Hacking and Open Source Culture Hacking and Open Source Culture READINGS OF THE IDEAS, SOCIAL MOVEMENTS, AND PEOPLE WHO SHAPED THE INFORMATION SOCIETY First Edition Edited by Dave Seng Bassim Hamadeh, CEO and Publisher Jennifer McCarthy, Acquisitions Editor Amy Smith, Project Editor Casey Hands, Associate Production Editor Jess Estrella, Senior Graphic Designer Alisa Munoz, Licensing Coordinator Don Kesner, Interior Designer Natalie Piccotti, Director of Marketing Kassie Graves, Vice President of Editorial Jamie Giganti, Director of Academic Publishing Copyright © 2019 by Cognella, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information retrieval system without the written permission of Cognella, Inc. For inquiries regarding permissions, translations, foreign rights, audio rights, and any other forms of reproduction, please contact the Cognella Licensing Department at [email protected]. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Cover image Copyright © 2016 Depositphotos/Wavebreakmedia. Interior image Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/466ENaLuhLY Printed in the United States of America. ISBN: 978-1-5165-2570-6 (pbk) / 978-1-5165-2571-3 (br) To Deb, the princess of my heart. CONTENTS Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................ ix Part I. History and Development of the Computer .................................................................. 1 Reading 1. The Early History of Software, 1952–1968 ....................................................................... 3 By Paul E. Ceruzzi Reading 2. The Chip and Its Impact, 1965–1975 ................................................................................. 37 By Paul E. Ceruzzi Discussion Questions ........................................................................................................................................ 69 For Further Reading ............................................................................................................................................. 69 Part II. History and Development of the Internet .................................................................. 71 Reading 3. Workstations, UNIX, and the Net, 1981–1995 ............................................................. 73 By Paul E. Ceruzzi Reading 4. The Internet ..................................................................................................................................... 99 By Martin Campbell-Kelly, William Aspray, and Nathan Ensmenger Discussion Questions ......................................................................................................................................134 For Further Reading ...........................................................................................................................................134 Part III. Hacking and OSS as a Cultural Phenomenon ..................................................135 Reading 5. Hackers: Loving the Machine for Itself .........................................................................137 By Sherry Turkle Reading 6. Don’t Get Mad, Get Open .......................................................................................................177 By Hazel Healy Reading 7. Essence of Distributed Work: The Case of the Linux Kernel ............................185 By Jae Yun Moon and Lee Sproull Reading 8. Critical Tensions in the Evolution of Open Source Software ...........................207 By Brian Fitzgerald Reading 9. How Deep Is Your Love? On Open-Source Hardware ..........................................221 By David Cuartielles Discussion Questions ......................................................................................................................................240 For Further Reading ...........................................................................................................................................240 vii INTRODUCTION e study history to learn about who we are and to understand how and W why things come to be as they are. Everything has a history and this is certainly true of the technology that has revolutionized the world we live in today. In many ways, the history of technology is an investigation of humankind as a creative force in the world. The Latin phrase often used to capture this idea is Homo faber—man the maker. There is something about the human spirit that drives all of us to create in one way or another. From buildings and civil engineering to art, literature, books, machines, and even to today’s complicated technological society, humankind is bound up in this creative impulse. Because of this creative human compulsion, technology will always have a social element. The purpose of this volume is to explore the creative, cultural, and social contexts of technology as we know it today. In addition, by exploring the past realities of technological development we will better understand our own cur- rent time and place. Technology did not begin in a vacuum, however, and has a long and rich history. Although one could go back much earlier in time, this book picks up in the middle of the twentieth century and takes us on a journey that will better help us to understand our own contemporary situation. We will explore the hackers, innovators, ideas, and events that created what we have today—the age of information and technology. We must clarify what is meant by hacker because the original meaning often becomes lost or forgotten. This volume defines the term hacker as someone who is innovative and skilled with the use of code and computers (think in terms of all those hackers who show up at those hackathons that are so popular on university and high-tech campuses). In its original and purest form, a hacker is one who is driven by creative experimentation, mastery, and innovation while seeking to share his or her knowledge through collaboration for the purpose of improving the world. This book also makes the connection between the history and development of hardware and software with the development of open source software (OSS). The history of computers and OSS is similar to the maker movement that has recently become popular. These movements provide interesting social and cul- tural insights that center around democratic collaboration, sharing, meritocracy, and what Steven Levy describes in his book, Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution (2010), as “the hacker ethic.” Through these developments and ideas we will learn important insights into the cultural and social implications of what has come to be known as the computer revolution. Not only are there ix x | Hacking and Open Source Culture important cultural connections between hacking and open source culture, but there are also important insights to be gained in the areas of public policy in the forms of open access and open licensing of intellectual property. The book is divided into three parts. The first two readings lay a foundation and starting point for our exploration. These readings focus on the develop- ment of computers proper, and help us to understand the relationship between hardware and software. If you have questions about the differences between hardware, firmware, and software, these readings will provide a solid frame of reference. In The Early History of Software, 1952–1968 we discover the signif- icance of FORTRAN (one of the earliest computer languages used to transfer mathematical formulations into code), and the important role it played for general- purpose computing. We’ll discover that the development of general-purpose software is rarely an individual accomplishment, but rather rests in the hard work of many programmers. The age of information can also be called the age of collaboration. The next reading, The Chip and Its Impact, 1965–1975 provides a good discussion of the development of the transistor, integrated circuit, and microprocessor, arguably the most significant inventions of the twentieth cen- tury. One cannot fully comprehend the transition from analogue to our digital society without understanding the significance of the transistor and its impact on hardware. The second two readings bring our attention to the people and events that led to the development of the internet. The internet was made possible through an amazing amalgamation of cultural events, economic conditions, and tech- nological advances. The people behind these developments bring to life this story. The internet as we know it today is an economic and commercial force that began around 1991. Nonetheless, there were pockets of academics and researchers around the country using ARPANET, an early form of networking, that laid the structure and basic concepts for what became the internet. Even earlier, the military developed its own redundant and fault-tolerant computer networking system that found its way into civilian and commercial applications. The reading, Workstations, UNIX, and the Net, 1981–1995, helps us understand how the convergence of cheap processors and workstations, and the popularity of the UNIX operating system, combined to help form the essential