Thanks for sharing. It is interesting, Malcolm Gladwell just published a piece on Snowden, concluding he was *not* a whistleblower but a hacker technocrat. He used part of my work to make the point, which was frustrating as the whole point of a lot of my recent work is to think about how hackers have exceeded a narrow and technological politics. Oi vey. Cherry picking is so frustrating. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/12/19/daniel-ellsberg-edward-snowden-and-the-modern-whistle-blower
Here is his piece and my attempt to call it out https://twitter.com/BiellaColeman/status/808839709740777472 Comments welcome as this is a short piece that can be certainly expanded! Take care, Biella On Tue, Dec 13, 2016 at 12:34 AM, Udhay Shankar N <ud...@pobox.com> wrote: > Biella Coleman (one of our list.lurkers) is uniquely qualified to write > about the anthropology of the hacking underground. In her current paper, > she asks an interesting question: why are hackers/crackers so much more > political than people in other lines of work? > > Thoughts? > > Udhay > > http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/688697 > > <q> > > Hackers and their projects have become routine, authoritative, and public > participants in our daily geopolitical goings-on. There are no obvious, > much less given, explanations as to why a socially and economically > privileged group of actors, once primarily defined by obscure tinkering and > technical exploration, is now so willing to engage in popular media > advocacy, traditional policy- and law-making, political tool building, and > especially forms of direct action and civil disobedience so risky that > scores of hackers are currently in jail or exile for their willingness to > expose wrongdoing. Why and how have hackers managed to preserve pockets of > autonomy? What historical, cultural, and sociological conditions have > facilitated their passage into the political arena, especially in such > large numbers? Why do a smaller but still notable fraction risk their > privilege with acts of civil disobedience? These are questions that beg for > nuanced answers—beyond the blind celebration or denigration offered by > popular characterizations of hacker politics. In this article I will > provide an introductory inventory—a basic outline of the sociocultural > attributes and corollary historical conditions—responsible for the > intensification of hacker politics during the last 5 years. > > </q> > > -- > > ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com)) >
