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Freedom of Information, the Wiki Way: Wikileaks.org to Allow Anonymous Posts of Government Documents

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DeepModem Mom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-14-07 11:24 PM
Original message
Freedom of Information, the Wiki Way: Wikileaks.org to Allow Anonymous Posts of Government Documents
WP: Freedom of Information, the Wiki Way
Site to Allow Anonymous Posts of Government Documents
By Elizabeth Williamson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 15, 2007; Page A13

You're a government worker in China, and you've just gotten a memo showing the true face of the regime. Without any independent media around, how do you share what you have without landing in jail or worse?

Wikileaks.org is a Web-based way for people with damning, potentially helpful or just plain embarrassing government documents to make them public without leaving fingerprints. Modeled on the participatory, online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the site is expected to go live within the next two months.

Organizer James Chen said that while its creators tried to keep the site under wraps until its launch, Google references to it have soared in recent days from about eight to more than 20,000.

"Wikileaks is becoming, as planned, although unexpectedly early, an international movement of people who facilitate ethical leaking and open government," he said.

The site, whose FAQs are written in flowery dissident-ese -- "What conscience cannot contain, and institutional secrecy unjustly conceals, Wikileaks can broadcast to the world" -- targets regimes in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but not exclusively. It was founded and partially funded, organizers say, by dissidents, mathematicians and technologists from China, the United States, Taiwan, Europe, Australia and South Africa. The site relies on a worldwide web of volunteers and contributors to post and vet the information, and dodge any efforts to shut it down. To protect document donors and the site itself, Wikileaks uses its own coded software combined with, for the techies out there, modified versions of Freenet and PGP....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/14/AR2007011400760.html
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caligirl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-14-07 11:30 PM
Response to Original message
1. send t to Jack Bauer!!
You're a government worker in China, and you've just gotten a memo showing the true face of the regime. Without any independent media around, how do you share what you have without landing in jail or worse?
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silverweb Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-14-07 11:30 PM
Response to Original message
2. Love it!
It's going to be a boon here in the good ol' "land of the free" at this point, too!

:woohoo:
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Occulus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-14-07 11:32 PM
Response to Original message
3. It's things like this that make regimes like * impossible
It's about time something like this were created. Maybe now our "leaders" will have an increased incentive to lead well.

Or not...
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Hosnon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-14-07 11:33 PM
Response to Original message
4. God bless the internet! nt.
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silverweb Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-14-07 11:34 PM
Response to Reply #4
6. You've got that right!
Thank God/dess and Al Gore!

:D
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Viva_La_Revolution Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-14-07 11:33 PM
Response to Original message
5. cool
Wikileaks organizers say the site is self-policing. "Wikileaks will provide a forum for the entire global community to examine any document relentlessly for credibility, plausibility, veracity and falsifiability," they wrote in response to e-mailed questions. "If a document is leaked from the Chinese government, the entire Chinese dissident community can freely scrutinize and discuss it; if a document is leaked from Somalia, the entire Somali refugee community can analyze it and put it in context. And so on."

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otherlander Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-14-07 11:39 PM
Response to Original message
7. That's... brilliant.
But how will they verify that the documents are real? I mean, I've seen some pretty far-out bullshit posted on Wikipedia before...
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WiseButAngrySara Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-15-07 12:06 AM
Response to Reply #7
8. wondered the same thing. ....n/t
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Taoschick Donating Member (391 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-15-07 08:28 PM
Response to Reply #7
16. That's going to be a huge problem
There's no way to verify the legitimacy of the documents so wikileaks will be used by people with an ax to grind.

It'll become a joke in short order...and a magnet for conspiracy theorists.
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Egnever Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-15-07 10:37 PM
Response to Reply #16
18. Agreed
n/t
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Hekate Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-15-07 03:23 AM
Response to Original message
9. I'm impressed. Take that, Google!
After Google's "business decision" to cooperate with the Chinese government in suppressing their citizens' access to information, I am really pleased that Wiki is acting in the interests of human freedom.

:woohoo:

Hekate

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Egnever Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-15-07 10:36 PM
Response to Reply #9
17. Google owns!
Nice that you have a grudge against them. You do know they also were the only major search engine to deny our search records to old george dont you?

Have you taken a look at how they treat their employees? I doubt you will find a beter company to work for in todays corporate america. Nice to see the right wing bash on them stuck with a lot of people though.
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Hekate Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-16-07 02:37 AM
Response to Reply #17
19. I use Google all the time; I appreciate what they do; I don't have to like all they do...
...and the decision to cooperate with a repressive regime like China didn't pass the smell test with me.

I'm just sayin'.

Hekate

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tanyev Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-15-07 08:27 AM
Response to Original message
10. How about starting with the Bush regime?
Come on, whistleblowers!
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wordpix Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-15-07 03:48 PM
Response to Reply #10
13. that's my thought, too. Can't wait to see what turns up at wikileaks this week
Especially with Libby on trial and Unca Dick taking the stand.
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populistdriven Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-15-07 02:04 PM
Response to Original message
11. Wikileak internal leaked Email - You Have to Read This! 8-D
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janx Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-15-07 02:07 PM
Response to Original message
12. ONE PROBLEM
Snopes or Media Matters (or a whole new organization) will have to work hard to authenticate these docs since the secondary sources are anonymous.
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Marnieworld Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-15-07 04:19 PM
Response to Original message
14. Nothing is anonymous on the internet
Even before the flagrant FISA crimes it was always possible to trace where anything on the internet is uploaded from. Remember the I love you or Melissa virus? They could find that guy they can sure as hell find someone uploading secrets. I wouldn't try it unless I was willing to go the Daniel Elsberg route.
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Pavulon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-15-07 05:26 PM
Response to Reply #14
15. Correct, dont pass, go no $200
you post classified data on that site you will be in prison right quick. People need to understand that leaking secret documents is not acceptable no matter who occupies what chairs.

Those who have that access classified documents know the penalty for disclosing it.
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