Mikko Välimäki
From individuals to political institutions
- The discourse on institutional change in free software and open source communities

From individuals to political institutions
1	Introduction
2	Between Business and Science
3	Discourse Participants within the Community
4	Software Development and Ethics
5	Changing Social Institutions
6	Global Economy Meets Open Source
7	Individuals and Institutions
8	References
	Author
	Print

Networked information society has practically grown on open source / free software. Moreover, open source ideology has become more acknowledged in the context of social and cultural discourse. This article starts by discussing both the changes in the software development and distribution methodologies during the last thirty years and their implications to the evolving legal, social and cultural institutions of the network society at large.

Then we turn into the political and cultural discourse. The main point of the article is to discuss the nature of open source as a tool of individuals to initiate large-scale institutional change. The approach taken is to explain the philosophical and practical goals and motives behind actions of individual hackers. We try to illustrate how capable individuals such as Richard M. Stallman, Eric S. Raymond and Linus Torvalds have with their individual efforts aimed at changing software infrastructure and surrounding institutions, but in fact laid foundations for a much more thorough change. The networked information society and its accepted moral codes have practically grown from these individual initiatives.

Introduction

If information society is only understood in technical and economic terms - as a tool of promoting capital and technological progress - the term soon loses its political aspects. French communication theorist Mattelart has wonderfully criticized deterministic beliefs that information society implies unlimited progress (Mattelart 2001). He calls for thoughtful societal discussion of the information society and warns not to forget that states, societies and government regulation are going to stay around in the future too.

At the heart, there can be seen a fundamental tension between technological optimism and conservative institutional structures. The rapid development of new communication technologies, computers, software and media suggests that information is more accessible than ever. However, at the same time proprietary social, legal and technical norms restrict the free flow of information through copyrights, patents, license contracts and other control mechanisms. Some popular voices, Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig in the front, believe the future of innovative activity and free information distribution is now threatened (Lessig 2001).

These “big questions” form the core of contemporary societal discussion on the future of information society. It might become as a surprise to European cultural elites that the locus operandi is now on the Anglo-American soil with technology experts in the lead. Notable computer hackers started in the 1980s to define the social and moral norms, which today govern the digital world. Therefore, before turning into culture and politics, we take a short tour to the origins of open source and free software communities.

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