Tagtool

Happy to announce that the Tagtool project has been awarded the Austrian “Förderpreis im Rahmen des Staatspreises” 2008. At this opportunity we would like to thank everyone involved so far, especially programmer Richard Radlherr who’s contribution has been tremendous, those who have built their own custom Tagtools, and the artists that we have worked with over the last two years.

We would like to use the price money to organize a developers conference in a few months time, to discuss a careful relaunch of the project, taking into account everything that has been learned so far. We are happy with what has been achieved to date, but there are important next steps to be taken technically, community-wise and of course artistically. The vision is a truly open source, multi-user setup for live drawing and animation that is accessible for people around the world, and generates income as well as joy.

On a side note, we wanna stress that the Tagtool project so far has been completely self-funded and is independent of any institutions apart from its ties to OMA International. Contrary to what is claimed on their site, the Fachhochschule Salzburg has not been involved at any point in the project (the only connection is that one of their students is part of our team). We are, however, open to collaboration with educational institutions, especially if the aim is a longterm, community-centered cooperation that benefits both the students as well as the project.

Please check back here and on our Dev Zone for news about the developer’s conference!