The document discusses the origins and evolution of social media and hacker culture from the 1960s counterculture period to today. It traces the development of early concepts like personal web pages, online communities, and open source software. Key events and figures mentioned include the Whole Earth Catalog in 1968, the first hacker conference in 1984, the launch of the WELL social network in 1985, and Richard Stallman founding the GNU project in 1983. The document argues that counterculture values of nomadism and communalism influenced the development of social media and that hacker culture emphasizes free experimentation and contribution to a digital commons.

1. PHILOSOPHYAND SOCIAL MEDIA

2. The origins of social media
Look at Me (2001) by Jennifer Egan
Ordinary People - a fictitious dot-com that
aspires to record and webcast every detail
of Charlotte’s daily life
‘It’s not a magazine – it’s a database …
[containing] people’s stories, just ordinary
Americans … Each one of these folks will
have their own home page – we call it a
Personal Space™ - devoted exclusively to
their lives, internal and external’.

3. The origins of social media
Look at Me (2001) by Jennifer Egan
Ordinary People - a fictitious dot-com that
aspires to record and webcast every detail
of Charlotte’s daily life
‘It’s not a magazine – it’s a database …
[containing] people’s stories, just ordinary
Americans … Each one of these folks will
have their own home page – we call it a
Personal Space™ - devoted exclusively to
their lives, internal and external’.

4. The origins of social media

6. The origins of social media
Prosumers emerged with ‘Web 2’: the internet as collaborative platform
• ‘Web 2’ popularised by Tim O’Reilly in 2004. ‘Web 2 is a set of principles and
practices that tie together a veritable solar system of sites that demonstrate
some or all of these principles’.
Meme: an idea, behaviour or style
that spreads from person to
person within a culture.
• Web 2: a cultural evolution
• Q: Where did the culture of
online sharing and
collaboration come from?

7. The origins of social media
The values and practices of hacker culture and the 60s counterculture.

8. Counterculture nomads
The Prisoner (1967-68)
‘I am not a number - I am a free man!’

9. Counterculture nomads
Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995)
• Nomadism: resistance to stasis,
capture, definition. Life as
experiment; refusal of categories
• Jack Kerouac as patron Saint of
60s nomadism. But we can be
nomads without moving
• Nomadism frees up creative
energies, opens creative spaces
• ‘Majoritarian’ culture seeks to
capture these energies and insert
them into productive systems

10. Counterculture nomads
Drop City Colorado (1965 – 1977) – the first hippie commune
• Two key values of the counterculture, crystallized in Drop City:
1. Nomadism
2. Communalism

11. Counterculture to cyberculture
Stewart Brand (1938-)
Whole Earth Catalogue (‘68-’72): tools for nomads.
‘We are as gods and might as well get used to it. …
[A] realm of intimate personal power is developing –
power of the individual to conduct his own education,
find his own inspiration, shape his own environment,
and share his adventure with whoever is interested.
Tools that aid this process are sought and promoted
by the WHOLE EARTH CATALOGUE’

12. Counterculture to cyberculture
From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart
Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of
Digital Utopianism, by Fred Turner (2006)
• Brand organized the first ever Hacker’s
Conference, in San Francisco, to coincide with
Steven Levy’s book, Hackers: Heroes of the
Computer Revolution (1984)
• In 1985, Brand, along with Larry Brilliant, and
Cliff Figaro and John Coate (former members
of the Farm commune) started the WELL
(World Earth ‘Lectronic Link) – the world’s first
online social network http://www.well.com/

13. Origins of the internet
J.C.R. Licklider (1915 -1990), Head of Computer
Research Program at DARPA (Defence Department
Advanced Research Projects Agency)
• 1962: Licklider plans ‘packet switching’ network
1968: ARPAnet project gets off the ground

14. Origins of the internet
Douglas Engelbart (1925-)
Stanford Research Institute (SRI)
• Inspired by Vannevar Bush’s article,
‘As We May Think’ (1945)
• Engelbart dreamed of a
personalised computing experience
that would augment the powers of
the human intellect
The Memex (from Memory Extension): a microfilm-based ‘device in which an individual stores all his
books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with
exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory’.

15. Origins of the internet
‘The Mother of all Demos’, 1968
• Engelbart was an outlier. His
ideas were largely ignored by
the computer scientists at ARPA
• Video director: Stewart Brand

16. PHILOSOPHYAND SOCIAL MEDIA

17. Hardware hackers
Tech Model Railroad Club (MIT)
Hack (MIT definition): ‘A prank or practical
joke, which is both challenging for the
perpetrators and amusing to the MIT
community’.
‘Access to computers – and anything that
might teach you something about the way the
world works – should be unlimited and total’.
‘Information wants to be free’.

20. Hardware hackers
Community Memory Project (1972-1974) –
first computerised bulletin board system
• People’s Computer Company (early 1970s)
• Inspired a generation of hardware hackers
who developed the first personal computers

21. Hardware hackers
Homebrew Computer Club (1975-1986)
• An informal group of electronic
enthusiasts and hobbyists who traded
parts, circuits, and information on the
DIY construction of computing devices
• One of the most influential forces in the
formation of the culture of Silicon Valley

22. Hardware hackers

23. Hardware hackers
Steve Wozniak (‘Woz’) (1955-)
Steve Jobs (1955-2011)
• Apple I (1976)

24. Apple Mac: nomadism branded and sold

25. Bulletin boards and the WELL

26. Bulletin boards and the WELL

27. Free and open source software (FOSS)
• Richard Stallman (1953-): founder of Free Software Movement
• Founder of the GNU Project (founded 1983).
Mission: to build a free UNIX-compatible operating system.
• The GNU Project was intended to bring
back the cooperative spirit that prevailed
in the early computing community
• Digital commons: repository of free code
• ‘Free as in speech, not free as in beer’

28. Free and open source software (FOSS)
‘I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be
big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This
has been brewing since April, and is starting to get ready. I'd
like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my
OS resembles it somewhat…’ (Torvalds, December 1991)
Linus Torvalds (1969-)

29. Free and open source software (FOSS)
• Two key values of the counter hacker culture:
1. Nomadism: free experimentation and creation
2. Communalism: the digital commons

30. The marketing of ‘open source’
‘Homesteading on the Noosphere’ (1997): Eric S. Raymond argues that the free
software movement is based in a gift culture ‘in which participants compete for
prestige by giving time, energy, and creativity away’.

31. The marketing of ‘open source’
‘Homesteading on the Noosphere’ (1997): Eric S. Raymond argues that the free
software movement is based in a gift culture ‘in which participants compete for
prestige by giving time, energy, and creativity away’.

32. The marketing of ‘open source’
In 1998, Netscape made the strategic decision to embrace open source culture. It
released the source code of Netscape Communicator 4.0 onto the internet and
created the Mozilla Foundation to steer the future development of the product
Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale hired Raymond to
head up the marketing campaign

35. The evolution of hacker culture
Mark Zuckerberg (1984-)
‘[W]e want to build a hacker culture. We want
to be the place where the best hackers want
to work, because our culture is set up so
they can build stuff quickly and do crazy stuff
and be recognized for standout brilliance’.
Facebook is not an open source project
• Facebook treats hacker culture as a
social norm: it is an free-access platform
for transparent sharing and co-creation

36. The evolution of hacker culture
• We assume that the present stands at the end of a linear development
• A teleological view of history: the present is to the past as a tree is to a seed
• History is rhizomatic – forces grow underground and burst up unexpectedly

37. The evolution of hacker culture

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