What would you do if your employer cancelled the project you were working on and your employment contract ended? Ten years ago, Ron Avitzur decided to "uncancel" his part of the project--and kept showing up for work, hoping no one in management would notice what he was doing. Read more here: The Graphing Calculator Story.
Six months of unauthorized, unpaid labor raises some questions:
Was I doing this out of bitterness that my project had been canceled? Was I subversively coopting the resources of a multinational corporation for my own ends? Or was I naive, manipulated by the system into working incredibly hard for its benefit? Was I a loose cannon, driven by arrogance and ego, or was I just devoted to furthering the cause of education?
I view the events as an experiment in subverting power structures. I had none of the traditional power over others that is inherent to the structure of corporations and bureaucracies. I had neither budget nor headcount. I answered to no one, and no one had to do anything I asked. Dozens of people collaborated spontaneously, motivated by loyalty, friendship, or the love of craftsmanship. We were hackers, creating something for the sheer joy of making it work.
This is a day of new beginnings,
time to remember and move on,
time to believe what love is bringing,
laying to rest the pain that's gone.
For by the life and death of Jesus,
God's mighty Spirit, now as then,
can make for us a world of difference,
as faith and hope are born again.
--Brian Wren,'This is a day of new beginnings,' 1978, alt.
(1st 2 verses)
time to remember and move on,
time to believe what love is bringing,
laying to rest the pain that's gone.
For by the life and death of Jesus,
God's mighty Spirit, now as then,
can make for us a world of difference,
as faith and hope are born again.
--Brian Wren,'This is a day of new beginnings,' 1978, alt.
(1st 2 verses)
