This might seem like an off the wall idea but as (in my mind ) this issue is part policy and part engineering problem, would co-ordinated themed hackathons focused around the idea of creating disruptive & secure communication techniques and protocols both further this general cause and appeal to the HN crowd at large?
An Open Letter to HN from EFF, Demand Progress, and Cory Doctorow
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Re: An Open Letter to HN from EFF, Demand Progress, and Cory Doctorow
#32As foreigners, should we care? Next time someone organizes something similar, can they think of a worlwide action? Can they make something which doesn't sound like "Worldwide anti-american day" but rather "Worldwide day of support to the debate that US citizen started"? US citizens are only 313 millions and the US law protects you against surveillance. We, the rest of the world, are all subject to this surveillance i…
Frankly, U.S. Congressmen don't care what foreigners think about U.S. surveillance policy. Foreigners aren't going to vote them out of office. I think the EFF, etc. are wise to focus their limited resources in ways that maximize their chances of being heard.
The Snowden revelations make clear that U.S. citizens are not protected against surveillance by their own government. Just because foreigners are less protected doesn't change that.
Re: An Open Letter to HN from EFF, Demand Progress, and Cory Doctorow
#33Call me skeptical, but this is yet another sign of the degeneration of Western civilization and the indoctrination of being apathetic. If you really think slamming a website online and calling people to post memes on Facebook will change anything but some link scoops on CNN, you are delusional. About 5 months ago I posted a related comment ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6147370 ) and it's as true as any other…
The first step to getting political attention (and therefore political respect) is to show that you are not a motley collection of individuals, but a large group capable of organizing. After that, you can meaningfully debate the merits of different strategies. But before you can show organization, you have no winning moves.
Re: An Open Letter to HN from EFF, Demand Progress, and Cory Doctorow
#34With all due respect, using Aaron Schwartz's case about copyright as motivator for the case against surveillance seems weird. Why do you even need some personification?
I didn't know Aaron Swartz, but my understanding is that surveillance and whistleblowing were important issues for him. For instance, he developed software for anonymous whistleblowing for those like Edward Snowden: http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/aaron-swartz-inbox-for-whis...
Nice! I wasn't aware of that, thanks.
Re: An Open Letter to HN from EFF, Demand Progress, and Cory Doctorow
#35For whatever it's worth, I cast my vote in favor of this. It's been wonderful reading Paul Graham's comments voicing opposition to the illegal surveillance, and I would urge the HN community to adopt this stance as official policy. I believe we're either very close or right on the edge of a tipping point in public opinion, and this kind of concerted action may just push it over the edge.
Re: An Open Letter to HN from EFF, Demand Progress, and Cory Doctorow
#36With all due respect, using Aaron Schwartz's case about copyright as motivator for the case against surveillance seems weird. Why do you even need some personification?
I didn't know Aaron Swartz, but my understanding is that surveillance and whistleblowing were important issues for him. For instance, he developed software for anonymous whistleblowing for those like Edward Snowden: http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/aaron-swartz-inbox-for-whis...
"surveillance and whistleblowing were important issues for him"
There you've conflated them again, and then provided another point about Swartz being in favor of access to information. You specifically did not address the grandparent's question about why Swartz would be against access to information for some cases and for access to information in other cases.
I'm not suggesting that he wouldn't (I don't know offhand, but it's clear that pro-whistleblowing folks often self-identify as anti-surveillance, too), but it's not clear what information-related principles are being used to justify these positions.
Re: An Open Letter to HN from EFF, Demand Progress, and Cory Doctorow
#37With all due respect, using Aaron Schwartz's case about copyright as motivator for the case against surveillance seems weird. Why do you even need some personification?
I didn't know Aaron Swartz, but my understanding is that surveillance and whistleblowing were important issues for him. For instance, he developed software for anonymous whistleblowing for those like Edward Snowden: http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/aaron-swartz-inbox-for-whis...
He was also the founder of Demand Progress.
Re: An Open Letter to HN from EFF, Demand Progress, and Cory Doctorow
#38As foreigners, should we care? Next time someone organizes something similar, can they think of a worlwide action? Can they make something which doesn't sound like "Worldwide anti-american day" but rather "Worldwide day of support to the debate that US citizen started"? US citizens are only 313 millions and the US law protects you against surveillance. We, the rest of the world, are all subject to this surveillance i…
Frankly, U.S. Congressmen don't care what foreigners think about U.S. surveillance policy. Foreigners aren't going to vote them out of office. I think the EFF, etc. are wise to focus their limited resources in ways that maximize their chances of being heard. The Snowden revelations make clear that U.S. citizens are not protected against surveillance by their own government. Just because foreigners are less protected…
> Frankly, U.S. Congressmen don't care what foreigners think about U.S. surveillance policy.
Congress might care when US corporations' bottom lines are affected by the surveillance. In fact, it's starting to be reported that US corporations are being affected already.
EDIT: To be clear, when US corporations bottom lines in sales to entities in foreign countries. IBM and Cisco have already attributed slumps in sales to foreign entities due to NSA surveillance.
Re: An Open Letter to HN from EFF, Demand Progress, and Cory Doctorow
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Whereas you get the smug satisfaction of feeling superior to people who are actually doing anything at all.
Actually I get the smug satisfaction of not wasting my time. This is not doing anything, but damn if you don't feel like it.
Just like the online action against SOPA/PIPA was a waste of time and didn't do anything?
Re: An Open Letter to HN from EFF, Demand Progress, and Cory Doctorow
#40Ever since the NSA business leaked, I've been thinking about this problem. It took me a few months to wrap my head around all the crazy stuff that's been going on but I've started building some systems that I think might have a chance of helping out.
"Call Congress Now"- using Twilio, you can call Congress folk from your browser (for free). http://www.callcongressnow.org/
Here are some Congress people who are doing some shady stuff: http://www.callcongressnow.org/profile/F000062 http://www.callcongressnow.org/profile/L000174
But it's pretty hard to get the word out about websites like that. In a sense, nobody passively cares enough to call Congress. Only when the Congress folks do something that brings about outrage do people care enough to really pick up the phone (or click the twilio button, as it were). So I built the /u/CongressionalHound, a bot on reddit that hunts for mentions of current sitting members of Congress in submitted articles and displays information about them in the comments: http://www.reddit.com/user/CongressionalHound/comments/
If you are a mod on reddit and want me to run the bot on your subreddit, PM the bot and I'll have it saunter on over and get to work. Slowly putting the bot on subreddits that give me permission or invite me to. My hope is that when articles about the NSA, or Obamacare, or the shutdown, or or or any big political issue comes up, that the bot will channel people towards getting in touch with their representatives and senators and effectively voicing their opinions.
Both of these are prototypes and there are major known bugs in both, but I think they can serve as examples of systems that could help citizens better impact their government through the power of the internet.