Monday, November 1, 2010

The Matter of WikiLeaks

Burning Matter
Do we need a WikiLeaks in the World?

For those who don't know or only know a little, here's a brief background (followed by links to other detailed articles about Wikileaks and its co-founder/director Julian Assange).

Brief Background
Appearing in January 2007, WikiLeaks may have been co-founded by, but is now fronted by Julian Assange who sees himself as an "information activist." Basically WikiLeaks is a dissident minded, freedom of information sharing platform with the goal, "to ensure that whistle-blowers and journalists are not jailed for emailing sensitive or classified documents" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiLeaks). On www.wikileaks.org you will currently find Iraq War Logs - nearly 392,000 Significant Action reports which provide a very different picture of the war from one being told about in major mainstream media.  However, please remember, WikiLeaks is not just about leaking USA documents--this is a global information sharing so any and every country is watching this site.

Information activism probably had it first major modern outing in 1971 when Daniel Ellsberg released what we now call "The Pentagon Papers." And Ellsberg, who is a fan of Wikileaks, was recently quoted in a John Nichols article titled Dan Ellsberg on WikiLeaks & the Essential Democratic Question: Who Will Tell the People? published in the July 26, 2010 issue of The Nation as saying: "Those who leak and publish the true facts about America's wars, he explains, can usually be said to have "showed better judgment in putting it out than the people who keep [the facts] secret from the American people."

Between the leaks, the attacks, the condemnation, the drama and the support something has gone missing. The missing element can be found at the root of the basic matter: What Will You Tell The People?

My Take
I'm a big fan of reality. But I know that reality can take many forms. And the only way I can discern my view is if I have the most information available. I need this information so I can form opinions, vote, provide proper input and develop ideas that are relevant to changing/creating a culture that is optimal for humanity.

So, I like my leaks. And I find it discouraging that "leaks" are almost always portrayed in a negative fashion and usually just because the information leaked is considered negative -- or runs counter to the desired positive outcome. Usually those upset with the leaks are those who are in the position of being responsible for the reason for the leaks. Some of the codewords that supposedly warrant information secrecy these days are terrorism and national security. But in the new era of open social and transparency maybe we should have a public discussion about governmental secrecy, information classification and its rules. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classified_information

 What I would like to see? Not just one WikiLeaks, but many. Having just one source for information activists to share secrets is simply too much for one Julian Assange. We need a community of people dedicated to liberating information and a community to support the effort. In my utopia there is a vast network of released secret information. After all, this is our world and we need to know what's going on with it.

More on WikiLeaks, information secrecy and information activism in the next post.

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