Posts Tagged ‘wiki’

I love the idea and wikileaks.org

-Faust

“I love the idea of Operation Disk Drop.

Back in the day, those of us with long hair, tie-died t-shirts, love beads and backpacks, would spend some of our time hitchhiking around Canada as a means of gaining some sense of the Country and our place in it. Late in the summer of ’71, Hendrix and Joplin had been gone for less than a year and the fall of Saigon was still almost four years in the future (although Australia and New Zealand had already decided to withdraw their troops from Vietnam). Nixon was still in power in the U.S. and Trudeau was Canada’s Prime Minister, with the October Crisis and the War Measures Act almost a year behind him.

While begging rides through northern Ontario and westward into Manitoba, I became aware of a curious custom whereby others traveling the same route and by the same means would leave messages for those of us who would follow their path, in one direction or the other, on the back sides of the signs announcing the identity of the city, town or village you were about to enter or were in the process of leaving.

There would always be, inscribed in felt tipped marker, the date and time that your predecessor had arrived at that spot, where they had originally hailed from, usually some information about the local municipality, such as the temper of the local guardians of the law, or the best place (in their opinion) to crash for the night, or what restaurant might let you earn the price of a meal by washing dishes or floors, and finally, the date and time that their next ride had stopped to pick them up.

It strikes me that Operation Disk Drop is the twenty-first century equivalent of my own twentieth century experience, except that now we are sharing information and opinions about music with the stranger who follows or crosses our path, as opposed to sharing information about the nature of some local municipality and the denizens thereof. In both cases, it is an attempt to connect with another human being who is unknown to us but who shares some common ground. Further, it argues, in my view, against those fears so often expressed about the advent of modern computer technology and the internet, as we know it today, making us less socially interactive by somehow dissuading or diminishing human contact.

Starting with the old local “Bulletin Board Systems” (back when the internet was still, primarily, a text driven phenomenon where the Legend of the Red Dragon was the best game on the ‘net and the “point and click” interface we now take for granted didn’t exist), and continuing through file sharing, blogging, My Space, You Tube, Social Media, Facebook (yes Jenna, I concede your point…) and now bringing Operation Disk Drop into the equation, we human animals have been continually experimenting with and expanding the means by which we reach out to each other. We remain, after all, social animals.

I think I might just burn a CD featuring the Perth County Conspiracy, Three Dog Night, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin and Crosby, Stills and Nash and leave it taped to the back of a sign welcoming you to Glanbrook – just to see what happens.”

-Faust

Thanks Paulie! be sure to go to The Hour’s site and put your info in there as well ( it’s not my idea just passin it on) also you might be intrested in Wikileaks.

“Wikileaks is developing an uncensorable Wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis. Our primary interest is in exposing oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we also expect to be of assistance to people of all regions who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their governments and corporations. We aim for maximum political impact. Our interface is identical to Wikipedia and usable by all types of people. We have received over 1.2 million documents so far from dissident communities and anonymous sources.

We believe that transparency in government activities leads to reduced corruption, better government and stronger democracies. All governments can benefit from increased scrutiny by the world community, as well as their own people. We believe this scrutiny requires information. Historically that information has been costly – in terms of human life and human rights. But with technological advances – the internet, and cryptography – the risks of conveying important information can be lowered.

Wikileaks opens leaked documents up to stronger scrutiny than any media organization or intelligence agency can provide. Wikileaks provides a forum for the entire global community to relentlessly examine any document for its credibility, plausibility, veracity and validity. Communities can interpret leaked documents and explain their relevance to the public. If a document comes from the Chinese government, the entire Chinese dissident community and diaspora can freely scrutinize and discuss it; if a document arrives from Iran, the entire Farsi community can analyze it and put it in context.”

 CNN just posted about the Changes in Guantanamo Bay SOP manual that showed up on this wiki, all very intresting!!!

So that’s my post

J