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By Shane Becker

It was the summer of 1993. I skipped out on the second game in a baseball double header to go to Lollapalooza with my cool older cousin. It was the first concert of my choosing (previously Hall & Oates, then The Grateful Dead). That day changed the course of my life.

I saw Rage Against the Machine which led to Inside Out which led to Revelation Records which led to Youth of Today, Bold and Gorilla Biscuits. Through those bands I'd learn about straightedge and veganism. I would discover a whole world of diy subcultures.

We made our own zines before there were blogs as a way to communicate across great time and distance. We formed our own bands to perform the soundtrack to our lives and ideals. We organized venues for our bands and friends' bands to play. We booked tours across timezones and oceans to see the world and meet new people.

We built our own networks and economies, in both gifts and exchanges. We created an aesthetic that was ours, a tribal identity. We created systems to record our story. We defined our lives on our terms.

Demo tapes were our Minimum Viable Product. Shows and tours were our meetups. Protests and convergences were our conferences. Cover songs were our permissive licenses. DIY was our flat organization. We didn't ask permission or forgiveness. We built, scammed or stole everything we could.

Punk rock is made of people. Open source is people. That we make music or software is just an artifact of the ideals we hold dear. All of these things I did when I was a kid in basements and tour vans, I'm doing again now on the internet and in office buildings.

What I didn't realize then, was that all of that was perfect training for the world of open source software.

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The video "Everything I Needed To Know About Open Source, I Learned From Punk Rock" features Shane Becker sharing his personal journey from punk rock culture to his current involvement in open source software. He reflects on how the principles and experiences from his youth have informed his worldview and professional life today.

**Key Points:**  
- **Influence of Punk Rock:** Becker recalls attending Lollapalooza in 1993, which sparked his passion for punk rock and led him to discover various subcultures, such as DIY (do-it-yourself) and veganism.  
- **Creating Community:** He discusses the importance of forming bands, creating zines, and organizing shows, illustrating the ways in which punk rock fostered a sense of belonging and community.  
- **Networking and Economies:** Becker emphasizes how punk rock taught him about building networks and economies through gift exchanges and collaborations, paralleling the open source software movement.  
- **Life Lessons:** Important lessons learned from his upbringing include resilience and defining one's own path. Becker shares anecdotes from his childhood, including lessons about competition, belonging, and social interactions through sports and comic books.  
- **Punk Rock as Training for Open Source:** He argues that the DIY ethic and the non-hierarchical structure of punk rock closely align with the open source movement's principles, reinforcing the belief that collaboration and free sharing of work are fundamental values.  
- **Anarchism and Open Source:** Becker draws connections between anarchist principles and open source, stressing the lack of authority and the importance of self-organization.  
- **Cultural Impact:** He concludes by reiterating the idea that both punk rock and open source are communities formed by people who are not afraid to break norms and challenge authority, ultimately creating spaces where creativity and innovation thrive.

**Conclusions:** Becker advocates for a world shaped by the ideals embraced by both punk rock and open source culture—communities built on mutual aid, collaboration, and the rejection of traditional authority. He emphasizes that everyone participating in open source is, in fact, embodying the spirit of anarchy in a constructive way.

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