Zen and the art of computer maintenance
Ludo Gorzeman
Paulan Korenhof
PUSCII: political tech collective engaged in struggles over autonomy in technology through practices of collective exploration, destruction, creation and maintaining technology relations.
Refusal of particular human-technology relations: against blind consumerism, resistance against big tech.
"to maintain"
- 1. to keep in an existing state (as of repair, efficiency, or validity) : preserve from failure or decline;
- 2. to sustain against opposition or danger : uphold and defend;
- 3. to continue or persevere in : carry on, keep up;
- 4. to support or provide for;
- 5. to affirm in or as if in argument : assert.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/maintain
Software maintenance according to academics
“[t]he process of modifying a software system or component after delivery to correct faults, improve performances or other attributes, or adapt to a changed environment” (IEEE 1990, 46).
Software maintenance: (a) to adapt to changes to hardware or other software; (b) to correct or repair flaws and errors; (c) to improve or enhance functionality (Niessink & van Vliet 2000).
Big role for anticipation: future needs, fears, and desires fuel part of the maintenance actions (Prem 2025).
Wide scope: ongoing increase of software-driven artefacts, like toothbrushes, lamps, sewing machines, motorcycles, etc.
Ergo: software maintenance = not maintaining a stable state, but continuous and dynamic relation of guided change.
Caring for maintenance
Expanding on the dynamic nature of software maintenance, we want to explore maintenance as site of contestation where the commons becomes enclosed.
More than just a collection of resources, the commons represents a foundational model for organizing social and economic life through collective care, mutual responsibility, and sustainable stewardship.
Caitlin Hoyland 2025
We propose to view 'maintenance' through a commons lens of care.
Through this lens we will discuss two cases: motorcycle and e-mail maintenance.
These cases will show how digitalisation facilitates enclosure through appropriation of maintenance practices which used to be part of the commons.
Digitisation and motorcycle maintenance
Caring for ones bike
From illegal moped capacity increase to skillshares at owner groups and building customs, there is a culture of knowledge sharing: maintenance practices are part of the commons.
→ These practices of care establish a unique relation to ones bike, through maintenance one gets to know the bike and this familiarity shapes a bond.
Obfuscation
Digital technologies are not tangible, but implemented in microscopic circuits with software and data stored as electric charge.
Digital technologies require interfaces to interact with them.
Every interface defines how one can interact with the technology.
Every interface implements access control.
Enclosing of the motorcycle
As complexity increases and the inner workings become opaque, it becomes harder to familiarise oneself with ones bike.
Maintenance practices and the knowledge surrounding them become enclosed in dealership networks.
Safety narrative as one of the reasons for enclosure.
This enclosing cuts off possibilities for establishing a relationship of care.
Case 2: email
Server care: email
Used to be a decentralised network of mailservers, governed by open standards.
→ Open network, free to join.
Culture of collective care for the service and collaboration between server maintainers to resolve issues.
Big tech turns collaboration into competition
Now: network dominated by Google and Microsoft.
Complexity massively increased: many new protocols and features, many pushed by big tech.
Opacity increased: big tech deviates from the open standards, adopting proprietary protocols, maintaining proprietary spamfiltering systems, private blocklists, etc.
Big tech refuse to collaborate to resolve issues → competes for users.
Security narrative as driver for enclosure.
Enclosing of e-mail
Increased complexity makes is hard to maintain and even harder to join.
As seen in the conference e-mail, in the name of security smaller nodes are actively pushed out of the network by big tech.
Coercion to outsource your mailserver leads to the destruction of a network of care.
The unfortunate swap of email provider by the conference organisation is a clear showcase of these maintenance struggles and their implications.
Maintenance as field of power struggle
The two cases expose maintenance practices as a field of power struggle.
Contemporary software practices configure maintenance as a contested ground on which relations of care are driven out.
The mechanisms of enclosure are affordances of digital technology:
Obfuscation and Complexity.
These are often justified by a security narrative.
Takeaway
Maintenance is a burden, but also a practice to foster.
We should embrace maintenance as:
- practice of collective care and autonomy.
- practice of big tech refusal.
The challenge of ongoing increase of obfusciation and complexity: provides deep challenges for collective maintenance practices and autonomy.
Thank you! Any questions?
paulan.korenhof@wur.nl
ludo@nomennesc.io
Breaking the enclosure
Breaking out of the boundaries set by an interface is one of the core tenets of hacking.
Hacking has been about engaging in destruction and disruption of technology to come to new understandings, functionalities, and creations.
This practice can assist in regaining familiarity.
Hacking can help mitigate the effects of obfuscation, but falls short in responding to increasing complexity and the security narrative.
