Literature Review - 'The Meme Hustler'

by Zanarama on Mon 25 November 2013 // Posted in legacy // under legacy foss@rit

Who
Evgney Morozov

What
The Meme Hustler - Tim O'Reilly's crazy Talk

Where
http://hfoss-fossrit.rhcloud.com/static/books/evgenymorozov- thememehustl...

[from The Baffler No. 22]

When
2013

The Gist

Evgney Morozov provides a (rather harsh) criticism of Tim O'Reilly's impact on the tech world through his published work and quotes. Morozov feels that O'Reilly manipulates the technology/business community, particularly in the perception of Free versus Open Source software, to benefit his own economic interests at the expense of the overall good.

The Good

  • Morozov backed up his argument with direct quotes from O'Reilly in different forms of media. The overall criticism is pretty harsh. By backing up with direct quotes over paraphrasing adds some credence to his argument.

  • The article was interesting. I didn't agree with all of Morozov's argument, but he did make a compelling argument that was interesting to read (much more interesting than the last article).

  • Definitely enlightened me to more of the Free versus Open Source debate that I have heard about but never really researched. This was super informative.

The Bad

  • Lot's of his arguments felt very much like Ad hominem. I know that when this article was introduced it was described as not be personal attacks and Morozov goes out of his way to say this isn't a personal attack, but some of the language still felt that way.

  • After a while his arguments felt like he was beating a dead horse. The same thing was said repeatedly. He may have been able to shorten the whole thing and make it more poignant.

  • Although reading about the Free versus Open Source argument is certainly enlightening, I wonder if it is really beneficial to be teaching it. Propagating Holy Wars isn't good. Free and Open Source are both important in my opinion, but now almost everyone in this class has a tainted view of Open Source.

The Questions

Why did Morozov feel that all of the time/effort he spent writing this article was worth it? It was a lot of work for a criticism with no constructive solutions offered.

I know that there is Richard Stallman's Response to this article. What are some other good responses/articles on the subject?

Does the Free versus Open Source movement matter as much today. To me, FOSS is one overarching title that is important in both aspects. I wonder if this matters very much outside of the historical context.

My Review

Overall, I found the article interesting and I am glad that I read it. I don't particularly like reading very biased articles when I am uninformed in a subject, but I think this article is particularly important if you are really researching the Free versus Open Source schism. I don't like Holy Wars. But if you don't know the history that created them, I don't think the problem can ever be solved. I would recommend this as a read, but only to someone with some knowledge of the FOSS world and with a group of people familiar/more knowledgeable to discuss it with.

7/10 for the experienced FOSSer.

4/10 for the new Fosser.