Website auctioned on the Internet

"I will not run this server for eternity"

Interview with artist Wolfgang Staehle on the proposed sale of the Website of The Thing

The antique version of the Web-Site The Thing is for sale on the Internet via ebay. Founder and chief manager of operations Wolfgang Staehle tells about his motivations why to sell at all and why doing it on the Internet.

Why did you sell the "old thing site"? And why did you decide to auction it rather then selling it for a fixed price?

Wolfgang Staehle: It hasn't sold yet. If you look carefully at the eBay site it will tell you that the reserve has not been met.

I wanted to know if the art world was ready for etrade, after all, shouldn't we try out new transaction modi since we supposedly live in a post-industrial time now? But of course, the art world still prefers to do business the tradional way. So now we are talking over dinner and drinks.

What exactly did you sell? Are the art projects included? Did you get in touch with the artists before you sold the site?

Wolfgang Staehle: The buyer aquires the old Thing interface and domain exclusively. The art projects are non-exclusive. I feel it is important that the whole project will be preserved in its original context and accessible to future scholars, historians etc. What you buy is - in a sense - a bit of history.

Since the art works can be reproduced ad infinitum, it's difficult to put a price tag on them. So there is some insecurity and this insecurity cuts both ways, because we also need to make sure the art work stays on our server. We had cases in which we helped to develop projects and spent many hours only to see the same project featured on a competing server.

I figured that 50% of the money the sale would generate would go to the artists, editors and writers in the form of new commissions and fees paid. So far none of the artists objected. The alternative would quite simply be obsolescence, since I will not run and maintain the server for eternity.

On Mailing lists there is the concept that you "own you own words". What gives you the right to sell the Postings from the discussion lists and The Thing reviews?

Wolfgang Staehle: Correction, check the rhizome subscriber agreement for example. Or what about the nettime READ ME book? Did you get a compensation for being included? Do you mind? I mean, we are not Bertelsmann or TimeWarner. The fact is that nobody at The Thing ever saw any money for their work and that has to change or the project is no longer feasible. So of course we are always looking for cash, whether grants or private donations, anything. To be more effective in this respect we have recently incorporated a non-profit company, THE THING Inc., whose purpose is to run and develop The Thing and associated projects.

About the price: is it appropiate? How do you determin the "value"of a homepage like this?

Wolfgang Staehle: There are no precedents so it is a bit difficult to determine value. Now, I am mostly interested in placing it in "good hands." And if a sale turns out to be legally iffy, then I am prepared to accept a donation or grant or whatever you want to call it.

Would you have actually sold it, if the highest bid at eBay would have been 100 Dollars?

Wolfgang Staehle: No way, Jose!