named programs · 3 · from sources
What they call their work
Liminal Lab
Online and in-person experimental workshop series in writing, performance, and poetics, facilitated by artists and writers, focusing on disability, translation, ecology, and anti-capitalist creative practices.
OS Autonomous Design Initiative
Open-access resource hub providing templates, policies, and tools for equitable publishing and organizational design, shared under a Creative Commons license to support community use.
The Operating System Publishing
Independent publishing arm producing print and digital works with an emphasis on accessibility, extended colophons, and non-hierarchical production models.
activities · 6 groups
What they do
-
Literary and Cultural Publishing 7 activities
- Distributing creative work into institutional and community settingsDistributes creative works into print circulation and places them in classrooms, prisons, libraries, and archives with contextual documentation to broaden access and impact.
- Operating as a presenting organization and publisher for art, performance, and archival documentationCreates physical and digital spaces for art-making, performance, and archival documentation; produces and archives original content by writers and artists for public and educational use. Operates as an online platform and project-producing organization with a focus on experimental, non-commercial projects.
- Operating specialized publishing imprints for marginalized voicesEstablishes in-house imprints to center marginalized communities: the Unsilenced Texts imprint recovers silenced or out-of-print texts, especially from authors under restrictive regimes; the KIN(D) Texts & Projects imprint reserves at least 25% of annual catalog space for creative work by transgender, nonbinary, genderfluid, and other gender non-conforming persons.
- Producing books as canon correction and print documentationProduces books to correct literary canons by prioritizing groundbreaking and unorthodox creative work at risk of erasure. Reframes book-form output as “print documentation” — an active, technological practice distinct from traditional publishing — to provoke dialogue about physical archiving in the digital era.
- Publishing para-academic and experimental scholarshipPublishes experimental, para-academic scholarship excluded from traditional academic publishing due to institutional constraints.
- Publishing translations and translingual texts from underrepresented authorsEstablished the GLOSSARIUM: UNSILENCED TEXTS series in 2016 to publish contemporary translations and little-known or out-of-print texts from authors under siege by restrictive regimes. Published 7 translated literary titles in 2019 — contributing to a one percent increase in U.S. translated literature that year — in languages including Arabic, Aramaic, Akkadian, French, Faroese, German, Hebrew, Persian, Polish, Yaqui, Yiddish, and Spanish from Latin America and Puerto Rico.
- Publishing under open access and anti-exploitation principlesProduces books and publications without charging submission or contest fees, using a Creative Commons (CC BY NC ND) licensing model to ensure legal sharing and access while protecting creators. Provides free digital downloads through its Open Access Library without requiring donations.
-
-
Archival Digitization and Preservation 1 activity
- Archiving and expanding public access to creative and scholarly workCompleted archiving of the OS catalog in the Open Access Library and plans to expand it to include out-of-print publications, syllabi, audio, research, and tools. Maintains searchable access to GLOSSARIUM series titles and other materials by translation, translanguaging, or series name.
-
-
Open Research Infrastructure & Publishing 1 activity
- Conducting peer-led conversations and publishing field notesConducted monthly peer-led conversations and published Field Notes through the 2022 Autonomous Mechanics Year-Book Cohort and continues to publish them via Medium through current and future cohorts and independent agents.
-
-
Free and Open-Source Software Advocacy & Development 1 activity
- Developing and disseminating open project tools and templatesCreates and disseminates open tools, templates, and blueprints derived from its operational practices — including design, distribution, protocols, agreements, and media strategy — to reduce labor burdens for individuals and groups engaged in social change work. Released under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
-
-
Artist Legacy Preservation and Documentation 1 activity
- Documenting non-textual and ephemeral creative practicesFacilitates and co-writes manuscripts derived from non-textual or ephemeral creative practices such as visual art, choreography, film, and music to preserve them in the archival record.
-
-
Uncategorized 4 activities
- Conducting research on creative industry practices and organizational modelsEngages in, documents, and makes available research on all aspects of the creative industry. Conducted a decade-long beta test of a self-governed, anarchist-inspired organizational model for artist and writer communities, framing all projects as experiments in an ongoing inquiry.
- Curating and maintaining educational and action-oriented resource collectionsMaintains a collection of educational and action-oriented materials including syllabi, reading lists, workbooks, and project materials organized around themes such as climate and ecology, abolition, antiracism, community organizing, disability and access, collective care, and tech for revolution.
- Documenting and sharing organizational models and toolsDocuments and shares internal processes, project templates, operating documents, and educational resources as open, reusable blueprints for artist-run initiatives. Shares tools and structural models to enable replication of similar work by others.
- Hosting educational programming and workshopsOffers a range of workshops and educational events including a 6-week online writing workshop on disability and chronic illness, a 4-week experimental pedagogy lab, a 4-day in-person performance intensive, and an online workshop series titled “Let’s Get Physical.” Also hosts free conversation series such as “Move Semantics: Rules of Unfolding” in partnership with EFA.
-
financials · form 990EZ · fy2021
revenue
Total revenue$48K
Contributions & grants$6K13%
Program service revenue$42K87%
Investment income——
Other revenue—
expenses
Total expenses$52K
Program expenses—
Admin / overhead—
Fundraising—
Salaries & benefits—
Grants paid out—
balance sheet
Total assets$3K
Cash—
Investments—
Liabilities—
Net assets$3K
2 years on record · 2020–2021 · YoY revenue +28.2%
leadership · form 990 part vii · fy2021
Who runs it
board members · 14
- Benjamin Wiessner — Director
- Caits Meissner — Director
- Christopher Woodrell — Director
- Clarinda Mac Low — Director
- Hoa Nguyen — Director
- J Lester Feder — Director
- Jen Hofer — Director
- Lauren Blodgett — Director
- Liz Maxwell — Director
- Lydia X Z Brown — Director
- Margaret Randall — Director
- Mehdi Navid — Director
- Michel Bauwens — Director
- Semir Chouaibi — Director
relationships · 32
Who they work with
- Argos Books Partner — Member of the Small Press Union coalition participating in joint events and programming.
- Augury Books Partner — Member of the Small Press Union coalition participating in joint events and programming.
- Belladonna Partner — Member of the Small Press Union coalition participating in joint events and programming.
- Black Sun Lit Partner — Member of the Small Press Union coalition participating in joint events and programming.
- Bloof Books Partner — Member of the Small Press Union coalition participating in joint events and programming.
- DoubleCross Press Partner — Member of the Small Press Union coalition participating in joint events and programming.
- EFA Partner — Collaborates with EFA on the "Move Semantics: Rules of Unfolding" conversation series.
- EOAGH Partner — Member of the Small Press Union coalition participating in joint events and programming.
- Elæ Partner — Founder and creative director who develops open project resources and policies for The Operating System.
- Harlequin Creature Partner — Member of the Small Press Union coalition participating in joint events and programming.
- Kayrock Screenprinting Partner — Member of the Small Press Union coalition participating in joint events and programming.
- Knife | Fork | Book Partner — Member of the Small Press Union coalition participating in joint events and programming.
- Launchpad Brooklyn Partner — Hosted the “Exhibit A: Re/production and Re/presentation” gallery show, which included early contributors to The Operating System.
- Liminal Lab Network — Liminal Lab is an open learning platform that collaborates with The Operating System to produce and distribute publications and media.
- Liminal Lab Partner — Collaborates on initiatives related to print documentation and archiving.
- Liminal Lab Partner — Collaborates with Liminal Lab, maintaining a donor management and registration system for its operations.
- Liminal Lab Partner — Collaborates with The Operating System on the UNSILENCED TEXTS project.
- Liminal Lab Partner — Collaborative partner in the operation of The Operating System.
- Liminal Lab Partner — Liminal Lab is a peer-to-peer skillsharing project that implements The Operating System and contributes to its resources.
- Litmus Press Partner — Member of the Small Press Union coalition participating in joint events and programming.
- No, Dear Partner — Member of the Small Press Union coalition participating in joint events and programming.
- Organism for Poetic Research Partner — Member of the Small Press Union coalition participating in joint events and programming.
- PayPal Government — Platform used for receiving donations
- Projective Industries Partner — Member of the Small Press Union coalition participating in joint events and programming.
- Quimby’s Bookstore NYC Partner — Member of the Small Press Union coalition participating in joint events and programming.
- Radical Open Access Collective Network — Longstanding member organization contributing to and utilizing open access publishing tools.
- Rebecca Lazier Partner — Contributor whose digital work is featured on the platform
- Resolving Host Partner — Member of the Small Press Union coalition participating in joint events and programming.
- Small Press Union Partner — Collaborative network for presses, printmakers, book and zine-artists affiliated with The Operating System.
- Tender Buttons Partner — Member of the Small Press Union coalition participating in joint events and programming.
+ 2 more
strategies · 5
How they approach the work
Named approaches extracted from this org’s sources. Where others share an approach, follow it to see the full set of orgs running it.
- Archival Citizenship Through Print-Documentationmethodology: community-archiving-through-printBy treating print documentation as a grassroots act of archiving, the organization preserves marginalized voices at risk of erasure, because circulating physical texts across communities ensures cultural survival and collective memory beyond digital fragility or institutional exclusion.
- Commons-Based Cultural Productionmethodology: commons-based_resource_modelBy using commons resource models and solidarity economies to support open access publishing and resource sharing, the organization builds alternative cultural infrastructures, because collective stewardship of knowledge and labor redistributes capacity and fosters resilient, non-extractive creative ecosystems.
- Equitable Access Through Anti-Exploitative Publishingmethodology: anti-gatekeeping_publishingBy rejecting submission fees, contests, and capital-dependent funding models, the organization increases access for marginalized creators and challenges false meritocracy, because removing financial and gatekeeping barriers allows for more authentic, diverse, and peer-driven cultural production.
- Horizontal, Collective Infrastructuremethodology: horizontal_collectiveBy operating as a decentralized, peer-led collective that distributes labor and decision-making, the organization increases resilience and engagement while eliminating reliance on hierarchical administration or wealthy donors, because shared ownership and mutual support foster sustainable, equitable participation.
- Open Source, Replicable Organizational Modelmethodology: open_source_modelBy modeling its infrastructure on open source and peer-to-peer principles, the organization enables public access, adaptation, and replication of its tools and systems, because transparency and collaborative evolution empower others to independently adopt and teach its methods, scaling impact without centralized control.