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Haystack and the Myth of the Boy Wizard
Jamie sent in an interesting writeup about
The Myth of the Boy Wizard. No, it's not about Hogwarts, but rather about Haystack and its creator, Austin Heap. Last summer the media covered the programmer, the software, and its supposed effect on Iranian censorship. But as is often the case, truth is less interesting than reality. What happened is that the story managed to press some magic buttons, and the media ran with it. This one is worth a read.
I also like the nice touch of the opacity of the links. I click a link about "Haystack" to get directed to another poorly written snark post light on content with yet another "Haystack" link that will, oh wait, take me back to that same exact page.
Fuck you.
Why is everybody with the surname of Graham that writes on the Internet a self-important self-absorbed douchebag? (And no... I don't consider myself a douchebag, just a crackpot with some severe issues dealing with loss.. thanks). Did Paul Graham witness his wife having anal gangbang with Larry Ellison and Bill Gates? If not, he has no excuse.
All 3 of ye seem to think this is a "lack of technology knowledge" issue.
The real problem is that journalists DON'T do research any more. Like an amateur blogger, they just take whatever press release is fed to them, and read it over the air in order to be first on the "scoop". Our 24 hour-a-day news cycle has turned reporters into gossipers, and nothing more. They don't double-check anything to verify its veracity.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
The lead attacker of Austin Heap appears to have been Evgeny Morozov, who has close ties with George Soros and the former Soviet bloc, and who writes for Foreign Policy. Evgeny Morozov claims to be a Belarus-born researcher and blogger who works on the political effects of the internet. Morozov expresses skepticism about the Internet's ability to provoke change in authoritarian regimes, and instead believes that the internet can strengthen authoritarian regimes. He is a Yahoo! fellow at Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service and a contributing editor of and blogger for Foreign Policy magazine. Prior to his appointment to Georgetown, he was a fellow at George Soros's Open Society Institute, where he remains on the board of the Information Program. Before moving to the US, Morozov was based in Berlin and Prague, where he was Director of New Media at Transitions Online, a media development NGO active in 29 countries of the former Soviet bloc. He was previously a columnist for the Russian newspaper Akzia. His writings have appeared in various newspapers and magazines around the world, including The Economist, Newsweek International, International Herald Tribune, Boston Review, Slate, and the San Francisco Chronicle. He has been chosen as a TED fellow where he spoke about how the Web influences regime stability in authoritarian, closed societies. He is a critic of the impact of the internet and other technologies in bringing about social or political change, sometimes even aiding dictatorships. In as much as Austin Heap is devoted to bringing about regime change via the internet, and Morozov is devoted to the exact opposite viewpoint, the two are at least intellectual enemies. There are also ties to the former Soviet bloc and to George Soros, so Morozov could also be acting as a puppet.