For the third radlibchat at 20.00 (BST) on Tuesday 13th October, we will be discussing Gabriella Coleman’s (2009) journal article Code is Speech: Legal Tinkering, Expertise, and Protest among Free and Open Source Software Developers. This link is to an open access post-print of the article.
The discussion will be hosted by @RadicalLibs on Twitter using the #radlibchat hashtag.
Questions to frame the discussion to come…keep an eye on our Twitter account for updates.
Questions for framing discussion
1) Should code be treated as speech? To what extent should LIS workers engage in this issue?
2) To what extent is there a link between libraries and FOSS software? How could libraries engage in this area?
3) What links or differences are there in the approach to politics taken by programmers and LIS workers?
4) Do you think LIS workers would benefit from informal legal expertise? If so, how could LIS workers acquire it?
5) Can piracy of proprietary (non-FOSS) software ever be justified?
6) To what extent should we work within a legal framework if we believe the state making the laws is unjust?
Upcoming chats:
10th November 2015 – On Libraries And The Public Sphere by John Buschman.
