Overview:
Choose one of the three questions below and write a 7-8 page essay response. Each question will require that you complete some additional reading and then analyze Pekka Himanen's The Hacker Ethic from the perspective of that reading. I will be looking for clear, well-organized, and detailed essays that address the complexity of the global, cultural, and technological issues raised in The Hacker Ethic. Complete all the reading and analyze the issues (as much as possible) prior to formulating your arguments; this will cultivate intellectual growth and discovery in a way that taking a position and then searching for supporting evidence will not. All writing and thinking develops iteratively over time - thus, I will expect you to proceed through several stages of revision before reaching your final draft. I encourage you to seek outside assistance on the organizational and grammatical components of your essays (consult with me or the Writing Center in Sage 4508).

Important Dates:
October 16: Typed draft of your paper is due in class (for peer review)
October 19: Final draft of your paper is due at the start of class

Grading (for a total of 20%):
Argumentation and Analysis: 12%
Organization and Mechanics 5%
Peer-review Participation 3%

Essay Questions (respond to one of the following):

1. Pekka describes capitalism and hackerism as pulling in two different directions, with hackers more interested in social contributions than financial gain. Read the chapter "Cycles of Credit" in Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar's Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts (1979) and then analyze Pekka's claims from Latour and Woolgar's cycles of credit perspective.

2. Pekka asserts that "a free relation to time has always been typical of hackers, who appreciate an individualistic rhythm of life" (20). Read the chapter "Time-space compression and the postmodern condition" in David Harvey's The Condition of Postmodernity (1990) and then analyze hackers' desire for individual flexibility from Harvey's macro-economic perspective.

3. Pekka purposefully adopts a Biblical model for his book and chooses to read hacker culture through a creationist lens. Given the patriarchal history of Christianity and the gender inequities in technology fields, this biblical metaphor may perpetuate a technological culture based on exclusion. Read the chapter "Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective" in Donna Haraway's Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (1991) and then analyze The Hacker Ethic from this feminist perspective.