I ran across an interesting Ted Talk by Keren Elazari about hackers. She makes some bold statements such as, “…you just can’t see something broken in the world and leave it be.” She also states “I think we need hackers, in fact, they just might be the immune system for the information age.”
I’ve also been reading the book “We are Anonymous” by Parmy Olson and I am inclined to agree with Keren. I don’t want my personal information stolen anymore than the next guy, but on the other hand I abhor ignorance and dishonesty. As a project manager one of my main jobs is keeping everyone informed as to the project’s progress, issues, risks and my decisions. As a matter of fact, I am bound by the PMI Code of Ethics to be honest, even if that makes me the bearer of bad news. At this point project management, democracy and business should have a lot in common. The problem is they don’t. If there is a code of ethics for government and business, it largely goes unheeded.
Alders Huxley once wrote, “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
With so much effort and money invested in keeping secret those things which make us better participants in democracy and enable honest business decisions, maybe we need those who snoop around looking for deception or illegal activity.
There is a quote from the book of Luke (Bible) that I keep in mind when it comes to communication, “What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.” Maybe “Hacktivism” is one of those strange things that will encourage government and business to be more honest.