Publications
This page is a far from complete list of my writings. You can find links to articles I write, plus many substantial pieces in line, by visting copyrighteous, my blog. While my blog is a bit of a grab-bag, you can narrow the field by selecting articles by category in the side-bar on the right.
Books
- The Official Ubuntu Book (1st ed. 2006, 2nd ed. 2007, 3rd ed. 2008, 4th ed. 2009):
I am the first author of all editions of the best-selling Official Ubuntu book co-written with several
contributors from the Ubuntu community. Parts of the book are distributed on official ubuntu CDs and the book is
released and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike license which allows for royalty-free
copying, distribution, and modification. The book is published by Pearson's Publishing and has been translated into
several languages.
Fourth Edition Book: Amazon | Complete List of Sources
Third Edition Book: Amazon | Complete List of Sources
Second Edition Book: Amazon | Complete List of Sources
First Edition Book: Complete List of Sources
Translations: German | Spanish | Japanese - The Official Ubuntu Server Book (2009): I am the second author, playing a
supporting role to Kyle Rankin, of the Official Ubuntu Server
Book. The book builds on the solid work in the Official Ubuntu Book but tries to serve a more
technically sophisticated audience running Ubuntu in the datacenter. My chapters are released and distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike license which allows for royalty-free copying, distribution, and
modification. The book is published by Pearson's Publishing.
Find/Buy Book: Amazon | Complete List of Sources - Debian GNU/Linux 3.x Bible (2005): I am the first author of a book
co-written with David Harris and Jaldhar Vyas and with the help list of other contributors and editors
from the Debian community. The book is geared primarily at beginners and helps introduce Debian's
sarge distribution with information on running software on the desktop, on a server and geared
either toward an Internet or intranet environment. The book has been translated into several languages.
Find/Buy Books: Complete List of Sources
Publisher's Info Page: Link
Academic Publications (Peer-reviewed/Refereed)
- Book Review: Decoding Liberation by Samir Chopra and Scott D. Dexter: A short book review of
the book on free and open source software published in Minds and Machines.
Citation: Hill, Benjamin Mako. 2008. “Samir Chopra, Scott D. Dexter, Decoding Liberation: The Promise of Free and Open Source Software.” Minds and Machines 18:297-299.
Published Online: Link
Downloadable Pre-Print: Plain Text - Revealing Errors: This article makes the case for increased attention to and analysis of
errors in humanist studies and by technology activists. It describes how errors can reveal invisible technologies
and gives a number of examples. I used the publication of this piece to launch the Revealing Errors weblog. The piece was the featured article in the issue on errors of the Media/Culture Journal edited by Mark Nunes.
Published Online: Link - How Free Became Open and Everything Else Under the Sun: This is the second
article jointly authored with Biella Coleman. The essay attempts to confront the variability of the
application of Free and Open Source relationships through an analysis of three examples and through an
look at FOSS philosophy and practice. It argues that Free Software exists as a politically agnostic field
of practice — built on and through a broadly defined philosophy. It analyzes the way that this
philosophy is well suited for the spread of FOSS technologies and its translation into the terms of
radically different, even oppositional, social and political movements. The article was published in the
Australian peer reviewed journal Media/Culture in their Open issue. The issue was edited by Felix Stalder and
McKenzie Wark.
Published Online: Link
Also Available: PDF | RTF - The Social Production of Ethics in Debian and Free Software Communities:
Anthropological Lessons for Vocational Ethics: This article, co-authored with Biella Coleman, will be published in an interdisciplinary
peer-reviewed collection of articles edited by Stefan Koch being published by Idea Group Publishing on July 1, 2004. Because of copyright
assignments, I have not put an article online. Contact me via email if you are interested in the topic
and would like additional information. (October 2003)
Available: Page Scans | Book Info - Quality and the Reliance on Individuals in Free Software Projects: (Co-authored
with Martin Michlmayr) This short piece was written for and published in the Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Workshop on Open Source Software Engineering. It
looks at some the problems that can arise in free/open source software projects that rely heavily on one
central or lead developer and describe some of the methods that Debian has experimented with in resolving
these types or problems. (March 2003)
Available: PDF
Documentation
- The Free Software Project Management HOWTO: The Linux Documentation Project's guide to managing a free software project (latest version: v0.3.4)
Semi-Academic (Conference Papers, etc.)
- Breakfast Cereal and Inband Signaling: I wrote an article on the story of the
famous Cap'n Crunch whistle that could be used to get free phone calls and submitted it,
along with an actual whistle, to an art exhibition called System.hack() at the Multimedia
Institute in Zagreb, Croatia. The exhibition aimed to celebrate great "hacks" and expose them to a
larger population of non-hackers. The article was also printed in a book that accompanied the show.
Publishined Online: Link (English) | Link (Croatian) - Reflections on Free Software Past and Future: I was asked to write a series of
reflections on Free and Open Source Software along the lines of "where have we been, where are we going"
for a special issue of the peer reviewed
journal First Monday. In this short essay, I discuss the often
underappreciated role of freedom in the free and open source movement and I discuss the importance of what
I'm calling parallel derived development as a new development paradigm that I suspect will play an
important role in the Free and Open Source Software communities in the future.
Published Online: Link - To Fork or Not To Fork: Lessons From Ubuntu and Debian: This essay explores the
experience of the Ubuntu project in creating a distribution derived from Debian as an example of what is
becoming an increasingly important twist on traditional free software development methods. It argues that
the scale of certain free software projects are forcing developers toward a new kind of forking using
technologies like distributed version control and host of other technical and social tools and
processes. It explores some of the early successes and failures of the Ubuntu project in this regard,
describes some of the techniques in question, and argues for the the techniques' applicability and
importance in a wide range of free software projects. This paper was first published in the proceedings of
Linuxtag 2005. I am also interested in publishing a version this article in a magazine or journal. Please
contact me if you are interested.
Available: HTML | XML Source - Problems and Strategies in Financing Voluntary Free Software Projects
(draft): This essay explores the problems and benefits of paying developers in volunteer free and
open source projects and surveys strategies that projects have used to successfully finance development
while maintaining their volunteer nature. This paper was based off a talk I gave at FISL 5.0 in Porto
Alegre and then published in the proceedings of Linuxtag 2005. I'd like to expand it with input from the
larger community and perhaps package it as a Linux Documentation Project
HOWTO as I hear they are looking for more non-technical documents. In addition to the LinuxTag conference
proceedings, this was also published on the Free Software community portal Advogato.
Published Online: Link
Also Available: HTML | PDF | TXT | XML Source | More Info
Non-Academic Publications (Magazines, etc.)
I write regularly for several group blogs and most of my non-academic writing is published in these venues. Primarily, these posts are published on Revealing Errors and Autonomo.us. Because so much of my writing in on these two websites, I have not made any attempt to list essays published there on this page.
- The Computer in my Pocket: A short article, published first as a blog post, about the growing danger that mobile phones
pose to their users' technological autonomy. It was put into print as part of the Fall 2009 FSF members' bulletin. (2009-10-17)
Republished Online: HTML | Link (ES) - Taking a Principled Position on Software Freedom: This short article tries to bring a
fresh approach and voice to the now tired debate between "free software" and "open source" and tries to offer a
strong argument in favor of principled positions -- but for "new" reasons. The article was published first on Advogato, the online community of free and open source software developers.
(2009-07-14)
Published Online: Link - Antifeatures: Antifeatures describe features that users of proprietary technology must
pay their developers to remove. This text is an expanded version of a blog post I wrote on the subject of antifeatures. I've
gone on to create an antifeatures talk which I've now given several times and am refining into a new keynote
address. It was published in the FSF's 2007 Fall/Winter bulletin. (2007-12-20)
Published Online: Link - Wikinews and Multi-Pespectival Reporting: I wrote this short article for the MIT Center for Future Civic Media about the Wikinews project. It makes several points about online news reporting while
exploring some of the academic speculation on why the Wikinews project has struggled. (2007-10-03)
Published Online: Link - Free Culture Advanced: A short article published in the FSF Members bulletin making a
call for a free culture movement that parallels the free software movement. (Summer 2007)
Republished here: HTML | PDF | LaTeX Source - Liberating iPods in Cambridge: In fall 2006, I organized an iPod
Liberation Party. I documented the whole process and project in an article published at Linux.com which
describes my event and gives advice for other who might want to run their own versions. (2006-11-07)
Published Online: Link - Ubuntu Developer Summit Paris Reports: I wrote two articles for NewsForge on the happenings of the Ubuntu developer summit. The articles were
titled Planning for Ubuntu Edgy: A mid-week report from the Ubuntu developer's conference
(2006-06-22) and Ubuntu Developer Summit Paris: New alliances, new horizons
(2006-06-28).
Published Online: Link (Part 1) Link (Part 2) - Notes on the GPLv3: In this featured article at NewsForge, I talk about what I think is really at stake in the GPL revisions
process and how we, as a community, can best proceed to the best possible license. (2005-01-28)
Published Online: Link - Freedom's Standard Advanced?: This is a slightly reworked version of Towards a
Standard of Freedom that I made for Mute Magazine. It was published in Mute Volume 2, Number 1
in Winter 2005. It is available in the print version and also on Mute's
website.
Published Online: Link - Towards a Standard of Freedom: Creative Commons and the Free Software Movement: This is a
critical article about Creative Commons that calls for strong ethical position on freedom in creative works and
describes why Creative Commons has become increasingly bad at providing this. It was published on the Free Software
community portal Advogato. A French adaptation was also published on Libroscope.
Published Online: Link (EN) | Link (FR)
Also Available: HTML | ReST - United Article on RFID: This short article on Radio Frequency IDs was commissioned by Mute Magazine. It gives a brief introduction to RFIDs and explors both sides of
the current privacy debate around the technology. It will be appearing in the upcoming print issue of Mute.
(Summer 2004).
Available: TXT - Untitled Article on Bittorrent: The following short article was commissioned by Mute Magazine and appeared the M27 Winter/Spring 2004 edition. (September
2003)
Available: html | PDF | TXT | TeX Source - Software (,) Politics and Indymedia: This essay was commissioned by Mute Magazine although it may be largely reborn before it is read in their
pages. The essay looks at four pieces of software used by Independent Media Centers and the way that the slightly
differing functionality and technical design affects changes in the publishing structure created by the software
and reflecting different political ideologies—toward software and more generally. (March 2003)
Available: PDF | TXT | HTML - The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth: My Story of Unlearning: This is an essay I've written
for Shikshantar, an NGO in India. This is a personal narrative
that describes my journey as a geek and a free software developer. I talk about ADD, Ritalin, activism and
technology. I've put a huge amount of effort, thought, and revision into this and it's quite an easy read. I
encourage you to take a look at it. It was published in Vimukt Shiksha in print and availble Link. (November 2002)
Available: HTML | PDF | TXT | SGML Source