[Air-L] Geek Researcher Spends Three Years Living With Hackers

Alison Powell a.powell at lse.ac.uk
Fri Mar 1 04:01:30 PST 2013


Hi Kishonna,

Part of my PhD thesis, “Co-productions of Technology, Culture and Policy 
in the North American Community Wireless Networking Movement” looked at 
'policy hacking' - it is available here, along with the rest of the 
thesis chapters: http://www.alisonpowell.ca/?page_id=71

I have also looked at 'technical activism' in a recent paper "Emerging 
Issues in Internet Regulation: the unstable role of Wikileaks and 
cyber-vigilantism" - available here 
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1932740

and I'm working on something now about hacking at the SOPA strike . . . 
finished soon I hope.

All the best,

alison.

On 01/03/2013 01:04, Kishonna Gray wrote:
> Hello all! I am looking for additional references similar to Gabriella's
> work here (awesome book btw).  A student is looking for information on
> hacking as activism, hacking for social change, hacking for empowerment,
> etc.
>
> Any and all citations are welcome!
>
> Thanks
> Kishonna
>
> *Kishonna L. Gray, PhD*
>
> *Assistant Professor*
>
> School of Justice Studies
>
> Eastern Kentucky University
>
> Email: kishonna.gray at eku.edu
>
> Office: Stratton 313
>
> Phone: 859-622-8880
>
>
>
> *Recent scholarship on Xbox Live: *
>
>
> Gray, K.L. (2013) Diffusion of Innovation Theory and Xbox Live: Examining
> Minority Gamers Responses and Rate of Adoption to Changes in Xbox
> Live. *Bulletin
> of Science, Technology, & Society*, 32(6): 463-470.
>
>
> Gray, K.L. (2012) Deviant Bodies, Stigmatized Identities, and Racist Acts:
> Examining the Experiences of African-American Gamers in Xbox Live.  *New
> Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, *18(4): 261-276.
>
> On Thu, Nov 29, 2012 at 7:48 AM, Richard Forno <rforno at infowarrior.org>wrote:
>
>>
>> Biella does great work.....ergo I'm looking forward to adding this to my
>> must-read pile.....which right now is more like a "scholastic endtable"
>> which is one year away from becoming am "academic-style room divider."  ;)
>>
>> --rick
>>
>>
>> Geek Researcher Spends Three Years Living With Hackers
>> http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/11/coleman/
>>
>> When you’re starting off as an anthropologist, you aim is to explore a
>> subculture your peers have yet to uncover, spending years living with the
>> locals and learning their ways.
>>
>> That’s what Gabriella Coleman did. She went to San Francisco and lived
>> with the hackers.
>>
>> Coleman, an anthropologist who teaches at McGill University, spent three
>> years living in the Bay Area, studying the community that builds the Debian
>> Linux open source operating system and other hackers — i.e., people who
>> pride themselves on finding new ways to reinvent software. More recently,
>> she’s been peeling away the onion that is the Anonymous movement, a group
>> that hacks as a means of protest — and mischief.
>>
>> When she moved to San Francisco, she volunteered with the Electronic
>> Frontier Foundation — she believed, correctly, that having an eff.orgaddress would make people more willing to talk to her — and started making
>> the scene. She talked free software over Chinese food at the Bay Area Linux
>> User Group’s monthly meetings upstairs at San Francisco’s Four Seas
>> Restaurant. She marched with geeks demanding the release of Adobe eBooks
>> hacker Dmitry Sklyarov. She learned the culture inside-out.
>>
>> Now, she’s written a book on her experiences: Coding Freedom: The Ethics
>> and Aesthetics of Hacking. It’s a scholarly work of anthropology that
>> examines the question: What does it mean to be a hacker?
>>
>> Earlier this month, she dropped by Wired’s offices to talk about the book.
>> Here’s an edited transcript of the conversation:
>>
>> < -- >
>>
>> http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/11/coleman/
>>
>> ---
>> Just because i'm near the punchbowl doesn't mean I'm also drinking from it.
>>
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>
>
>


-- 
Dr Alison Powell
Department of Media and Communication
London School of Economics
Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE
a.powell at lse.ac.uk
Twitter: @a_b_powell



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