All"
Interesting example of "dynamic social complexity"
-tj
I’ve spent the last seventeen hours living
inside a cyberpunk novel. A libertarian cyberpunk novel. It’s been a
weird and awesome experience.
Within an hour after I received a
plea for help from Iran, a
regular commenter on this blog recruited me into a hacker network that
has been forming to support the democratic Iranian revolutionaries by
providing them with proxy servers, Tor anonymizers, and any other
technologies needed
for them to communicate over channels the Iranian regime cannot censor or
control.
I know this network has contacts on the ground among the revolutionaries.
I don’t know who they
are, and don’t want to know. Most of the other network members are just
names on an IRC channel. But we’re putting together a stealth network at
amazing speed. Nothing matters as much as the courage and determination
of the Iranians on the ground, but we aim to make a difference in our own
way and we have the tools to do it.
This disorganization has only been forming for a very short time. It
doesn’t really have leaders. It didn’t have even a name when I joined it,
though I’ve given it one that looks like it might stick. Until and unless
somebody else steps up to the job, I’m our public contact.
This role carries a non-zero risk that I will be targeted for
assassination, or interrogation followed by execution, by agents of the
Iranian regime - we’ve had more than one death threat against core
members already. I take this risk with eyes open because we need somebody
to be public, and I know I’ve already been a jihadi target since 2006; at
least I can keep some other poor bastard out of the line of fire. I now
expect to remain continuously armed for the duration of the Iranian
crisis.
Rostam, this is how I’m answering your plea. We’ll do what we can for
your people. For freedom.
To learn more about NedaNet and how you can help, go
here.
--
==========================================
J. T. Johnson
Institute for Analytic Journalism -- Santa Fe, NM USA
www.analyticjournalism.com
505.577.6482(c) 505.473.9646(h)
http://www.jtjohnson.com [hidden email]"Quantitative and Digital Skills of International
Journalism and Communications Educators"
http://journosurvey.notlong.com==========================================
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