KTub8

Culture of Solidarity
of time. This also relates to the relationship between the
single person and the collective which are increasingly
understood as poles on a sliding scale. Singularity is a
precondition of becoming visible in networks and being
part of a larger network is a precondition of developing
particular aspects of one’s person. Insisting on privacy, in
this context, is unsuccessful as a strategy to protect the
core of individuality and carries the danger of making a
person invisible, thus leading to self-selection and selfexclusion.
The new interdependence of singularity and
collectivity is particularly visible in free software projects,
where intense co-operation (reacting collectivity) and
intense status competition and very strongly held
opinions (asserting singularity and creating differential
positions within the network) co-exist and are depedent
upon one another. Underlying all of this is what is
perhaps the meta-value of this culture: sharing. Sharing
is the making available of a resource to others without
the expectation of an immediate or direct return. This
differentiates the act of sharing both from the exchange
in the market that is always trading equivalences (e.g.
goods for money) or gifts, which are expected to be
returned or reciprocated at a later point as Marcel Mauss
famously showed. 76 Sharing, however, is also not a
charitable or altruistic act, like donating to a worthy cause
that does not affect one personally, but one in which
return is indirect. Rather than establishing relationships
between single actors (i.e. natural or legal persons), the
relationship between persons is mediated through the
collective forms, such as those four mentioned above.
Sharing occurs within these forms and runs on the
assumption that making something available to the
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