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Hacker Culture & Politics

What is this course about?

We are all hackers now. This course chronicles the story of a label that began among a geeky subculture, then migrated to a murky criminal underground, only to be adopted by management consultants and CEOs. Do hacker formations like Wikileaks, Anonymous, and open-source software represent a new kind of politics, or a rejection of politics as we know it? This course explores the contested figure of the hacker in the past, present, and science-fiction of the Internet.

Since anyone who has signed up for a course with this name can probably expect to be on some watchlist for all eternity, we'll also have to learn skills. Expect to teach yourself and one another something technical. Hacker politics is not a spectator sport.

What are the expectations?

Basically, students are expected to hack it. This can take different forms for different people. We'll work together to make the expectations clear, and then it's up to you how and to what degree you'd like to meet them.

Class attendance is not strictly required, and attendance will not be taken. Class participation credit, however, will be determined based on several randomly selected meetings, and absences (without a documented excuse) are equivalent to zero credit.

Class participation credit will be awarded on the basis of:

  • thoughtful contributions to the discussion that demonstrate grasp of the readings
  • evidence of attention to others
  • raising good questions

Each week, students are expected to submit at least one contribution to Wikipedia that reflects a sophisticated grasp of one or more of the assigned readings. Understand and practice Wikipedia's standards of citation and significance. Try, also, to emphasize underrepresented topics and voices (such as ones that are non-male, non-white, and international).

Online participation credit will be awarded on the basis of:

  • evaluation of your Wikipedia username
  • evidence of meaningful contribution to the information commons (though Wikipedia's acceptance or non-acceptance of contributions is not considered)

Project 0: Hack something

This is a warm-up. Early in the course, each student will come to class with some piece of technology (old or new, digital or analog) that they have put to a use it wasn't designed for.

Credit will be awarded on the basis of:

  • completion
  • originality
  • cleverness

Project 1: Learn something

We learn from each other. At some point in the couse, each student will present to the class a hacker skill that they have learned. One skill per student—you'll sign up ahead of time for a skill and a day to present, pending the instructor's approval. In a 10-12 minute presentation, including slides or a live demo, share with us not only the skill but the learning process you went through to obtain it. Skills may include but are not limited to:

  • encryption
  • scripting
  • command-line utilities
  • antique editing tools
  • free/open alternatives to proprietary tools
  • social engineering
  • scraping

Credit wll be awarded on the basis of:

  • demonstrated autodidacticism (with appropriate community help)
  • difficulty of the skill
  • accessibility and fun of the presentation

Project 2: Understand something

Become a goon. The final project for this course is to write an approximately 2,000-to-2,500-word report on a real-world hack for a relevant establishmentarian organization. If the hack in question is of questionable legality, write as an FBI agent, perhaps. If the hack is just a brilliant piece of technology, write as a stiff for a big computer company trying to figure out how to capitalize on it. In any case, with clear language and documented research, explain the nature of the hack, its significance, and a recommendation for what your organization should do about it.

This project includes a built-in debugging and revision process.

Credit will be awarded on the basis of:

  • complete beta version
  • participation in debugging
  • evidence of revision for final
  • comprehension of the hack and accessible analysis of it
  • impressive and documented research
  • grammar, spelling, coherence

Bounties

Grades are not especially conducive to hacking, but we need some equivalent in order for this course to be legible to the university. Therefore, work will be rewarded with bounties. These are functionally pretty much the same as grades, but perhaps giving them a different name will prevent them from killing the learning process in the way that grades normally do. The maximum bounty awarded for each portion of the course is as follows:

  • Class participation: 20 points
  • Online participation: 20 points
  • Project 0: 10 points
  • Project 1: 20 points
  • Project 2: 30 points

The final grade will be calculated by adding up the bounties each student has earned.

Terms and conditions

  • When problems arise, we will seek to address them collaboratively—first through dialogue, then through revision of this document, and only if those are inadequate through recourse to outside authorities.
  • We respect one another's privacy. Content shared in the course will not be shared beyond it.
  • Use of laptops and other screen devices is discouraged during class time. They are highly likely to interfere with your learning experience. Most class activities, unless otherwise stated, neither require or will be improved by them.
  • We adhere to basic university standards regarding accessibility and academic integrity; we take responsibility for understanding them and the relevant procedures. Verbum sat sapienti est.

What topics will be covered?

Here they are:

Readme

Welcome to the course. Infinite loop.

  • Recursion exercise
  • Thinking like a computer
  • Politics?

Whois?

School

Celluloid hacking

Each watch 2?

  • Hackers
  • That new TV show
  • War Games

Sharing

Law

Order

Queerness

  • Hacker feminism and gender
  • Double Union

Vigilantism

Power

Money

  • Basic income
  • Cryptocurrency

Leaks

  • Snowden, Assange, etc.
  • Andy Greenberg, This Machine Kills Secrets: How WikiLeakers, Cypherpunks, and Hacktivists Aim to Free the World's Information

Encryption party

Gentrification

Go through this: http://is.gd/wM0DBK

  • Stephenson, Snow Crash
  • Kevin Mitnick, Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker
  • Guests
    • Coleman
    • Justine Tunney
    • Adrian Chen
    • David Segal
    • Double Union folks
    • Ingrid
    • Alexa Clay
    • Brett Scott
    • Robin Hood
    • Joel Deitz

What should I be checking out to keep up with hacker culture?

To whom is credit due for the composition of this class?

Quite a bit of the material came from this course with the same name offered by Gabriella Coleman. Read my profile of her here.