TY - GEN
T1 - Open to grok. How do hackers' practices produce hackers?
AU - D'Andrea, Vincenzo
AU - De Paoli, Stefano
AU - Teli, Maurizio
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - How do hackers’ practices produce hackers’ identities? In this paper we argue that the association between science fiction and software programs is rooted in hackers’ practices, defining how hackers’ knowledge’ emerge. The mediation is the one of the Heinlein verb “to grok”, part of the Jargon file and of the name of a code browser, OpenGrok, the technology mediating the relationship between OpenSolaris developers and the code base. Starting with a description of the peculiarity of the verb “to grok”, and its connection with a non-Cartesian view of knowledge, we discuss how the history of OpenGrok and its use by developers make this knowledge part of hackers’ practices and identities, as someone involved in a true, deep understanding of software.
AB - How do hackers’ practices produce hackers’ identities? In this paper we argue that the association between science fiction and software programs is rooted in hackers’ practices, defining how hackers’ knowledge’ emerge. The mediation is the one of the Heinlein verb “to grok”, part of the Jargon file and of the name of a code browser, OpenGrok, the technology mediating the relationship between OpenSolaris developers and the code base. Starting with a description of the peculiarity of the verb “to grok”, and its connection with a non-Cartesian view of knowledge, we discuss how the history of OpenGrok and its use by developers make this knowledge part of hackers’ practices and identities, as someone involved in a true, deep understanding of software.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=47949091983&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-0-387-09684-1_10
DO - 10.1007/978-0-387-09684-1_10
M3 - Article in proceeding
AN - SCOPUS:47949091983
SN - 9780387096834
VL - 275
T3 - IFIP International Federation for Information Processing
SP - 121
EP - 129
BT - Open Source Development, Communities and Quality
A2 - Russo, Barbara
A2 - Succi, Giancarlo
A2 - Damiani, Ernesto
A2 - Hissam, Scott
A2 - Lundell, Björn
ER -