Christopher M. Kelty

Bio

Christopher M. Kelty is an associate professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has a joint appointment in the Center for Society and Genetics and in the department of Information Studies. His research focuses on the cultural significance of information technology, especially in science and engineering. He is the author most recently of Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software (Duke University Press, 2008), as well as numerous articles on open source and free software, including its impact on education, nanotechnology, the life sciences, and issues of peer review and research process in the sciences and in the humanities.

Abstract

No fun: work and labor in free software

This presentation will look at the case of Free Software through the lens of work and labor. Free Software is presented as an exemplary case of technically and morally specific world-making that emphasizes particular ideals of freedom forged in the liberal tradition and worked over by the emergence of the Internet, the expansion of intellectual property and the globalization of social imaginaries of moral order.