Internet Labor

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• Internet Labor
• What's so Radical About Free Software?

Jonah Bossewitch Left Forum 2009 April 19, 2009
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Personal Transformations

• Commons-Based
• Peer Production
• Throwaways ? Crafstmanship
• Exploitation ? Community
• Mercenary ? Freedom Fighter

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Breeding Ground for Experimentation
Ecology of a Software Project SoftwareCommunit
yProcesses

• Structure, Processes, and Governance
• Consensus, Conflict Resolution
• Reflective and self-conscious (and -organized,
  -determined, and -satisfying)?

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Percolating Values

• Software as artifact of community
• Structures and processes to accommodate change
• Organized for community and access to knowledge

• Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability
• Agile, responsive, and self-determined growth
• Tools embodying and reflecting these priorities

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Constructivist Learning

• Learning by making and doing
• Learning through the conscious construction of
  public entities actualized in particular contexts
  
• Individuals are encouraged to construct meaning
  for themselves
• Progressive internalization of action

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Gateway to Political Action

• Practically engage directly in politics
• Personally taste the fruit of political action.
• Awakening to civic activation, engagement, and
  maintenance

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Free Energy

• What lessons can activists learn from the
• free software/free culture movements?
• Tactically - distributing knowledge
• community building communities
• increased efficiency
• Strategically - Present choices to individuals
• Action catalyzes engagement
• Direct participation
• ? Raises awareness and understanding
• ? Catalyst for idealogical transformation
• Cultivating the will necessary to sustain the
  pressure required for true reform

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Economic (R)evolutions

• Assumption
• Communism failed, capitalism triumphant, economic
  systems have ceased to evolve.

Human sharing can support self-interests and
result in greater value and wealth. Smaller
pieces of larger pies
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A Time for Celebration

• "Banish the word 'struggle' from your attitude
  and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be
  done in a sacred manner and in celebration. We
  are the ones we have been waiting for." Hopi
  elders

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Questions