National Security Agency: Untangling the Web: A Guide to Internet Research (2007)

“The manual just released by the NSA following a FOIA request filed in April by MuckRock. The book is filled with advice for using search engines, the Internet Archive and other online tools.” (source)

Publisher Center for Digital Content of the National Security Agency, February 2007
Unclassified in May 2013
643 pages
via Marcell Mars, via Wired

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.dpi, Feminist Journal of Art and Digital Culture, No. 27: Hacktivism (2013) [English/French]

“Founded by artist-run-centre Studio XX in 2004, in Montreal, the publication .dpi has recently undergone a major transformation in order to assert itself as a feminist journal of art and digital culture. In 2013, with continuing administrative and technological support from Studio XX, the journal .dpi became an independent project, with a new platform (beta version) and new team including permanent editor in chief, Sophie Le-Phat Ho, and a new editorial committee composed of Julie Alary Lavallée, Amber Berson, Esther Bourdages, Christina Haralanova, Corina MacDonald, Katja Melzer, Candace Mooers and Deanna Radford.

In a time when social gains are threatened, funding for artist-run-centres is precarious, and the need for intelligent critique is urgent, the new crew at .dpi wishes to respond to a real need for the creation of an interdisciplinary community of those at once curious and critical of technologies, feminisms and art.

Bringing together a dozen local and international participants, .dpi 27 presents a themed section on hacktivism coordinated by Christina Haralanova, a feminist activist and researcher who is interested by freedom in technology and open-source software. Hacktivism: the Art of Practicing Life and Computer Hacking for Feminist Activism brings together unique perspectives and critiques of the current state of hacktivism, a fusion of hacking and activism.”

Published in Montreal, April 2013
ISSN 1712-9486

View online (HTML articles, English)
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Download h4x0rd version of the issue by Linda Hilfling (PDF, leetspeak English)
View past 26 issues (English)
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Giovanni Ziccardi: Resistance, Liberation Technology and Human Rights in the Digital Age (2013)

This book explains strategies, techniques, legal issues and the relationships between digital resistance activities, information warfare actions, liberation technology and human rights. It studies the concept of authority in the digital era and focuses in particular on the actions of so-called digital dissidents. Moving from the difference between hacking and computer crimes, the book explains concepts of hacktivism, the information war between states, a new form of politics (such as open data movements, radical transparency, crowd sourcing and “Twitter Revolutions”), and the hacking of political systems and of state technologies. The book focuses on the protection of human rights in countries with oppressive regimes.

- Deals with digital resistance activities all over the world
- First book to describe political and human rights issues in Egypt, Tunisia, Cuba and Yemen
- A critical analysis of the WikiLeaks case

Publisher Springer, 2013
Volume 7 van Law, Governance and Technology series
ISBN 9400752768, 9789400752764
328 pages
via Marcell Mars via Jaromil

publisher
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Andy Greenberg: This Machine Kills Secrets: How WikiLeakers, Cypherpunks, and Hacktivists Aim to Free the World’s Information (2012)

At last, the first full account of the cypherpunks who aim to free the world’s institutional secrets, by Forbes journalist Andy Greenberg who has traced their shadowy history from the cryptography revolution of the 1970s to Wikileaks founding hacker Julian Assange, Anonymous, and beyond.

WikiLeaks brought to light a new form of whistleblowing, using powerful cryptographic code to hide leakers’ identities while they spill the private data of government agencies and corporations. But that technology has been evolving for decades in the hands of hackers and radical activists, from the libertarian enclaves of Northern California to Berlin to the Balkans. And the secret-killing machine continues to evolve beyond WikiLeaks, as a movement of hacktivists aims to obliterate the world’s institutional secrecy.

This is the story of the code and the characters—idealists, anarchists, extremists—who are transforming the next generation’s notion of what activism can be.

With unrivaled access to such major players as Julian Assange, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, and WikiLeaks’ shadowy engineer known as the Architect, never before interviewed, reporter Andy Greenberg unveils the world of politically-motivated hackers—who they are and how they operate.

Publisher Penguin Group US, 2012
ISBN 110159358X, 9781101593585
384 pages

review (Evgeny Morozov, The New York Times)
review (John Young, Cryptome)

author
trailer
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Marcus Wohlsen: Biopunk: DIY Scientists Hack the Software of Life (2011)

Bill Gates recently told Wired that if he were a teenager today, he would be hacking biology. “If you want to change the world in some big way,” he says, “that’s where you should start-biological molecules.”

The most disruptive force on the planet resides in DNA. Biotech companies and academic researchers are just beginning to unlock the potential of piecing together life from scratch. Champions of synthetic biology believe that turning genetic code into Lego-like blocks to build never-before-seen organisms could solve the thorniest challenges in medicine, energy, and environmental protection. But as the hackers who cracked open the potential of the personal computer and the Internet proved, the most revolutionary discoveries often emerge from out-of-the-way places, forged by brilliant outsiders with few resources besides boundless energy and great ideas.

In Biopunk, Marcus Wohlsen chronicles a growing community of DIY scientists working outside the walls of corporations and universities who are committed to democratizing DNA the way the Internet did information. The “biohacking” movement, now in its early, heady days, aims to unleash an outbreak of genetically modified innovation by making the tools and techniques of biotechnology accessible to everyone. Borrowing their idealism from the worlds of open-source software, artisinal food, Internet startups, and the Peace Corps, biopunks are devoted advocates for open-sourcing the basic code of life. They believe in the power of individuals with access to DNA to solve the world’s biggest problems.

You’ll meet a new breed of hackers who aren’t afraid to get their hands wet, from entrepreneurs who aim to bring DNA-based medical tools to the poorest of the poor to a curious tinkerer who believes a tub of yogurt and a jellyfish gene could protect the world’s food supply. These biohackers include:

- A duo who started a cancer drug company in their kitchen
- A team who built an open-source DNA copy machine
- A woman who developed a genetic test in her apartment for a deadly disease that had stricken her family

Along with the potential of citizen science to bring about disruptive change, Wohlsen explores the risks of DIY bioterrorism, the possibility of genetic engineering experiments gone awry, and whether the ability to design life from scratch on a laptop might come sooner than we think.

Publisher Current, a member of Penguin Group, 2011
ISBN 1101476354, 9781101476352
272 pages

review (Bart Penders, Nature)

publisher
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Rodolphe Durand, Jean-Philippe Vergne: The Pirate Organization: Lessons from the Fringes of Capitalism (2010/2012)

When capitalism spread along the trade routes toward the Indies…when radio opened an era of mass communication…when the Internet became part of the global economy…pirates were there. And although most people see pirates as solitary anarchists out to destroy capitalism, it turns out the opposite is true. They are the ones who forge the path. In “The Pirate Organization,” Rodolphe Durand and Jean-Philippe Vergne argue that piracy drives capitalism’s evolution and foreshadows the direction of the economy. Through a rigorous yet engaging analysis of the history and golden ages of piracy, the authors show how pirates form complex and sophisticated organizations that change the course of capitalism. Surprisingly, pirate organizations also behave in predictable ways: challenging widespread norms; controlling resources, communication, and transportation; maintaining trade relationships with other communities; and formulating strategies favoring speed and surprise. We could learn a lot from them–if only we paid more attention. Durand and Vergne recommend that rather than trying to stamp out piracy, savvy entrepreneurs and organizations should keep a sharp eye on the pirate space to stay successful as the game changes–and it always does. First published in French to great critical acclaim and commercial success as “L’Organisation Pirate: Essai sur l’évolution du capitalisme,” this book shows that piracy is not random. It’s predictable, it cannot be separated from capitalism, and it likely will be the source of capitalism’s continuing evolution.

First published in French as L’Organisation Pirate: Essai sur l’évolution du capitalisme, Éditions Le Bord de l’Eau, Lormont, 2010
Publisher Harvard Business Review Press, Boston/MA, 2012
ISBN 1422183203, 9781422183205
208 pages

review (The Economist)

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Watch the accompanying movie (What Is the Pirate Organization? by Daniel Wyatt, 5 min.)

E. Gabriella Coleman: Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking (2012)

Who are computer hackers? What is free software? And what does the emergence of a community dedicated to the production of free and open source software–and to hacking as a technical, aesthetic, and moral project–reveal about the values of contemporary liberalism? Exploring the rise and political significance of the free and open source software (F/OSS) movement in the United States and Europe, Coding Freedom details the ethics behind hackers’ devotion to F/OSS, the social codes that guide its production, and the political struggles through which hackers question the scope and direction of copyright and patent law. In telling the story of the F/OSS movement, the book unfolds a broader narrative involving computing, the politics of access, and intellectual property.

E. Gabriella Coleman tracks the ways in which hackers collaborate and examines passionate manifestos, hacker humor, free software project governance, and festive hacker conferences. Looking at the ways that hackers sustain their productive freedom, Coleman shows that these activists, driven by a commitment to their work, reformulate key ideals including free speech, transparency, and meritocracy, and refuse restrictive intellectual protections. Coleman demonstrates how hacking, so often marginalized or misunderstood, sheds light on the continuing relevance of liberalism in online collaboration.

Publisher Princeton University Press, 2012
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License
ISBN 1400845297, 9781400845293
264 pages

review (James Grimmelmann, Jotwell: Cyberlaw)
review (David Banks, Cyborgology)
review (Cade Metz, Wired)

publisher
google books

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