[Air-L] nerd culture and new media

Peter Timusk ptimusk at sympatico.ca
Mon Jun 16 12:40:08 PDT 2008


So Nerds have to do free software eh? I do not buy the open source  
craze. It is like Lessig saying hackers did it for security reasons.  
Two many generalizations.

Peter hacker who did it for fun not security reasons

On 16-Jun-08, at 1:43 PM, murrell at berkeley.edu wrote:

> You might want to look at Chris Kelty's new book (just out), called  
> Two
> Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software. Throughout the  
> book he
> unabashedly chooses to call all the programmers, engineers, and others
> involved in free software "geeks." He's pretty much turns the nerd
> stereotype around. The books not really about that issue, but let's  
> say it
> performs it. Plus, it's a really good book.
>
>
>> Does anyone know of any recent research about how new media  
>> relates to
>> nerd culture stereotypes? There are a large number of very recent
>> books and news articles about this topic, and some claim that being
>> nerdy is going mainstream. Presumably they mean it's not necessarily
>> defined by computers and A/V and pocket protectors anymore, but video
>> games and MMORPG's and MySpacers and other activities that may break
>> the traditional white male nerd stereotype. Computer science is still
>> as nerdy as ever, a perceived by kids, but do we know if new media
>> studies or cultural studies indicates different trends in other  
>> areas?
>> Speculation welcome, even if you don't know of any research being  
>> done on
>> it.
>>
>> Thanks very much,
>> Sarita
>>
>> --
>> Human-Centered Computing
>> College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology
>> www.cc.gatech.edu/~yardi
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>
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