On the meaning of the word “hacker”
Thursday, August 21st, 2008When I tell people I’m traveling around the world studying hackers and free software activism, some of the most common reactions I get are along the lines of, “Isn’t that illegal?”, “Make sure they don’t steal your credit card number,” or “I can’t believe they’d let you meet with them.”
Reactions like these betray a fundamental and all-too-common misunderstanding of who hackers are and what they do. At its most basic, a “hacker” is one who hacks. The word ‘hack’ originated at MIT in the 1960s and 70s, where it meant something like “messing around”. One of the earliest applications of the term was for students who explored locked parts of buildings or steam tunnels under the campus. This was known as “tunnel hacking”. Later, the word came to refer to elaborate and intricately planned pranks orchestrated by MIT students. The Jargon File (an invaluable repository of hacker culture) lists examples such as putting a police cruiser on the roof of a building, or inflating a huge ‘MIT’ balloon at the 50 yard line during the Harvard-Yale football game.