Sharing the Power and Wisdom Online

The public perception of the internet in the 90’s was that it was a place for cyber freedom. However as we know today, it did not exactly function in that way. A communications system designed to serve scientists and the military, the internet’s function has grown to become a gateway to a vast wealth of knowledge and information of unparalleled proportions. Libraries were once one of the only public places of accumulated knowledge, but now with the added benefit of technology, it’s been made available to the world in seconds. The uses of the internet are virtually unlimited. It’s a place where visions of utopian ideals can be found and practiced, and where users worldwide share data and information without any restriction, which in short makes free the most valuable commodity in the world, information.



In a world where online piracy, private sites and peer-to-peer sharing networks are being persecuted every day, it is necessary to be aware that we can reshape the way in which the future of the internet is aiming, and be aware of what can be done to make this utopian dream of sharing without restrictions a reality. The freedoms we have online and offline have been deteriorating over the years, due to extremist attacks and other troublesome global and economical events. However unfortunate events and sudden changes in policy should not reflect nor dictate and control how we operate the internet. It’s worth noticing that during the time the internet became massively available, to the time that current structural online business models have been in place, wealth distribution has widened even more. Big corporations are sanctioning with more severity than ever before. Individuals with no real threat to national security have become the target of punishment, serving as an example for the public, while the rest of us are watching kittens playing piano on You tube. Corporations have managed to establish global economic structures and increase revenue by placing complex online technologies that collect our private information creating unparalleled wealth for themselves, while the rest of us are drained out of our pockets. In the mist of these alarming events we should then ask the question, is it time for something to start changing?



Being conscious of the financial needs tech savvy corporations have placed in order to gain lucrative control of the social media eruption they exploit, along with government cyber surveillance we should then be awakened once and for all to do something about it. If I rule the internet my first order of business would be to create a general public consensus to start sharing more than just cat videos and in its place share access to business models, and dirt cheap production of technologies giving individuals the same useful power to market their success, a success that only big private and governmental organizations have knowledge today.

 

A safer internet experience

  One of the biggest threats to our privacy today, is internet security. This threat does not come from remote internet hackers, but instead our own government. Government surveillance is a threat to our American civil liberties. Is internet surveillance really a necessary part of national security? This has proven to be a big concern due to public perceptions of internet privacy, government surveillance and government intrusion, along with the willingness from federal agencies to gather online transactions.

It has been made public by personalities such as Mark Zuckerberg, that the NSA has been using automated systems to spread malware over the internet, sometimes using “fake” Facebook servers. He argues that the internet works because people and companies work together to create a secure setting that makes our common space better and safer for the world. Google, Microsoft and Yahoo demanded that extensive changes be made in surveillance techniques by December. Some other companies consider that it is time for the government to report the practices and laws regulating surveillance of people and the right to invade their personal information. However, one of the most alarming things is that the NSA is recruiting university students to train them into becoming the future cyber spies. The National Security Agency (NSA) has selected a number of universities in order to offer special training that will ensure the future of cyber operations program to flourish. The NSA has also created National Centers of Academic Excellence offering a total of 13 schools where students can train to enter the U.S. cyber security and intelligence workforce.

Activist groups, companies, and websites advocating against cyber surveillance, have inspired internet users to take action against government tailing, and have suggested on a protest called “The Day We Fight Back.”  5,700 plus websites have posted banners on their sites encouraging users to use social media to protest against the surveillance movement by the NSA and to email their representatives in congress in order to push for a reform that would act against internet surveillance.

While some undersigned companies understand that governments need to take action to protect their citizens’ safety and security, they also strongly believe that current laws and practices need to be reformed. The need for a better way to monitor criminals and other threats, one that does not threat our civil liberties needs to rise. Consistent global norms of freedom of expression and privacy with the goals of ensuring that government law enforcement and intelligence efforts don’t interfere with public privacy is the goal. A more focused, narrow discipline tailored to find real criminals and transparency in its practices should be the aim of the government. Furthermore we should call upon our government to endorse these principles based on civil liberties, and initiate a reform that would put these values to action.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nsa-picks-5-universities-to-train-us-cyber-professionals/

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/internet-protest-fight-back-surveillance/

Making a Hack free World Wide Web

Taking action against digital piracy has proven to be difficult and inefficient throughout the years. The targets have been primarily the motion picture and recording industry and the capture of the majority of perpetrators have been an unsuccessful one so far. It would be extremely beneficial for the government to work with hackers than punish them in order to allow for a more secure virus free web experience. The potential for a Hacker Government integration is endless, and it could only happen if the government stops punishing the playful attempts by hackers to demonstrate their abilities to infiltrate and reach different levels of security.

  In the past, various government agencies have captured and imprisoned a small number of hackers to make an example of them in front of the rest of the hacker community. Governments then apply the full weight of the law against these individuals to prevent similar actions from others. But these attempts by the governments have become more difficult to achieve as time goes on. Hackers today have figured out new and clever ways to organize and group their actions instead of attacking as single individuals in order to proceed without getting caught. 

An example of this is the group Anonymous, a global entity of political activists and hackers that was formed in 2003. With a decentralized command structure that operates on ideas rather than directives this group of hackers are virtually impossible to track. A decentralized command structure steers away from having a central location of authority and instead makes decisions by executing actions as a group, making the target of punishment impossible to pin point on a single individual. The hackers’ activist group Anonymous, generally direct their attacks to government, religious, and corporate websites that pose a threat to their ideals and political attitudes. The full picture and extent to which these groups have committed invasions have not been made fully available to the public, due to in many cases the shameful inefficiency by some government organizations to stop or restrict the access to what they claim are secure web sites. By putting a proposal to invite these clever entities, hackers working for the government instead of against them, offers a solution instead of the difficult persecution and almost impossible capture of these groups. To work alongside the government instead of constructing an idea that they can be controlled and restrict access is a more realistic way to approach the problem. The never ending cycle and draw backs of the past originated from the actions of malicious hackers that had no other motive than to compromise national security, however there are some hackers out there that are just trying to prove to the government that they can bridge their security and employing them as a weapon to exploit bad hackers could be the solution to the problem.

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/11/17/anonymous-hacking-group-targeting-government-websites-fbi-warns/

The Year 2025

I came across an insightful article entitled “The Biggest Internet Impacts by 2025 Good or bad, what do you expect to be the most significant?” This article offers great insight into the trends and changes we can expect to see in future years, which will ultimately affect the Internet.

The evolution of technology in general and the future of the Internet can influence how governments decide to make decisions and listen to its people. We cannot expect change in government decision making if we do not get involved and analyze the trends and uses we give the Internet of today.

Reading the full report conducted by Elon University, on how Internet experts project the role of the Internet by 2025 and the impact it will have on our political practices and our economy is crucial to understanding our role in the matter today. The main issue, whether for positive or negative, was about what people consider to be the most important general influence of our uses on the Internet between today and the year 2025.

 Among thousands of interviewed people the majority responded, that the Internet will be invisibly linked in everyday life; and that it would possibly be the same in the year 2025 as it is today or much more advanced, but it will certainly have millions more having access globally.

The range by which the Internet will increase globally will push technology to grow towards improved connectivity, allowing the development of further interactions and less ignorance.

The development of improved connectivity through the future of the Internet would foster improvements in the fields of artificial intelligence, and allow the rapid movement of massive volumes of information available to the masses, making individuals more aware of the world and their actions. Augmented reality and portable devices could be employed to record and stream quick feedback to others. Political action will be simplified and more nonviolent revolutions could take place. These are only a few of the positive changes with the collaboration of people sharing information for the good of others.

Link to the article discussed in this blog:

http://www.elon.edu/e-web/imagining/surveys/2014_survey/2025_Internet_Impact.xhtml

Welcome!

Happy Independence Day! My name is Alan and I'm currently a studio art major at Florida State University. I'm originally from Venezuela where I studied computer engineering in Caracas. I have created this blog as part of a class assignment for my "New Communication Technology & Contemporary Society" course. 

I will be posting to this blog periodically and I am excited to share my views on how the government, the evolution of technology and society in general will influence the future of the Internet.