Hacker Cultures: The Conference Podcast Tue, 07 Apr 2026 17:31:07 -0400 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1323889 en-us © 2026 Hacker Cultures: The Conference Podcast yes f5b71244-32b2-51f2-b199-915418047a7f Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala episodic false As Covid-19 turned most conferences virtual, so to combat Zoom-fatigue, at 4S/EASST 2020 we decided to try another format and turn a conference session into a podcast. Among hundreds of panels, papers and sessions, our panels rounded up all sorts of researchers who study what it is to be a hacker, and what hacking, programming, tinkering and working with computers is all about. We have continued biennally for full three seasons.

The newest season comes to you from the 2024 join Society for Social Studies of Science/European Association for the Study of Science and Technology conference (4S/EASST) in Amsterdam, titled "Making and Doing Transformations".

The second series was from EASST 2022 titled "The Politics of Technoscientific Futures" held in Madrid in July 2022. Our panel was titled "Hacking Everything. The cultures and politics of hackers and software workers". The first series was from 4S/EASST in "virtual Prague" in August 2020, titled "Locating and Timing Matters: Significance and agency of STS in emerging worlds".

We the hosts are Paula Bialski, who is an Associate Professor at the University of St. Gallen, Andreas Bischof who is a Research Group Leader at Chemnitz University of Technology, and Mace Ojala, a PhD scholar at Ruhr-University Bochum. Audio production by Heights Beats at Hotmilk Records. The theme track of first series is "Rocky" by Paula & Karol. Heights Beats produced the theme track of the second series. Funding for the editing of this first series comes from University of St. Gallen, the second from Chemnitz University of Technology.

]]> Buzzsprout (https://www.buzzsprout.com) science and technology, STS, 4S, EASST, conference, hackers, cultural studies, anthropology, sociology Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala https://storage.buzzsprout.com/ivpf8lipslilyvodvor3ubk5t0r5?.jpg Hacker Cultures: The Conference Podcast Extra episode (2024) Paula, Andreas and Mace talk about the podcast Extra episode (2024) Paula, Andreas and Mace talk about the podcast Your hosts Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala look back on three seasons of this podcast panel format. How did this get started, how does it work, and what has been fun so far?

This episode is a live recording from Hacker Cultures! The Podcast Panel Season 3 panel organized at the European Association for the study of Science and Technology and Society for Social Studies of Science EASST/4S 2024 conference in Amsterdam on 2024-07-16. The hosts are Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala. Audio production by Heights Beats at Hotmilk Records, who also produced the theme track. We are grateful for Chemnitz University of Technology for funding.

]]> Your hosts Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala look back on three seasons of this podcast panel format. How did this get started, how does it work, and what has been fun so far?

This episode is a live recording from Hacker Cultures! The Podcast Panel Season 3 panel organized at the European Association for the study of Science and Technology and Society for Social Studies of Science EASST/4S 2024 conference in Amsterdam on 2024-07-16. The hosts are Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala. Audio production by Heights Beats at Hotmilk Records, who also produced the theme track. We are grateful for Chemnitz University of Technology for funding.

]]> Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala Buzzsprout-15902381 Wed, 18 Dec 2024 10:00:00 +0000 1893 2024 5 full false Episode 4 (2024) Victoria Neumann and Ana Custura: What does it mean to be part of a network? From silent contributor to engaged activist: the volunteer relay operators behind the Tor Project Episode 4 (2024) Victoria Neumann and Ana Custura: What does it mean to be part of a network? From silent contributor to engaged activist: the volunteer relay operators behind the Tor Project Who is operating the Tor network, and why? Victoria Neumann from Lancaster University tells us.

Tor (acronym for The Onion Router) is one of the most famous projects focusing on online privacy and anonymity. Using the Tor Browser, one can access clear net websites without being tracked or traced or so-called "onion services (formerly hidden services)," which can only be accessed via the Tor network. Nowadays widely known for darknet marketplaces, it is also used by journalists, human rights and digital activists, spies, hackers, and ordinary people to circumvent state surveillance, internet blockades and to stay anonymous. 

Originating from military research, the Tor Project is non-profit and open source after being taken over by hacktivists in the in the early 00s. Today the network has 6,000+ volunteer-run nodes called "relays." When the network began, relay operators were friends, colleagues, and collaborators of the original Tor developers. Over the years, grown beyond trusted/known collaborators to thousands of people and organizations, many of whom the Tor Project does not know. This has led both to a more diverse and hence resilient network, but it also made it easier for malicious actors to join. 

Who are the volunteers behind the network and what motivates them? Very little research has been conducted so far focusing on Tor relay operators. We conducted two surveys and 20 interviews to find out more about demographics, privacy values, trust, network health and community.

This episode is a live recording from Hacker Cultures! The Podcast Panel Season 3 panel organized at the European Association for the study of Science and Technology and Society for Social Studies of Science EASST/4S 2024 conference in Amsterdam on 2024-07-16. The hosts are Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala. Audio production by Heights Beats at Hotmilk Records, who also produced the theme track. We are grateful for Chemnitz University of Technology for funding.

]]> Who is operating the Tor network, and why? Victoria Neumann from Lancaster University tells us.

Tor (acronym for The Onion Router) is one of the most famous projects focusing on online privacy and anonymity. Using the Tor Browser, one can access clear net websites without being tracked or traced or so-called "onion services (formerly hidden services)," which can only be accessed via the Tor network. Nowadays widely known for darknet marketplaces, it is also used by journalists, human rights and digital activists, spies, hackers, and ordinary people to circumvent state surveillance, internet blockades and to stay anonymous. 

Originating from military research, the Tor Project is non-profit and open source after being taken over by hacktivists in the in the early 00s. Today the network has 6,000+ volunteer-run nodes called "relays." When the network began, relay operators were friends, colleagues, and collaborators of the original Tor developers. Over the years, grown beyond trusted/known collaborators to thousands of people and organizations, many of whom the Tor Project does not know. This has led both to a more diverse and hence resilient network, but it also made it easier for malicious actors to join. 

Who are the volunteers behind the network and what motivates them? Very little research has been conducted so far focusing on Tor relay operators. We conducted two surveys and 20 interviews to find out more about demographics, privacy values, trust, network health and community.

This episode is a live recording from Hacker Cultures! The Podcast Panel Season 3 panel organized at the European Association for the study of Science and Technology and Society for Social Studies of Science EASST/4S 2024 conference in Amsterdam on 2024-07-16. The hosts are Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala. Audio production by Heights Beats at Hotmilk Records, who also produced the theme track. We are grateful for Chemnitz University of Technology for funding.

]]> Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala Buzzsprout-15902373 Wed, 18 Dec 2024 10:00:00 +0000 1142 2024 4 full false Episode 3 (2024) Sylvain Besençon: Information security and the care of open cryptography technology Episode 3 (2024) Sylvain Besençon: Information security and the care of open cryptography technology We are happy to hear back from Sylvain Besençon from University of Fribourg, who wraps up research we learned about in 2020 about caring for open source cryptography.

This paper suggests a shift from information security as a matter of war to security as matter of care. Based on my 6-year long PhD research among a community of open source hackers and developers maintaining a crypto protocol, this paper deconstructs what I call the “warlike crypto imaginary” that often represents cryptography as a fascinating totem pole in the form of a blue lock. This paper tackles the rhetoric of war and violence that shapes our binary understanding of information security and proposes the work of making and unmaking security as a question of care, collaboration and negotiations. In other words, rather than portraying hackers and security experts as lonely teenagers wearing hoodies and deemed to break things, brute force passwords, and penetrate systems, this paper looks at how security people keep collaborating one with another to fixing things that never cease to break.

Inspired by the feminist STS field, I look for a “different voice” (Gilligan, 1982) through an ethnographic case study focused on the maintenance of an old crypto protocol called Pretty Good Privacy (PGP). PGP was developed in 1991 by an antinuclear activist to protect emails from being spied on. Since then, and despite many controversies, different generations of coders have been maintaining this piece of technology for more than three decades. Their persistent, engaged and humble tinkering let me identify values that steer the community towards careful and dedicated practices of maintenance, long-term collaborations, negotiations of compromises, and affective attachment to the technology.

This episode is a live recording from Hacker Cultures! The Podcast Panel Season 3 panel organized at the European Association for the study of Science and Technology and Society for Social Studies of Science EASST/4S 2024 conference in Amsterdam on 2024-07-16. The hosts are Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala. Audio production by Heights Beats at Hotmilk Records, who also produced the theme track. We are grateful for Chemnitz University of Technology for funding.

]]> We are happy to hear back from Sylvain Besençon from University of Fribourg, who wraps up research we learned about in 2020 about caring for open source cryptography.

This paper suggests a shift from information security as a matter of war to security as matter of care. Based on my 6-year long PhD research among a community of open source hackers and developers maintaining a crypto protocol, this paper deconstructs what I call the “warlike crypto imaginary” that often represents cryptography as a fascinating totem pole in the form of a blue lock. This paper tackles the rhetoric of war and violence that shapes our binary understanding of information security and proposes the work of making and unmaking security as a question of care, collaboration and negotiations. In other words, rather than portraying hackers and security experts as lonely teenagers wearing hoodies and deemed to break things, brute force passwords, and penetrate systems, this paper looks at how security people keep collaborating one with another to fixing things that never cease to break.

Inspired by the feminist STS field, I look for a “different voice” (Gilligan, 1982) through an ethnographic case study focused on the maintenance of an old crypto protocol called Pretty Good Privacy (PGP). PGP was developed in 1991 by an antinuclear activist to protect emails from being spied on. Since then, and despite many controversies, different generations of coders have been maintaining this piece of technology for more than three decades. Their persistent, engaged and humble tinkering let me identify values that steer the community towards careful and dedicated practices of maintenance, long-term collaborations, negotiations of compromises, and affective attachment to the technology.

This episode is a live recording from Hacker Cultures! The Podcast Panel Season 3 panel organized at the European Association for the study of Science and Technology and Society for Social Studies of Science EASST/4S 2024 conference in Amsterdam on 2024-07-16. The hosts are Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala. Audio production by Heights Beats at Hotmilk Records, who also produced the theme track. We are grateful for Chemnitz University of Technology for funding.

]]> Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala Buzzsprout-15902369 Wed, 18 Dec 2024 10:00:00 +0000 1377 2024 3 full false Episode 2 (2024) Janis Lena Meißner: From “makers-in-the-making” to “empowering hacks” Episode 2 (2024) Janis Lena Meißner: From “makers-in-the-making” to “empowering hacks” Janis Lena Meißner from The Vienna University of Technology shares stories and insights from practical work with people who are usually not included in the Maker movement.

Despite its promises of technology democratization, the Maker Movement still lacks diversity. To address this disparity, we might deliberately turn to „unexpected users“ of maker tools and reimagine core hacker values for subversive practices together with them. 

This episode is about hacking the ways in which Making is usually imagined to be performed. It offers reflections on the “Empowering Hacks” project, my long-term collaboration with two men with disabilities on fabricating their own ideas. Our project began with the mission “to produce disabled tools at a cheaper rate but with a more customisable outcome” and so we collaborated on designing, modelling and 3D-printing “wheelchair golfballs” and other assistive gadgets. Externally, “Empowering Hacks” was motivated by creating positive change for others. Internally, our processes of mentoring and production were configured around the interests and social roles of my collaborators. Disability was not perceived as an impediment but as an opportunity to reimagining Making practices. 

My reflections are rooted in a key distinction between “Hacking” and “Making”. While Making encompasses a wide range of practices using digital fabrication tools, Hacking denotes self-directed technological action for chosen purposes. In “Empowering Hacks”, my collaborators did not identify as makers, however as makers-in-the-making they had freedom to figure out their own ways to make. Their hacking became a performative and material challenge to ableist assumptions about disabled people not being able to be designers or creators. The dialectic podcast is an opportunity to further unpack the subversive capacities of reimagining making through hacking.

This episode is a live recording from Hacker Cultures! The Podcast Panel Season 3 panel organized at the European Association for the study of Science and Technology and Society for Social Studies of Science EASST/4S 2024 conference in Amsterdam on 2024-07-16. The hosts are Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala. Audio production by Heights Beats at Hotmilk Records, who also produced the theme track. We are grateful for Chemnitz University of Technology for funding.

]]> Janis Lena Meißner from The Vienna University of Technology shares stories and insights from practical work with people who are usually not included in the Maker movement.

Despite its promises of technology democratization, the Maker Movement still lacks diversity. To address this disparity, we might deliberately turn to „unexpected users“ of maker tools and reimagine core hacker values for subversive practices together with them. 

This episode is about hacking the ways in which Making is usually imagined to be performed. It offers reflections on the “Empowering Hacks” project, my long-term collaboration with two men with disabilities on fabricating their own ideas. Our project began with the mission “to produce disabled tools at a cheaper rate but with a more customisable outcome” and so we collaborated on designing, modelling and 3D-printing “wheelchair golfballs” and other assistive gadgets. Externally, “Empowering Hacks” was motivated by creating positive change for others. Internally, our processes of mentoring and production were configured around the interests and social roles of my collaborators. Disability was not perceived as an impediment but as an opportunity to reimagining Making practices. 

My reflections are rooted in a key distinction between “Hacking” and “Making”. While Making encompasses a wide range of practices using digital fabrication tools, Hacking denotes self-directed technological action for chosen purposes. In “Empowering Hacks”, my collaborators did not identify as makers, however as makers-in-the-making they had freedom to figure out their own ways to make. Their hacking became a performative and material challenge to ableist assumptions about disabled people not being able to be designers or creators. The dialectic podcast is an opportunity to further unpack the subversive capacities of reimagining making through hacking.

This episode is a live recording from Hacker Cultures! The Podcast Panel Season 3 panel organized at the European Association for the study of Science and Technology and Society for Social Studies of Science EASST/4S 2024 conference in Amsterdam on 2024-07-16. The hosts are Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala. Audio production by Heights Beats at Hotmilk Records, who also produced the theme track. We are grateful for Chemnitz University of Technology for funding.

]]> Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala Buzzsprout-15902364 Wed, 18 Dec 2024 10:00:00 +0000 1343 2024 2 full false Episode 1 (2024) Charles Berret: Metis and the hacker Episode 1 (2024) Charles Berret: Metis and the hacker In this episode we hear Charles Berret from Linköping University characterize the cunning and craftiness via a concept from ancient Greek.

The concept of 'metis' offers an especially effective means of characterizing the intelligence and technical practice of hackers. Metis, for the ancient Greeks, denoted the improvisational craftiness of a figure like Odysseus, whose intuitive understanding of the regularities in a particular system or situation facilitates acts of subversive cleverness. After all, it was Odysseus who devised the Trojan Horse, perhaps the first hack recorded in Western literature, and later the namesake of an actual variety of malware. This is a revealing affinity, and the connections between metis and hacking run deep. Metis is an especially useful concept for understanding hackers because it is a form of practical knowledge distinct from episteme and techne. Whereas episteme denotes the pursuit of factual regularities in the natural world, and techne implies the application of episteme for engineering, craft, and material production, both episteme and techne are inherently systematic. In contrast, the essential characteristic of metis is its subversion of systems and regularities, finding surprising sources of flexibility where others see only patterns and rigidity. To view hackers through the lens of metis also helps explain why hacking thrives in settings characterized by what James C. Scott calls "seeing like a state," that is, where an excessively schematic reduction of a system's natural complexity leads to the concealment of idiosyncrasies that become ideal sites for a hacker's exploitation. Developing an account of metis offers a new framework to explain why hackers thrive in infrapolitical practices that are inherently opposed to seeing like a state.

This episode is a live recording from Hacker Cultures! The Podcast Panel Season 3 panel organized at the European Association for the study of Science and Technology and Society for Social Studies of Science EASST/4S 2024 conference in Amsterdam on 2024-07-16. The hosts are Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala. Audio production by Heights Beats at Hotmilk Records, who also produced the theme track. We are grateful for Chemnitz University of Technology for funding.

]]> In this episode we hear Charles Berret from Linköping University characterize the cunning and craftiness via a concept from ancient Greek.

The concept of 'metis' offers an especially effective means of characterizing the intelligence and technical practice of hackers. Metis, for the ancient Greeks, denoted the improvisational craftiness of a figure like Odysseus, whose intuitive understanding of the regularities in a particular system or situation facilitates acts of subversive cleverness. After all, it was Odysseus who devised the Trojan Horse, perhaps the first hack recorded in Western literature, and later the namesake of an actual variety of malware. This is a revealing affinity, and the connections between metis and hacking run deep. Metis is an especially useful concept for understanding hackers because it is a form of practical knowledge distinct from episteme and techne. Whereas episteme denotes the pursuit of factual regularities in the natural world, and techne implies the application of episteme for engineering, craft, and material production, both episteme and techne are inherently systematic. In contrast, the essential characteristic of metis is its subversion of systems and regularities, finding surprising sources of flexibility where others see only patterns and rigidity. To view hackers through the lens of metis also helps explain why hacking thrives in settings characterized by what James C. Scott calls "seeing like a state," that is, where an excessively schematic reduction of a system's natural complexity leads to the concealment of idiosyncrasies that become ideal sites for a hacker's exploitation. Developing an account of metis offers a new framework to explain why hackers thrive in infrapolitical practices that are inherently opposed to seeing like a state.

This episode is a live recording from Hacker Cultures! The Podcast Panel Season 3 panel organized at the European Association for the study of Science and Technology and Society for Social Studies of Science EASST/4S 2024 conference in Amsterdam on 2024-07-16. The hosts are Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala. Audio production by Heights Beats at Hotmilk Records, who also produced the theme track. We are grateful for Chemnitz University of Technology for funding.

]]> Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala Buzzsprout-15902358 Wed, 18 Dec 2024 10:00:00 +0000 1198 2024 1 full false Episode 7 (2022) Ola Michalec - Engineer-as-a-service. What is the future of engineering professionals in the digital world? Episode 7 (2022) Ola Michalec - Engineer-as-a-service. What is the future of engineering professionals in the digital world? We have the pleasure to chat with Ola Michalec, a Senior Research Associate at University of Bristol. Don't miss on our discussion with Ola in 2020.

For decades, nuclear plants, power stations, or wastewater facilities were safe from the hype of digital innovations. These industries have traditionally been operated by industrial control systems fairly simple computers using binary logics to enable the movement and sensing of engineering machinery. Such technologies were disconnected from the internet and operated on-site by manual workers. With the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Schilin, 2020) engineering processes are about to gain sophisticated computing capabilities, from remote control enabled by the cloud or predictive maintenance thanks to ML algorithms. Moreover, industry experts (Cisco, 2018) have already announced that modern computing is blending with legacy engineering technologies. But who is doing the blending and revolutionising? Drawing from the approaches in STS and Computer-Supported-Cooperative Work (Slayton and Clark-Ginsberg, 2018; Jenkins et al., 2020), our research looks at the collaborative practices between engineers and software workers (Michalec et al., 2020; Michalec et al, 2021). Based on the case study of the implementation of cyber security regulations in critical infrastructures, we investigate how practitioners navigate tensions between the priorities of modern computing (security, connectivity, innovations, interoperability) and traditional engineering (safety, reliability, availability). Ultimately, we argue that digital innovations entering the world of critical infrastructures will reconfigure the responsibilities and training needs for engineers to come. This, in turn, creates novel ethical and political considerations for the profession, which should inform the future STS research agenda.

This episode is a live recording from Hacking Everything. The Cultures and Politics of Hackers and Software Workers panel organized at the European Association for the study of Science and Technology (EASST) 2022 conference in Madrid on 2022-07-07. The hosts are Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala. Audio production by Heights Beats at Hotmilk Records, who also produced the theme track. We are grateful for Chemnitz University of Technology for funding.

]]> We have the pleasure to chat with Ola Michalec, a Senior Research Associate at University of Bristol. Don't miss on our discussion with Ola in 2020.

For decades, nuclear plants, power stations, or wastewater facilities were safe from the hype of digital innovations. These industries have traditionally been operated by industrial control systems fairly simple computers using binary logics to enable the movement and sensing of engineering machinery. Such technologies were disconnected from the internet and operated on-site by manual workers. With the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Schilin, 2020) engineering processes are about to gain sophisticated computing capabilities, from remote control enabled by the cloud or predictive maintenance thanks to ML algorithms. Moreover, industry experts (Cisco, 2018) have already announced that modern computing is blending with legacy engineering technologies. But who is doing the blending and revolutionising? Drawing from the approaches in STS and Computer-Supported-Cooperative Work (Slayton and Clark-Ginsberg, 2018; Jenkins et al., 2020), our research looks at the collaborative practices between engineers and software workers (Michalec et al., 2020; Michalec et al, 2021). Based on the case study of the implementation of cyber security regulations in critical infrastructures, we investigate how practitioners navigate tensions between the priorities of modern computing (security, connectivity, innovations, interoperability) and traditional engineering (safety, reliability, availability). Ultimately, we argue that digital innovations entering the world of critical infrastructures will reconfigure the responsibilities and training needs for engineers to come. This, in turn, creates novel ethical and political considerations for the profession, which should inform the future STS research agenda.

This episode is a live recording from Hacking Everything. The Cultures and Politics of Hackers and Software Workers panel organized at the European Association for the study of Science and Technology (EASST) 2022 conference in Madrid on 2022-07-07. The hosts are Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala. Audio production by Heights Beats at Hotmilk Records, who also produced the theme track. We are grateful for Chemnitz University of Technology for funding.

]]> Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof, Mace Ojala and Ola Michalec Buzzsprout-11330684 Tue, 04 Oct 2022 07:00:00 +0000 808 2022 7 full false Episode 6 (2022) Annika Richterich - Chaos reigns. Hacktivism as health data activism Episode 6 (2022) Annika Richterich - Chaos reigns. Hacktivism as health data activism We speak with Annika Richterich from Maastricht University where she works as an Assistant Professor in Digital Cultures at the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences. Annika was with us earlier in 2020, check out that episode too.

This paper discusses how the Chaos Computer Club, a German hacker association, engaged in health data activism during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021).[1] Hackers technopolitical activism tends to be neglected in public debate, partly since hacking is often equated with cybercrime. Yet, civic hacking communities have shown a longstanding dedication to activism relevant to public interests and technopolitics. In early 2020, hacker communities therefore also started scrutinising technology meant to tackle issues emerging during the COVID pandemic, often by collecting health-related data. The paper methodologically draws on a case study approach: it focuses on the Chaos Computer Club (CCC), analysing public statements, open letters, and reports. Conceptually, it frames the CCCs practices as data activism, specifically health data activism. It notably expands on Milan and van der Veldens (2016) continuum of proactive and reactive data activism. Within the proactive/reactive continuum, it stresses the CCCs interventional-regulative activism. The latter notion refers to practices of data activism involving interventional, technical assessments of data-intensive technology, using these to critically yet constructively articulate regulative requirements and demands. I argue that the CCCs health data activism oscillates between reactive and proactive data activism, by engaging in interventional-regulative practices: the association intervenes in public debate concerning the politics of covid-technology, while also directly interacting with and holding policy makers as well as technology corporations accountable. Thereby, this paper lends further weight to the importance of civic technology expertise and engagement - especially during public health crises, when tech-solutionist approaches are being promoted by appealing to the hope of them contributing to the greater good.

[1]Formally, the CCC is an association registered in Germany (eingetragener Verein). However, while its central office is in Hamburg, there are also 25 regional chapters plus multiple local groups (Chaos-Treffs) in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

This episode is a live recording from Hacking Everything. The Cultures and Politics of Hackers and Software Workers panel organized at the European Association for the study of Science and Technology (EASST) 2022 conference in Madrid on 2022-07-07. The hosts are Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala. Audio production by Heights Beats at Hotmilk Records, who also produced the theme track. We are grateful for Chemnitz University of Technology for funding.

]]> We speak with Annika Richterich from Maastricht University where she works as an Assistant Professor in Digital Cultures at the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences. Annika was with us earlier in 2020, check out that episode too.

This paper discusses how the Chaos Computer Club, a German hacker association, engaged in health data activism during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021).[1] Hackers technopolitical activism tends to be neglected in public debate, partly since hacking is often equated with cybercrime. Yet, civic hacking communities have shown a longstanding dedication to activism relevant to public interests and technopolitics. In early 2020, hacker communities therefore also started scrutinising technology meant to tackle issues emerging during the COVID pandemic, often by collecting health-related data. The paper methodologically draws on a case study approach: it focuses on the Chaos Computer Club (CCC), analysing public statements, open letters, and reports. Conceptually, it frames the CCCs practices as data activism, specifically health data activism. It notably expands on Milan and van der Veldens (2016) continuum of proactive and reactive data activism. Within the proactive/reactive continuum, it stresses the CCCs interventional-regulative activism. The latter notion refers to practices of data activism involving interventional, technical assessments of data-intensive technology, using these to critically yet constructively articulate regulative requirements and demands. I argue that the CCCs health data activism oscillates between reactive and proactive data activism, by engaging in interventional-regulative practices: the association intervenes in public debate concerning the politics of covid-technology, while also directly interacting with and holding policy makers as well as technology corporations accountable. Thereby, this paper lends further weight to the importance of civic technology expertise and engagement - especially during public health crises, when tech-solutionist approaches are being promoted by appealing to the hope of them contributing to the greater good.

[1]Formally, the CCC is an association registered in Germany (eingetragener Verein). However, while its central office is in Hamburg, there are also 25 regional chapters plus multiple local groups (Chaos-Treffs) in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

This episode is a live recording from Hacking Everything. The Cultures and Politics of Hackers and Software Workers panel organized at the European Association for the study of Science and Technology (EASST) 2022 conference in Madrid on 2022-07-07. The hosts are Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala. Audio production by Heights Beats at Hotmilk Records, who also produced the theme track. We are grateful for Chemnitz University of Technology for funding.

]]> Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof, Mace Ojala and Annika Richterich Buzzsprout-11330681 Tue, 04 Oct 2022 06:00:00 +0000 964 2022 6 full false Episode 5 (2022) Maja Urbanczyk - Hacking decision-making Episode 5 (2022) Maja Urbanczyk - Hacking decision-making This episode brings us Maja Urbanczyk who is a PhD Candidate at Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

On more and more occasions, political decision-makers decide over software that is to be used by the public. In these situations, decision-makers rely on expert knowledge and risk assessment, in order to make informed decisions. For software decisions, the needed expertise comes from IT and IT-security experts and software developers also known as: hackers. The degree of trust that IT expertise receives from political decision makers is highly dependent on the contextual framing of the people holding the expertise: IT-experts are regarded as significantly more trustworthy than hackers by the public as well as politics. At the same time, political decision-makers need to acquire trust from the public. This is likely to be more complex when more information and opinions on a topic are available. With knowledgeable lay-persons posing themselves as experts within the discussions, acknowledged experts being vilified as so called black-hats (hackers with little ethics) and decision-makers walking on a thin line between technocracy/scientism, the greater good and their own interests. It is complex for anyone to decide, which expertise to follow and whom to trust. In some cases this even ends in expertise being disregarded or even discarded by decision makers. Interestingly, it happens that they frame it afterwards as not having known about a technologys downsides. In order to understand the many layers of construction and attribution of non-knowledge and ignorance, I deconstruct these kinds of situations and what I call the network of trust in a qualitative, discursive study. Deconstructing and analyzing decision-making processes with a focus on the role of non-knowledge and ignorance will help to shed more light on the complexity of technological governance. Additionally, this novel approach shows how ignorance is not only a reason for subordination, but also potentially a source of power.

This episode is a live recording from Hacking Everything. The Cultures and Politics of Hackers and Software Workers panel organized at the European Association for the study of Science and Technology (EASST) 2022 conference in Madrid on 2022-07-07. The hosts are Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala. Audio production by Heights Beats at Hotmilk Records, who also produced the theme track. We are grateful for Chemnitz University of Technology for funding.

]]> This episode brings us Maja Urbanczyk who is a PhD Candidate at Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

On more and more occasions, political decision-makers decide over software that is to be used by the public. In these situations, decision-makers rely on expert knowledge and risk assessment, in order to make informed decisions. For software decisions, the needed expertise comes from IT and IT-security experts and software developers also known as: hackers. The degree of trust that IT expertise receives from political decision makers is highly dependent on the contextual framing of the people holding the expertise: IT-experts are regarded as significantly more trustworthy than hackers by the public as well as politics. At the same time, political decision-makers need to acquire trust from the public. This is likely to be more complex when more information and opinions on a topic are available. With knowledgeable lay-persons posing themselves as experts within the discussions, acknowledged experts being vilified as so called black-hats (hackers with little ethics) and decision-makers walking on a thin line between technocracy/scientism, the greater good and their own interests. It is complex for anyone to decide, which expertise to follow and whom to trust. In some cases this even ends in expertise being disregarded or even discarded by decision makers. Interestingly, it happens that they frame it afterwards as not having known about a technologys downsides. In order to understand the many layers of construction and attribution of non-knowledge and ignorance, I deconstruct these kinds of situations and what I call the network of trust in a qualitative, discursive study. Deconstructing and analyzing decision-making processes with a focus on the role of non-knowledge and ignorance will help to shed more light on the complexity of technological governance. Additionally, this novel approach shows how ignorance is not only a reason for subordination, but also potentially a source of power.

This episode is a live recording from Hacking Everything. The Cultures and Politics of Hackers and Software Workers panel organized at the European Association for the study of Science and Technology (EASST) 2022 conference in Madrid on 2022-07-07. The hosts are Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala. Audio production by Heights Beats at Hotmilk Records, who also produced the theme track. We are grateful for Chemnitz University of Technology for funding.

]]> Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof, Mace Ojala and Maja Urbanczyk Buzzsprout-11330679 Tue, 04 Oct 2022 05:00:00 +0000 902 2022 5 full false Episode 4 (2022) Jan Schmutzler and Estrid Sørensen - Playing with fire. Re-identification hacks and organisational micro-politics Episode 4 (2022) Jan Schmutzler and Estrid Sørensen - Playing with fire. Re-identification hacks and organisational micro-politics We hear from research by PhD Candidate Jan Schmutzler and Professor Estrid Sørensen, both from Ruhr University Bochum.

Data anonymisation has long been the central measure for social scientist to protect the privacy of the subjects from whom they collect data. Recent years computational methods have made it increasingly easy to combine data sets, which also makes it easier to re-identify individuals in anonymised datasets (Rocher et al, 2019). No standard procedure exists for testing if anonymised datasets are sufficiently protected against re-identification (Emam et al, 2015). In practice the method is re-identification attacks.

We report from a white-hat re-identification hack conducted in collaboration with an organisation with a long tradition for hosting social science data, which provided it with good reasons to be confident that its data are sufficiently protected against re-identification. The hack was seen as a young students innocent exercise. But then the in hindsight foreseeable moment materialised, when his algorithm appeared to be able to de-anonymise the data.

Our contribution discusses the repercussions of the re-identification hack. Both the organisation, the student and the ethnographer had been naïve about the hack. They had been playing with fire and ignited mutual disbelieve and mistrust. The student and the ethnographer were now approached as potential criminals with one foot in jail. The organisation found measures to secure its data sets, yet the ethnographer remained disconcerted about the already published data.

Based on the empirical analysis, we address hacking and attacking more generally as methods for testing re-identification protection. Although the method seems technically and ethically sound, it has side-effects that are severely aggressive to social and organisational relations (cf. Schmitz-Berndt & Schiffner, 2020). In the case in question, we sought to mobilise careful practices to remedy the damages done, and we discuss if careful hacking has potentials for developing less harmful re-identification testing, or if it is indeed an oxymoron.

This episode is a live recording from Hacking Everything. The Cultures and Politics of Hackers and Software Workers panel organized at the European Association for the study of Science and Technology (EASST) 2022 conference in Madrid on 2022-07-07. The hosts are Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala. Audio production by Heights Beats at Hotmilk Records, who also produced the theme track. We are grateful for Chemnitz University of Technology for funding.

]]> We hear from research by PhD Candidate Jan Schmutzler and Professor Estrid Sørensen, both from Ruhr University Bochum.

Data anonymisation has long been the central measure for social scientist to protect the privacy of the subjects from whom they collect data. Recent years computational methods have made it increasingly easy to combine data sets, which also makes it easier to re-identify individuals in anonymised datasets (Rocher et al, 2019). No standard procedure exists for testing if anonymised datasets are sufficiently protected against re-identification (Emam et al, 2015). In practice the method is re-identification attacks.

We report from a white-hat re-identification hack conducted in collaboration with an organisation with a long tradition for hosting social science data, which provided it with good reasons to be confident that its data are sufficiently protected against re-identification. The hack was seen as a young students innocent exercise. But then the in hindsight foreseeable moment materialised, when his algorithm appeared to be able to de-anonymise the data.

Our contribution discusses the repercussions of the re-identification hack. Both the organisation, the student and the ethnographer had been naïve about the hack. They had been playing with fire and ignited mutual disbelieve and mistrust. The student and the ethnographer were now approached as potential criminals with one foot in jail. The organisation found measures to secure its data sets, yet the ethnographer remained disconcerted about the already published data.

Based on the empirical analysis, we address hacking and attacking more generally as methods for testing re-identification protection. Although the method seems technically and ethically sound, it has side-effects that are severely aggressive to social and organisational relations (cf. Schmitz-Berndt & Schiffner, 2020). In the case in question, we sought to mobilise careful practices to remedy the damages done, and we discuss if careful hacking has potentials for developing less harmful re-identification testing, or if it is indeed an oxymoron.

This episode is a live recording from Hacking Everything. The Cultures and Politics of Hackers and Software Workers panel organized at the European Association for the study of Science and Technology (EASST) 2022 conference in Madrid on 2022-07-07. The hosts are Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala. Audio production by Heights Beats at Hotmilk Records, who also produced the theme track. We are grateful for Chemnitz University of Technology for funding.

]]> Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof, Mace Ojala, Jan Schmutzler and Estrid Sørensen Buzzsprout-11330677 Tue, 04 Oct 2022 04:00:00 +0000 1037 2022 4 full false Episode 3 (2022) Tim Cowlishaw - Tiny tools and little loops. Software art as care-ful software practice Episode 3 (2022) Tim Cowlishaw - Tiny tools and little loops. Software art as care-ful software practice We speak with Tim Cowlishaw, BAU, Doctoral Candidate at College of Arts & Design Barcelona.

Whether as part of giant technology corporations or open-source software projects, software developers are increasingly responsible for defining, building, and maintaining the infrastructure of our social world, and much critical and anthropological attention has been paid to the ways in which the cultures and practices of software development influence the materiality and embedded politics of these infrastructures. However, less critical attention has been paid to software development deployed to less instrumental ends, in particular, creative and artistic practices that use software as a medium. We claim, building on Nick Seaver (2021)s work on care and scale as contrasting values in the development of software systems, that paying attention to such personal, creative software practices provides a valuable opportunity for a deepened understanding of cultures of software development in general, by articulating and making visible the differences between the development of aesthetic and instrumental software objects - a distinction which is elided when software development is studied in more general undifferentiated terms. In addition, we argue that software art and the creative practice of software development offer a useful means of interrogating the ontology of software and digital artefacts, arguing that such practices are a form of ontological designing (Willis 2006) producing digital objects (Hui 2016) which serve to expose the ontology and embedded politics of software artefacts and systems more generally. Finally, we argue that such creative practices constitute a care-ful (Puig de la Bellacasa 2017) approach to software development, building on the Critical Technical Practice of Philip Agre (1997), offering one example of how critical and ethical considerations might be usefully incorporated into professional software development practices.

This episode is a live recording from Hacking Everything. The Cultures and Politics of Hackers and Software Workers panel organized at the European Association for the study of Science and Technology (EASST) 2022 conference in Madrid on 2022-07-07. The hosts are Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala. Audio production by Heights Beats at Hotmilk Records, who also produced the theme track. We are grateful for Chemnitz University of Technology for funding.

]]> We speak with Tim Cowlishaw, BAU, Doctoral Candidate at College of Arts & Design Barcelona.

Whether as part of giant technology corporations or open-source software projects, software developers are increasingly responsible for defining, building, and maintaining the infrastructure of our social world, and much critical and anthropological attention has been paid to the ways in which the cultures and practices of software development influence the materiality and embedded politics of these infrastructures. However, less critical attention has been paid to software development deployed to less instrumental ends, in particular, creative and artistic practices that use software as a medium. We claim, building on Nick Seaver (2021)s work on care and scale as contrasting values in the development of software systems, that paying attention to such personal, creative software practices provides a valuable opportunity for a deepened understanding of cultures of software development in general, by articulating and making visible the differences between the development of aesthetic and instrumental software objects - a distinction which is elided when software development is studied in more general undifferentiated terms. In addition, we argue that software art and the creative practice of software development offer a useful means of interrogating the ontology of software and digital artefacts, arguing that such practices are a form of ontological designing (Willis 2006) producing digital objects (Hui 2016) which serve to expose the ontology and embedded politics of software artefacts and systems more generally. Finally, we argue that such creative practices constitute a care-ful (Puig de la Bellacasa 2017) approach to software development, building on the Critical Technical Practice of Philip Agre (1997), offering one example of how critical and ethical considerations might be usefully incorporated into professional software development practices.

This episode is a live recording from Hacking Everything. The Cultures and Politics of Hackers and Software Workers panel organized at the European Association for the study of Science and Technology (EASST) 2022 conference in Madrid on 2022-07-07. The hosts are Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala. Audio production by Heights Beats at Hotmilk Records, who also produced the theme track. We are grateful for Chemnitz University of Technology for funding.

]]> Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof, Mace Ojala and Tim Cowlishaw Buzzsprout-11330676 Tue, 04 Oct 2022 03:00:00 +0000 1154 2022 3 full false Episode 2 (2022) Cansu Güner - Hack the house! Reconfiguring domesticity in co-living spaces Episode 2 (2022) Cansu Güner - Hack the house! Reconfiguring domesticity in co-living spaces This episode is with Doctoral Candidate Cansu Güner from School of Social Sciences and Technology at Technical University of Münich.

This podcast is about hacking houses. Entrepreneurs with engineering backgrounds who live in co-living spaces tend to hack their houses either as part of a hackathon or via self-initiated hacking practices. Drawing from a one-year-long ethnography on hacking practices in co-living spaces in the Bay Area and Munich, I aim to answer the following questions: what would happen if the subjects of domestic work would also be equipped with the technological know-how and expertise that would potentially reconfigure the domestic ideology? Would then they position domesticity as their domain of innovation and intervention? What kind of domestic ideal would they have? What kind of technological interventions would they make or not make?

Specifically, I would like to compare two home automation systems, namely the Weekly Task Planner (WTP) and the Hidden Camera, which had been created as a result of hacking practices in co-living spaces. In Munich, the WTP was created to help residents to keep track of predefined domestic tasks, e. g., cleaning, by automatically assigning them to people every week. In the Bay Area, one of the residents hacked the problem of dirty dishes by installing a hidden camera in the kitchen to surveil and shame the irresponsible residents who fail to fulfill their chores not for accustomed reasons such as safety and security purposes.

Drawing on feminist STS (Schwartz-Cowan 1976; Cockburn 1997; Naulin and Jourdain, 2020; Fraiman 2017; Kleif and Faulkner, 2003; Suchmann 2007), I would like to shed light on how hackathons and hacking practices have been utilized as ways of remaking domestic culture(s). I argue that co-living as a technosocial project is subjected to the entreprenurialization of domesticity in which the domestic activities become dominated by entrepreneurial ambitions like hacking. Situational analysis, in-depth interviews, and ethnography are employed as the main methods.

This episode is a live recording from Hacking Everything. The Cultures and Politics of Hackers and Software Workers panel organized at the European Association for the study of Science and Technology (EASST) 2022 conference in Madrid on 2022-07-07. The hosts are Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala. Audio production by Heights Beats at Hotmilk Records, who also produced the theme track. We are grateful for Chemnitz University of Technology for funding.

]]> This episode is with Doctoral Candidate Cansu Güner from School of Social Sciences and Technology at Technical University of Münich.

This podcast is about hacking houses. Entrepreneurs with engineering backgrounds who live in co-living spaces tend to hack their houses either as part of a hackathon or via self-initiated hacking practices. Drawing from a one-year-long ethnography on hacking practices in co-living spaces in the Bay Area and Munich, I aim to answer the following questions: what would happen if the subjects of domestic work would also be equipped with the technological know-how and expertise that would potentially reconfigure the domestic ideology? Would then they position domesticity as their domain of innovation and intervention? What kind of domestic ideal would they have? What kind of technological interventions would they make or not make?

Specifically, I would like to compare two home automation systems, namely the Weekly Task Planner (WTP) and the Hidden Camera, which had been created as a result of hacking practices in co-living spaces. In Munich, the WTP was created to help residents to keep track of predefined domestic tasks, e. g., cleaning, by automatically assigning them to people every week. In the Bay Area, one of the residents hacked the problem of dirty dishes by installing a hidden camera in the kitchen to surveil and shame the irresponsible residents who fail to fulfill their chores not for accustomed reasons such as safety and security purposes.

Drawing on feminist STS (Schwartz-Cowan 1976; Cockburn 1997; Naulin and Jourdain, 2020; Fraiman 2017; Kleif and Faulkner, 2003; Suchmann 2007), I would like to shed light on how hackathons and hacking practices have been utilized as ways of remaking domestic culture(s). I argue that co-living as a technosocial project is subjected to the entreprenurialization of domesticity in which the domestic activities become dominated by entrepreneurial ambitions like hacking. Situational analysis, in-depth interviews, and ethnography are employed as the main methods.

This episode is a live recording from Hacking Everything. The Cultures and Politics of Hackers and Software Workers panel organized at the European Association for the study of Science and Technology (EASST) 2022 conference in Madrid on 2022-07-07. The hosts are Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala. Audio production by Heights Beats at Hotmilk Records, who also produced the theme track. We are grateful for Chemnitz University of Technology for funding.

]]> Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof, Mace Ojala and Cansu Güner Buzzsprout-11330672 Tue, 04 Oct 2022 02:00:00 +0000 1156 2022 2 full false Episode 1 (2022) Maja-Lee Voigt - CTRL + F_eminist futures_. Hacking algorithmic architectures of cities to come Episode 1 (2022) Maja-Lee Voigt - CTRL + F_eminist futures_. Hacking algorithmic architectures of cities to come In this episode we are joined by Maja-Lee Voigt, a Research Associate at the Centre for Digital Cultures at Leuphana University of Lüneburg.

To this day it remains a question of power who is granted the right to visibly take up and claim urban space; both physically and virtually. A societal and literal Room of One's Own" (Woolf 1929) is still not a given for people who define as women and/or queer. Rather, it is not only floor plans and cityscapes in which gendered bodies hardly find unconfined spaces or representation; discursive and online realms often turn out to be equally restrictive, patriarchally dominated, and misogynic. Additionally, as urban automation advances in an increasingly 'smarter' city, everyday processes are more and more controlled by privatized algorithmic architectures of oppression.

Yet feminist hackspaces resist these heteronormatively programed technologies. Following five months of ethnographic research on cyberfeminist collectives and their resistive practices in Germany and Austria in 2021, my contribution askes how digitized cities become technologically, culturally, and spatially hacked toward representing more diverse realities. My analysis shows how feminist hackspaces attempt to increase accessibility to interfaces, (digital) spaces, and decision-making processes by sharing their tech-knowledge through open source solutions, educative illustrations, and visions of otherwise urban futures. Their activism demonstrates how (urban) hacking is a crucial practice to break with non-democratically controlled digitalization processes: playing with the uncertainty, incalculable openness, and scope for design of possible futures within software spaces makes hackfeminists essential actors in imagining cities to come. Often unnoticed and underestimated, their trial-and-error approach and understanding of hacking as a glitching cultural technique as well as refusal of pre-programmed patriarchal orders embodies the radical presence of potential tomorrows: a future filled with literally uncoded uncertainties and heterogenous hopes in favor of a hackable, thus accessible algorithmic anarchitecture in a cyber_feminist_city for all.

This episode is a live recording from Hacking Everything. The Cultures and Politics of Hackers and Software Workers panel organized at the European Association for the study of Science and Technology (EASST) 2022 conference in Madrid on 2022-07-07. The hosts are Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala. Audio production by Heights Beats at Hotmilk Records, who also produced the theme track. We are grateful for Chemnitz University of Technology for funding.

]]> In this episode we are joined by Maja-Lee Voigt, a Research Associate at the Centre for Digital Cultures at Leuphana University of Lüneburg.

To this day it remains a question of power who is granted the right to visibly take up and claim urban space; both physically and virtually. A societal and literal Room of One's Own" (Woolf 1929) is still not a given for people who define as women and/or queer. Rather, it is not only floor plans and cityscapes in which gendered bodies hardly find unconfined spaces or representation; discursive and online realms often turn out to be equally restrictive, patriarchally dominated, and misogynic. Additionally, as urban automation advances in an increasingly 'smarter' city, everyday processes are more and more controlled by privatized algorithmic architectures of oppression.

Yet feminist hackspaces resist these heteronormatively programed technologies. Following five months of ethnographic research on cyberfeminist collectives and their resistive practices in Germany and Austria in 2021, my contribution askes how digitized cities become technologically, culturally, and spatially hacked toward representing more diverse realities. My analysis shows how feminist hackspaces attempt to increase accessibility to interfaces, (digital) spaces, and decision-making processes by sharing their tech-knowledge through open source solutions, educative illustrations, and visions of otherwise urban futures. Their activism demonstrates how (urban) hacking is a crucial practice to break with non-democratically controlled digitalization processes: playing with the uncertainty, incalculable openness, and scope for design of possible futures within software spaces makes hackfeminists essential actors in imagining cities to come. Often unnoticed and underestimated, their trial-and-error approach and understanding of hacking as a glitching cultural technique as well as refusal of pre-programmed patriarchal orders embodies the radical presence of potential tomorrows: a future filled with literally uncoded uncertainties and heterogenous hopes in favor of a hackable, thus accessible algorithmic anarchitecture in a cyber_feminist_city for all.

This episode is a live recording from Hacking Everything. The Cultures and Politics of Hackers and Software Workers panel organized at the European Association for the study of Science and Technology (EASST) 2022 conference in Madrid on 2022-07-07. The hosts are Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof and Mace Ojala. Audio production by Heights Beats at Hotmilk Records, who also produced the theme track. We are grateful for Chemnitz University of Technology for funding.

]]> Paula Bialski, Andreas Bischof, Mace Ojala and Maja-Lee Voigt Buzzsprout-11330658 Tue, 04 Oct 2022 01:00:00 +0000 1041 2022 1 full false Episode 1 (2020): Morgan G. Ames - Throwback Culture: The Role of Nostalgia in Hacker Worlds Episode 1 (2020): Morgan G. Ames - Throwback Culture: The Role of Nostalgia in Hacker Worlds           This session's guest is Morgan G. Ames, who joins us from UC Berkely. There she is an assistant adjunct professor in the School of Information and interim associate director of research for the Center for Science, Technology, Medicine and Society. 

The maintenance of ‘hacker’ identities often involves the discussion of one’s origin story—the nostalgic rendering of the path that one took into programming and technical tinkering, involving the technologies and media of hackers’ childhoods. In her  paper she explores the ways in which these memories are mobilized to do cultural work in contemporary technology worlds, especially among those creating computational devices and software for children. Origin stories can serve as gatekeepers within hacker circles, delimiting who is a good “culture fit.” It can moreover shape the design process by influencing who hackers view as their primary audience and what they think this audience will find captivating.

  

]]>           This session's guest is Morgan G. Ames, who joins us from UC Berkely. There she is an assistant adjunct professor in the School of Information and interim associate director of research for the Center for Science, Technology, Medicine and Society. 

The maintenance of ‘hacker’ identities often involves the discussion of one’s origin story—the nostalgic rendering of the path that one took into programming and technical tinkering, involving the technologies and media of hackers’ childhoods. In her  paper she explores the ways in which these memories are mobilized to do cultural work in contemporary technology worlds, especially among those creating computational devices and software for children. Origin stories can serve as gatekeepers within hacker circles, delimiting who is a good “culture fit.” It can moreover shape the design process by influencing who hackers view as their primary audience and what they think this audience will find captivating.

  

]]> Paula Bialski Buzzsprout-5257033 Wed, 02 Sep 2020 22:00:00 +0000 1127 2020 1 full false Episode 2 (2020): Minna Saariketo & Mareike Glöss - In the grey zone of hacking? Two cases in the political economy of software and the Right to Repair Episode 2 (2020): Minna Saariketo & Mareike Glöss - In the grey zone of hacking? Two cases in the political economy of software and the Right to Repair Minna Saariketo is a postdoc at the Department of Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University. Mareike Glöss is a lecturer Department of Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University.

In their research, they address the ‘grey zone of hacking’: end users subverting software and hardware controls imposed by manufacturers. We discuss one empirical case in particular: farmers claiming the ‘right to repair’ of agricultural equipment. The ‘Right to Repair’ movement has brought together users and developers to circumvent products that cannot be repaired or modified freely. Manufactures have responded by ‘lock-ins’ by not supplying spare parts, service manuals, disassembly and diagnostic tools, as well as forbidding modification of software in their licenses. Hackers have worked around these lock-ins, creating parallel networks of software and hardware distribution, supplying hacking tools to end users. So in their session, they will talk about the political economy of software: how the control of technical artefacts is achieved both legally and economically. Second is the issue of agency, expertise, and technological literacy. 

]]> Minna Saariketo is a postdoc at the Department of Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University. Mareike Glöss is a lecturer Department of Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University.

In their research, they address the ‘grey zone of hacking’: end users subverting software and hardware controls imposed by manufacturers. We discuss one empirical case in particular: farmers claiming the ‘right to repair’ of agricultural equipment. The ‘Right to Repair’ movement has brought together users and developers to circumvent products that cannot be repaired or modified freely. Manufactures have responded by ‘lock-ins’ by not supplying spare parts, service manuals, disassembly and diagnostic tools, as well as forbidding modification of software in their licenses. Hackers have worked around these lock-ins, creating parallel networks of software and hardware distribution, supplying hacking tools to end users. So in their session, they will talk about the political economy of software: how the control of technical artefacts is achieved both legally and economically. Second is the issue of agency, expertise, and technological literacy. 

]]> Paula Bialski Buzzsprout-5257063 Wed, 02 Sep 2020 21:00:00 +0000 1358 2020 2 full false Episode 3 (2020): Annika Richterich - Forget about the learning: On (digital) creativity and expertise in hacker-/makerspaces Episode 3 (2020): Annika Richterich - Forget about the learning: On (digital) creativity and expertise in hacker-/makerspaces Annika Richterich is an assistant professor in Digital Culture at Maastricht University (NL). Her research focuses on practices of collaboration, learning and innovation in hacking communities.

Annika explains that hackers and makers are curious people. They tinker, try, and team up − driven by tech-political motives, entrepreneurial interests, or just for the fun of it. Their curiosity about digital technology and crafts makes them self-driven learners in these domains. To share their enthusiasm as well as required machines, hackers and makers worldwide have formed communities called hack-/hackerspaces and makerspaces. These are physical places where members engage in creative DIY activities involving software and electronics. Learning is key to the social tech and craft practices cultivated in hacker-/makerspaces (HMS). Yet, the educational value of these DIY communities has been rarely acknowledged. Drawing on a mixed-methods study, her paper explores how (digital) creativity and expertise are interrelated in HMS.

]]> Annika Richterich is an assistant professor in Digital Culture at Maastricht University (NL). Her research focuses on practices of collaboration, learning and innovation in hacking communities.

Annika explains that hackers and makers are curious people. They tinker, try, and team up − driven by tech-political motives, entrepreneurial interests, or just for the fun of it. Their curiosity about digital technology and crafts makes them self-driven learners in these domains. To share their enthusiasm as well as required machines, hackers and makers worldwide have formed communities called hack-/hackerspaces and makerspaces. These are physical places where members engage in creative DIY activities involving software and electronics. Learning is key to the social tech and craft practices cultivated in hacker-/makerspaces (HMS). Yet, the educational value of these DIY communities has been rarely acknowledged. Drawing on a mixed-methods study, her paper explores how (digital) creativity and expertise are interrelated in HMS.

]]> Paula Bialski & Mace Ojala Buzzsprout-5257522 Wed, 02 Sep 2020 20:00:00 +0000 1250 2020 3 full false Episode 4 (2020): Alex Dean Cybulski - Hacker Culture Is Everything You Don't Get Paid For In the Information Security Industry Episode 4 (2020): Alex Dean Cybulski - Hacker Culture Is Everything You Don't Get Paid For In the Information Security Industry Alex Dean Cybulski is a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Information. Presently, he is writing a dissertation on capture the flag competitions, play and games in hacker culture and the information security industry.

In this session he will talk about the field he is studying – specifically Capture the flag (CTF). It is a competitive game in which players mimic the experience of discovering and exploiting vulnerabilities in information systems, hacking into simulated software and/or networks to retrieve data known as a ‘flag.’ CTF participants, often drawn from the information security and IT industries utilize these games as a means of training to develop/apply offensive security knowledge in a legal way, so that they can better defend the software/systems they are entrusted with. 
 
This presentation will discuss preliminary findings of his research: ethnographic, semi-structured interviews with a team of players at an on-site CTF who also share the same workplace.  

]]> Alex Dean Cybulski is a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Information. Presently, he is writing a dissertation on capture the flag competitions, play and games in hacker culture and the information security industry.

In this session he will talk about the field he is studying – specifically Capture the flag (CTF). It is a competitive game in which players mimic the experience of discovering and exploiting vulnerabilities in information systems, hacking into simulated software and/or networks to retrieve data known as a ‘flag.’ CTF participants, often drawn from the information security and IT industries utilize these games as a means of training to develop/apply offensive security knowledge in a legal way, so that they can better defend the software/systems they are entrusted with. 
 
This presentation will discuss preliminary findings of his research: ethnographic, semi-structured interviews with a team of players at an on-site CTF who also share the same workplace.  

]]> Paula Bialski & Mace Ojala Buzzsprout-5257501 Wed, 02 Sep 2020 19:00:00 +0000 1184 2020 4 full false Episode 5 (2020): Jérémy Grosman - Algorithmic Objects, Algorithmic Practices Episode 5 (2020): Jérémy Grosman - Algorithmic Objects, Algorithmic Practices Jérémy is a PhD student at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Namur in Belgium His work sits between computer science on the one hand and philosophy on the other. 

Jeremy’s talk today takes a deep dive into the daily practices of engineers (practices like implementations, experiments, publications). He says that these practices force engineers to complicate the separation between algorithms, on one side, and problems, on the other. His work focuses on a character named Robin, an engineer working on recommender systems, who he ethnographically observed in his research project. 

In today’s talk, he will focus on describing one bit of Robin’s work, in order to hopefully teach us something about what algorithms, as objects are, in between in between abstract mathematical objects and concrete material objects, and he will attempts to give us an insight into engineering endeavours. 

]]> Jérémy is a PhD student at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Namur in Belgium His work sits between computer science on the one hand and philosophy on the other. 

Jeremy’s talk today takes a deep dive into the daily practices of engineers (practices like implementations, experiments, publications). He says that these practices force engineers to complicate the separation between algorithms, on one side, and problems, on the other. His work focuses on a character named Robin, an engineer working on recommender systems, who he ethnographically observed in his research project. 

In today’s talk, he will focus on describing one bit of Robin’s work, in order to hopefully teach us something about what algorithms, as objects are, in between in between abstract mathematical objects and concrete material objects, and he will attempts to give us an insight into engineering endeavours. 

]]> Paula Bialski & Mace Ojala Buzzsprout-5257453 Wed, 02 Sep 2020 18:00:00 +0000 1211 2020 5 full false Episode 6 (2020): Stéphane Couture - Hacker Culture and Practices in the Development of Internet Protocols Episode 6 (2020): Stéphane Couture - Hacker Culture and Practices in the Development of Internet Protocols Stéphane Couture is a Professor at the Faculté des arts et des sciences - Département de communication at the University of Montreal. 


Referring to previous work done on hacker culture and free and open source software,  Stéphane's presentation will look at the cultures, practices, and power dynamics of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and its sister and peripheral organization, the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF). IETF is the main organization building Internet protocols, namely the formal specifications and standards that specify the rules and forms of computer communication on the Internet. He proposes to look at protocol development from the perspective of hacker cultures and practices described by authors such as Coleman and Kelty. Indeed, while the ‘protocol’ artifact is different than the software ‘code’ of hackers, many aspects of its development are reminiscent of hacker culture. 

]]> Stéphane Couture is a Professor at the Faculté des arts et des sciences - Département de communication at the University of Montreal. 


Referring to previous work done on hacker culture and free and open source software,  Stéphane's presentation will look at the cultures, practices, and power dynamics of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and its sister and peripheral organization, the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF). IETF is the main organization building Internet protocols, namely the formal specifications and standards that specify the rules and forms of computer communication on the Internet. He proposes to look at protocol development from the perspective of hacker cultures and practices described by authors such as Coleman and Kelty. Indeed, while the ‘protocol’ artifact is different than the software ‘code’ of hackers, many aspects of its development are reminiscent of hacker culture. 

]]> Paula Bialski & Mace Ojala Buzzsprout-5257381 Wed, 02 Sep 2020 18:00:00 +0000 1185 2020 6 full false Episode 7 (2020): Ola Michalec - Hacking infrastructures: understanding capabilities of Operational Technology (OT) security workers Episode 7 (2020): Ola Michalec - Hacking infrastructures: understanding capabilities of Operational Technology (OT) security workers Ola is a research associate at the University of Bristol and is interested in the 'making of' technology, science and policy, specifically about the Cybersecurity of Critical National Infrastructures

Facilities like power plants, water pipes and railway stations underpin contemporary living standards across the world. For decades, they have been operated by Operational Technologies (OT), basic (yet sturdy!) computers without Internet access. People working in OT facilities are traditionally manual workers or engineers with training in safety.

In this session, Ola presents the results of a qualitative study conducted between November 2019-January 2020, where her and her team interviewed 30 UK-based security practitioners with expertise in critical infrastructures. Their analysis is concerned with the following questions: How do security practitioners define (in)security? How do they evidence it? What capabilities make a good OT security worker?

]]> Ola is a research associate at the University of Bristol and is interested in the 'making of' technology, science and policy, specifically about the Cybersecurity of Critical National Infrastructures

Facilities like power plants, water pipes and railway stations underpin contemporary living standards across the world. For decades, they have been operated by Operational Technologies (OT), basic (yet sturdy!) computers without Internet access. People working in OT facilities are traditionally manual workers or engineers with training in safety.

In this session, Ola presents the results of a qualitative study conducted between November 2019-January 2020, where her and her team interviewed 30 UK-based security practitioners with expertise in critical infrastructures. Their analysis is concerned with the following questions: How do security practitioners define (in)security? How do they evidence it? What capabilities make a good OT security worker?

]]> Paula Bialski & Mace Ojala Buzzsprout-5257378 Wed, 02 Sep 2020 17:00:00 +0000 1149 2020 7 full false Episode 8 (2020): Sylvain Besençon - Securing by hacking: maintenance regimes around an end-to-end encryption standard Episode 8 (2020): Sylvain Besençon - Securing by hacking: maintenance regimes around an end-to-end encryption standard In this session, we interview Sylvain Besençon a PhD student in anthropology at the University of Fribourg. 

In his presentation, he talks about internet standards, which are elementary and powerful bricks of the Internet infrastructure: they define how the Internet should work and help developers to code their pieces of software accordingly. However, regularly, there are some voices or hacks that destabilize them and open the door to radical uncertainties about the reliability of the software we use, especially when crucial information is at stake. Based on digital ethnography as well as interviews and observations at international conferences, his paper takes as departure point the disclosure process of a series of vulnerabilities that affects an end-to-end email encryption standard called OpenPGP, used mostly by computer engineers, activists and journalists. 

]]> In this session, we interview Sylvain Besençon a PhD student in anthropology at the University of Fribourg. 

In his presentation, he talks about internet standards, which are elementary and powerful bricks of the Internet infrastructure: they define how the Internet should work and help developers to code their pieces of software accordingly. However, regularly, there are some voices or hacks that destabilize them and open the door to radical uncertainties about the reliability of the software we use, especially when crucial information is at stake. Based on digital ethnography as well as interviews and observations at international conferences, his paper takes as departure point the disclosure process of a series of vulnerabilities that affects an end-to-end email encryption standard called OpenPGP, used mostly by computer engineers, activists and journalists. 

]]> Paula Bialski & Mace Ojala Buzzsprout-5257330 Wed, 02 Sep 2020 16:00:00 +0000 1128 2020 8 full false Episode 9 (2020): R. Stuart Geiger & Dorothy Howard - “I didn’t sign up for this”: The Invisible Work of Maintaining Free/Open-Source Software Communities Episode 9 (2020): R. Stuart Geiger & Dorothy Howard - “I didn’t sign up for this”: The Invisible Work of Maintaining Free/Open-Source Software Communities R. Stuart Geiger calls himself an Ethnographer of computation and computational ethnographer, and is an Assistant Professor at the University of California, San Diego in the Department of Communication and the Haligiolu Data science Institute.

Dorothy Howard is a Ph.D. student in Communication at UC San Diego, and her interests broadly span across the psychosocial and material effects of sociotechnical systems on society, and on worker's lives and subjectivities.

In this session, Stuart and Dorothy will present findings about the work of maintaining community-based free and/or open-source software (F/OSS) projects, focusing on invisible and infrastructural work. Many F/OSS projects have become foundational across academia, industry, government, journalism, and activism. Although F/OSS projects provide immense benefits for society, they are often created and sustained by volunteer labor. Their maintainers often struggle with how to sustain and support their projects, particularly for projects lower down the stack like software libraries, operating systems, or kernels, which become adopted as infrastructure. Some growing projects transition into non-profit foundations, startups, or corporate patronage, while others stand against more traditional organizational models and align with more decentralized, cooperative, or ‘hacker’ cultures.

 

]]> R. Stuart Geiger calls himself an Ethnographer of computation and computational ethnographer, and is an Assistant Professor at the University of California, San Diego in the Department of Communication and the Haligiolu Data science Institute.

Dorothy Howard is a Ph.D. student in Communication at UC San Diego, and her interests broadly span across the psychosocial and material effects of sociotechnical systems on society, and on worker's lives and subjectivities.

In this session, Stuart and Dorothy will present findings about the work of maintaining community-based free and/or open-source software (F/OSS) projects, focusing on invisible and infrastructural work. Many F/OSS projects have become foundational across academia, industry, government, journalism, and activism. Although F/OSS projects provide immense benefits for society, they are often created and sustained by volunteer labor. Their maintainers often struggle with how to sustain and support their projects, particularly for projects lower down the stack like software libraries, operating systems, or kernels, which become adopted as infrastructure. Some growing projects transition into non-profit foundations, startups, or corporate patronage, while others stand against more traditional organizational models and align with more decentralized, cooperative, or ‘hacker’ cultures.

 

]]> Paula Bialski & Mace Ojala Buzzsprout-5257318 Wed, 02 Sep 2020 16:00:00 +0000 1216 2020 9 full false