149 research outputs found
Rural Schooling and Good Life in Late Socialist Laos: Articulations, sketches and moments of good time
Drawing on ethnographic research in northern Laos, this chapter analyses articulations of a good life in primary school textbook imagery and how this resonates with everyday life in rural upland communities. This is contrasted with childrenâs sketches of a good life found in the classrooms and ethnographic accounts of moments of âgood timeâ in the context of rural schooling. It is argued that these latter moments constitute brief instances of a good life in the present. Given the hierarchical power relations in which rural education is embedded, not all of these good times stay good for very long. This is reflective of the condition of late socialism in rural Laos
Open Source Law, Policy and Practice
This book examines various policies, including the legal and commercial aspects of the Open Source phenomenon. Here, âOpen Sourceâ is adopted as convenient shorthand for a collection of diverse users and communities, whose differences can be as great as their similarities. The common thread is their reliance on, and use of, law and legal mechanisms to govern the source code they write, use, and distribute. The central fact of open source is that maintaining control over source code relies on the existence and efficacy of intellectual property (âIPâ) laws, particularly copyright law. Copyright law is the primary statutory tool that achieves the end of openness, although implemented through private law arrangements at varying points within the software supply chain. This dependent relationship is itself a cause of concern for some philosophically in favour of âopenâ, with some predicting (or hoping) that the free software movement will bring about the end of copyright as a means for protecting software
Minding the Gap: Computing Ethics and the Political Economy of Big Tech
In 1988 Michael Mahoney wrote that â[w]hat is truly revolutionary about the computer will become clear only when computing acquires a proper history, one that ties it to other technologies and thus uncovers the precedents that make its innovations significantâ (Mahoney, 1988). Today, over thirty years after this quote was written, we are living right in the middle of the information age and computing technology is constantly transforming modern living in revolutionary ways and in such a high degree that is giving rise to many ethical considerations, dilemmas, and social disruption. To explore the myriad of issues associated with the ethical challenges of computers using the lens of political economy it is important to explore the history and development of computer technology
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