theory

The Interference event that is going to take place August 15th-17th in Amsterdam is starting to take shape. Still lacking a complete program, today the first sessions were announced. Quoting from interference.io:

Interference, n:

1. preventing (a process or activity) from continuing or being carried out properly.
2. the combination of two or more electromagnetic waveforms to form a resultant wave in which the displacement is either reinforced or cancelled.

The definition of hacking is controversial at best. Anyone familiar with the hacking scene probably has some intuitive feelings towards what is meant by hacking. Connotations of creativity, subversiveness and tinkering with highly complex technology are quite broadly accepted. Nevertheless, hacker groups and individuals have had furious discussions over its definition, ranging from cybercrime to kernel development. This goes to show that hacking is not rooted in or defined by one specific subculture, there is no one coherent hackerscene.

Inspired by Philippe Aigrain's Sharing, I got curious about the way different media and distribution methods have an impact on the diversity of content. In section 3.2 of his book, there's an interesting summary of how p2p networks have a much higher diversity of attention then regular (commercial) distribution channels. That is, instead of everyone downloading the same top-5 chart hits or blockbusters, in p2p networks we see attention going to a much broader variety of content.