Pekka Himanen

Picked this up from the library rather randomly, and read it in 3 days - very thought provoking, especially because even though it's written 10 years ago, so much of what it grapples with is still - or even more - relevant today. While Egypt was flaring up, it was fascinating to read about how the Internet was used in the 1999 Kosovo crisis.

But for me the first 2 parts - on money as motivation, and our attitude towards work - were the most riveting. The "Hacker Ethic" is still clearly alive today, and much more evident in areas other than technical realms. How this ethic integrates (or not) with more traditional structures of work and life is a topic in need of some big answers. This book didn't offer much in the way of solution, but did do a great job in setting out the reasons and contexts for a lot of the divides in attitude around today.

Good read if you're into any of the media and information literature - especially as the main text is bookended nicely by Linus Torvalds at the start, and Manuel Castells at the end.… (meer)