Thinking back on the conversation in class about the Coder, I find that I still side with Matt's point that there is a very material and mythical difference between someone that can code and someone that cannot as perceived, pedestal-ized by our (corporate) culture.

Though I agree that a Coder and a Plumber and a Mason are analogous. But there is a class distinction and status distinction between a Coder and a Plumber, between a Coder and a Tester, between a Coder and a User. It is a distinction that further widens the gap between the able and the unable to interface with the cyber, to negotiate the digital, to "fix" the computer.

True, the Coder needs the Corporation and vice versa. But the power and social currency and status we afford a Coder is very much different than a Plumber. White collar (no collar?) versus blue collar. Both perform a service, in a sense. Both have a trade. But the Coder is technocracy, is technomancy, is master. The plumber is peasant, is labor, is menial. Certainly, we need the plumber because most people do not have the skill set or the experience to change a washer in a faucet or unstop a toilet, but I think even if we DID have such knowledge, most would prefer the plumber to do it because it seems beneath our hands, our station to do. However, when we need a web page designed or a database built or a virus to be eradicated, the Coder treads places we dare not tread because we don't feel we belong (even those who know how to code) not because it's beneath us.

Another example, when a Plumber visits a house they are generally watched. I've always been told, never leave them alone. Watch what they're doing. I guess to make sure they're doing it right, doing it quickly (not slacking off at work or taking too many breaks like we imagine laborers to do), or they're not stealing the silverware. We are taught that Plumbers are always trying to cheat us, charge us unreasonably, take advantage of our lack of plumbing knowledge. However, a Coder is given nearly free reign. We've already said the network engineer in the corporate office is not a drone; he or she gets to dress how they want. They are generally left to their own devices to their own different office culture, given leave to take smoke breaks, come in late, leave early, "play" on the computer all in the hope that they will keep the systems up and running. We trust the Coder with our passwords, our harddrives, our most private of files in a way we do not trust a Plumber. We lavish Coders with money, stock, gifts as we would appease the Oracle or the spirits or a god.

Even with the dot-com bust, the Coder has not really lost much of his or her status or mystique. There was a glut, and now we need fewer Coders. But we still need them, valorize them, woo them.

I remember working for Bethesda Softworks, Inc. years ago. I was the writer for the game manual for a game called Battlespire (horrible game to follow up Arena and Daggerfall). I was a grunt, creative, but still a grunt. My sister worked tech support for them one summer. The whole tech support team knew, in a sense, the Code, but they were also grunts. Bethesda, back then, was notorious for treating grunts poorly. On the other hand, the programmers were golden children and the company treated them as such.

We have made Coders homo superior (to steal from the X-Men). They don't have mutant powers (not that we know of anyway), but they do have power. And though they can be hired and fired at the whim of the stock market, they still take their mystique, their intriguing post-humannes, and their command of the dollar with them wherever they go. As I said in class I know only raw HTML and have built a number of websites, but because of that simple fact, I am treated in job interviews with a certain amount of added respect. In a way, I also perform Coder for unsuspecting interviewers--I've been told that the whole mohawk thing, colored hair, square-framed emo glasses, tattoos, and creative bent often pegged me for a programmer (or writer) before the interview started. And that borrowed status has helped me a number of times to get jobs.

I have coded (written) a lot. This discussion, in a way, is followed up in my post about code as text: http://www.otal.umd.edu/~mgk/courses/spring2004/668/archives/000431.html

ED

P.S. Kelly, I just wanted to point out that Hackers, for a while (and probably still very much so) were sought after in a "corporate" way. Security companies and the government often welcomed Hackers into their fold to help them safeguard their systems. Does that mean they lose their Hacker status? Did they sell out?

Gah, I hate it when I can't edit a comment...

Oh, Ed, yes, I forgot about the seeking of hackers. My bf and his friends reminded me of that as well--in fact that it was specifically their "history" with the FBI (as in being checked out and in one case, raided) that added to their status which got them hired in the first place.

Their history as a hacker has become an additional status symbol, another resume builder, but now they have to say that they've stopped all their old cowboy activities. Now they are "legit". When I specifically asked him if getting raided helped or hindered his getting jobs, SD told me, chuckling, "Yeah, I was worried about that, too, but my interview just smiled and said, "Oh, yeah, well, there are a few of us like that here."

In their own circles, they have not sold out, though, and as far as I know it in the hacker culture (defcon, HOPE, etc.) those folks are not looked at as selling out, simply using their skills for their often intended purposes--to find the weak points and fix things, make them run better, etc. There IS the whole black/white/grey hacker ethic possibly at work here on some level (The white/grey hats were always the good guys?) that may be influencing that opinion, but for the most part I think they are not viewed as sell outs.