For my final, I want to look at how far early hacker culture has permeated into our society.  Specifically, I want to prove that the hacker subculture has influenced society, but the definition and parts of hacker culture affects society at different intervals.  Hacking has multiple definitions, but I want to focus on the public perception of hackers, which is a combination of computer program and hardware enthusiast and computer criminals who bypass computer security.  Unlike mathematicians or physicists, the hacker subculture started as small hobby groups.  These hobby groups, separated before computers had the networking abilities they have today, created their own ethics and  ideals that were very unique at the time (Nissen),(Turkle & Palpert). ​This project attempts to  analyze maps, charts, and visualizations of information over time that relates to hackers in order to see the increase or decrease of their influence. 

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     The hacking subculture has debate-able starting dates, but the first publication on any sort of hacking activity was in the October, 1971 edition of Esquire magazine.  The article, entitled "Secrets of the Little Blue Box" goes into detail about a device that was used by "phone phreakers" who exploited the phone company's use of frequencies to direct calls.  ​

Introduction

    This article highlights important elements of hacking culture.  The "phreakers" are all intelligent, playful hobbyists who try to further their knowledge of a system  while straddling a legal gray area.  The individuals in the article do illegally steal from the phone companies by making free calls, but the intent is playful rather than malicious (Rosenbaum).  The legislation passed by the government, however, focuses on the illegal activity of hackers, shaping the public perception of hackers into cyber criminals. 

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    This project will focus on the geospatial influence, written media, and cultural events over time in order to gauge how influential and innovative these hobbyists have been to our society.

​Nissen, Jörgen
     1998  Hackers, Masters of Modernity and Modern Technology in Digital Diversions:  Youth Culture in the Age of Multi-Media.

      Julian Sefton Green.  Pp.  138-156. Psychology Press

 

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Turkle, Sherry and Seymour Papert
     1990  Epistemological Pluralism: Styles and Voices within the Computer Culture.  Signs ,  Vol. 16, No. 1, From Hard Drive to

     Software: Gender, Computers, and Difference  (Autumn, pp. 128-157, The University of Chicago Press

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http://www.jstor.org/stable/3174610

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Rosenbaum, Ron

     October 1971  Secrets of the Little Blue Box,  Originally Published by Esquire Magazine.  Rehosted on

     http://www.lospadres.info, last updated December 27, 2004.  Viewed on December 17, 2012.

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http://www.lospadres.info/thorg/lbb.html

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