This is one of many short video segments which will be added to the Digital Tipping Point (DTP) archive. Thanks to Thomas King, a writer for Linux.com and LXer, for doing the rough editing for this series of interview segments!

This series of interview segments features anthropologist Gabriella Coleman. You might think that anthropologist are only useful for studying bones of old, forgotten cultures, but you would be wrong. As this series of 10 interview segments shows, we can learn a lot about modern cultures and subcultures from anthropologists.

Gabriella is not a computer scientist, but she does a great job of gaining enough computer science knowledge to understand what members of the Free Open Source Software movement are saying to each other. Her interviews are fascinating, because she spends much of her time thinking and talking about how people in the Free Open Source Software movement have created norms and established trust. These are really important issues, for several reasons. First, Free Open Source Software establishes the basic infrastructure for hundreds of billions of dollars in commerce every year. The Internet basically runs on Free Open Source Software, as does Google, Facebook, and most other such businesses. The US National Security Agency relies on GNU-Linux to run its computers, as does the US military. Huge civil bodies such as the City of Munich and the Region of Extremadura, Spain, rely on it. Second, Free Open Source Software is very international, as Gabriella points out, so what we learn from Free Open Source Software about collaboration can help humanity manage our complex international relations more smoothly in other areas as well.

In segment 09 (Tape 107~001), Gabriella talks in depth about how Free Open Source Software projects perpetuate their values. She discusses Debian's New Maintainer Process as an example. [Debian is the largest community-based GNU-Linux distribution in the world, and is the foundation for many other GNU-Linux projects.] She says that anyone who wants to submit code to the Debian project must go through extensive testing on the policies and processes of the Debian project. She says that requirement is extended to everyone, and would even be extended to Richard Stallman, who started the Free Software movement in 1983. She says the uniformity of this requirement creates common values and gives everyone the same language to use in discussing the Debian projects.

Gabriella says that the Debian project shows that Free Open Source Software projects often can be very formal, contrary to the myth of these projects as being free-for-alls. She says conflict is often resolved through voting. Any Debian developer can call a vote on issues, and the Debian project has detailed formal governance rules that would prevent an outsider from sabatoging their processes.

In segment 10 (Tape 107~002), Gabriella continues discussing the Debian culture. She says that some of the formal procedures were developed in a time of crisis for the project, a time of deep division. She says that her basic view of human culture is that change is more expected than continuity. She thinks that the Free Open Source Software community needs to be vigilant to preserve their culture from outside pressures, such as the Digital Millenium Copyright Act in the United States.

This footage is our raw rough-cut footage. It lacks transitions, music, special effectsor finish rendering. It is our "source code". Please feel free to rip, mix and burn this footage consistent with our Creative Commons license as disclosed on this page.

http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv105_pa_17_gabriella_coleman_foss_anthropol_005.ogg (segment 01)

http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv105_pa_17_gabriella_coleman_foss_anthropol_006.ogg (segment 02)

http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv106_pa_18_gabriella_coleman_foss_anthropol_003.ogg (segment 03)

http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv106_pa_18_gabriella_coleman_foss_anthropol_004.ogg (segment 04)

http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv106_pa_18_gabriella_coleman_foss_anthropol_005.ogg (segment 05)

http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv106_pa_18_gabriella_coleman_foss_anthropol_006.ogg (segment 06)

http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv106_pa_18_gabriella_coleman_foss_anthropol_007.ogg (segment 07)

http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv106_pa_18_gabriella_coleman_foss_anthropol_008.ogg (segment 08)

http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv107_pa_19_gabriella_coleman_foss_anthropol_001.ogg (segment 09)

http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv107_pa_19_gabriella_coleman_foss_anthropol_002.ogg (segment 10)

If you like this segment, please consider typing up a summary for it and emailing that summary to Christian Einfeldt at einfeldt@gmail.com. Your work will be credited and posted on this page.

The DTP will be many, many films created by the global open source video community about how open source is changing their lives. We, the DTP crew, are submitting this footage for anyone to rip, mix, and burn under the Creative Commons Attribute - ShareAlike license. We welcome edits, transcriptions, graphics, music, and animation contributions to the film. Please send a link for any contributions to Christian Einfeldt at einfeldt@gmail.com.

Or, if you would like to contribute by directly transcribing this particular video segment, you can do so by going here:

http://digitaltippingpoint.com/wiki/index.php/Tape_107

and typing the audio as you hear it into the wiki. Please be sure to add the transcription for this segment under: Segment 002, Gabriella Coleman
You can find other ways to contribute by going to our wiki front page here:

http://digitaltippingpoint.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Thanks for viewing our video!

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