Technology Communities

I am thinking of computer science and related disciplines in terms of questions having to do with the sociology of knowledge. I do need to look into the work that has been done surrounding the communities which form around any given specialized knowledge, especially since specialties inevitably develop their own jargon that outsiders will fail to understand. The idea is that a natural communication boundary starts to form around those with insiders' understanding where outsiders will require some type of translator to gain access to the texts.
All technology specializations appear to be most distant to political corruption, but perhaps this is even more true for communications technologies. Of course communications was a side benefit for the initial users of computers. Computers were built to solve math problems and computer networks to share the resulting files. It was merely incidental that those original users embedded their own commentary in the midst of all of that. But now what is happening? The so-called social media is a major force for challenging the communications monopolies previously enjoyed by major publishers and media outlets. Why are they even calling this 'social media'? Because that name illuminates its contrast to Big Media.
If we turn our attention to Linux, those users heavily reference themselves as a community. Indeed one of the big draws to learning something about computer technology is the social component. We can learn about this interesting stuff that everyone uses but few understand while building relationships with some quality people. Such people don't tend to get too embroiled in useless debates. They do have a few political ideals, of course, that are basically intrinsic to the art form: freedom of speech, personal privacy, etc. But if you think about it, these ideals should be shared by everyone, even though they are sometimes overlooked for the sake of somebody's political agendas.

Refocusing my attentions

My interests in computer science have been neglected recently. I have found it difficult to compartmentalize all of my various interests. I am thinking that I need to narrow my focus in order to make more significant headway. I don't want to become one dimensional, but neither do I expect a scattershot approach will help much in developing desirable skill sets.
Some of my other interests include philosophy, religion, politics, cultural diversity, blah, blah, blah. There are many directions I can go within each of those fields, so what strategy will I employ to make my energies more effective? How can I develop some kind of general theme across all of the disciplines that spark my curiosity? Will I be able to find a common element that drives the lot of them? It's hard to say at this point.
In terms of my interest in computer science, I can start with the idea that History is always shaped by the dominant forms of technology of the day. 'Science' continues to evolve, of course, but the application of scientific knowledge is technology. And today's defining technology is computers. Calling it 'computer science' might be misleading, since I for one think of 'science' more as research, and I'm looking at computers more in terms of development, with building things with the knowledge acquired from science. The science itself is not nearly so interesting to me as what you can do with that knowledge.
Another thing I want to mention about what we're calling 'computer science' is that it is typically associated more with the software side than the hardware side. I'd like not to be so unbalanced as that. I recently bought a Raspberry Pi starter package from Make: magazine and a book introducing the Arduino. Neither of those systems seems to require extensive previous knowledge of STEM subjects, and the whole culture of the maker movement seems positively fun and creative.
I have in mind using meetup.com as a way to network with people who share such a common interest. I wouldn't mind using the site to start a book club for my other interests, as well, but that is beyond the scope of this blog. It would be great to get involved with local primary and secondary schools to do some kind of after school program that revolves around the concept of maker spaces. I'd think it would work to combine that kind of thing with an adult continuing education effort, too.
We'll have to see how all of this goes.