibernation?

I am eagerly awaiting your responses.

Sincerely,

Mark

Greetings Rhizomers:

I'm going to ISEA in Nagoya, Japan. I'll be there October 28-31. Then I'll
be in Tokyo November 1-3. I'd like to meet up with any Rhizomers who are
also going to be there.

I've unsubscribed from Raw, so if you're going to be there and would like
to get together, please email me directly.

Best,

Mark

look, rhizome raw is an unfiltered, unmoderated list and we are committed
to keeping it that way.

we are re-launching rare next week as a moderated version of raw (moderated
by the superusers)

At 05:43 PM 10/9/2002 +0100, furtherfield wrote:
>WELCOME TO THE 'OLD BOYS CLUB 'OF RHIZOME
>WHERE IF YOU WANT TO DISCUSS A SUBJECT -
>YOU ARE PERSONALLY ABUSED AND TREATED
>BADLY BY THOSE WHO NOT CREATE THEIR
>WORK. A Big THANX TO THE RHIZOME TEAM
>FOR STANDING UP FOR ONE WANKER, SO THE
>MANY HAVE TO SUFFER....THINGS NEED TO
>CHANGE - NOW!
>
>MARC GARRETT - FEDUP WITH RHIZOME'S
>BLOKE GAMES...
>
> > On Tue, 8 Oct 2002 dgoldsch@tampabay.rr.com wrote:
> >
> > > ivan, that was hillllarious. i loved the tone of your reply ...
>although i am
> > > sure he didn't get it.
> >
> > Oh right. Because I don't play along with his imbecility, 'I don't get
> > it'. The new common sense-elitism.
> >
> > > in my opinion,
> >
> > Which is worth zero.
> >
> > > he can only see words and simple sentences
> >
> > Wishful derogatory projection + absolutely false.
> >
> > > (i don't think
> > > english is not his primary language) ... which would also explain why he
> > > misinterprets so much.
> >
> > I don't misinterpret anything luv. None of you have anactual
> > understanding of what you are DOING when you are LANGUAGING.
> > Besides the drivel programmed in your brains, that is.
> >
> > > he thinks he can destroy an idea by de-constructing individual words
> >
> > I think nothing of the sort. In fact, I don't think.
> > Your myopic misinterpretations of what Ido are drivel.
> > And your 'ideas' are little but brain-born chimeras.
> >
> > > its a very immature form of literary critique.
> >
> > Wishful derogatory projection.
> > It's neither critique, nor literary, nor even anywhere within the area.
> > You've gota LONG way to go before you can hear what I'm doing, luv.
> >
> > > his
> > > reading comprehension skills are at a highschool level.
> >
> > Dearest--you're talking about yourself.
> > 'reading comprehension'--that term only has meaning to someone whose
> > head has been fucked over by a destructive educational system.
> > Looks like in your particular case they run over your head
> > multile times.
> >
> > + the Patty Winters show this morning was about Real-Life Rambos.
> > -> post: list@rhizome.org
> > -> questions: info@rhizome.org
> > -> subscribe/unsubscribe: http://rhizome.org/preferences/subscribe.rhiz
> > -> give: http://rhizome.org/support
> > +
> > Subscribers to Rhizome are subject to the terms set out in the
> > Membership Agreement available online at http://rhizome.org/info/29.php
> >
> >
>
>
>+ the Patty Winters show this morning was about Real-Life Rambos.
>-> post: list@rhizome.org
>-> questions: info@rhizome.org
>-> subscribe/unsubscribe: http://rhizome.org/preferences/subscribe.rhiz
>-> give: http://rhizome.org/support
>+
>Subscribers to Rhizome are subject to the terms set out in the
>Membership Agreement available online at http://rhizome.org/info/29.php

There was a big surge in Rhizome membership and web site traffic in
September. Here are the numbers:

+ Membership increased 18% in Sept. to 17,001
+ Total web hits increased 40% to 10,226,441
+ Vists to the web site increased 14% to 115,608

Wow!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

RHIZOME.ORG LAUNCHES 2002 NET ART COMMISSIONS

NEW YORK, NY, September 30, 2002 Rhizome.org, an online community
focused on new media art, today launched its 2002 Net Art Commissions at
http://rhizome.org/commissions.

The Rhizome.org 2002 Net Art Commissions will also be exhibited at the
New Museum of Contemporary Art's Zenith Media Lounge from October 1,
2002, through November 3, 2002.

+ About the Rhizome.org Commissioning Program +

The Rhizome Commissioning Program makes financial support available to
artists for the creation of innovative new media art work via
panel-awarded commissions. For the 2002 cycle, artists were invited to
submit proposals in one of two tracks: alt.interface or Tactical
Response. The alt.interface track asked artists to propose "alternative"
user interfaces to access Rhizome.org's online archives of text and art.
The Tactical Response track called for net art projects that address the
present political situation around the globe, particularly events
relating to the attacks of September 11.

A panel of five jurors Steve Dietz of The Walker Art Center, Alex
Galloway of Rhizome.org, Ken Goldberg of U.C. Berkeley, Christiane Paul
of The Whitney Museum of American Art, and Mark Tribe of Rhizome.org
selected five winners from a pool of 135 proposals submitted by members
of the Rhizome.org community.

Christopher Fahey, the Institute for Applied Autonomy and John Klima
received awards of $5,000 each. Commissions of $2,500 were awarded to
Nungu and Lisa Jevbratt. Ten proposals received Honorable Mention.

The Rhizome Commissioning Program is made possible with funding by the
Jerome Foundation, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
Cultural Challenge Program, and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the
Visual Arts. Additional support was provided by the Rockefeller
Foundation and by members of the Rhizome community.

+ About the Commissioned Projects +

ada1852 by Christopher Fahey

ada1852 is a virtual/artificial personality that uses artificial
intelligence technology to provide a chat-based gateway to the Rhizome
ArtBase, Rhizome's online database of art. Ada1852 is named after Ada
Byron, the Countess of Lovelace and the daughter of the poet Lord Byron.
Lady Lovelace was one of the first to theorize about machine
intelligence, authoring the "Lovelace Objection", which states that
machines are not capable of generating ideas for which they were not
specifically designed. Christopher Fahey has been making computer games
and graphics since childhood. He is the creative force behind the art
and design laboratories graphpaper.com and askrom.com.

iSee by Institute for Applied Autonomy (IAA)

iSee is an "inverse surveillance" application for wireless devices and
web-browsers that enables users to monitor and avoid CCTV surveillance
cameras in public space. Users click on an interactive map to specify a
point of origin and destination, and iSee employs artificial
intelligence algorithms to determine a "path of least surveillance"
between the two points. IAA was founded in 1998 as a technological
research and development organization concerned with individual and
collective self-determination. Their mission is to study the forces and
structures which effect self-determination, to create cultural artifacts
which address these forces and to develop technologies which serve
social and human needs.

Context Breeder by John Klima

Context Breeder is a 3D interface to the Rhizome ArtBase. It uses a
genetic algorithm to combine, or breed, sets of art works that users
create. Klima's goal is to leverage the collective insights of the
community to create a "collection of works that relate to each other and
somehow represent examples of key concepts in net art without the
assemblage being the dogmatic choice of a single individual or the
'oppression of public opinion' in a vote system." Circa 1978, John Klima
attempted to code a 3D maze on a TRS-80 with 4k RAM and failed
miserably. He has been obsessed with 3D ever since. Fascinated by the
first primitive flight simulators and CAD programs, he began to build 3D
graphics environments, and to write source code. Since 1998, he has
consistently exhibited in major institutions both nationally and
internationally.

Telematic Surveillance by Nungu

Telematic Surveillance explores forms of 'hypercontrol' present in
societies infused with communication and information technology
networks. This project takes the form of GaiSecurity.com, the web site
of a fictional intelligent surveillance solutions provider based in
Bombay, India. By offering surveillance as a commodity, Gai attempts to
satirize the popularization of global surveillance. Based in Bombay and
London, Nungu is a fluid collective of media artists working together
towards the creation of networked art.

Troika by Lisa Jevbratt

Troika is a set of interfaces to the Rhizome.org's archives of text and
art. The Troika interfaces display each object in the Rhizome database
as one pixel whose color represents the keywords that are associated
with the object and the people that have requested it in relation to a
conceptual triad such as "body, mind, spirit". The Troika interfaces
convey the belief that we as humans are excellent in making selections
in huge sets of data if the data is presented to us in a way in which we
have an overview. Lisa Jevbratt is a systems/network artist working
primarily with the Internet. Her work has been exhibited and presented
in venues such as The New Museum, SFMOMA, The Walker Art Center, Ars
Electronica, Transmediale and the 2002 Whitney Biennial.

+ About Rhizome.org +

Rhizome.org is a nonprofit organization that provides an online platform
for the global new media art community. Founded in 1996, Rhizome.org
serves as a grass-roots community center for new media artists,
curators, students, educators, writers and enthusiasts. Rhizome.org's
programs support the creation, presentation, discussion and preservation
of contemporary art that uses new technologies in significant ways.

Rhizome.org takes its name from the botanical term for an underground
stem that connects plants into living networks, a metaphor for the
organization's non-hierarchical structure. Widely considered to be the
world's leading online resource for and about new media artists and
their work, Rhizome.org connects, supports, and educates the new media
art community and the public through cost-free programs including
email-based discussion groups and publications, online archives for new
media art works and writings, a new media calendar and opportunity
listings, a new media art commissioning program, outreach events, and an
international internship program.

Rhizome.org is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Contributions are
accepted online at http://rhizome.org/support. Checks and money orders
may made payable to Rhizome.org and send to the address below.

CONTACT: Mark Tribe, Executive Director
115 Mercer Street, New York, NY 10012
Email: mt@rhizome.org
Tel: 212.625.3191
Fax: 212-625.9508

URL: http://rhizome.org/commissions

# # #