It's not one of Eric S. Raymond's talking points, but the backwoodsman aspect of hacker culture seems really important, and also, probably, fatal to its long-term spread.
Well, first of all it's not a geographical description. The nature of "hacking", which is a self-reliant activity of producing provisional solutions, has a lot in common with the ethos of life in remote areas or on a frontier. Even the word hacking evokes chopping firewood or doing some other woodwork task in a rough, ad-hoc way. This is combined with a sense of mutual aid which is often present even in (maybe especially in) thinly-populated areas. Gabriella Coleman might be a good source for more insight into this. Just why hacker communities behave as if they are isolated even in an urban environment is not something I understand, but from personal experience they are self-selected groups of people with particular traits, who often have difficulty being accepted by mainstream culture, or who scorn the mainstream.
As someone who repeatedly and often rails against political articles here, I would say this is on-topic because it's simply interesting. It's easily ignored if you don't find it interesting, and it doesn't seem to be generating boring discussion of rehashed political debates or something else untoward.
I upvoted you though because I am glad I'm not the only one keeping an eye on what's posted, and it looks like you already got plenty of downvotes.
Why is this on Hacker News? Is this site going to use its popularity to preach about social issues now, like so many other tech sites have? That's a huge turn off for me.
It's kinda relevant economically, and in spirit since Berlin has a thriving culture of hackers and startups.
A bit defocus and diversion don't hurt either. It's not the kind of breaking news I come here for, agreed. Social issues are everyones responsibility, anyway, so it's a fruitful basis for comments.
Because there are hackers for which the fall of the wall was the defining moment of their life, hackers that were not even born back then and need to learn some history and hackers that are just curious ...
