So it looks like I SUMBITTED instead of SUBMITTED a dissertation. Darn, I better change that today and I will make sure that I update it online.

So I missed a number of talks and events the last day from WTH. But one of the truly astounding elements of this con is that they basically but everything online,–videos, slides, commentary–within a day or two.

There was a nice-looking talk on the History of Unix and a more controversial discussion on the place of “free speech ideology” among hackers, organized by Toni Prug. Given that my dissertation covers the rise of expressive rights among hackers, I am especially interested in this discusison. I will refrain from commenting until I see the video (available at the link above).

So, I have not had so much time to write about What the Hack but the short version is: hot, muggy, and awesome. But if you want to hear more, I have been hanging a lot with Gweeds and he has a nice “diary” entry about our filming escapades

So one of the things I stopped doing to finish writing my dissertation was reading. And soon I will once again have the chance to catch up with exercising my eyes and hopefully mind… Recently I have been brought to the attention of and in contact with two folks that write aboout hackers and F/OSS. One is Tim Jordan over at the Open University and the other is law professor Greg Vetter over at Houston University. Both have very interesting writings that I am excited to dive into!

Taran is in Guyana, the site of my previous project on Kali Mai religious healing. He is updating his blog with a lot of good information and stories on the F/OSS work he is doing down there. Anyone interested in the politics of free software adoption and Guyana/Caribbean, should check out his posts.

As he often writes about, we rarely hear news from this region of the world, and the Guyanas and Suriname probably top the list in terms of “relative obscurity.” Back in 98, 99, when many newspapers were still not online, many of Guyana’s publications were available, making it very easy to keep abreast of developments.

Today, via Anarchogeek I learned that there is a new TV station down in the “Global South,” Telesur. They are tackling the problems of corporate media and their broadcasting and mission look very promising. Read more from rabble.

Come celebrate the Debian release with those from Chicago and the greater Chicagoland area. Here are the details and we will be enjoying what is probably one of the nicest views of the city.

Over a year ago I took some time off from my dissertation to write an article on Indymedia. The editor kept pushing me to write more and the next thing I knew, it balloned out to nearly 40 pages. Since then, the Planet Work journal has not published another issue, which is a shame. But recently, the article has taken on a new life, thanks to the translation work of a prolific French writer Anne Querrien over at Multitudes (and as usual thanks of course to Patrice R ). This version is not only in French but a little shorter than the original.

For those who read French, the Paris IMC (note their *really* nice banner) folks put the full Multitudes article up on thier documentation site. If your French is strong (or even weak, who cares), the entire issue, which is on alternative and post media(s) (Blogs, radio, peer to peer) looks really good. I look forward to receiving it in the mail and taking a stab at my weak French (perhaps more like my: non-existent-I-recognize-words-because-of-Spanish-French).

I don’t consider myself overly interested in the politics, gender, and ethics of blogging but I do keep my eyes and ears perked for interesting happenings. Since I am going to be in CA this summer for a values in design workshop, I decided to register for the Blogher conference being held in San Jose July 30th. One aspect that I immediately liked about the conference is that there are very reasonable student rates…

Non-commerical Linux use on the rise:

New data released this week from research firm Evans Data shows that non-commercial Linux distribution use has passed the inflection point and is now more widely used by developers than commercial Linux distributions.

This article discusses the implications behind the massive proliferation of licenses in open source. The issues and problems, as Larry Rosen raises, are very real. One thing I find interesting is how the proliferation of licenses sort of mirrors the redundancy of packages in a distribution. One the one hand, it is great that there are a gazillion (ok maybe not that many) music players, on the other hand, one could easily imagine that if efforts were put in 2 or 3 of them as opposed to spread over 6-7 you would be getting better quality. Choice can only get us so far…

So, I stumbled across what is a very interesting site, Leonardo Reviews which “is a scholarly review service published by MIT Press and the International Society for Arts, Sciences, and Technology” and part of the Leonardo Journal. I came across it during a search on the Sarai Reader (03) where I published a talk. Here is the Review

I also found a review of Hacker Cultuer by Thomas which is one of my favorite books on hacking though I think he simplifies the moral codes of hacking by letting the political aesthetics of the hacker underground to stand in for the whole of hacking. I am currently working on a piece trying to address how to best come up with a model that at once regonizes shared elements of hacking while honoring, acknowledging the really fascinating gradations of difference and competing interests. I hope Patrice will as usual give me good feedback

Also the reviewer makes the excellent following point about the lack of an analysis of hacker practice in Thomas:

The one thing I missed from Thomas