Declan McCullagh On Geek Activism 303
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.
My comment to Declan (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Yes and No (Score:2, Interesting)
If I may add a little bit to your last paragraph - the largest voting blocks out there are the baby-boomers and senior citizens. Our disaffected generation just doesn't seem to muster up the willpower to get out and vote.
However, those baby-boomers and seniors know next to nothing about tech issues... and in some cases less than nothing (staring at monitor causes cancer, using cellphones cause cancer, having a hacker in your neighborhood causes cancer, etc.) More important than getting the message out to your representatives (who, even though it doesn't seem like it, do have aides who research this stuff), get the message out to your parents, their sewing circles and bridge clubs, the local rotary club, the local VA, the Moose Lodge, etc. Those are the people who make the senators sit up and listen.
-T
So volunteer for a campaign. (Score:4, Interesting)
Lessons from History (Score:3, Interesting)
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. :)
Re:But if we don't find some way... (Score:2, Interesting)
And besides, the politicians will only take us seriously if we play their game. It is not when lobbying and putting political pressure that they think we are just those "anoying hackers". It is when we break their laws by writing illigal code. Of course sometimes we have no choice, actions have to be taken. But, democraty works based on the fact that different groups put pressure to get something and we end up getting something balanced in between what everybody wants. Now if a group stops putting pressure then it will get nothing and the other groups will get everything.
Maybe lobbying looks like it doesn't work because it will nerver give you all of what you want, but realy it serves to get more of what you want, not all of it.
We do have some national parks and politics that are good for the environment. We owe them to people who put pressure on the goverment and to people who acted by making scientific studies promoting those policies.
Of course democraty dosn't always work, but it has a better chance of working if you try it than if you just try to work around it.
gnein
GEEK ACTIVISM (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: Geek Activism [com.com]
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 [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 [locarecords.com]
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)