The Social Production of Productive Freedom: Debian and Ethical Volunteerism

This chapter, produced through a collaboration between an anthropologist and two Debian developers, considers the Debian project as a socio-educational institution that cultivates not only technical skills but distinct social relations and ethical techniques. Additionally, we will examine the cultivation of the ethic of information freedom shifting the analytical focus from an account of hacker^¹ ethics to a description of their emergence and constitution over time. The chapter's data set is derived from anthropological fieldwork conducted over the last two years and the experiences and insights of two active Debian developers who co-author the chapter.

Free software developers of the Debian project often first experience information freedom as a "practical ethic" in which access to source code is considered indispensahble to learning and the development of quality software. This ethic informs and shapes the motivation to join a free software project. Participation in the domain of free software substantially deepens commitments to information freedom. This ethical density is achieved through the sustained collaborative development of code and, the detailed discussion of and decision making process around free software licenses and project policy. What is first experienced as primarily a functional, "engineering ethic" transforms to encompass a much wider moral scope in which sharing and openness become ethical ends in themselves as opposed to only a means to produce high quality software. Free software hacking as represented by the Debian project is a form of professional volunteerism that produces a more ethically dense programming profession that considers the legal implications of intellectual property in relationship to software. Many free software programmers also participate in a "hacker public sphere" composed of various online and offline venues that include IRC, interactive web news sites, and conferences, which additionally strengthen moral concerns. A value for information freedom enlarges to include the wider social meanings of freedom, especially in relation to speech, scientific production, and democracy. Thus, the domain of free and open source software within the context of a larger hacker public sphere is an ideal site to examine the lived experience of ethics as well as examine how ethical imperatives transform into nascent political commitments through technical and social engagement in various online and offline sites.

This chapter explores a number of topics and will be divided into four sections and prefaced by a short introduction. The chapter's goals are as follows:

We will introduce the central issue of the chapter: a consideration of how and why the free software project can be considered as an institution of volunteerism that allows for ethical reflection and cultivates an ethical praxis, using Debian as our case study.^² Furthermore, we will argue that in order to adequately address the role of free software projects as sites for ethical cultivation, free software participation must be situated within a larger socio-political context, a context that we will articulate as a hacker public sphere composed of online interactive web news sites, offline conferences and hacker events, and an assortment of mailing lists and IRC channels. Discussion in this sphere focuses on larger legal and political trends that range from intellectual property, the negative media and governmental portrayals of hackers, and other issues like censorship, privacy, and freedom of speech. It thus forms an important nexus in which particular ethical questions are given broader breadth and scope.

This section will provide a short history of the Debian project, describe its development processes, social structures, and its relationship to the wider free software and open source community. Debian is important because in terms of the number of active participants, it is one the largest free software projects. Additionally, it connects an even wider pool of free and open source developers and users through the integration of existing software into Debian. In exploring these processes and structures, this section will focus primarily on the "New Maintainer" process as a means to highlight the unique blending of technical skills and procedures, open and transparent organizational structure, and ethical socialization that frame the project. To insure consistent and quality software, the project employs this unique method for admitting new members that attempts to balance the need for quality and control with openness by requiring each prospective developer to prove their identity and demonstrate a solid knowledge of philosophy, policy and the necessary tasks and skills. Thus, the New Maintainer procedure insures that any interested developer, given commitment, effort, and a willingness to learn, can join the group--but only those with proven commitment and knowledge and the project's shared goals and philosophy.

A number of works have explored the motivations of open source and free software developers.^³ Yet few examine how participation in projects acts to bolster ethical commitments so that they become part of the of motivations to continue writing free software. This sections seek to refine literature on online communities and social movements by treating the free software project as a "type" of socio-educational and volunteer institution that cultivates not only technical skills but distinct social relations and ethical techniques as well.

Drawing upon an analysis of the Debian Social Contract, the Debian Free Software Guidelines, their technical policies, and, anthropological life histories of Debian developers, we will present a narrative on how ethics "come to life" for many Debian developers. Just as with the overview of the Debian project, this section will also be framed by our discussion of the New Maintainer process in its technical, ethical, and organizational capacities. The act of entry into the project illustrates developers' first ethical and technical socialization as part of Debian. Among other things, as part of the process to become a "Debian Maintainer" the prospective developer must demonstrate knowledge and familiarity with Debian technical policy, procedures, the Debian Free Software Guidelines and the group's Social Contract. Though a relatively informal system, the New Maintainer process marks a rite of passage into a project where ethics are made manifest through discussions, writings, and during and through technical procedures. In this way, development experiences that begin with the New Maintainer process and which are at once technical and social, shape ethical sensibilities, inform the desire to continue participating, and even form the basis for more overt political commitments for some developers.

This section situates the free software project within a broader socio-political milieu in order to get a more historically accurate sense of how ethics are born from the interplay between the technical and aesthetic practices of free software development and the wider socio-economic and legal conditions that shape and constrain programming activities. The free software project will be contexualized within a larger social space which is composed of interactive news websites like Slashdot and Kuro5hin, hacker conferences like the Debian developer conference, Defcon, H2K2, and Hal, and local "hacker associations," and mailing lists. It is in this larger sphere in which legal, political, and social trends that are considered relevant to the hacker community are presented, reflected on, and even acted upon. A developer's experience working on a free software project and their self-understanding of ethics is often inflected through these wider social forces that are seen to affect them as programmers and, increasingly, as citizens.

Although many free software developers don't participate in traditional channels of philanthropy or non-profit activity, free software hacking is illustrative of a form of professional volunteerism with a strong emphasis on ethics that has grown through an unusual type of institution. Free software hacking is a form of professional volunteerism that produces a more ethically dense profession of programmers who think about the legal implications of intellectual property in relationship to software and increasingly have come to apply this thinking to freedoms beyond the scope of individual rights or technical issues. These projects remain largely independent of academic, governmental, or industry connections but are situated within a wider hacker subcultural milieu. This socio-economic and spatial independence and the combined social, ethical, and technical procedures, such as the New Maintainer process, creates the grounds for a more ethically dense form of volunteerism. The chapter will conclude applying lessons learned from Debian to a consideration of the conditions and characteristics useful in fostering a more ethically dense form of volunteerism in other technical and non-technical professions.

As more developers are becoming aware of the uniqueness and strengths of the open model of software development, it is fruitful and insightful to integrate their own reflections, understandings, and critiques into academic models and accounts of free and open source software. This article seeks to combine the perspectives of insiders and outsiders in a complimentary fashion in order to offer a more nuanced and balanced account of the ethical, technical, and organizational dynamics of free software. We feel that given the close interrelationships between the technical, social, and ethical concerns within Debian and many other projects, collaboration between social science researchers and technical developers is crucial. It is for this reasons that we have chosen a model of multiple authorship on this chapter.

Data will be largely derived from the Debian project and most conclusions will pertain primarily, though not entirely, to the project and its developers. We feel that the literature on free and open source projects lacks an account of the Debian project, which occupies an important place within the terrain of free and open source projects. Along with being one of the largest projects in terms of number of project participants, Debian plays a vital role by connecting a huge pool of individual (non-Debian) free and open source software developers. Debian has succeeded in creating a Linux distribution with over 9,000 software packages, the majority of which were originally written and maintained by developers unaffiliated with the project. Through the integration of this software in Debian, developers must connect and coordinate with “upstream” maintainers. The project receives a high level of respect from technical users and the free and open source software communities, much of which informally contributes to the project. Given this role and wider linkages to the technical community, we feel a deeper exploration of Debian is essential.

We will use caution to avoid drawing overextended conclusions about all free and open source projects based on Debian's example. Debian stands unique as it has a very explicit ethical commitment to the ideals and philosophy of free software. However, insights garnered from the socio-ethical aspects of Debian are still to a lesser degree pertinent to many other large projects. That is, while Debian may be unique to the degree to which an ethical lifeworld or sensibility is cultivated amongst many developers, this characteristic still exist to a lesser degree among other other projects. This consideration is based on interviews with about 15 developers from other projects, loosely following their development, and having informal conversations with other free and open source developers.

Gabriella Coleman who is working on her dissertation on the relationship between ethics and politics among free software developers, has spent nearly two years conducting fieldwork among the Debian community and the "sites" identified as part of the hacker public sphere. She has interviewed over 50 Debian developers on their lives as programmers, spent over 250 hours logged onto their IRC channel, and tracked a number of their mailing lists. She also attended the summer 2002 Debian developer conference held in Toronto where she informally interviewed and talked with many other developers. It is there were she met one of the other authors of the chapter, Benjamin Hill and has since worked with him on other non-academic projects. She has also attended many other conferences over the last two years such as H2K2 and Defcon as well as following and tracking ethical and political discussions and debates on a number of mailing lists and interactive news websites, such as Free Software and the Law, Slashdot, Need to Know (NTK), and Kuro5hin.

Benjamin "Mako" Hill has been a Debian developer for nearly three years in both technical and non-technical roles. As the Hardware Donations Delegate, he currently coordinates the donation and distribution of hardware for the project. He maintains a number of free software projects and has written several documents on non-technical aspects of free and open source software. The most noteworthy is his Free Software Project Management HOWTO which is hosted and distributed by the Linux Documentation Project. He is currently in his final year at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts where his research aims to apply theories of collaboration steeped in free software philosophy to a critique of literary copyright.

Martin Michlmayr has been with the Debian Project since 2000 and holds a very detailed understanding of the New Maintainer process which he helps to coordinate. Martin is an advisor to Software in the Public Interest, a non-profit organization which helps projects including Debian in the develop and distribution of free software. He has participated in various free software projects and organizations, including Linux International and GNUstep. He has an active interest in the social, psychological, and philosophical implications of free and open source development and holds a MPhil in Philosophy and is currently finishing a MSci in Psychology.

1999 A Second look at the Cathedral and Bazaar. First Monday, 4(12), December.

2001 The Hacker Ethic and the Spirit of the Information Age. New York: Random House.

2001 Code, culture and cash: The fading altruism of open source development. First Monday, 6(12), December

1999 The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary. Sebastopol, California: O'Reilly and Associates.

1998 FM interview with Linus Torvalds: What Motivates Free Software Developers? First Monday, 3(3), March

1The conventional mass media-definition of hackers is usually only one of renegade intellectual bandits who either break into computing systems, spread computer viruses, or pirate software: a group the free software developers calls “crackers.” We, following a long tradition in the free and open source software communities, use the term “hacking” to describe a social practice and individual activity that fuses technological innovation with artistic creation that is guided by a series of ethical principles such as information freedom and privacy.

2See Section III: Methodological Considerations for a discussion of how we will treat Debian in relation to other free and open source projects.

3Cf. Bezroukov (1999); Lancashire (2001); Hinamen (2001); Raymond (1998); Torvalds 1998

4We would like to include this section on the public sphere as we feel it adds an important historical and political dimension to our discussion on ethics and the experiences of Debian developers. However, we realize that including an entire section on this topic might make this piece too long for consideration. If this is the case, this section can be omitted or integrated into the previous section on ethical socialization.