A few years ago I have been questioning myself about the hackers that have contributed more to the internet and freedom of information.
Certainly, while the list of those elected may vary greatly according to the criteria for making such a selection, I have decided to oppose the following points in order to draw up my list:
a) That their action (creation of a program, project, idea, etc.) has had a sustained and lasting impact on other hackers.
b) That it adheres to the historical ideal of the hacker ethos, that is to say, that it contemplates the scenarios of technomeritocracy, profit economy and hacker ethics.
c) That their action promotes inclusive and free scenarios, above the owners and closed to others.
d) That their actions should first foster cooperative and inclusive social gains over personal economic gains.
Under these criteria I have divided my TOP FIVE HACKERS into two categories, individual and group level.
In this first installment I will refer to the individual level, remembering that the numbering reflects the greater or lesser importance in my list.
1- RICHARD STALLMAN (The BIGGEST HACKER IN ALL HISTORY)
also known as the "last true hacker", he is one of the few who has practiced strictly the principles that make up the hackers ethos, he owes it to such outstanding projects as the Free Software Foundation and the beginning of cooperative dynamics through the internet as the GPL license (which has derived in the current Creative Commons, for example).
Image source: lbsitbytes2010. files. wordpress. com/2013/03/dmr. jpg? w=812
2- DENNIS RITCHIE
developer of the Multics and Unix operating systems, as well as the C programming language, which he shared freely with the community of programmers of his time. Virtually everything on the Internet, operating systems, etc. is made with Unix and C-language. So, in historical terms, Dennis Ritchie's value was to lay the foundations for the emergence of old school hackers, while "... the context of' hacking' was influenced by elements such as collective innovation and community ownership of software.
Image source: pbs. twimg. com/media/C0HNjS1XgAA1OKl. jpg
3- WAU HOLLAND
German hacker who during his stay in this life founded the Chaos Computer Club -CCC- (the oldest and most influential hacker collective in history), inaugurated the figures of the "ethical hacking" and the "samurai hacker" (who accesses an external server not to steal information, but to warn of possible security flaws), in addition to promoting the inclusion and training of new generations of hackers in the CCC Rest in peace.
Image source: rhizome. org/static-media/uploads/professor-ricardo-dominguez-defended-by-his-students-1. png
4- RICARDO DOMÍNGUEZ
Although he is not the only one, he was responsible for personifying and leading the historic hacktivist movement of the 90s, allowing hackers to go beyond the technological scene and start worrying about defending human rights, the right to information and privacy. At the time, he was one of the main driving forces behind Zapatismo. Net, the netstrike tactics on the web and, along with e-toy, the implementation of the network tactics known as "swarming.
Image source: 12. wp. com
5- LINUS TORVALDS
With a much smaller political and hacker ethos sense compared to Richard Stallman, Torvalds should make free software a truly inclusive project by encouraging that not only elite hackers, but also amateurs, could participate in Linux, generating a model of software production known as the bazaar model (open to collective innovation) over and above the traditional cathedral model (closed to collective innovation).
EDITORIAL:
In the future, there may well be more Linus Torvalds...
In the future, it is very unlikely that there will be more Wau Holland and Ricardo Domínguez...
In the future, it is impossible to have more Richard Stallman and Dennis Ritchie, unfortunately.
Autor: Jorge Alberto Lizama Mendoza
Mi blog de cybermedios https://cybermedios.org/2017/01/20/hackers-que-han-hecho-historia-top-five/