<nettime> TAZ THING

[Wolfgang Staehle <wolfgangsta@thing.net>]

There has been a report in the press (taz) about the current state of 
THE THING (NYC) that could be misconstrued.  While it is true that we 
are in a process of restructuring, I have to dissappoint some of you 
that an imminent demise is not in the cards.  And while it is also true 
that this is a "make it or break it" time, the report overly dramatizes
this one aspect with apocalyptic undertones.  

What's going on?

For the last years the commercial isp thing.net was the sole
financial sponsor of THE THING.  Everybody knows by now that this can 
not go on.  THE THING needs to become an independent media project 
with sufficient funding coming from various sources.  That was 
the reason we applied for non profit status in the first place.
Several indviduals have been quietly working behind the scenes in 
a serious effort to achieve this goal.  Since THE THING has a 
broad alliance of supporters I am confident that, with some time 
and effort, we can achieve this goal.

Why are we doing all this?

There is a statement in the current Mute Magazine - which recently
went through a similar restructuring and rethinking process - that 
could just as well serve as our credo:  "Objective...  
Oh my God, why am I here?
To contribute to the strength of independent media projects
- enabling them to compete with institutional, governmental
and corporate driven ones, and to create information spaces
where high quality tools, content and research are produced
by individuals and small organizations who are compensated
for their work."

End of story.


THE THING http://bbs.thing.net
TAZ http://www.taz.de/pt/2001/05/31/a0182.nf/textdruck

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