Chris Kelty: The Internet and its Parasites: Freedom and Participation – LGM 2013
Channel: Libre Graphics Meeting
Date: 2014-08-10

The two concepts of freedom and participation have been central to the social, cultural and technological development of the Internet over the last two decades. From free software to open source, from crowdsourcing to peer-to-peer production, from fan fiction to user-generated content, the concepts of freedom and participation justify a bewildering array of activities and projects. At the same time, the concepts themselves are reshaped by new practices and technologies, sometimes ideologically, sometimes to make sense of the practical challenges created by new technologies in a changing political economy and global culture. In this talk I will discuss how freedom and participation as concepts can be understood as guides to new technological practices, and how some kinds of projects succeed and others fail with respect to them. 

Christopher M. Kelty is an associate professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has a joint appointment in the Center for Society and Genetics, the department of Information Studies and the Department of Anthropology. His research focuses on the cultural significance of information technology, especially in science and engineering. He is the author most recently of Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software (Duke University Press, 2008), as well as numerous articles on open source and free software, including its impact on education, nanotechnology, the life sciences, and issues of peer review and research process in the sciences and in the humanities.