Re: <nettime> Interview with Christopher Kelty: the Culture of Free Software

["Christopher M. Kelty" <ckelty@rice.edu>]

florian,

thanks for these observations, I agree with all of them.  I would only
defend my book by insisting that it is in fact a kind of history of
this period, and not at all intended to be a representation of free
software today.  It is however, composed in such a way that I think
helps make sense of some of the "modulations" of free software that
have since appeared (Creative Commons and Connexions are the two
analyzed in the book), and I hope, a theoretical understanding of how
to make some of the criticisms you raise here, especially that of
freedom qua consumer-choice, more rigorous.   I hope it serves that
purpose, rather than being read as simply out of date.  Being always
up to date, or more accurately, being anxious about not being up to
date, is in fact a feature of contemporary consumer culture and its
focus on so-called rights.  Think of it as the academic equivalent of
the slow food movement :)

thanks, as ever for the thoughtful commentary,
ck

On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 03:59:35AM +0200, Florian Cramer wrote:

> On Sunday, August 24 2008, 10:09 (+0200), Geert Lovink wrote:
> 
> >the dominance of
> >the conservative-libertarian pop ideology within open source/free
> >software circles (see www.slashdot.org).
> 
> A small critical footnote: While Slashdot started as an Open
> Source/Free Software site in the late 1990s, it has shifted its focus
> some years ago towards "geek culture" in the broadest and most general
> sense. While am writing this, only 3 of the 18 articles on the Slashdot
 <...>


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