While kick starting this new blog, I cross-posted two of my recent posts at gnovis which directly discussed Open Culture. However, I've also done a great deal of work over the last two years that, while less directly related, has led me to undertake this project, so I wanted to tie up loose ends a little and provide a little background on how I arrived at this point. I'll comment further on this at the end.
Some of the posts below come from gnovis, and others from my my personal blog.
Searching for Open Culture
My earliest work in this area consisted, generally, of partial attempts to approach open source software from a variety of theoretical perspectives. For instance, for a course on postmodernism I wrote about open source as a gift economy, though that link leads only to some preliminary thoughts on the topic, not my final work.
I've also done two separate projects on Green Party websites, exploring the relationship between their decentralized approach to politics and their efficacy in online communications. The second project was the stronger of the two, but my only online record, at the moment, is a recap of the first paper.
Finally, I offer a somewhat flippant post on the environmental value of open source software. It's rather pointless, but hints at the conceptual leap I'm currently trying to make, from open source communities to broader social movements.
More recently, I've been able to narrow my focus, including an exploration of the relationship between two different sorts of crowds: the collective and the collaborative, a solution to the challenges of keeping up with technology while studying technology and, most relevantly, a wrestling match with myself over whether I can really study the Commons as a part of Open Culture.
Searching for Rigor and Purpose
I've also, over the last two years, had my share of angst, both about my academic life in general and the role of academic blogging in particular.
I've made quite a few attempts to use blogging as a method for developing interdisciplinary rigor. Many of those attempts failed, but some were rather successful, including a discussion of the 'post-categorical' and my favorite, an argument that software EULA agreements should take a cue from medicine.
Beyond the Trackbacks
I share these links not because I want to drive traffic to and from my other blogs (ok - maybe a little), but because part of the purpose of blogging about my work in progress is to expose and challenge the processes of academic research.
Research doesn't happen in a vacuum, and my current interests have been cultivated in fits and starts - with several detours - over more than two years at Georgetown, not to mention years of prior academic, personal, and professional experiences. One of my huge challenges, personally, is coming to terms with my own "political agenda" in this project and making sure that my political views aren't pre-determining the outcomes of my research.
Disclosing some of my prior work is, I hope, a step in that direction.
