Hello, intrepid 410 students!
Here, as promised, is the link to the Ted talk we watched in class on Tuesday...
http://www.ted.com/talks/julian_assange_why_the_world_needs_wikileaks.html
Assange has been such a prominent, and polarizing figure in the mainstream news lately - do you think he, and by extension Wikileaks, has changed the way people in the wide world think about what the Web is, and what it can do?
Do you think that Assange has changed our perceptions of who Programmers are? Do you think he's changed our perceptions of the role programmers and web designers play in society?
Do Assange's activities (and behavior) confirm or challenge any stereotypes about "Hackers"?
I never really followed wikileaks or was concerned with what they did. So, I don't really know much about the worlds view of the website. However, I do know that I wouldn't look at Assange as a hacker. He isn't actively (to my knowledge) making any advancements for technology that isn't already designed or in place. However, he did help in the creator of a fantastic content management system for digital media. He also is not doing what a typical media hacker does and break into things and steal data or break it.
ReplyDeleteBut, I would say Assange's website wikileaks does use advanced screening methods and protocols to get the information from a client (a source) and then revealing it in a legal way for whatever the data targets wikileaks received.
I think Assange's website does pose an interesting topic about should everything be available and who has the authority to disclose that data. I think as a programmer it must be fun developing such a system because of all of its complexities in receiving and sharing the data. But, as a programmer I would wonder if they think about how their efforts and code can impact, individual people, elections, nations, and even perceptions on a war to name a few.
Therefore, this leads to the question of how does the world perceive the typical programmer and website creator? Well, I don’t know. But, I think that people know that when they send data or make a request to have something done we have a lot of authority over how it is created, and used (by way of functionality) and that does give the programmers and website creators a lot of power. Partly because we design the system in which how data is shared and how it is released once in our possession. However, not every programmer and website creator thinks this way. Some just like the challenge of trying to create such a thing.
I think that Assange has changed the general publics perception of who a programmers are. People who don’t program, or have any contact with it at all have a tendency to think that anyone who is a programmer is some freak who lives in his parent’s basement. The stereotype programmer is a geek, who does nothing but program and game 24/7. He comes off more sophisticated and important than that. I think that he has opened the public’s eyes as to how important programmers are. People just take for granted that their computers, web sites, programs, ect. will work every time that they need them. He has shown that they are important people who do important things.
ReplyDeleteAssange’s activities challenge the stereotype of a “hacker” because he isn’t doing anything new. He is just using previously created things to his advantage to uncover what is out there. Hacker sounds like he is doing something completely maliciously, but he claims to just be trying to uncover the truth in his hopes of creating “open government”.
I'm not sure about whether Assange has changed the way people in the world think about what the Web is and what it can do. People have known for a while now that you can find just about anything on the Internet. People have become pretty immune to what's posted on the Internet now too with all of the piracy and porn and whatever else. The Internet is just the medium Assange is using to publish the leaks, it isn't really any different than whistle blower stories in the papers except nowadayas if they were published in the papers no one would see them.
ReplyDeleteAs far as whether he has changed the public's perception of who programmers are, I don't believe he has. WikiLeaks (I'm pretty sure, though I've never been) is just a news outlet for leaked private information and media. Assange just encourages the publication of leaked information and his site is based around it. I'm not sure the public even thinks of him as a programmer or a web designer as much as a journalist.
I also am not sure the public ties "hacking" to WikiLeaks all that much either. If so, there would be people on both sides seeing it as a positive activity uncovering crucial information that someone has hidden as well as a negative activity infringing on that same person's privacy. It's hard to say.
It’s not as if before Wikileaks became big breaking news that we as people didn't already do things on the Internet that peeved our governments. This is just the newest way that we the public can anger our government. Assange is a pioneer in the way he is making his knowledge public, but it's not like others didn't try to expose our government many times before him. Assange has dug up the dirty stuff for the public and made it easy for the public to spread around. Spreading and sharing is what the Internet is for and what it has always been used for. Assange has changed nothing.
ReplyDeleteI see Assange as more of a journalist than as a programmer. Maybe I don’t know enough about who he is, but my understanding is that he is a journalist, or a researcher, or someone who just digs up the dirt. Not someone who built a bullet proof back end or an infrastructure to protect his hard mined gems.
I don’t think that Assange has challenged anyone’s view of Hackers unless they are ill educated. The stereotype of a Hacker is someone who does bad things, but in reality a computer educated person would know that there are Hackers who hack for good reasons, like to make a back end database stronger and able to withstand other Hackers hacking them.
I don't believe that Assange has drastically changed the way people view the Web at all. The web has always been a place that a user can go and seek out any information if they are really looking for it. In my opinion the whole reason why Assange is such a big hit is due to the fact of the amount of media surrounding him. If people didn't know who he was or what wikileaks was, they would most likely have the exact same view of the Web as someone that knows all about wikileaks. Don't get me wrong, I think that what he is doing is great. Attempting to get the truth out to the public is more than admirable, but this is something that the internet is built to do. It is built to share information with people.
ReplyDeleteAssange's appearance might change the general public's view of what programmers are. In the interview he is very well dressed and charismatic. Most people hear the word programmer they associate it with social awkwardness. By Assange being in various forms of media, people are able to see that this stereotype of programmers is not true.
As far as the hacking goes, I think people already understand that there are two sides to the hacking coin. There are people that can hack for the wrong reasons and people that can hack for the right reason. I don't even know if the term hacking should be associated with wikileaks because of the information being obtained by a third party. It doesn't seem to be hacking done from the wikileaks side of things.
Neither Assange or his infamous Wikileaks has introduced new meaning to the Web. It has already been known to give voice to the individual, grant the protection of anonymity, and provide information and services that would otherwise be unavailable. What Wikileaks has done is taken all of the anti-government shock videos you would expect to find on the Web, condensed them into one location, and promoted the submission of similar content. People were already interested and hence the site has its niche.
ReplyDeleteWho knows if Wikileaks' designers and programmers even have anything to do with the flow of information through the organization? It may well be that they are just the facilitators, and with regards to programming and design, the site hasn't done anything completely innovative. As far as facilitating is concerned, this has always been the role of paid professionals in the web industry. Those who maintain their own personal controversial websites have been thought to be "hackers", but as Assange said, you have to be careful with that term. "Hacker" has been used to describe vastly different people for doing completely unrelated things. It could mean "intellectual genius" or "nerdy thief" or perhaps "computer wiz". I'm not sure that Assange has changed the term any more than he has associated himself with it.
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ReplyDeleteBenjamin wrote: "It may well be that they are just the facilitators, and with regards to programming and design, the site hasn't done anything completely innovative."
ReplyDeleteInteresting point, Benjamin. Looked at from another direction: can you think of specific changes in either programming or design that would have "improved" Wikileaks? That is, that would have helped Assange and his Site more effectively achieve their goals? What if you were asked to collaborate on a new Wikileaks site as a designer/developer? Would you? Why or why not?
Would it matter to you if you resided in a country or region in which to collaborate could legally be considered an act of treason? What if you lived elsewhere?
I don’t think Assange has really contributed, altered perceptions, or advanced anything in terms of web development. His whole system is based around promoting secret knowledge online. He’s not revolutionizing anything, but rather is putting a spotlight on his website and his ideals that online content should be free and accessible to everyone. His actions have brought a resounding focus in news media on the power of the Internet and how it can dramatically affect people, information, and even an entire country. He has shown the power that we, as web developers, have when dealing with the Internet that everyday individuals simply don’t posses. We have the ability to manipulate the web, websites, applications, info, etc. into whatever shape or form we would like, and have it publicly viewed by thousands and thousands (if not millions) of people. He has simply demonstrated his abilities through this entire ordeal, with his goal of spreading this information publicly online, and shown the power a web developer has.
ReplyDeleteA lifelong Republic with strong views, my grandmother loves a good political debate. This joy comes solely from arguing her point, however, as it has proven impossible to shape her opinions with silly things like 'facts' and well-researched counterarguments.
ReplyDeleteOver Christmas break, she and I had a particularly spirited conversation about a study conducted by World Public Opinion (http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/brunitedstatescanadara/671.php) that surveyed voters' opinions on certain political events and issues, which revealed that viewers of her favorite news outlet--Fox, of course--were more likely to be misinformed than those not exposed to its programming. My grandmother quickly supported the study's conclusions by expressing her vehement belief that Obama is ineligible for presidency because he was born in Kenya. Sigh.
Since we were on the subject of government conspiracies, I brought up WikiLeaks, which instigated a more fruitful conversation than I would have expected from a woman whose major technological achievement is the ability to play solitaire after one of her grandchildren has turned on a computer for her. Without getting too absorbed into the technical details, we discussed the fine line between government transparency and national security and were unable to determine exactly how much the government could reveal to citizens about its operations without jeopardizing our safety and global relationships. My grandmother seemed less concerned about how the information was disseminated than the fact that it was made available at all. Generationally speaking, I'm not sure that she is able to come to terms with the fact that there is an avenue for mass dispersion of information that does not involve the corporate filters inherit in traditional media like newspapers and television.
She indicated that Assange has the right idea about making the information public and hoped that by ruffling feathers he might inspire the government to share more information upfront instead of risking embarrassment and backlash with unauthorized publication of previously withheld information. She was eager to talk about his juicy sex scandal and the most that I really got out of her about his role as a hacker was that she thinks he's 'a little weird.' I don't think she made the connection between WikiLeaks and what I do at all, which isn't really surprising.
Hackers have been around for a long time and public perception has always been that they're more than a little weird and have access to all sorts of secret information with their tricky ways. I don't think that he's had an impact so much on the way that people view the Web and what it can do as much as he has influenced the public's understanding of how much governments struggle with their inability to effectively police how it is used and by whom. Assange has highlighted the fact that the United States government can't just pull the plug on any website they deem harmful and that it is still possible to be almost anonymous on the Internet, in spite of the government's attempts to ensure the contrary.
Assange has highlighted the apparent power of computer programmers to circumvent the law and other limitations, but hasn't changed much in the forum of public opinion. I think that, unfortunately, Assange's sex scandal has had more of an impact on reenforcing the public's perception of hackers and other computer professionals than any of his other actions. We're still seen as weird and 'out there.'
He definitely hasn't done anything to change the fact that, during a recent job interview for a technical position, I was told that I passed 'the weirdness test' because I showed up showered, well-dressed, and able to converse about my interests outside of the technological world.