Viva La Wikileaks!

Many of you have probably never heard of a little site known as Wikileaks.org. According to its website,

Wikileaks is developing an uncensorable Wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis. Our primary interest is in exposing oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we are of assistance to people of nations who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their governments and corporations.

Wikileaks posts tons of documents from within the halls of US government as well, including Congressional Research Service reports (which because the CRS is under the protection of Congress are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act), NATO documents and any other piece of information that reveal government cover up, deception or attempts to keep the public in the dark. Most of the information they get is provided by whistle blower types who see corruption and feel compelled to act. The staff at Wikileaks carefully examines each document for authenticity and, as with any wiki, allows all users to make comments/edit (though not the original document, but a duplicate). This is an invaluable resource for journalists, historians and concerned citizens. It is the latter group that I am primarily interested in, as it best represents me and my interests.

There is a whole area of scholarship that is committed to analyzing the impact of Information Communication Technology on political participation. The past decade has seen a significant increase in the amount of information made available by western governments on the web. The United States provides documents and solicits feedback through various government agency websites, ostensibly in order to improve government performance.

Some scholars have even mentioned that with greater technology comes greater participation, potentially resulting in more responsive government. Theoretically, this sounds promising. But increase participation in what way, you might ask? You should ask! Some suggest that feedback from constituents would be increased and that could provide benefits. I am inclined to agree, but what worries me is that the average person does not possess the education to participate in policy making decisions of an advanced nature. It would be great if people could make their needs heard at the local (municipal or even state) level about community needs (road construction, library hours, etc.), but national policy may be a bit out of their league. Besides, the ballot box isn't dead. Barack Obama, though far from perfect, has enacted legislation that has both turned America around on many policy issues and nudged it down a progressive path. For Federal issues the vote is still the best way for citizens to participate in their democracy and Wikileaks provides citizens with a means of keeping informed on what their government is actually doing and in none less than the government's own words.

In a time when the news media is owned by corporate conglomerates and has less and less of an interest (financially and politically) in living up to its role as the fourth estate, citizens must take upon themselves to fill in the gap in coverage. The technological revolution sparked by the Internet has given birth to blogs, wikis, and social networking sites that provide the citizen with new tools of democratic participation and with new teachers - each other. Working together and with the assistance or courageous whistle blowers and citizen activists, we can force government to be more accountable and thereby more responsive. Long Live Wikileak!

~ Old Major

p.s. Check out the site and if you find it useful consider contributing whatever you can. Wikileaks needs $ to stay online and its one of the few things out there worth paying for.