Recent events have highlighted the fact that hackers, coders, and geeks are behind a vibrant political culture.
A decade-plus of anthropological fieldwork among hackers and like-minded geeks has led me to the firm conviction that these people are building one of the most vibrant civil liberties movements we’ve ever seen. It is a culture committed to freeing information, insisting on privacy, and fighting censorship, which in turn propels wide-ranging political activity. In the last year alone, hackers have been behind some of the most powerful political currents out there.
Before I elaborate, a brief word on the term “hacker” is probably
in order. Even among hackers, it provokes debate. For instance, on
the technical front, a hacker might program, administer a network,
or tinker with hardware. Ethically and politically, the
variability is just as prominent. Some hackers are part of a
transgressive, law-breaking tradition, their activities opaque and
below the radar. Other hackers write open-source software and
pride themselves on access and transparency. While many steer
clear of political activity, an increasingly important subset rise
up to defend their productive autonomy, or engage in broader
social justice and human rights campaigns.
[...]
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http://www.technologyreview.com/news/510641/geeks-are-the-new-guardians-of-our-civil-liberties/