In my dissertation’s conclusion I examine how the arena of FOSS has functioned as a form of cultural critique. I argue through its notoriety, it works to lay bare the normative assertions that economic incentives are a necessary catalyst to intellectual production.

Now there are a panoply of endeavors, from the Creative Commons to MIT’s Open Course Ware following suit.

The mere existence of a material practice such as FOSS and these others examples, however, cannot obviate normative argumentation that appeals to universal principles or theories of human nature. Under threat, these principles may clamor for more attention. And I would say in the last year alone, the attacks made against the reformulated legal principles encoded by FOSS and similar endeavors, have become more visible and voracious than before. The tide is shifting and the battle over the direction, importance, and scope of IP is now starting to boil.

For example, the silent weapon of the right, think tanks, have started to attack these emergent principles that modify the traditional principles of IP law. There is the the infamous Alexis de Tocqueville Institution that attacked Linux directly and more recently the Progress Freedom Foundation has attacked open source on the grounds that IP law as it stands is necessary for freedom and a vital economy.

The media are front runners in this war. Recently the NYT ran an editorial When David Steals Goliath’s Music that uses a language of doom and gloom and tactics of naturalization to argue for stringent IP protections:

I am on the verge of finishing a large project. The defense date has been set and receiving the announcement on the anthropology mailing list was nothing short of strange. I could process my name and abstract. After all, I wrote it. But for the past eight years I have received these announcements never really believing that I would finally reach the end. My time in Chicago will soon be archived in the vaults of my memory, brought to bear probably when I am done with another project.

Whenever I finish off a largish project, I experience something akin to what seems like death. I mourn. And as part of this mourning, a flood of memories start to populate my mind. I enter into this revved up nostalgic mode where I travel into the past, unwillingly. Memories that I thought were lost start to cascade down from the mind and into the body, striking every sense of mine. The memories are a truly random assortment. The image may be a small detail, like the pink and purple wild flowers on the side of the road in West Virginia that were remarkably stunning as they waved in the wind. Or something more enveloping like the thunderstorms in Guyana South America that inspired fear and awe and left the capital under brown water. The list goes on and on. They are my fondest, most vibrant memories and I can’t, even if I tried, stop them from coming to me every time I am done with something that I will now consider as

A new anthro blog has arrived Savage Minds. Initiated by Rex and Kerim it boasts a number of other young, cyber-blog-savvy anthropolgists. I like the content, a lot. I can’t say I like the look, at all. Perhaps they were unconsciously thinking of themselves as “budding” anthro-pods and hence the Martha Stewart-like flowers. But despite the aesthetics, the conversation is vibrant, do check it out.

Just when I was catching up with the ol’ email and errands, a cold came my way so I am parked at the couch doing the minimal amount of work I need to do so that I recover, I hope, before the defense on the 25th. But I wanted to let folks know that DGI is now running on word press and may require a resubscribe if you read on a feeder (it did for me).

The most recent entry is on a seemingly very interesting disseration out of UPenn by Maurice Black on the Art of Code. Can’t wait to check it out.

So so so, this article is on a blackhat, right-winged hacker by the name of Colorx who hacked into the Boulder IMC site (among others) only to find ou that there are many savvy a-hacker among IMC-istas, who hacked back, found out his identity and this eventually got him in trouble with the FBI
(and though the exact mechanism is unknown, there is something a little ironic in having the IMC work lead to FBI investigation not on them, as is usually the case, but on some other hackers).

There is a section in the article that was eerily resonant with one of the all time great books on hackers, The Hacker Crackdown by Bruce Sterling.

So compare:

On the bright side, says Clorox, his run-in with the feds reinforced his idea of a dream job: working for the FBI.

“There were a few times during the conversation I was like, wow, this has to be the coolest job. I would probably get the same thrill out of that that I do out of the black-hat stuff,” he says. “How ironic is that. I’ve always wanted to be the one who catches the bad guy, even if sometimes I am the bad guy.” Mahon, however, has some bad news for clorox.

“He’s deluding himself into thinking that we would hire him,” he says. “There’s a lot of good things a person like that can do that make them stand out that doesn’t involve criminal activity.”

With this section from the Hacker Crackdown:

“In my opinion, any teenager enthralled by computers, fascinated by the ins and outs of computer security, and attracted to the lure of specialized forms of knowledge and power would do well to forget all about hacking and set his (or her) sights on becoming a fed. Feds can trump hackers at almost every single thing hackers do, including gathering intelligence, undercover disguise, trashing, phone-tapping,building dossiers, networking, and infiltrating computer systems” (1993: 207).

Familiar? How many of us spend hours a day just like that ( + skin)? If you are a blog reader, I imagine you spend even more time in front of the blue screen than your mythological “average” computer user.

Well since my defense is on May 25th, which is a strange to contemplate, I am no longer in front of the computer for 16 hours a day, otherwise the norm during much of the winter and especially the spring. Hunched over, I sacrificied the self to one document. Part of the process was brutal but in other ways, it was entirely liberating and quite enjoyable. I always had a great exuse for why I had to say no to what was asked of me, and I never ever felt guilt about it.

I felt a little like I was living as an island castaway (minus the island and plus an internet connection), lodged entirely in my own world. I hope to get back to that place soon although there are many non-biella worldly affairs to deal with before I can retreat again, hunched over bathed by the hue of computer blue…

Check out Chris Kelty’s new piece, Geeks, Social Imaginaries, and Recursive Publics. Not only is it a very clever argument about the unique constitution of the geek public, this may be the first full length article related to FOSS to come out in an anthropology journal. CK edited a shorter set of articles in AQ on IP, geeks, FOSS, and the law but this new piece ups the ante. He has cracked up the coconut for anthro geek studies in provocative ways and I am sure more good stuff will follow.

Abstract:
This article investigates the social, technical, and legal affiliations among “geeks” (hackers, lawyers, activists, and IT entrepreneurs) on the Internet. The mode of association specific to this group is that of a “recursive public sphere” constituted by a shared imaginary of the technical and legal conditions of possibility for their own association. On the basis of fieldwork conducted in the United States, Europe, and India, I argue that geeks imagine their social existence and relations as much through technical practices (hacking, networking, and code writing) as through discursive argument (rights, identities, and relations). In addition, they consider a “right to tinker” a form of free speech that takes the form of creating, implementing, modifying, or using specific kinds of software (especially Free Software) rather than verbal discourse.

Because Yale has refused to renew the two year teaching contract for David Graeber, an anthropology professor, students are organizing on his behalf, calling for the University to re-hire him. The petition-letter is short, and all the more powerful because of it. They cut to the chase:

What we all share is an admiration for David’s work linking scholarly research to leadership and action in the wider world. In recognition of his contributions to the Yale community and to the wider scholarly community, we strongly urge Yale University and the Yale University Department of Anthropology to take all steps necessary to ensure that David Graeber continues to remain a member of the faculty of the Yale Department of Anthropology.

Undoubtedly the administration and the faculty see him as political nuisance. He is known for his unflagging political commitment, work, and organizing. He has written profusely about them, and in ways that are humorous, clear and accessible; I taught
Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology in my hacker class this year, and it profoundly challenged most students in the class. Even those uncompelled by his critique of capitalism, nonetheless, respected his arguments, largely because of his honesty, clarity, and wit. We need more scholars willing to cross the bridge between activism and the academy, political labor and mental labor, but they can only do so with steady employment. If you know David, or his work and support it, support the petition.

There is some sort of perverse pleasure in knowing that it’s basically impossible to send a piece of hate mail through the Internet without its being touched by a gay program. — Eric Allman, about Sendmail.

So, I was once asked, ok more than once, is there much of a gay presence in the world of geekdom? Well, there is not much of one, but there is one. Today, on IRC someone pasted a pretty funny quote made by Eric Allman, the author of Sendmail (an important Intenet mail routing program) about his gay identity. It is *hilarious.*

It reminded me of the queer theory (Judith Butler, 1997) I used in a small discussion of the nature of FOSS licensing, although I could not call the GPL queer ( queer in relation to copyright, that is) as I orginally wanted to; but after more thinking, the GPL is much more like a gay license because it attempt to normalize itself by integrating free speech discourse. This is what I wrote in my dissertation (due in 3 days) about it, minus any reference to queer or gay:

[..]
Even when developers don’t explicitly address normative IP law during discussion, the copyleft and related FOSS licensing inherently invokes and calls attention to its opposite, the law of copyright and IP law. Queer, linguistic, and anthropological theory has demonstrated that any naturalized proposition (like hetreosexuality) or social fact both presupposes and ultimately propagates what it excludes (Butler 1997; Derrida; Graeber 2001, 2004). David Graeber sees a creative potential in all social concepts and artifacts, a

biella will finish her dissertation (I think) and with only some minimal damage to her psyche, the broadcast flag is struck down (for now), and sarge is frozen (f*cking finally and congrats Debian )!