History and Culture of Open Source

Overview

​This is a 3-session course at Shoshin College.

​Shoshin College is an experimental learning co‑operative in London, England. Please read more about us and our philosophy on our website (https://shoshincollege.org/) and our Substack (https://shoshincollege.substack.com/).

​Course Description

​Open Source is a way of producing software that makes it possible to share code. It’s also so much more — a way of thinking about sharing knowledge, collaborating, and innovating together. This course draws on twenty-five years of adventures in open source, covering the political consequences of technical decisions, democratic and radical politics and how to draw on this history to challenge the current cultural and infrastructural dominance of big tech platforms.

Session Dates

Week 1: “Free as in Beer” — the origins of Free and Open source software

Thu 6 Nov 2025, 6:30 pm

• Jam bands, the Grateful Dead, filesharing and other piratical activities
• ‘Code as law’ — why software licenses provoked a panic
• The Open Source battles — personalities and politics behind ‘free software’ vs ‘open source’

Week 2: Open Source and the market

Thu 13 Nov 2025, 6:30 pm

• How open source made today’s platform economy
• The limits of open source markets — software, hardware and design
• The closed internet — standards setting and Big Tech

Week 3: Technology Politics

Thu 20 Nov 2025, 6:30 pm

• Open source movements and radical politics: the case of distributed networking
• The ‘democratic internet’
• Technology politics and social change today — against ‘enshittification’

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​Dr Alison Powell is a writer, researcher and teacher who has spent twenty years adventuring in the tech industry, beginning with work on community WiFi and radical and distributed networking, spanning technology policy from internet access to AI ethics, while developing strategies for community-building and resistance. Alison’s teaching style is interactive, story-driven and collaborative, helping to make sense of complex ideas, often with a good dose of humour.