Herald of cyber transparency

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2010/12/future_wikileaks

"The more secretive or unjust an organization is, the more leaks induce fear and paranoia in its leadership and planning coterie. This must result in minimization of efficient internal communications mechanisms (an increase in cognitive 'secrecy tax') and consequent system-wide cognitive decline resulting in decreased ability to hold onto power as the environment demands adaption.

Hence in a world where leaking is easy, secretive or unjust systems are nonlinearly hit relative to open, just systems. Since unjust systems, by their nature induce opponents, and in many places barely have the upper hand, mass leaking leaves them exquisitely vulnerable to those who seek to replace them with more open forms of governance."

Assange: No Secrets

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/12/01/assange.profile/index.html


http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/06/07/100607fa_fact_khatchadourian?currentPage=all

“Most of this period of my childhood was pretty Tom Sawyer.  I had my own horse. I built my own raft. I went fishing. I was going down mine shafts and tunnels.”

Assange’s mother believed that formal education would inculcate an unhealthy respect for authority in her children and dampen their will to learn.  “I didn’t want their spirits broken,” she told me. In any event, the family had moved thirty-seven times by the time Assange was fourteen, making consistent education impossible. He was homeschooled, sometimes, and he took correspondence classes and studied informally with university professors. But mostly he read on his own, voraciously. He was drawn to science. “I spent a lot of time in libraries going from one thing to another, looking closely at the books I found in citations, and followed that trail,” he recalled.  He absorbed a large vocabulary, but only later did he learn how to pronounce all the words that he learned.

Encryption systems - WikiLeak's 'potent weapon'

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2010/12/the-shameful-attacks-on-julian-assange/67440

"The true importance of Wikileaks ...  lies ... in the technology that made it possible, which has already shown itself to be a potent weapon to undermine official lies and defend human rights.  Since 1997, Assange has devoted a great deal of his time to inventing encryption systems that make it possible for human rights workers and others to protect and upload sensitive data.  The importance of Assange's efforts to human rights workers in the field were recognized last year by Amnesty International, which gave him its Media Award ..."