Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Declan McCullagh On Geek Activism

Posted by chrisd on from the declan-v-lessig dept.

die_jack_die writes "Declan McCullagh, formerly of Wired News, lately at News.com, has written an insightful piece about the realities of geek activism. Short version: spend your time coding, not lobbying. (You might also want to check out Politech , his mailing list for this sort of stuff.)" This in contrast to Lessigs call for more lobbying.

4 of 303 comments (clear)

  1. So volunteer for a campaign. by Animats · · Score: 4, Interesting

    We're in an election season. This a great time to help out with the campaigns of politicians you like. Often, tney need computer help. You'll meet their staff, and the candidate briefly. So you'll know who to talk to when the time comes.

  2. Lessons from History by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting
    That article reminded me of the Manhatten Project scientists. During the war, they mostly chose to focus on their work, and leave the politics to the politicians. Dropping the bomb ended the war, of course, and yet over time most major scientists who had been involved came to regret their silence. That regret is what led, among other things, to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, with its famous clock on the cover. Each issue's clock was set a certain number of minutes to midnight. The closer to midnight, the greater the danger, in their consensus opinion of atomic war.

    If you're too young to remember it, you probably won't believe it, but when those clock hands moved, the world noticed and attention was paid. It may be that by creating that symbol and using it to give voice to their concerns, those scientist may have helped to saved us all.

    The bad patents and bad laws that have come out now aren't atom bombs, of course, but they should still be opposed for the good of us all. Like the atomic scientists, Geeks have the knowledge, authority, and responsibility to speak out - the trick is to come up with a good clock, if I may coin a phrase. Some mechanism to explain what's a risk - one that people can respect and understand.

    And no, I don't know what that mechanism ought to be. :)

  3. GEEK ACTIVISM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Re: Geek Activism

    I was moved to reply to your recent article on Geek Activism on CNET due to what I consider to be the dangerous political naivety of the piece. Advocating that people should step back from challenging the political and legal system in favour of computer programming is the most ignorant and ineffectual suggestion I can possibly imagine. Allowing the decisions of others to be made without debate or contestation in a political arena results in poor decisions being made, unrepresentative political systems and at worst the danger of a minority imposing their views on the rest of us. Do you really believe that people programming at computer keyboards can change the world? That is the simplistic utopian belief that technology can somehow free us without recourse to the political system. I would suggest you look carefully at the recent case of the prosecution of the Norwegian teenager Jon Johansen for his role in creating DeCSS software (and under the pressure of the US government no less), see digitalagora.com for more info.

    Black Civil Rights activists, the Women's movement, Anti-war protesters, and even geeks have to actually get up (and well away from the computer keyboard) to force change and fight for a more equitable political system. I agree that email on its own may be ineffectual, but creating lobbying websites, educating people and writing to political leaders, lobbying companies, newspapers and magazines all contribute to a debate that can have profound effect on the decisions of politicians.

    The ability of individuals to obtain and read facts free from licenses, coercive copyright restrictions, corporate censorship (maintained by the use of copyright law) and other attempts to control information, reduces people's ability to obtain information and make up their own mind. The space where people can read and communicate with others, which includes the Internet but is not limited to it, is a public sphere, a space of public deliberation, it is vital to the maintenance of a modern democratic state and this is being slowly eroded.

    We should be encouraging people to take part in this political debate to set policy with regard to technology and fight to widen access to information and indeed to technology itself.

    Regards

    David Berry david@locarecords.com

    Home Page

  4. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Comment removed based on user account deletion