Desolation Wilderness: Internet Governance-ICANN; Request for Comment; Web Cultures-Technomeritocractic, Hacker, Communitarian, Entrepreneu Transcript

Welcome to Information Technology and Society

Week 7



Here's the wiki with course material: http://socinfotech.pbworks.com/FrontPage.





In this class we'll focus on how the information technology revolution developed, especially vis-a-vis long time Berkeley Professor Manuel Castells' research on the Network Society, as well as http://webnographers.org - a wiki bibliography on virtual ethnography.



I invite your questions, and I'll post a version of the text from each class to http://socinfotech.pbworks.com/FrontPage over the weeks.

There's already a lot of information on this wiki, which will develop with this class.



And please join the Google Group for World University and School - like Wikipedia with MIT Open Course Ware -

http://groups.google.com/group/World-University-and-School.





[10:58] Sybex Drachnyd is Online

[10:58] Lemondrop Serendipity is Online

[10:58] go1984 Winsmore is Online

[10:58] Dallas Trefoil is Online

[10:58] Connecting to in-world Voice Chat...

[10:58] Connected

[10:59] Budd Raymaker is Offline

[10:59] You decline Friends Meeting, Sea Turtle Island (188, 21, 25) from A group member named Scot Jung.

[10:59] Ju Roussel is Offline

[11:00] Ju Roussel is Online

[11:00] Pooky Amsterdam is Online

[11:01] You decline Welcome to Info Tech & Soc from A group member named Aphilo Aarde.

[11:01] MacZ Urbanowicz is Online

[11:03] Teleport completed from http://slurl.com/secondlife/Exploratorium/171/121/25

[11:03] Connecting to in-world Voice Chat...

[11:03] Connected

[11:03] JonathanE Cortes is Online

[11:03] MacZ Urbanowicz is Offline

[11:03] Ju Roussel: Waves!

[11:03] Aphilo Aarde: Hello Ju!

[11:04] Ju Roussel: Hi Aphilo

[11:04] Ju Roussel: How have you been

[11:04] Aphilo Aarde: Not bad - thanks. And you?

[11:04] Ju Roussel: busy busy busy

[11:04] Ju Roussel: VWBPE last week

[11:04] Ju Roussel: Earth shattering!

[11:04] Aphilo Aarde: Sounds engaging - what was edifying?

[11:05] Ju Roussel: ? edifying?

[11:05] Aphilo Aarde: .... what did you find interesting about VWBPE, in particular?

[11:05] Ju Roussel: manner of organisation

[11:05] Aphilo Aarde: For example, I found the scheduling interesting - perhaps a similar experience to you.

[11:06] Ju Roussel: and that my PhD studies enabled me to be a volunteer - 5 hours sleep during the 48 hours of the conference :)

[11:06] Aphilo Aarde: In some ways, they gave form to a struture for a univ

[11:06] Aphilo Aarde: in - world

[11:06] Aphilo Aarde: :)

[11:06] Aphilo Aarde: Whar's your focus for your Ph.D.?

[11:07] Ju Roussel: national systems of innovation

[11:07] Alvenoh Asp is Offline

[11:07] Aphilo Aarde: Hello Jonathan!

[11:07] JonathanE Cortes: hello

[11:07] Ju Roussel: Usual suspects! Hi!

[11:07] JonathanE Cortes: Hi Ju

[11:07] Aphilo Aarde: In other words, Ju?

[11:08] Aphilo Aarde: Are you taking a kind of historical approach, where

[11:08] Ju Roussel: Explaining how innovation works for societies, in a systemic way.

[11:08] Ju Roussel: No, I'm at a business school... so it's not that cool. Case studies and survey analysis

[11:08] Ju Roussel: qual+quant...

[11:09] Aphilo Aarde: Sweden has innovated in these ways - something about the Swedish identity and cultural practices, and these practices could be applied to the IT revolution for Sweden, given Sweden's approach to IT innovation thus far?

[11:09] Aphilo Aarde: I see

[11:09] Aphilo Aarde: ... so from a business perspective, significantly ...

[11:09] Ju Roussel: Yes, that's for Sweden. I'm looking at more recent EU entrants

[11:10] Ju Roussel: Sweden is not all that smart... the branding element worked well though!

[11:10] Aphilo Aarde: Are you asking identity questions, indirectly then, vis-a-vis innovation within the broader context of European Union innovation?

[11:11] Aphilo Aarde: and entrepreneurial trajectories?

[11:11] Ju Roussel: Oh, that's an interesting turn. Innov vis-avis identity

[11:11] Ju Roussel: 'that could go to the conclusion! nifty! I'll have to develop on that

[11:12] Aphilo Aarde: I guess when you mentioned the word 'societies' above, I thought of identity, using Sweden as the example - since you live there.

[11:12] Ju Roussel: let me know if you have recent references

[11:12] Aphilo Aarde: I know of only one example that I use in the course where Japan tried to imitate

[11:12] Malburns Writer is Online

[11:12] Aphilo Aarde: Silicon Valley's successes, but the IT revolution

[11:13] Ju Roussel: I believe it were 2 sociologists at Harvard that created that product space development approach. I guess it explains best what I'm trying to do. To deal with soft/managerial sides of the story.

[11:14] Ju Roussel: But I'm taking time from the class!

[11:14] Aphilo Aarde: happened in the Rt 126 area and Silicon Valley pretty organically, and in the west among universities, so it wasn't

[11:14] Aphilo Aarde: really replicable

[11:14] Aphilo Aarde: by the Japanese.

[11:14] Ju Roussel: :) That's why I so much enjoyed your session on Silicon Valley

[11:14] Aphilo Aarde: What are t heir names, Ju, ?

[11:15] Aphilo Aarde: :)

[11:15] Ju Roussel: 1 sec

[11:15] Aphilo Aarde: Hi Sandhya and Sybex!

[11:15] Ju Roussel: bad memory

[11:15] Aphilo Aarde: Welcome

[11:15] Ju Roussel: product space

[11:15] Ju Roussel: oups, not here

[11:15] sandhya2 Patel: hi sorry i'm late

[11:15] JenzZa Misfit is Offline

[11:16] Sybex Drachnyd: me too.

[11:16] Aphilo Aarde: So, welcome ... today in Information Technology and Society, we'll begin by exploring how the internet has been governed

[11:17] JonathanE Cortes: ok

[11:17] Aphilo Aarde: And the Internet as information technologies of protocols for packet switching - a real time world wide communcation network

[11:17] Aphilo Aarde: has been by and large self-regulating

[11:18] Curious George is Offline

[11:18] Aphilo Aarde: although formerly, the Internet

[11:18] Bon McLeod is Offline

[11:18] Aphilo Aarde: was run by - in the sense of being under the auspices of -

[11:18] Aphilo Aarde: 1 Defense

[11:18] Aphilo Aarde: and 2 commerce

[11:19] Aphilo Aarde: In fact, it has self-governed in a strange way

[11:19] Aphilo Aarde: (Did you find their names, Ju?)

[11:19] Aphilo Aarde: What is self-government?

[11:19] Michele Mrigesh is Offline

[11:19] Ju Roussel: I did

[11:19] Aphilo Aarde: It's a set of software - to make

[11:20] Aphilo Aarde: sure that protocoles are common and the address system is commonly shared

[11:20] Aphilo Aarde: After that, the Network does it by itself.

[11:20] Ju Roussel: [Hidalgo, Klinger, Barabasi, Hausmann, ScienceMag July 2007]

[11:20] Ju Roussel: can share more on that later

[11:21] Bon McLeod is Online

[11:21] Ju Roussel: please go ahead :)

[11:21] Aphilo Aarde: (thanks)

[11:21] Aphilo Aarde: So after protocols and address system - which is the internet, basically

[11:22] Aphilo Aarde: the Network does it itself

[11:22] Froukje Hoorenbeek is Online

[11:22] Aquiel Aero is Online

[11:22] Aphilo Aarde: These processes deveoped on the basis of a number of groups in the 70s

[11:22] Aphilo Aarde: and later

[11:22] Aphilo Aarde: The Network Working Group in the late 1970s

[11:23] Aphilo Aarde: which included a process for exchanging ideas and making improvements

[11:23] Aphilo Aarde: called RFC - request for comment

[11:23] Aphilo Aarde: (Welcome Zippidy)

[11:23] zippidy Serendipity: ty

[11:24] JonathanE Cortes: yes, hello Zippidy

[11:24] Aphilo Aarde: With RFC - Request for Comments - which is how TCP / IP - standing for Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol

[11:24] Andromeda Mesmer is Offline

[11:24] Aphilo Aarde: was formed - people would ask each other within the Network Working Group

[11:25] Aphilo Aarde: for comments on their work - and this process became formalized - and was very democratic and effective

[11:25] Christinapsu5152 Palianta is Online

[11:25] Aphilo Aarde: disagreements would lead lead to agreements and then to a protocol

[11:26] Aphilo Aarde: ... like http - hyper text transfer protocol - the web address you type into your browser address field still

[11:26] Aphilo Aarde: and pop - post office protocol - an email protocol used to transfer emails

[11:26] Aphilo Aarde: and smtp, for example, simple mail/message transfer protocol

[11:26] Aphilo Aarde: a different email protocol

[11:27] Aphilo Aarde: These, and around possibly 200 other protocols happened thanks

[11:27] Aphilo Aarde: to the Network Working Group in the late 70s and due significantly to RFC

[11:28] Aphilo Aarde: So this is a key basis for internet governance

[11:28] Cindy Ecksol is Online

[11:28] Aphilo Aarde: for dealing with disagreements, for

[11:29] Aphilo Aarde: working in a time with information technologies that were totally new and in a state of flux

[11:29] Aphilo Aarde: which then would change the world

[11:29] Aphilo Aarde: as they continue to extend and develop

[11:30] Aphilo Aarde: So, Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn were instrumental in organizing the Network Working Group

[11:30] Malburns Writer is Offline

[11:30] Aphilo Aarde: and they, too, organized 1) the Internet Engineering Task Force

[11:30] Aphilo Aarde: and 2) the Internet

[11:30] Aphilo Aarde: through open committees

[11:31] Aphilo Aarde: (With World University and School - like Wikipedia with MIT Open Course Ware -

[11:31] Aphilo Aarde: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University - which I'm developing

[11:31] Aphilo Aarde: and of which this is the first course, in a sense - I see an open committee process like the above as key and central)

[11:32] Aphilo Aarde: So people in the late 70s and early 80s as these first networking technologies were developing

[11:32] Bon McLeod is Offline

[11:32] Froukje Hoorenbeek is Offline

[11:32] Aphilo Aarde: began to ask "What about domains?"

[11:33] Aphilo Aarde: No one was interested in developing them - domain names - which continue to be central to the internet addressing system

[11:33] Aphilo Aarde: making the addressing system eg 000.000.234.654

[11:33] Aphilo Aarde: translating the number system into names

[11:34] Aphilo Aarde: What about domains?

[11:34] Aphilo Aarde: One person said someone should take care of it.

[11:34] Aphilo Aarde: No one was interested.

[11:34] Aphilo Aarde: So a USC professor said he would

[11:34] Crimsom Nightfire is Online

[11:34] Aphilo Aarde: And he - Jon Postel -

[11:35] Aphilo Aarde: singiehandedly organized the assignment of names on the Internet

[11:35] Aphilo Aarde: The development of the internet has so many of these single-handed mini-revolutions

[11:35] A group member named aelwyn Fields owned by the group 'Real Life Education in Second Life' gave you TLE Newbie Park & Classrooms & B, Raziel (218, 176, 22).

[11:35] Ju Roussel: and if no one did, how long the address line would be for a new website today? LOL

[11:36] Bon McLeod is Online

[11:36] JonathanE Cortes: smile

[11:36] Aphilo Aarde: Remember, this preceeds Berners-Lee development of the world wide web (around 1989) by a few years

[11:36] Aphilo Aarde: Postel, who organized the domain name system, died in 1998.

[11:37] Aphilo Aarde: And he was ill for some years before dying

[11:37] Aphilo Aarde: and before dying he designed an approach of democratic authority to manage the internet

[11:38] Aphilo Aarde: He designed a governance agency - ICANN - to be recognized as the authroity

[11:38] Gentle Heron is Online

[11:38] Aphilo Aarde: the name 'authority' was later transferred to ICANN

[11:39] Aphilo Aarde: (And Europe has been less sure that ICANN is a separate organization from the US government - for many years :)

[11:39] go1984 Winsmore is Offline

[11:39] Ju Roussel: :)

[11:39] Aphilo Aarde: ICANN stands for Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

[11:40] Aphilo Aarde: The principle was that the governing body would be an elected group from a

[11:40] Aphilo Aarde: global network of rerpresentatives

[11:40] Aphilo Aarde: *representatives

[11:41] Aphilo Aarde: Anyone can be a member.

[11:41] zippidy Serendipity: ISOC ?

[11:41] Aphilo Aarde: At the turn of the millennium ICANN had 140,000 members

[11:41] Aphilo Aarde: And 35,000 voted from all over the place.

[11:41] Aphilo Aarde: There were 5 key members - 1 from each country

[11:42] Breeze Underwood is Online

[11:42] go1984 Winsmore is Online

[11:42] Aphilo Aarde: sorry, *continent

[11:42] Pooky Amsterdam is Offline

[11:42] Aphilo Aarde: And ICANN had the ability to assign address names

[11:42] Aphilo Aarde: addresses, that is

[11:42] Aphilo Aarde: This system at the turn of the millenium has 2 critiques

[11:43] Aphilo Aarde: 1 it was democratice but not democratic

[11:43] Aphilo Aarde: Lobbies played a role

[11:43] Spider Mycron is Offline

[11:43] Aphilo Aarde: Money played a significant role

[11:43] Aphilo Aarde: And name recognition could be a little arbitrary

[11:43] Aphilo Aarde: and that all candidates were not equal

[11:44] Aphilo Aarde: ... All True

[11:44] Aphilo Aarde: But most people didn't care

[11:44] Aphilo Aarde: and dont' care ... These technical agencies at the

[11:44] Aphilo Aarde: turn of the millenium were still much controlled by Americans

[11:45] Aphilo Aarde: the 2nd big critique was made by BIG corporations

[11:45] Aphilo Aarde: 2 Big corporations said that ICANN was subject to crazy people

[11:46] Aphilo Aarde: e.g. the European representative was a hacker at the turn of the millenium from the German XAOS club

[11:46] Aphilo Aarde: At the turn of the millenium

[11:46] Aphilo Aarde: ICANN was not a democratic representative body

[11:47] Aphilo Aarde: It was a nontraditional form of government rooted in the chaos of the Internet tradition.

[11:47] Draxtor Despres is Online

[11:47] Aphilo Aarde: The History of the Internet

[11:47] Aphilo Aarde: The Internet could have been completely different

[11:47] Aphilo Aarde: e.g. Top Down

[11:48] Aphilo Aarde: and it could have NOT been distributed computing

[11:48] Aphilo Aarde: distributed computing = free

[11:48] Aphilo Aarde: So, to say it a different way

[11:49] Whitelight Christiansen is Offline

[11:49] Draxtor Despres is Offline

[11:49] Whitelight Christiansen is Online

[11:49] Aphilo Aarde: the Internet is governed in a way that makes for a quite level 'playing field' - it's a complex 'ecosystem"

[11:49] Dallas Trefoil is Offline

[11:49] Scot Jung is Offline

[11:49] Aphilo Aarde: (and it could have bumpy and simply governed from above)

[11:50] Aphilo Aarde: and to make the second point a dfferent way - it could have been structured in a very different way - not distributed - and that would have made it much less free

[11:51] Chinadoll Lulu is Online

[11:51] Aphilo Aarde: So, history is made by people with values, ideas and preferences.

[11:51] Aphilo Aarde: What ultimately the internet is dpeands on ideas and values of different groups who contributed to the iinternet

[11:52] Aphilo Aarde: - The cultural creation which made the internet -

[11:52] Aphilo Aarde: Culture here is a set of values and beliefs that influence behavior

[11:52] Aphilo Aarde: Which are the cultures behind the ideas of the internet?

[11:53] Aphilo Aarde: Let's take a break now .... before we start to examine this fascinating question, of which we are the lucky beneficiaries

[11:53] Whitelight Christiansen is Offline

[11:53] Aphilo Aarde: So, let's take a break and come back at 5 past the hour

[11:54] Aphilo Aarde: Do you have a quesiton about access, Zippidy?

[11:54] Ju Roussel: okies

[11:54] Aphilo Aarde: See all of you again at 5 past the hour

[11:54] zippidy Serendipity is Online

[11:55] Aphilo Aarde: Hi Alice - Welcome

[11:55] Alice Thibodeaux: Hey Aphilo

[11:55] Aphilo Aarde: We're having a class on the Information Technology Revolution

[11:55] Alice Thibodeaux: Hey everybody

[11:55] Aphilo Aarde: and will begin again after a break

[11:56] JonathanE Cortes: hi

[11:56] Aphilo Aarde: at 5 past the hour - wherever you are - to talk about the

[11:56] Alice Thibodeaux: Oh OK, Sorry for the intrusion

[11:56] Aphilo Aarde: cultures that gave rise to the internet

[11:56] Aphilo Aarde: See you all at 5 past ... ask someone for a transcript Alice if you want to see what we've explored thus far.

[11:57] Alice Thibodeaux is Online

[11:57] Alice Thibodeaux accepted your inventory offer.

[11:57] zippidy Serendipity accepted your inventory offer.

[11:57] Aphilo Aarde: http://socinfotech.pbworks.com - is the wiki for this



[12:05] Aphilo Aarde: Welcome back

[12:05] sandhya2 Patel: : )

[12:05] Aphilo Aarde: I've begun to post today's transcript to

[12:06] Aphilo Aarde: http://socinfotech.pbworks.com - and we're at week 7

[12:06] Aphilo Aarde: You should be able to get it after

[12:06] Aphilo Aarde: soon after the class

[12:07] Aphilo Aarde: As a reminder ... this class meets from 11a -1 p on SLT on Saturdays, at least through May 1, and possibly beyond

[12:07] Aphilo Aarde: I hold office hours afterward from 1-2 pm here

[12:07] Aphilo Aarde: This is the first course, in a sense, for World University & School - a wiki for open teaching and learning,

[12:08] Aphilo Aarde: where you can teach to your web cameras, and post it at WUaS - and which focuses on great universities

[12:08] Aphilo Aarde: open free content ... like MIT OCW - witt 1900 courses on the web and webcast.berekely.edu with

[12:09] Aphilo Aarde: much video course content

[12:09] Whitelight Christiansen is Online

[12:09] Aphilo Aarde: There's also a LOT of great , free eduational software -

[12:09] Aphilo Aarde: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Educational_Software

[12:10] Aphilo Aarde: - and as wiki, I invite you to add great content you find, or want to teach.

[12:10] Alice Thibodeaux: Hey Neo

[12:10] Aphilo Aarde: This class we're in is

[12:10] Aphilo Aarde: Hi Neo!

[12:10] Aphilo Aarde: an example of how open teaching and learning would work in a virtual world

[12:10] neo Tehani: hi

[12:10] Aphilo Aarde: Welcome Neo to "Information Technology and Society"

[12:10] Gianna Borgnine is Online

[12:10] Aphilo Aarde: a course on the IT revolution

[12:11] Aphilo Aarde: I just gave you a notecard, Neo, with the pertinent information for the class.

[12:11] neo Tehani declined your inventory offer.

[12:11] Aphilo Aarde: So Cultures of the Internet

[12:12] Aphilo Aarde: What ultimately the internet is depends on the ideas and values

[12:12] Aphilo Aarde: of the different groups who contributed to the Internet

[12:12] Aphilo Aarde: What is the cultural creation that made the internet?

[12:13] Aphilo Aarde: Culture, here, as I said earlier, is a set of values and beliefs that influence behavior

[12:13] Aphilo Aarde: What are the cultures behind the ideas of the internet?

[12:13] Aphilo Aarde: I want to suggest that there are 4 cultures.

[12:14] Aphilo Aarde: 1 A technomeritocratic culture significantly gave rise to the internet

[12:14] Aphilo Aarde: what is valued here is GOOD technology

[12:14] Aphilo Aarde: Good software is the supreme value

[12:14] Arawn Spitteler is Online

[12:15] Aphilo Aarde: The model for this culture is similar to the academic world, which is supposed to be based on EXCELLENCE

[12:15] Aphilo Aarde: in the technomeritocratic culture excellence is valued

[12:16] Aphilo Aarde: The joy of discovering

[12:16] Aphilo Aarde: is also significantly part of this.

[12:16] Aphilo Aarde: In this milieu there's less emphasis on money, although that may have changed

[12:16] Aphilo Aarde: only a little over some decades

[12:16] Harley Kohime is Online

[12:17] Aphilo Aarde: In this culture, excellence and meritocracy are at stake

[12:17] Aphilo Aarde: To develop good technology is also essential

[12:17] Aphilo Aarde: Vint Cerf, etc. used Defense Department money to develop the internet

[12:18] Aphilo Aarde: And they wanted good software to be availabeleto everyone

[12:18] Aphilo Aarde: 2 On the basis of the above culture

[12:18] Aphilo Aarde: a 2nd culture developed

[12:18] Aphilo Aarde: HACKER Culture

[12:19] Aphilo Aarde: There's a book - by Pekka Himanen

[12:19] Aphilo Aarde: called

[12:19] Aphilo Aarde: The Hacker Ethic

[12:19] Aphilo Aarde: and the Spirit of the Informaiton Age"

[12:20] Aphilo Aarde: (Random House)

[12:20] Aphilo Aarde: It explores codes in a sense which inform hackers, and internet cultures

[12:20] buridan Simon is Online

[12:20] Sysku Mayo is Online

[12:21] Aphilo Aarde: The Hacker here isn't what the media constructs - folks who break the law - these are called crackers

[12:21] Aphilo Aarde: But the Hacker is someone for whom good software is the most important thing

[12:21] Ju Roussel: :)

[12:22] Aphilo Aarde: A Hacker is one who hacks - says "I'm going to try to find a new solution"

[12:22] Aphilo Aarde: and shares it

[12:22] Aphilo Aarde: Hackers are not 2 types

[12:22] Aphilo Aarde: A - they are not criminals

[12:22] Aphilo Aarde: B - subculture is not 'cracker'

[12:23] Arawn Spitteler is Offline

[12:23] Aphilo Aarde: Hackers hate crackers

[12:23] Aphilo Aarde: who crack codes out of the challenge of it

[12:23] Aphilo Aarde: Crackers make problems for governments

[12:23] Aphilo Aarde: Crackers make viruses

[12:23] Aphilo Aarde: And there are political crackers

[12:24] Aphilo Aarde: Most crackers are kids playing

[12:24] Aphilo Aarde: who are challenging the world

[12:24] Aphilo Aarde: Hackers hack for the pleasure of doing

[12:24] Aphilo Aarde: How does Hacker culture relate to the Internet?

[12:25] Aphilo Aarde: Free speech is free software for hackers

[12:25] Aphilo Aarde: Hackers want free speech and free software

[12:25] Aphilo Aarde: ( e.g. There is really a lot of good software here: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Educational_Software :)

[12:26] Aphilo Aarde: Hackers want to free good software

[12:26] Aphilo Aarde: And companies are threatened by this

[12:26] Aphilo Aarde: Hackers are a minority saying software should be free

[12:26] Aphilo Aarde: The majority of Hackers need free software to improve software

[12:27] Aphilo Aarde: through free software and information exchange

[12:27] Aphilo Aarde: e.g Linux from Linus Torvald

[12:27] Aphilo Aarde: Freix - it's called

[12:27] Aphilo Aarde: It was first called FREIX

[12:27] Aphilo Aarde: but a server administrator called it LINUX

[12:28] Aphilo Aarde: and Torvald released this program because he wanted the program to be improved

[12:28] Aphilo Aarde: 1000s and 1000s of people improved it

[12:28] Aphilo Aarde: for free!

[12:28] Aphilo Aarde: Why keep it free?

[12:29] Aphilo Aarde: Because if you freeze it for yourself, you close off the software.

[12:29] Aphilo Aarde: In Hacker culture,

[12:29] Aphilo Aarde: 1 You give in order to be given

[12:29] Aphilo Aarde: 2 Prestige among hakcers is important

[12:30] Aphilo Aarde: Most hackers can get money - (some were graduate students, for example)

[12:30] Aphilo Aarde: But not all hackers could be recognized

[12:30] Aphilo Aarde: Hackers weren't and aren't against money

[12:31] Ju Roussel: but who are hackers in RL? Those are people who work for google, and hack for a hobbie. You cannot say that this is not taking paid jobs from less fortunate programmers (not Aspie enough for google, let's say, and whose employers are old-fashioned re. business models...)

[12:31] Aphilo Aarde: but they were against money as the supreme value

[12:31] Aphilo Aarde: (Folks like Woz, Jobs, and Gates in the 70s forward - were all hackers)

[12:31] Ju Roussel: [by the same allegory, professors who indulge in entrepreneurship]

[12:31] Bon McLeod is Offline

[12:32] Aphilo Aarde: Many heads of major computer companies today ... could be seen as hackers

[12:32] Aphilo Aarde: historically ...

[12:33] Aphilo Aarde: Hacking as a key culture has significantly shaped computing with innovation ... Hackers took risks ... and put code together in new ways, thanks to it being free).

[12:33] Tarek String is Online

[12:34] Aphilo Aarde: So Hackers weren't against money, but only against money as a supreme value

[12:35] Aphilo Aarde: The technomeritocratic culture - the first culture I mentioned -

[12:35] Aphilo Aarde: was essential for its ability to keep free all key software on the Internet

[12:35] Bon McLeod is Online

[12:35] Aphilo Aarde: (http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Educational_Software - see what you can hack with this).

[12:36] Aphilo Aarde: 3) Another key culture was COMMUNITARIAN

[12:36] Aphilo Aarde: Not everyone was a hacker

[12:36] Aphilo Aarde: the internet from early on - the 70s - was an important way for people to communicate with each other

[12:37] Aphilo Aarde: Communities were online

[12:37] Aphilo Aarde: and these communities were sharing information - in chat rooms and on lists

[12:37] Aphilo Aarde: I mentioned 2 of the earliest most widespread of these subcultures were

[12:38] Aphilo Aarde: the SF Science Fiction club

[12:38] buridan Simon is Offline

[12:38] Aphilo Aarde: and the marijuana procurement community

[12:38] Aphilo Aarde: :)

[12:38] Aphilo Aarde: in the 70s and early 80s

[12:38] JonathanE Cortes: lol

[12:39] Ju Roussel: oh no, what would Etzioni say about this communitarianism?.. :)

[12:39] Bon McLeod is Offline

[12:39] Aphilo Aarde: 4) And lastly,

[12:39] Aphilo Aarde: 4) Entrepreneurial culture

[12:40] Aphilo Aarde: only in the 1990s did this become significant and widespread

[12:40] Aphilo Aarde: they said all this is great - let's make a pile of money out of it

[12:40] Aphilo Aarde: - but computing was/is a risky investment

[12:41] Aphilo Aarde: - especialy businesses out of applications

[12:41] Aphilo Aarde: But entrepreneurial culture helped diffuse the internet to the rest of the world

[12:41] Aphilo Aarde: which led to new markets

[12:41] Aphilo Aarde: and people who use this

[12:42] Aphilo Aarde: so the cultures that gave rise to the internet, again, are

[12:42] Bon McLeod is Online

[12:42] Aphilo Aarde: 1) technomeritocratic

[12:42] Aphilo Aarde: 2) hackers

[12:42] Aphilo Aarde: 3) communitarian 'cultures'

[12:43] Aphilo Aarde: and 4) (late) entrepreneurialism

[12:43] Aphilo Aarde: which - vis-a-vis money-making - helped to diffuse these

[12:43] Aphilo Aarde: technologies in very widespread ways

[12:44] Aphilo Aarde: And the importance goes from top to bottom

[12:44] Aphilo Aarde: Next we'll begin to look at the uses of the internet in society

[12:44] Aphilo Aarde: but before we move onto a new theme

[12:44] Ryszard Merchiston is Online

[12:44] Aphilo Aarde: are there questions observations

[12:45] Aphilo Aarde: How many hackers would you say you personally know today?

[12:45] sandhya2 Patel: clear so far to me

[12:45] Aphilo Aarde: :)

[12:45] Sybex Drachnyd: yes

[12:45] Ju Roussel: I'm a communitarian hacker

[12:45] Aphilo Aarde: Do you know, Ju, any folks in the Pirate Bay party

[12:45] Ju Roussel: :D

[12:45] Aphilo Aarde: in what ways, Ju?

[12:46] Gianna Borgnine is Offline

[12:46] Ju Roussel: they are FAMILY!

[12:46] Ju Roussel: lol

[12:46] Aphilo Aarde: (in Sweden, where you live?)

[12:46] Ju Roussel: Yes, they were supported by academic community during the trials

[12:46] Aphilo Aarde: Sybex? Jonathan?

[12:46] Ju Roussel: Haven't met them

[12:46] Aphilo Aarde: Would you say any of your friends are hackers?

[12:46] Sybex Drachnyd: i do not know

[12:47] Ju Roussel: but as I say, they were close to everybody's hearts.

[12:47] Sybex Drachnyd: i am not sure really

[12:47] Aphilo Aarde: I think that hacking has become more sophisticated these days

[12:47] sandhya2 Patel: msby only one

[12:47] Ju Roussel: If you mingle with edu communities here, you will soon feel the hacker inside yourself

[12:47] Aphilo Aarde: That these information technologies in the 80s and 90s were pretty open - TCP/IP was written as an open set of protocols in the 70s

[12:48] Aphilo Aarde: and that to hack these information technologies requires more technical sophistication

[12:48] Aphilo Aarde: than in the 80s and 90s

[12:48] Aphilo Aarde: Agreed, Ju

[12:48] zippidy Serendipity is Offline

[12:49] Ryszard Merchiston is Offline

[12:49] Aphilo Aarde: I just want to point out

[12:49] Ju Roussel: oh yes, how about open DNS / google DNS ? What's in there for the provider of such services?

[12:49] Aphilo Aarde: some sections on the wiki bibliography webnographers.org

[12:50] Aphilo Aarde: which may offer germane information about hacking if you wanted to explore

[12:50] Aphilo Aarde: these further

[12:50] Aphilo Aarde: (I'm the main editor / aggregator of http://webnographers.org)

[12:50] Bon McLeod is Offline

[12:51] Aphilo Aarde: (although it's an open wiki, and welcomes anyone to add content)

[12:52] Aphilo Aarde: http://www.webnographers.org/index.php?title=Books#Hacker_Culture

[12:52] Aphilo Aarde: There are two books here on Hacker Culture - Himanen's book ... and

[12:52] Aphilo Aarde: Bye Ju

[12:52] Aphilo Aarde: Hello Ju

[12:53] Ju Roussel: swifter than SL speed...

[12:53] Gianna Borgnine is Online

[12:53] Aphilo Aarde: I'd also like to point to the cybersecurity section in papers at webnographers.org

[12:53] Aphilo Aarde: http://www.webnographers.org/index.php?title=Papers#Cybersecurity

[12:54] Aphilo Aarde: and some of these put hacking, which was very significant in a variety of ways in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s

[12:54] Aphilo Aarde: into a contemporary perspective.

[12:54] Gianna Borgnine is Offline

[12:54] Aphilo Aarde: For example, Scott Bradner (at Harvard)

[12:55] Aphilo Aarde: outlines, in a sense, a whole series of hacking attempts

[12:55] Ju Roussel: If we think about the consumer end of using the software products - what historically keeps people with paid products? Psychology, path-dependence? E.g. we now sit in Second Life, not Opensim :)

[12:55] Aphilo Aarde: and Jonathan Zittrain's paper

[12:56] Aphilo Aarde: also explores how generativity - the innovation which comes from information technologies interacting freely with other information technologies, in a sense - can carry

[12:56] Aphilo Aarde: a trajectory of hacking forward

[12:56] Aphilo Aarde: http://www.webnographers.org/index.php?title=Papers#Cybersecurity

[12:57] Aphilo Aarde: So, Ju

[12:57] Aphilo Aarde: one way to explain the role of free ware and open source today, economically

[12:57] Whitelight Christiansen is Offline

[12:57] Aphilo Aarde: - both of which hacking gave rise to -

[12:57] Whitelight Christiansen is Online

[12:57] Tarek String is Offline

[12:57] Aphilo Aarde: we've been looking at cultures which gave rise to the internet so far ... and your questions

[12:58] Aphilo Aarde: ask about consumer choice in some ways

[12:58] Aphilo Aarde: Second Life is free ... and I continue to teach here, because it is free

[12:59] demarco Spatula is Online

[12:59] Aphilo Aarde: I'd like to cite the example of Microsoft and Apple

[12:59] Aquiel Aero is Offline

[12:59] Ju Roussel: However Harvard pays for this server space

[12:59] Aphilo Aarde: before we close momentarily

[13:00] Aphilo Aarde: Microsoft in the early 80s licensed the kernel of their operating system, and opened it to many programmers and hackers

[13:00] Aphilo Aarde: and licensed their kernel to pc clone makers

[13:00] Curious George is Online

[13:00] Aphilo Aarde: while Apple locked down their software and hardware ...

[13:01] Aphilo Aarde: and thus limited their access to aroun 5 or 10% of market share

[13:01] Aphilo Aarde: while MS is on around 75% of desktops

[13:01] Ju Roussel: MS also abandoned Second Life. And moved to ReactionGrid...

[13:01] Aphilo Aarde: Openness has merit for generativity

[13:01] Aphilo Aarde: :)

[13:02] Aphilo Aarde: I'd also like to mention Benkler's "The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom"

[13:03] Ju Roussel: Thank you

[13:03] Aphilo Aarde: He argues that there's a whole new sphere of nonmarket information production due to informaiton technologies

[13:03] Aphilo Aarde: - that because they're are basically very very inexpensive

[13:04] Aphilo Aarde: a free sphere has emerged.

[13:04] Aphilo Aarde: And, personally, I moved from

[13:04] Aphilo Aarde: Microsoft Office to Open Office and Google Docs when they started to work well

[13:05] Aphilo Aarde: So to respond to your question, Ju

[13:05] Aphilo Aarde: it's when hackers/innovators are successful that consumers change their

[13:05] Aphilo Aarde: choices - that consumers have a choice

[13:05] Aphilo Aarde: Both Open Office and Google Docs are here: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Educational_Software

[13:06] Ju Roussel: it seems that it's a matter of balance. While many believe that googling can give them all information they might need, it is "databases of databases" such as Proquest's DIALOG, that hold world's information. And they are outrageously expensive.

[13:06] Aphilo Aarde: But it takes a lot of hacking to develop such good software as this.

[13:07] Aphilo Aarde: Agreed ... I hope world university and school will open all such things up ... we need a world wide free open university and college system, with libraries

[13:07] Aphilo Aarde: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Library_Resources

[13:07] Aphilo Aarde: And there are already a lot of great resources at this URL

[13:07] Malburns Writer is Online

[13:07] Aphilo Aarde: So let's close for today

[13:07] JonathanE Cortes: thx, again , very good

[13:08] Aphilo Aarde: and I have office hours until around 2 SLT ...

[13:08] Aphilo Aarde: Thanks, Jonathan!

[13:08] sandhya2 Patel: totallly informative thank you

[13:08] JonathanE Cortes: well its a shame this is so late on Saturdays from me

[13:08] Sybex Drachnyd: much to think about

[13:08] Aphilo Aarde: Nice to see all of you ... Again, I welcome questions and observations mid-stream

[13:08] Aphilo Aarde: they expand conversation

[13:08] Aphilo Aarde: :)

[13:09] Aphilo Aarde: I could possibly hold this an hour earlier some months in the future ...

[13:09] Ju Roussel: Aren't you 1 hour behind me Jonathan? :)

[13:09] sandhya2 Patel: oh i have a class right before this one

[13:09] Aphilo Aarde: but California time and UK time come together in SL

[13:09] JonathanE Cortes: its 8pm ish here

[13:09] sandhya2 Patel: and i am lucky to get here in time

[13:09] Aphilo Aarde: :)

[13:10] Aphilo Aarde: This time will remain steady for now ... sorry it's a little late for you to the east ... or is it to the west?

[13:10] Aphilo Aarde: :)

[13:10] JonathanE Cortes: np, just means i have to miss some

[13:10] JonathanE Cortes: but thx

[13:10] Aphilo Aarde: The transcripts are here:

[13:10] Aquiel Aero is Online

[13:11] Aphilo Aarde: http://socinfotech.pbworks.com/

[13:11] Aphilo Aarde: for future reference

[13:11] Cindy Ecksol is Offline

[13:12] JonathanE Cortes: well c ya all next time

[13:12] Aphilo Aarde: I'm curious about your experiences where teaching and learning

[13:12] Aphilo Aarde: have been really great for you?

[13:12] sandhya2 Patel: very goos

[13:12] Aphilo Aarde: Bye, Jonathan!

[13:12] JonathanE Cortes: c ya around Ju

[13:12] Sybex Drachnyd: i must go

[13:12] Aphilo Aarde: :)

[13:12] Aphilo Aarde: Bye Sybex

[13:13] sandhya2 Patel: thank you for this class

[13:13] sandhya2 Patel: i really appreciate it

[13:13] Aphilo Aarde: Thanks for coming

[13:13] Aphilo Aarde: Glad you can participate

[13:14] Aphilo Aarde: See you next week!







(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/03/desolation-wildernessinternet.html - March 20, 2010)