Decoding Liberation The Promise of Free and Open Source Software [Paperback]

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Software is more than a set of instructions for computers: it enables (and disables) political imperatives and policies. Nowhere is the potential for radical social and political change more apparent than in the practice and movement known as free software. Free software makes the knowledge and innovation of its creators publicly available. This liberation of codecelebrated in free softwares explicatory slogan Think free speech, not free beer is the foundation, for example, of the Linux phenomenon.

Decoding Liberation provides a synoptic perspective on the relationships between free software and freedom. Focusing on five main themesthe emancipatory potential of technology, social liberties, the facilitation of creativity, the objectivity of computing as scientific practice, and the role of software in a cyborg worldthe authors ask: What are the freedoms of free software, and how are they manifested? This book is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding how free software promises to transform not only technology but society as well.

Contents  Introduction  1. Free Software and Political Economy   2. The Ethics of Free Software   3. Free Software and the Aesthetics of Code  4. Free Software and the Scientific Practice of Computer Science  5. Free Software and the Political Philosophy of the Cyborg World   Bibliography

Samir Choprais Associate Professor of Computer and Information Science at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.

 

Scott Dexter is an Associate Professor of Computer and Information Science at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.