The Mechanics of Order: An Inquiry into the Utopian Possibilities of the Free and Open Source Ecology

This is a study that concerns itself with two questions: how is order produced? and, is this order desirable? Contrary to many utopian methodologies that seek to elaborate 'what is not' but which 'ought to be', this is a study that seeks to contribute to a utopian mechanics by way of studying extant subterranean practices or ' minor traditions,' by studying elements of 'what is' that may also form something of what 'ought to be.'  This study takes as its principal task to understand the production of order within a small free and open source project known as Compiz. It borrows from Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari to formulate the related concepts of the machine and the abstract machine in order to account for the ongoing production of order. These two concepts, following the lead of Bruno Latour, adhere to a 'flat social' ontology and bring forth the world of objects and space as being indispensible, alongside the members of Compiz, in accounting for the project's ordering. The study poses three primary machines of order: the Passport, the Exodus and the Module. The Passport regulates access within the virtual spaces of Compiz and produces a role known as the 'gatekeeper,' one who may exercise a power both vicarious and precarious. The machine of the Exodus makes the threat of desertion a real and ongoing possibility and in this establishes an 'imaginary counter' within the group, undermining the power of the gatekeeper and recasting him as a steward of the code, as 'maintainer.' The third machine, known as the Module, is designed to minimise the complexity of the project by way of the spatialisation and organisation of the code, but subsequently effects a concomitant spatialisation and organisation of developers and projects, coming in the end to shape the large scale order amongst free and open source projects. The study concludes by suggesting a 'present tense' and 'open ended' conception of utopia, in which both the machines of the Exodus and the Module - but not the Passport- would find themselves well placed.