FSCONS

What are the different elements – legal, ethical, and aesthetic – that have fed into the stellar success of the free and open source software movement? In this talk, drawing on material from my forthcoming book, I will discuss the unique elements within F/OSS that constitute it as a site of political action, and contextualize free software within a wider field of geek and hacker politics. I will conclude by marshaling this material to critically assess the concept of Web 2.0, which has so powerfully structured understandings of the politics and power of digital media.