Abstract
In the early chapters of Coding Democracy – Maureen Webb’s international study of hackers and their role as vital disruptors of power, surveillance and authoritarianism – Webb is issued a stern warning from open Internet advocate Harry Halpin: ‘public intellectuals massively simplify the issues and don’t understand the hacker scene . . . we need a book that can take a nuanced, intelligent position’ (p. 105). This warning underlines a tension that percolates through the entirety of Coding Democracy. On one hand, Webb appears interested in exploring the aforementioned nuances of hacking collectives, demonstrated through diverse case studies that are conscious of distinct geographical and temporal conditions. On the other hand, Webb is dismissive towards the alleged academic impulse to fragment the hacker into endless sub-groupings, valuing the transformational power of a so-called core hacker ethos – ‘an avant garde for a new way of thinking that will allow the revolution’ (p. 211). Despite her reluctance towards institutional approaches, Webb is entangled in a classic academic dilemma – reconciling local, specific and personal activities within broader trends and popular imaginaries. Rather than doubling down on a specific facet of hacker ethic or a single site of study, Webb instead poses a difficult question to the reader using an expansive, almost constellational approach: how do ‘ordinary citizens and tech insiders go forward together to accomplish the hard work of democracy in the digital age?’ (p. 4). This focus on process and the role of citizen action/activism is a theme that lies at the heart of Coding Democracy.
A Canadian labour attorney and activist, Webb’s angle into such arguments is deeply influenced by her experience working with civil society organizations and institutions. Hacking, for her, is a means of addressing concerns facing democratic society, perhaps most prominently in the realms of privacy, access to information and distributed democracy. Much of the heavy lifting done in the early sections of Coding Democracy is the recontextualization of existing hacker ethnographies in light of these political matters. Those who are familiar with these past accounts – which range from Steven Levy’s (2010) trailblazing work on North American computer hackers to Gabriella Coleman’s ethnographies on free and open source software (F/OSS) developers (Coleman, 2013; 2014) – may feel that this is well-trodden ground, but Webb’s contribution of contemporary interviews and historical examples adds a few new wrinkles to these canonical works. Webb is particularly intrigued by the revolutionary themes that emerge from hacking practice, noting that many high-profile hackers (such as Assange and Snowden) have, in some ways, declared themselves as defenders of ideals rooted in early American democracy. This highlights one of the most welcome contributions of Coding Democracy – Webb’s tendency to peer backwards, juxtaposing modern hacking endeavours to past moments of civil disobedience while contemplating their ability to create solidarity and put forth alternative worldviews. Working under this perspective, the discrete practices associated with computer hacking and technologies become less the end-point of analysis and more of a means of discerning a path towards more accountable governments and informed citizenries. As Webb notes, ‘hacking might move us toward a digital world in which there are more rather than fewer democratic, humanist outcomes’ (Webb 2020; p. 274), even though many hacker practices do not fall within the realm of progressive democracy, per se.
The connective tissue that binds the book together is a series of interviews that Webb conducted with hacking figures from around the globe. Beginning with an event ethnography of the Chaos Communication Camp (CCC) in Germany, Webb’s journey soon takes her to British Columbia to debate the current state of the Internet; to Silicon Valley to discuss digital rights management; to Barcelona to recount Xnet’s efforts to hack the democratic process; and finally, to Boston, to scrutinize the institutionalization of hacking at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Webb is extremely mindful about how she positions herself during these interviews and their accompanying expositions, deliberately placing herself outside of academic and journalistic traditions while presenting herself as a layperson with little-to-no technical expertise. The ‘concerned citizen’ angle is both an acknowledgement of Webb’s own experience and an important heuristic device throughout Coding Democracy. First, her careful positioning grants her permission to pose provocative questions that many insiders would baulk at (i.e. ‘can we create a new Internet?’). Second, it allows her to rein in conversations before they descend into overly technical jargon or complex theoretical quagmires, maintaining an accessible style of writing while consistently circling back to her core democratic themes. Finally, it allows her to bring a human element to Coding Democracy – an acknowledgement of the emotional labour and ethical risks that go along with engaging with hacker culture. This final point is brought to the fore through Webb’s cancellation of interviews with a number of hackers at the CCC, citing her own inability to guarantee the safe storage of interview transcripts and notes.
If there is a weakness in Webb’s writing, it can be found in its unevenness and over-reliance on summary and transcription. Coding Democracy’s inclusion of detailed book summaries, rewritten interviews and transcribed conference presentations, and excerpts from hacker manifestos are generally welcome, but have the tendency to carry on for pages longer than perhaps is required. At times, it feels that Webb is dwelling on these materials in an attempt to hammer home important points, going as far as to conclude sections of the book with self-described ‘civics lessons’ about topics ranging from net neutrality to the cryptowars. At their best, these portions of Coding Democracy manifest as intriguing case studies that provide the reader with insights into the new civics of a digital era. At their worst, they evoke memories of media studies textbooks that present readers with fragments of content that would be better engaged with in their entirety.
Coding Democracy does not attempt to end the debate of what constitutes a hacker, but rather constructs hacking as an overarching philosophy that is bound together, rather than fragmented, by the diverse practices that fall under its umbrella. Webb’s primary concern is democratic principles and processes, and she frames the hacker ethic as something that may be co-opted by ordinary citizens in order to pursue new forms of distributed democracy in an increasingly digital world. For scholars who have invested a great deal of time reading up on hacking communities, Webb’s work may overlap with other studies enough to render portions of the book eminently skimmable. Regardless, Coding Democracy still proves to be a valuable resource as a foray into the field with an explicit focus on civic action.
