Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking

Coleman understands us better than we understand ourselves.It is difficult for me to top the reviews of others -- includingthe review from Simon who is a friend, colleague and important voice in FLOSS.I was initially drawn to understand the legal underpinningsof Free Software because I was struck how essential it isto have the "freedom to be creative". Typically artists, say painters,are not given tools of their craft with odd restrictions like1) paint anything you like, but you cannot use colors in combinationwithout asking permission first and 2) you may not be inspiredby the masters who have come before you.That our digital era involves "copying" for any use has led toa bonanza for the "content development industries". Lessig hascovered the price we pay as a culture for this unintended consequence.Coleman gives perspective on Lessig's influence in the large -- a perspectivewhich is desperately needed today.Artists of the keyboard (hackers) have had to become aware ofthe law and specifically how copyright works to understandhow "open source" enables creativity.The trajectory of technology is pointing clearly to softwarein a starring role. And thus fully understanding the powerand risks of software for creativity, privacy, security and free speechis not optional. Coding Freedom offers a lexicon to discussand work together for the kind of technology we want in our society.

I'm fairly familiar with the world of free software and Debian, so I was expecting this book to be a rehashing of what I already knew. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. While I already knew a decent portion of the information Coleman presents, what I found novel was the analysis and examination of the world of free software.Coming from an anthropological background, Coleman constructs a picture of the history and organization of free software and the hackers that surround it that goes far beyond anything else I have read. The motivations of free software hackers are explained, and she manages to convey a decent portion of the excitement that drives hackers, all in a very accessible way. The community of hackers shown in the book is not the flat amalgamation presented in most reports, but instead delves deep in the various types of people considered to be "hackers". The book shows the varying world views free software hackers have, and how and why these views all translate into a passion for free software. The book also examines the progression of public perception of free software, and social implications which came along with it, and offers some new insight into the changes this forced in traditional perceptions of motivation.I highly recommend this book to everyone, whether you know nothing about computers or you have been hacking free software since the beginning.

Excellent book, refreshing to read an anthropological study on FOSS (and the Debian community in particular) and, such a thorough one. Many insights, one of the most impressing (to me) was that FOSS is rooted in liberal thought. By creating the copyleft license, Stallman, according to Coleman, implied the same kind of skills he used for solving complicated bugs. By creating, as it where, a patch, to a conflict rooted at the heart of western, capitalist liberalism. That of Individual freedom verses copy right law. This insight is impressive as I personally never read or heard anyone provide evidence for such an idea. What’s more, Coleman describes processes and change within FOSS - for example, the development of FOSS discourse over freedom. Her demonstration of the way in which liberalism is incorporated on the individual level by FOSS developers is also insightful - constant self-improvement verses consumption. However, for me the greatest take is that by tying between liberal thought and FOSS, Coleman provides a great base for researching the role of FOSS within society, not just Hacker culture. What’s more it holds the potential of shifting the discussion from WHAT is being produced by FOSS developers and the ways it can be utilized, to the question of WHY is it being produced in the first place and what kind of need does it fulfill?

Very nice book about what does it mean to be a hacker. A great ethnographic research that addresses the intimacy hacker’s lifeworld, their faith in freedom (free from speech, not from beer), their conferences and meetings replete of rituals, bibles and sacred texts, their love to free software, their fight against capitalist appropriation of common goods and so on. They are evangelists of a better world, melding technique and politics. They appreciate a moral of universal access to internet, web, networked nets, cultural goods, intellectual achievement, because merit is more important than market. Hackers have bad fame, when they are recognized as immoral invaders of sites, as copyright laws breakers, as defying preachers against capitalism. We need them!

As a general insight into the culture of free software developers it lines up nicely with the new interest in the cyber realm (malicious hackers are not covered in the book). It is written very densely with Coleman featuring a pleasant, eloquent style of writing, though the myriad of influences that helped form her world view and the wealth of information at times make it a bit laborious to read. Nonetheless, the insight this ethnography presents is enriching not only for the general reader, but also the field of cultural anthropology itself. Thank you.

Coleman provides an insider's perspective into a unique world. I rate if four star because there were aspects I think she left out or incomplete.

A good read for lovers of technology. It guided me through my younger years of BBS, IRC, books, and just the general love of taking things apart. Guess I'm just a hacker at heart and just needed someone to show me...

This was a Christmas gift-they liked it.

Gabriella Coleman is mainstream media's first port of call when seeking insight about the hacker world - and this book shows why. Coleman is not a geek (let alone a hacker) but, as a graduate student anthropologist in the late 1990s, she took the time to conduct detailed fieldwork, embedding herself for several years within a particular hacker community. As a result she truly understands her subject. Her descriptions and analysis will enlighten interested readers who don't know much about this world and will provoke smiles and winces of recognition in those who have had some exposure.Hackers come in many flavours and it is important to establish that Coleman's focus is really on one sub-species: "hackerus F/OSSus". These are hackers committed to developing free / open-source software ("F/OSS") and who have the technical skill necessary to work on the world's largest Free Software collaborative project - the Debian Linux distribution. This book barely touches on hackers who lack either this commitment or this level of technical skill, crackers who 'hack for devious, malicious, or illegal ends', hactivists who use hacking primarily to advance political ends, or even the "Anonymous" phenomenon - which gets precisely one sentence in the epilogue. Some readers may find this frustrating, but the focus does provide great depth of understanding and interpretive insight.While her subject group is very focused, the topics covered range quite widely. In the introduction, Coleman ties the work together as an analysis of the ethics and aesthetics of hacking, but the main chapters themselves include a potted history of the field, a portrait of a typical free software hacker, a glimpse of the hacker's craft, a deep dive into the Debian community (including an analysis of how it structures itself and resolves disputes), and a dissection of the Great Conflict that has shaped and been shaped by the hacker community, namely the clash between authority-driven attempts to expand and enforce restrictive concepts of intellectual property and the countervailing expansion of concepts of intellectual creativity as a form of protected free speech.This wide range inevitably leads to a less cohesive text, and this reflects the book's origins in her PhD thesis and assorted academic articles since. This also gives the book a slightly historical feel - the bulk of the work pre-dates 2006 - which is noticeable in an environment that is changing so rapidly. Nevertheless, I cannot recommend this work strongly enough to someone who wants to gain a proper understanding of the hacker's worldview.

Good Quality, Would repeat

This book, in a few steps:1. Glamourize hacker culture, with the implicit support of hackers who want to see themselves as heroes.2. Take a strain of political activism, which is frequently youthful and free of maturity/nuance, and turn it into a "world-changing force."3. Wrap it all in pseudo-academic jargon suitable for a Philosophy undergraduate,4. Sell it as academic material to the ruling class.And that's how you mill an youthful, well-meaning, sometimes misguided political movement into pretentious yarn for old white academics.I can't believe I once liked this book. This is pure fraud.