Why Are Hackers Becoming So Angry?

You may have noticed a bit of a trend recently. Groups of hackers are getting hold of stuff that has hitherto been kept locked up, and making it freely available online, much to the annoyance and embarrassment of those involved.

Well-known examples include Wikileaks, Anonymous and LulzSec, but we now have a new name to add to the list. Step forward (the possibly pseudonymous) Greg Maxwell, who has been provoked by the Aaron Swartz saga, which I wrote about earlier this week, to release some files of his own:

On Open Enterprise blog.

Taking Openness to the Next Level

Yesterday I wrote about one particular issue with standards: the fact that the associated patent licensing (if applicable) can shut out free software completely. But it's clear that the problems go much deeper: the entire standards-making process is conducted in a way that is often the antithesis of openness. That's not just bad for free software, it also means that the standards themselves suffer, as do many potential participants who are unable to contribute as fully as they otherwise might. Here's an interesting attempt to rectify many of those problems by drawing on the manifest success of the open source approach:

On Open Enterprise blog.

Is Transparency Coming Out into the Open?

Maybe something good can come out of the unholy mess of the MPs' expenses:

Mr Brown said that politicians had to "prove themselves worthy of the public trust" and said the allowances system must be reconstructed to ensure transparency.

At the first Prime Minister's Questions since the expenses scandal broke, he gave his support to a proposal from David Cameron for all future claims to be posted on the internet by the Fees Office.

Now, that would be be truly wonderful, because it would not only solve most of the problems associated with the expenses, but it would provide a beachhead of transparency that people - we - can build on for the future.

And if that sounds hopelessly optimistic, here's another extraordinary straw in the wind:

Minister of Justice Michael Wills has told ZDNet UK that the UK's Freedom of Information Act is to be extended. Currently requests under the act can only be made to public bodies, but Wills said that the government had been considering modifying it to allow requests to private companies working in the public sector.

"We are going to announce the result soon. There is going to be an extension", he told our reporter Tom Espiner at the Private Data, Open Government conference today in London.

Keep those transparent fingers crossed.

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OpenStreetMap Passes 100,000 Users

Although many people have heard of OpenStreetMap, not everyone realises just how damn successful and important it is becoming. Here's one indication:

Sometime during Monday 16th March 2009 OpenStreetMap gained it’s 100,000′th registered user account!

Moreover, the graph on the page linked to above also shows that there are now over one billion track points on its maps.

I predict that soon people will be talking about OpenStreetMap as a demonstration of how openness works in the same awed tones as they do now about GNU/Linux.

Opining on Generation Open

Here's a nice little thought-piece from Chris Messina:

The people within Facebook not only believe in what they’re doing but are on the leading edge of Generation Open. It’s not merely an age thing; it’s a mindset thing. It’s about having all your references come from the land of the internet rather than TV and becoming accustomed to — and taking for granted — bilateral communications in place of unidirectional broadcast forms. Where authority figures used to be able to get away with telling you not to talk back, Generation Open just turns to Twitter and lets the whole world know what they think.

But it’s not just that the means of publishing have been democratized and the new medium is being mastered; change is flowing from the events that have shaped my generation’s understanding of economics, identity, and freedom.

Obviously, I agree with all this, since it's what I've been preaching for some time. But I think this is rather wide of the mark:

Obama is running smack against the legacy of the baby boomers — the generation whose parents defeated the Nazis. More relevant is that the boomers fought the Nazis. Their children, in turn, inherited a visceral fear of machinery, in large part thanks to IBM’s contributions to the near-extermination of an entire race of people. If you want to know why privacy is important — look to the power of aggregate knowledge in the hands of xenophobes 70 years ago.

But who was alive 70 years ago? Better: who was six years old and terribly impressionable fifty years ago? Our parents, that’s who.

And it’s no wonder why the Facebook newsfeed (now stream) and Twitter make these folks uneasy. The potential for abuse is so great and our generation — our open, open generation — is so beautifully naive.

I really don't think the "Nazis" are much of a factor these days, even for older baby boomers. In fact, I'm constantly amazed at how distant World War II now seems. Too much has happened since then, not least in technology.

I think that's the real reason that (some) baby boomers have problems with Facebook and openness: it's the nth wave of stuff that's come through, and they're still grappling with the first few.

One of the great things about openness is that encourages yet more open experimentation, leading to a kind of dizzying positive feedback, and a delirious helter-skelter ride of techno-fun. Understandably, that's disconcerting for generations who grew up expecting stability, not constant lability.

Computational Journalism

I like the sound of this:

the digital revolution that has been undermining in-depth reportage may be ready to give something back, through a new academic and professional discipline known in some quarters as "computational journalism." James Hamilton is director of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy at Duke University and one of the leaders in the emergent field; just now, he's in the process of filling an endowed chair with a professor who will develop sophisticated computing tools that enhance the capabilities — and, perhaps more important in this economic climate, the efficiency — of journalists and other citizens who are trying to hold public officials and institutions accountable.

Sounds like bringing in openness to government willy-nilly....
(Via @timoreilly.)

Extreme Openness: the Rise of Wikileaks

There is a long journalistic tradition of looking back at the end of the year over the major events of the preceding 12 months - one that I have no intention of following. But I would like to point out an important development in the world of openness that has occurred over that time-span: the rise and rise of Wikileaks....

On Open Enterprise blog.