Hi Will, I'm don't plan to dig in here as I know there has been a separate thread but just wanted to say thanks for the long and thoughtful follow-up here - and, generally, appreciate the passion and thought behind this :-)
Rufus On 7 June 2014 14:20, William Waites <[email protected]> wrote: > I'm probably the primary culprit for criticism of the tone of the > discussion. I apologise for this. It was driven as Rayna suspects by > the urgency of getting this sorted out on the day and in reaction to > Laura's uncertainty on the topic which I found very surprising. > > I'm not particularly a pro-privacy campaigner -- though I am > sympathetic to those who are -- or indeed a campaigner of any kind. I'm > an engineer who has built some parts of the Internet, and indeed some > parts of OKFN's infrastructure. I've been helping artists and activists > and NGOs of various kinds have access to and make use of Internet > resources since the mid 1990s at the same time as creating these > same resources. In this context I tend rather to see myself more as an > enabler than a campaigner. For the most part I keep to the background > and the lower levels of the infrastructure that the users -- and by > users I primarily mean content producers more so than consumers. It is > relatively unusual that I feel compelled to intervene at a higher, more > publicly visible level. My role, like other network engineers and > system administrators has historically been not to have much to say > about how the infrastructure is used but to make sure it is a > fundamentally neutral platform on which people can do and say as they > see fit. The current situation is different and I'd like to explain why. > > The ongoing pervasive monitoring is an attack at a very fundamental > level on the basic infrastructure that makes things like OKFN possible. > Where in the past it has made sense to tend to the infrastructure and > allow others to use it to address problems that they see in the world > the present situation affects our ability to do this. We, meaning > many engineers and admins around the world, have for many years acted in > mostly unseen solidarity with civil society including organisations > like OKFN, and now we need your help. We have found that the basic > ethical obligation of the sysadmin, to take privileged access to > systems very seriously, to only use it to ensure proper operation of > the infrastructure, and above all, to keep any information learned in > that process strictly confidential much like a lawyer or a doctor would > be expected to has been undermined. The basic relationship that all of > you have with the infrastructure through the network operations and > system administration communities has been altered without our > knowledge and consent and against our wishes. > > We have long known or suspected that anyone sufficiently motivated and > with sufficient resources can look at what any particular person is > doing, just as the police can stake out somebody's house if they want > to. What we didn't know was that this is happening to everybody all the > time, although there have been suggestions at least as far back as the > early 2000s that this was planned. We, as a community, misjudged the > threat. Had we known, we would have put more emphasis on ensuring that > your relationship with the infrastructure was indeed on the basis that > it had been assumed to be. As it is, OKFN's whole way of operating is > built on shaky foundations, as indeed is every organisation that makes > significant use of the Internet and whose business is something other > than surveillance and advertising. > > For OKFN in particular, as an organisation whose main activity has to > do with certain kinds of digital rights, with one thread tending > towards public sector accountability and another towards the right of > all humankind to share equally in our collective cultural and > scientific heritage, this is very important. In the UK this > organisation is fairly prominent and well respected. People look to > OKFN for advice. As an organisation whose roots and origins are in the > Free Software movement and whose success comes from applying ideas > from there to data and information generally, any radical departure > (such as "I'm not sure the Internet is within our remit") had better > be very soundly reasoned. > > It was this departure that triggered my strong words. If the response > to RTN had been "we're not ready yet but we will prepare a statement on > the topic because we think it is important" that would have been a > little disappointing but would have made sense. But to not know if it > was important boggled my mind. It had to be corrected, and quickly. > Hence the public pressure. I'm not known for my diplomatic gifts, so > again, my apologies for the abrasiveness. > > It will take a long time for the implications of this to be fully > understood. It will take an even longer time for the fundamental > architectural problems of the Internet to be repaired or replaced and > organisations like OKFN can once again be on sound footing. > > Best, > -w > > _______________________________________________ > okfn-discuss mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-discuss > Unsubscribe: https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/options/okfn-discuss > > -- *Rufus PollockFounder and President | skype: rufuspollock | @rufuspollock <https://twitter.com/rufuspollock>Open Knowledge <http://okfn.org/> - see how data can change the world**http://okfn.org/ <http://okfn.org/> | @okfn <http://twitter.com/OKFN> | Open Knowledge on Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/OKFNetwork> | Blog <http://blog.okfn.org/>* *Come to the Open Knowledge Festival <http://okfestival.org/> in Berlin 15-17 July 2014!* The Open Knowledge Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation. It is incorporated in England & Wales as a company limited by guarantee, with company number 05133759. VAT Registration № GB 984404989. Registered office address: Open Knowledge Foundation, St John’s Innovation Centre, Cowley Road, Cambridge, CB4 0WS, UK.
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