Showcase to celebrate ‘Art in the Open’ bringing contributors’ work to millions

Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase calls all artists to contribute to next version of Ubuntu

Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu project, today announced its support for the Ubuntu Free Culture showcase. The showcase will offer artists, photographers, and musicians of every background the opportunity to have their work ship with Ubuntu 10.10, the popular Linux-based operating system available in October 2010.

'Art in the Open' will expose winning contributors' work to millions of users worldwide and is a demonstration of the energy, quality and power of the open culture.

“We are committed to the idea of 'Art in the Open' at Ubuntu,” said Ivanka Majic, head of design at Canonical. “The work we do in an open environment delivers the same quality as closed ones and we believe will be even more successful through tapping into this wide world of volunteer contribution.”

The Free Culture Showcase looks to reach beyond what is commonly perceived as the Open Source community. Artists and creatives who may never have been part of an open project before are encouraged to contribute. Winning work will be featured with the contributors' name and all work contributed will be covered by a Creative Commons license.

“We want graphic designers, musicians, photographers and creatives of every stripe to feel they have a place in the Ubuntu project,” continued Majic. “Very often without being employed by a vendor, they cannot meaningfully contribute to the tools they use or the OS they consume. With Ubuntu and Open source, we hope they realise that it is different and that that difference is important.”

Details

• Contributors are encouraged to use Open Source creative software for their contributions, although it is not a requirement.
• Entries will be accepted until the end of August 2010. Final dates will be published on the wiki.
• The Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase wiki
• The Ubuntu Artwork Pool on Flickr
• Video contribution will be on Vimeo
• Audio contribution will be on Soundcloud
• The Creative Commons License

About Canonical

Canonical provides engineering, online and professional services to Ubuntu partners and customers worldwide. As the company behind the Ubuntu project, Canonical is committed to the production and support of Ubuntu – an ever-popular and fast-growing open-source operating system. It aims to ensure that Ubuntu is available to every organisation and individual on servers, desktops, laptops and netbooks.

Canonical partners with computer hardware manufacturers to certify Ubuntu, provides migration, deployment, support and training services to businesses, and offers online services direct to end users. Canonical also builds and maintains collaborative, open-source development tools to ensure that organisations and individuals can participate fully in innovations within the open-source community. For more information, please visit www.canonical.com.