sex, beer, and rocknroll

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sex, beer, and rocknroll?

• towards a critique of the political economy of
  free and open source software

SSRG, Shay David, march 29th 2004 sd256_at_cornell.ed
u
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some big questions to think about when
contemplating invention and innovation in IT
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how is IT different from other T? how is it
similar?
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do we need a new theory of invention and
innovation when we stop looking at steam engines
and start looking at search engines?
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can we talk about revolutions in IT without
resorting to a techno-revolutionary speak, or
gasping for words?
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"Technology creates a horizon beyond which human
destiny is unknowable Washington Post, article
about Google, Feb 14th 2004http//www.washingtonp
ost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42885-2004Feb14
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I cant imagine anyone wanting to go into a field
other than CS. CS is the only field in which one
can make a difference in a lifetime Bill
Gates, talk at Cornell, Feb 2004
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I was aware that the Internet had been built and
funded by the DOD yet here I was using the system
to chat with my friends and to swap recipes with
strangersrather like taking a tank for a
joy-ride Abbate, 2000, p. 2
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can we talk more sensibly about IT?
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technology and language

• Raymond Williams - keywords
• George Lakoff metaphors, frames
• Ruth Oldenziel words matter
• Lucien Febvre intellectual categories

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We like to talk about the machines which we
create and which enslave us. But machines are not
only made of steel. Any intellectual category we
may forge in the workshops of the mind is able to
impose itself with the same force and the same
tyrannyand holds even more stubbornly to its
existence than the machinesLucien Febvre,
quoted in Adrian Johns The Nature of the Book,
p. 622
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it is words, keywords, and metaphors that
provide historians with windows through which to
view a segment of the history of ideas and
experiencewords matter - technology is no
exceptionRuth Oldenziel, Making Technology
Masculine, p. 15
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my first claimbefore we can talk sensibly
about revolutions in IT we need to understand
the modification in the meaning of the basic
analytical categories
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why f/oss?
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my second claimas an ongoing controversy,
f/oss opens a window for reflection from which we
can draw conclusions and generalize about IT
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five parts of my f/oss Project

• a short history 1969-2003
• a critique of the political economy
• normative claims about f/oss
• case studies
• towards a theory of innovation in IT

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research methods

• archival research usenet, corporate PR, email
  communication, RFCs and other technical documents
• analysis of autobiographies, manifestos, and
  homepages
• interviews with key actors
• participant observation in f/oss projects

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f/oss as a site
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the free software foundation

• mission to promote computer users' right to
• use software
• study it
• copy it
• modify it
• redistribute it gratis or for a fee
• how? by writing, and giving away quality
  software, with its source codefor free
• using the GPL

Richard Stallman
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free softwarefree as in free speech not
free beer
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Linux

• software is like sex,its better when its
  free

Linus Torvalds
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wait a minute! did you just say free sex?
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is this simply a system in which wealth is
produced not by labor but by knowledge and
incentives are given not by money but by
increase of reputation?
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from free software to open source

• the "open source" label itself came out of a
  strategy session held on Feb 3rd 1998 in Palo
  Alto, CA We realized it was time to dump the
  confrontational attitude that has been associated
  with "free software" in the past and sell the
  idea strictly on the same pragmatic,
  business-case grounds that motivated Netscape. We
  brainstormed about tactics and a new label. open
  source," was the best thing we came up with.
• (History Of The OSI 2003)

Eric Raymond
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Lexis-Nexis search that tracks the number of
references to "open source in American
newspapers and magazines in 1988

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f/oss as a business practice

• the (multi) million dollar question
• how do you make money in free software?

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so whats the fuss about f/oss?
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market share for top web-servers
source www.netcraft.com march 2004
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estimated Linux user count
Tux
source http//counter.li.org/ march 2004
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Hewlett-Packard to Launch Linux-Based PCs
GloballyWed 24 March, 2004 0803
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(No Transcript)
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Microsoft 1976 open letter to hobbyists
To me, the most critical thing in the hobby
market right now is the lack of good software
courses, books and software itself. Without good
software and an owner who understands
programming, a hobby computer is wasted. Will
quality software be written for the hobby
market? As the majority of hobbyists must be
aware, most of you steal your software. Hardware
must be paid for, but software is something to
share. Who cares if the people who worked on it
get paid? Is this fair? One thing you do do
is prevent good software from being written
Bill Gates, General Partner, Micro-Soft (1976)
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Microsoft 1988
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f/oss beyond software
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• Wikipedia includes 500,000 articles
• anyone, can edit any article
• All of the site's content is covered by the GNU
  Free Documentation License

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(No Transcript)
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shifts in political economic categories
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key questions for the analyst

• what happens to the concepts of exchange,
  exchange-value, use-value, labour, capital, the
  market, money, commodities, and desire when
  advanced software and networking technologies
  amplify human tendency (and ability) to truck and
  barter and allow users to engage in equal
  exchange without money being involved?
• which new concepts and categories are produced
  that sustain such a political economic system?

• what happens to the concepts of exchange,
  exchange-value, use-value, labour, capital, the
  market, money, commodities, and desire when
  advanced software and networking technologies
  amplify human tendency (and ability) to truck and
  barter and allow users to engage in equal
  exchange without money being involved?
• which new concepts and categories are produced
  that sustain such a political economic system?

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shattering the mirror of production

• Are we always within the capitalist mode of
  production?
• Are we within a later mode, so different in its
  structure, in its contradictions and in its mode
  of revolution, that one must distinguish it
  radically from capitalism?
• Baudrillard, 1975, p. 124

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my third claimf/oss revolves around
exchangeand as such it claims to shatter the
mirror of production
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why does the hacker work?
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• Why does the worker sell his labour-power? Marx
  In order to live Wage Labour and Capital,
  (1978) p. 204
• Why does the hacker work? Torvalds The reason
  that Linux hackers do something is that they find
  it to be very interesting, and they like to share
  this interesting thing with othersTorvalds
  2001 p. xvii

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money in capitalism

• a means of exchange
• a mode of payment
• a standard of value
• a means for the storage of wealth

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Torvalds on money

• Money is certainly useful, but most people would
  agree that money per se is not what ultimately
  motivates people one should not dismiss the
  social impact of having money, whether you buy
  something or not. Money remains a powerful thing,
  but still it is just proxy for other more
  fundamental motivating factors

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Stallman on money

• I dont want to spend a lot of money. If you
  spend a lot of money then youre the slave of
  having to make money. The money then jerks you
  around, controls your life There is only one way
  I could have made that money, and that is by
  doing what Id be ashamed ofwriting non-free
  software.
• Moody 2001 pp. 28-29

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Raymond on gift cultures

• In gift cultures, social status is determined
  not by what you control but by what you give
  away. Thus the Kwakiutl chieftain's potlatch
  party. Thus the multi-millionaire's elaborate and
  usually public acts of philanthropy. And thus the
  hacker's long hours of effort to produce
  high-quality open-source code.

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the social worlds of f/oss
f/oss
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the social worlds of f/oss
free software open source
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the social worlds of f/oss
free software open source
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the social worlds of f/oss
free software
open source
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the social worlds of f/oss
free software
open source
traditional software dev.
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the social worlds of f/oss
free software
real world
open source
traditionalsoftware dev.
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money in f/oss

• a means of exchange
• a mode of payment
• a standard of value
• a means for the storage of wealth

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exchange in capitalism

• Smith a means to gain wealth
• Marx a process by which value is created through
  the cycles of CMC and MCM
• exchange is between owners/producers and
  buyers/consumers

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exchange in f/oss

• collective action in the face of non-rivalrous
  products (Steven Weber)
• the use-value of software for any given user
  increases when its exchange value decreases
• the traditional dichotomy between consumers and
  producers collapses!

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new categories
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fun, passion, entertainment
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just for fun

• There are three things that have meaning for
  life. They are the motivational factors for
  everything in your lifefor anything that you do
  or any living thing does The first is survival,
  the second is social order, and the third is
  entertainment. Everything in life progresses in
  that order. And there is nothing after
  entertainment. So, in a sense, the implication is
  that the meaning of life is to reach that third
  stage. And once youve reached the third stage,
  youre done
• (Torvalds and Diamond 2001 xviii)

fun
social order
survival
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software as passion

• Software design and implementation should be a
  joyous art, and a kind of high-level play. If
  this attitude seems preposterous or vaguely
  embarrassing to you, stop and think ask yourself
  what youve forgotten. Why do you design software
  instead of doing something else to make money or
  pass the time? You must have thought software was
  worthy of your passions onceYou need to care.
  You need to play. You need to be willing to
  explore.
• (Raymond quoted in Himanen 20016).

Eric Raymond
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code
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the departure from the mode of production into a
mode of simulation forces one to establish a
dialogue of signs with the system which is
regulated by code.Baulldriard, 1975, p. 127
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In real space we recognize how laws
regulatethrough constitutions, statutes, and
other legal codes. In cyberspace, we must
understand how code regulateshow the software
and hardware that makecyberspace what it is
regulate cyberspace as it is. Code is law.
Lessig, 2001 p. 6
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if its not source its not software(GNU
Homepage)
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conclusion
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Q A
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more on f/oss

• http//www.shaydavid.info
• f/oss session at 4S 2004
• http//opensource.mit.edu

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so what does this all mean?
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probably not much that if and when we ever
meet another intelligent life form in the
universe, their first words are not likely to be
take me to your leader theyre more likely to say
party on, dude! of course, I might be
wrong.Torvalds and Diamond, 2001 p.248
Linus Torvalds