So...is online activism/hacktivism the future? Or is it already the present?
I think that online activism has been being developed for several years but has grown strong after the appearance of social networks, which made it possible to gather people together and raise a voice agains the wrongdoings of governments and politicians. I just have to remember that in the already mentioned Spanish movement people would meet in the streets in small communities and discuss about things that affected the neighborhood.
And what about e-democracy? Is it a real possibility and how can we manage to do it properly? As said in James Cabree's article, Civic hacking: a new agenda for e-democracy, "This should be the ethic of e-democracy: mutual-aid and self-help among citizens, helping to overcome civic problems", and I agree with that. It has to be easy and resolve people's problems the best way possible, without much bureaucrazy and with the sense of community. But I think that we will have to wait a few years to see this idea as an everyday reality.
With the appearance of Julian Assange and Wikileaks, the world faces new challenges. Are we sure that we want to know all the truth? Is it safe for citizens to know every single thing that governments do? And what has happened with investigative journalism?
I know that I want to know it. And most people want to know too. So now the source is Wikileaks, a source that decodes files and has them from various different secret sources. And, are all of them reliable? We should believe they are. If they weren't, governments wouldn't be as worried as they are with Assange and its hackers. But we had investigative journalism before the arrival of this so, what's the difference? Well, first of all, Wikileaks has no corporate interests that media companies have and the information that they publish comes they way they receive it. News companies transform the information according to their editorial line. It is a much more biased information.
I post again the Timeline of the Arab Spring to show how social networks can help people gather together and change their political systems.
I think that online activism/hacktivism the present and will grow and change as we progress to the future. With children understanding technologies as well as they do from such a young age these days what will they know when they are our age!
ResponderEliminarYou have raised a good point. I classify Wikileaks as a good group of hackers cause they remove that barrier of secrecy but do we really want to know all that Governments have to hide? Probably not! We are just all so nosey and want to think that we would like to know what is actually going on.
I've always trusted wikileaks to an extent. I believe they are a good group of hackers and do also think that the government wouldn't be as worried about it if it wasn't true. They do well to cover their tracks and uncover all this misconduct. I feel that people fear the knowledge of hackers.
ResponderEliminar