Free . . . As in Labor

Call for Papers

Free…as in Labor
Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association
National Conference
New Orleans, LA
April 8-11, 2009

The Communication and Digital Culture Area of the Popular Culture Association is soliciting proposals for panels and individual papers that explore online participatory culture and the problematic concept of “free labor” in a network society.

Corporations are increasingly counting upon the activity of a “participatory consumer” to provide the content for sites that directly or indirectly generate revenue. Twenty five years ago, GNU operating system activist Richard Stallman famously distinguished the “free” in free software as “free as in free speech, not as in free beer.” What kind of “free” is the labor of a participatory culture? How does the appropriation of this work by major corporations complicate our understanding of “free labor?”

Possible topics include:

Wikipedia and the Academy
Gift Economies Online
Free/Libre Open Source Software
Intellectual Property
Warez Subcultures
“Immaterial” Labor
Convergence & Consumer/Producers
DIY Media
Marx & the Digital Economy
Fan Culture Appropriation

Submit a 250 word maximum proposal to:

Mark Nunes, Chair
Department of English, Technical Communication, and Media Arts
Southern Polytechnic State University
Marietta, GA 30060-2896
mnunes@spsu.edu

Deadline for Submissions: November 30, 2008
Note: Communication and Digital Culture is a themed area. Submissions off-theme should be submitted to:
Internet Culture Area Chair, Montana Miller, montanm@bgnet.bgsu.edu
Games Studies Area Chair, Gerald Voorhees, gerald-voorhees@uiowa.edu