When I was in graduate school, there were two publications that when I found out about them, they changed my life, for the better. One is the Annual Review of Anthropology (and there are many other Annual Reviews) and Congressional Quarterly Researcher. Both, albeit in very different ways, provide clear and crisp road maps and resources related to the topic under discussion. I had the “pleasure” of writing an ARA on digital media and I had always hoped that there was a Congressional Quarterly on hackers and hacking.
Well now there is one and I have to say, they have done a fantastic job. I am not surprised. They tend to be pretty matter of factual and present many sides to an issue. The author, Marcia Clemmitt, did just that, covering open source, transgressive hacking, Anonymous, and cybersecurity among many other issues. Out of all the recent publicly oriented publications on hackers and hacking, this is the one that is the most in-depth but accessible.
The only hitch is that the article is behind a pay wall but most universities subscribe to them and you can order an individual copy.
update: I forgot to mention that there is an excellent segment in the 24 page report by Daniel Flower, which covers the history and significance of the protests. It is compact but the best account I have seen.
loved the ARA article about all the things to explore in Digital media and the example of the 419 scam to show how there are many angles/parts to one phenomena.
Comment by kevix — September 22, 2011 @ 12:31 pm
The link for “one” is http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/
This is the same link as “Congressional Quarterly Researcher”. My guess is that this is a mistake.
Regards, Faheem
Comment by Faheem Mitha — September 22, 2011 @ 7:57 pm
I’m glad you liked the report! I worked on it with Marcia over the summer (I wrote a sidebar on Anonymous vs. Scientology) and I was pleased with the final product. Thanks for all your help!
Comment by danieljflowers — September 26, 2011 @ 11:40 am
Dan,
You did a great job. I want to send the piece to every journalists I know. I will make sure to add your contribution to the body of the blog entry.
Comment by Biella — September 26, 2011 @ 7:02 pm
Hmm.
It is frustrating that it is not JSTOR publication.
Truly for academics near a institutional library, or people already subscribing.
Sage Publications, the publisher, does not have the courtesy to state their access price for the journal; one must “inquire” and they will respond. Clearly their market is institutions.
Comment by Jim Bob — October 5, 2011 @ 5:31 pm