Content Analysis of Hackbloc

Upon hearing that our class had to visit Hackbloc and analyze it within the framework of social media, I took a few hours to not only look at the site itself, but also the sites it linked to. By looking at what other websites, organizations, and movements that Hackbloc supports, we can gain a good understanding of where their interests lie. First I want to give a brief description of Hackbloc from my initial observations and then use Pierre Levy’s six planks of hacker ethic as a springboard into talking about Hackbloc and the sites it links to.

By brief description I mean brief description. On Hackbloc they’re definitely not “just” hackers or just “technophiles;” they actively pursue, participate in, and disseminate information revolving around Hacktivism, which is described by Wikipedia as electronic direct action working toward social change by combining programming skills with critical thinking.

Pierre Levy’s “six planks of hacker ethic.”


1. Access to computers should be unlimited:
Although I don’t see this explicitly stated on the site, everything else they strive to promote could not be done unless computers were commonplace. In fact, this first plank of hacker ethic is outdated. Information is not only accessed through computers but all types of mobile communication devices. The real world political action tool they employ, entitled Tapatio, relies on members to use mobile devices to provide instant feedback and reports. Also, their underlying support for the open source movement is no doubt driven by this ideal.


2. All Information should be free:
They see the internet as the beacon of free information for all. This is why they actively condemn any form of censorship or control on the internet and actually help develop tools and programs so that people can keep their internet secure, private, and open to all information. The fact that they support the open source movement, on the grounds that open source software is free, solidifies their conformity to this plank of hacker ethic.


3. Mistrust authorities and promote decentralization:
One only has to look at three of the points on their “points of unity” to see their support for this goal.
- Reject all forms of domination and oppression.
- Actively confront censorship and oppression whether it occurs online or in the physical world.
- Engage in creative and traditional direct action to advance struggles for liberation.

They even state that part of their mission is to “ research, create and disseminate information, tools, and tactics that empower people to use technology in a way that is liberating.”
As you can see, the word liberation appears often on the site, as does anarchy.


4. Hackers should be judged by own prowess rather than formal organization:
As this applies specifically to “hacking” it doesn’t appear much on the site. However, while reading through several weeks of their blog posts I saw several posts that gave “hacker cred” to people who had broken into servers. The nature of a group they support, and likely participate in, called Anonymous is specifically about no “formal organization” - everyone remains completely anonymous. I wonder if there emerges an ethical dilemma among Anonymous members who want “hacker cred” for what they accomplished under the banner of Anonymous. On the one hand they support Anonymous because it emphasises security from authorities, while on the other hand much of why they enjoy hacking in the first place is for “hacker cred.”


5. One can create art and beauty on a computer:
No where on the site did I find an example of this, no matter how far I expanded the definition. In fact, judging by the design of the site I don’t think they tend to care much about art in its traditional sense. Maybe beauty is just code and I am only looking at what is on the surface of this code.


6. Computers can change lives for the better:
Again, the use of only the term computers renders this plank rather outdated, but its message still remains. I think it can be updated to say something more along the lines of "technology can change lives for the better."

In Hackbloc’s mission it states that they want to “empower people to use technology in a way that is liberating.” Everything they support from anarchy to open source software suggests that not only do most things they participate in revolve around the use of technology, but if it doesn’t they find a way to use technology to achieve their goals. For example, the support for Anarchy isn’t necessarily relegated to people who believe that technology can change the world, but Hackbloc goes ahead in promoting it - partly due to the dialectic between freedom of information and anarchy - through the use of hacking and coding, and using both to form real-life activism.

Not stemming from early hacker culture, I found several other more modern hacktivist minded views on the site.

For one, they’re nerdy/geeky. Although hackers could be said to be this to begin with, Hackbloc takes it to the next level by sharing links to sites like i09 which writes mostly about science fiction and nerd culture. There is a large subculture online that shares interests in technology, science fiction, and progressivism. This subculture dominates sites like Digg and Reddit, and Hacktivism is definitely a subculture of this subculture.

Progressivism is dominate on Hackbloc as well, which is echoed in their cosmopolitan, anti-racist, anti-xenophobic, anti-nationalist, anti-homophobic points of unity.

Information on Steroids and how to Organize it

For my first post I’ve decided to comment and expand upon K Star’s post entitled “How much is too much?”

Her main contention was that we use too many forms of technology to moderate our lives. She gives examples of how many different devices she has to use to keep up with school and a social life. I too often wonder why we’ve allowed technology to be the nodes through which we access our education, work, and social life. I’m technology obsessive; I have a Blackberry, a Razor (as a backup phone), a Macbook Pro, two computer monitors, thousands of dollars worth of digital DJ equipment, and an iPod Touch. Every technology you’ve ever wanted I’ve likely had. As hip or nerdy (depending on the way you look at it) as this might make me sound, it begets the question.....WHY?



Before I answer that I want to first state that I’m by no means a technological determinist. According to Wikipedia, technological determinism is “a reductionist doctrine that a society's technology determines its cultural values, social structure, or history.” I tend to think that although technology has a great influence on our lives, it is also an expansion on our a priori senses, notions, beliefs, and values. Technology is like ourselves on steroids. It makes everything we do bigger, more connected, and more powerful. Think of Barry Bonds as a blackberry - it’s just an extremely powerful phone.



And this is where the answer to K Star’s question lies. We use so many different technologies to keep up with the complexity of everyday life - which itself is a result of an affluence of technology - because these technologies are simply extensions of our pre-existing methods of education and social interaction. Facebook is based upon the notion of the facebook’s that were used at Harvard, so that first year students could remember all of the people they met, while WebCT attempts to resemble every aspect of a classroom. As we’ve become more accustomed to technology we’ve allowed it to operate as a replacement of existing social structures and institutions.

This begets a more intriguing question: does our reliance on so many technologies enhance our abilities to keep up with daily life? Does it diminish our abilities? Or does it convolute our daily lives?

But more specifically on the topic of citizen media and the public sphere, how many sources do you get your daily information from (news, e-mail accounts, blogs, facebook, etc.)?

Too many sources for daily information is something I had a problem with. It got to a point last year where I would wake up and spend so many hours juggling between my information sources that I would lose precious time to actually spend with friends. Luckily there are forms of content control that have helped me organize my life. First are aggregator sites like Digg and Reddit that always provide me with interesting news. Second, is G-Mail’s ability to streamline all of my e-mail accounts into one server. Third, there are RSS readers like Google Reader that streamline the over 200 sources of information I have into one easy to read program. And lastly there is Facebook, which is of course the hub of my extended social life.

So I want to know...

What technologies do you use to manage your daily lives?