Everyone:

Welcome to CSE 40842 Hackers in the Bazaar, which is an elective course that explores the idea of a hacker and the practice of participating in the open source bazaar. This semester we will examine the history and culture of hackers and open source by reading, discussing, and reflecting on the four different books. Likewise, we will apply the ideas and concepts explored in these books through three group projects.

Course Overview

As you can see from the course schedule, we will split the course into four sections (each related to a particular book):

1. Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution: The first book examines the origins of hacker culture and the hacker ethic along with the early days of the computer revolution.

2. Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age: The second book explores how the hacker culture continues to influence the ethos of the modern technology industry and in particular disruptive startups.

3. The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary: The third book discusses the underlying principles and motivations for open source and free software.

4. Just For Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary: The last book is an auto-biography of Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux and git.

Each week, we will spend the Tuesday class time discussing the reading for the week, along with the historical, social, political, and economic issues related to the week's topic.

Presentations

Thursday classes, on the other hand, will focus more on the technical and practical aspects of the reading and may involve different presentations, tutorials, or hands-on activities provided by your classmates. As a part of this course, each student must present two individual presentation this semester:

• A Presentation Schedule is available on Google Drive. You must volunteer for two presentation.

• Each presentation must be between 10 - 15 minutes long and must be related to the week's topics.

• A list of presentation suggestions is provided in the Presentation Schedule. Feel free to ask the instructor if you have alternative talk ideas that fit the topics for the given week.

• You may partner up with one other student, but the presentation must then be 20 - 25 minutes long.

• The presentation can involve a simple slide deck, hands-on activities, demos, or a guided tutorial (it's up to you).

To reserve a speaking slot, fill in the a box on the Presentation Schedule and message the instructor to notify him of your reserveration (please do so a few days in advance for planning purposes).

Readings

To provide a context for our weekly discussions, you will have reading assignments from the books listed above and a corresponding reflection that you must post on your own blog. Unlike in some other courses, the writing reflection is due at the end of the week after we have discussed the week's topic and explored it in class.

Projects

In addition to the individual presentations and weekly writing assignments, you will work in teams of 2 - 3 students on three group projects (each related to one of the books above):

1. Retro Computing: The first project involves creating a software or hardware artifact rooted in computing history. This can involve using older systems or programming languages, re-creating famous programs, or utilizing resource constrained (embedded) hardware.

   This artifact will be presented in the style of a Homebrew Computer Club talk.

2. Cloud Computing: The second project is an opportunity to explore both cloud computing and to learn a non-mainstream programming language by building a web application or service.

   This artifact will be presented in the style of a TechCrunch-style startup pitch.

3. Open Source: For the third project you have a choice:

   • Make a reasonable contribution to an existing open source project.

     This artifict will be presented as a case study.

   • Make a computing artifact of your chosing using the open source development model.

     This artifact will be presented as a typical course project presentation and demonstration.

More details about the projects and the associated proposals and progress reports will be provided on their respective project write-ups.

Readings

The reading for this week revolves around the origins of hacker culture and the development of the hacker ethic:

1. Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution

   • Part One. TRUE HACKERS

Reflection

As mentioned above, you will have to write a reflection regarding the week's reading. For this course, the reading responses are due by noon on Saturday at the end of the week, after we have discussed the material and explored the related technologies in class. The responses are meant to be a reflection on the week's activities.

For this upcoming week, you are to consider the following questions as you explore the origins of hacker culture, learn about the hacker ethic, and delve into the meaning of a "True Hacker":

1. What exactly constitutes a "True Hacker" according to Steven Levy?
2. What are some examples from the book regarding the qualities of a "True Hacker"?
3. How does the portrayal of a "True Hacker" compare and contrast with your previous understanding of a "hacker"?
4. What is your personal reaction to the idea of a "True Hacker": do you find the concept as inspirational? intimidating? repulsive?

Note, you should not simply list the questions and answer each one directly. Instead, the questions are there to help you brainstorm and reflect about the question:

What does it mean to be a "true hacker"? Do you aspire to be one? Why or why not?

Your individual reflection should ultimately answer this question.

To create a blog, you may use whatever platform or service you wish. You will be using this blog to post your reflections throughout the semester. Here are some possible services you can use:

1. Notre Dame Sites

2. Wordpress

3. Blogger

4. Medium

Of course, you are free to write your own blog software or host it anywhere you wish.

Submission

Once you have setup your blog, please fill out the following form to let us know where to find it: