Re: <nettime> Interview with Richard Stallman in New Left Review (September-October 2018)

[Francis Hunger <francis.hunger@irmielin.org>]

Hi everybody,

I was a bit disappointed, that this kind of 'weak' Stallman interview
was published in the New Left Review. 'Weak' insofar as I can't see much
'leftist' in it.

My 2003 thesis-paper "Open Source – Open Gender" discussed critically
quite a fewissues regarding Open Source from a leftist perspective.
http://www.irmielin.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/francis_hunger_open_source_open_gender_english.pdf

Skip the introduction an jump to chapter "3.3. Free software as a
romping place for the prestige-conscious male", where using Bourdieus
framework I developed a critique. Of course my paper has aged. Yet it
also delivers another stream of critique than for instance the already
mentioned Tiziana Terranova and cerainly much more than the Stallman
interview.

Developed further with the early Donna Haraway and late Roswitha Scholz
into the dimensions of gender and labor, it discusses how the Open
Source community created a specific space for the re-creation of male
identiy and introduced shifts towards labor conditions. Some of these
things may have gradually changed over the years, other parts of that
paper still hold until today.

From Leipzig,

Francis


>
> Am 30.10.2018 um 21:00 schrieb Carsten Agger:
>> People who contribute with voluntary work for any kind of project (not
>> just free software) do so for a variety of reasons. Because it's fun,
>> because they personally think it's important, because they like being a
>> part of building this, etc.
>
> I think you all follow preconceptions about "work" in the digital context.
>
> What is special about software is that administrating, coding and using
> software are no entirely distinct tasks. Esp. when there is no incentive
> to keep fixes private. The concept emerged in an environment where
> business and licensing models provided friction for professional
> (well-paid) system administrators in a research context who were
> hindered to adapt software to their organisation's needs and
> infrastructural change. These models are now history.
>
> Software grows organically by being used by professional users.
>
> When you think about it more generally there are many examples where
> consumer actions actually benefit the business model. We do not like
> empty dance floors... by being there we become part of the product.
> Some may even get paid to show up.
>
> Ironically no one frames Facebook contributions as "unpaid voluntary
> work" to keep the community platform content-wise up and running to the
> benefit of Mr. Zuckerberg's advertisement business model.
>
> --- A
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