Early hackers built software that encoded their liberal ideals in technical form
Evidence
The idealism of the hacker ethic was most fully realized in the free software movement, founded in 1983 by MIT student Richard Stallman, who deeply regretted missing the golden age of MIT hacking. Stallman was (rightly) concerned with the prospect of large software companies dominating the computer industry and crowding out hobbyists. Most of Stallman’s hacker friends at MIT had left to form software companies, and he was disgusted with monopolistic software practices, nondisclosure agreements, and locked-down source code, which he considered a betrayal of his principles. … Stallman founded the GNU project (“Gnu is Not Unix”), a free, non-commercial operating system with shared source code available to anyone who wanted it. GNU was a technological instantiation of Stallman’s commitment to “a liberal version of freedom that invoked the virtues of sharing and pedagogy.” In other words, Stallman wrote software that embodied his ideals. Along with the software, he wrote the GNU manifesto, which outlined the “four freedoms” of software: “The right to use, distribute, modify and redistribute derivative versions.” This ideal became an integral part of free/open-source philosophy, which notes that “it is the right of every user to use, modify, and distribute computer software for any purpose.” Freely available source code not only encouraged learning and tinkering; it also actively discouraged monopolistic, proprietary software practice. It was a technological solution to an institutional problem. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 74
Categorization
- XREF: Links to the broader hacker-ethic lineage this book is tracing (Turkle, Levy) and anticipates Silicon Valley ideology later chapters; also the ‘technological solution to institutional problems’ pattern recurs in social media culture. — connects to: Silicon Valley hacker culture originated in 1970s Bay Area hobbyist clubs — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 68; Openness and transparency form the stated political core of hacker philosophy — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 69; Freely sharing information defined the early hacker culture and drove technological invention — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 71 (+2 more)
- DEFINE: Clarifies the four freedoms of free software and the GNU/‘free as in speech’ conceptual vocabulary.
Broader Connections
- Social media ideology derives from the hacker ethic of sharing and DIY
#expands(0.80) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 67 - Hacker culture is the root of internet culture’s anti-mainstream stance.
#expands(0.75) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 78