Re: filling its 404 error logs with the names of the men, women and

[Steven White <steve@barkingcat.org>]

[: hacktivism :]

On Fri, 27 Aug 1999, Chuck0 wrote:

[...]
> To me, Floodnet is about as effective as waving placards in front of an
> empty embassy on a Saturday morning.
> 
> What would I rather see "hactivists" do? Spend more of our efforts and
> talents developing alternatives to the New World Order. That means
> getting more activist online and helping more poor people get online.
> This also means developing our own free software and OSs and building
> netoworks that are impervious to ruling class disruption.

During my last stint in university (about seven years ago) the level of
activism on our campus was at this level.  I don't see any difference
between walking around the campus area of town carrying signs and chanting
about abortion rights, freeing political prisoners or what-have-you and
bombing a web server's error file.

As for a more real-world approach to technological activism I think you
can step back once more from Chuck's comment above.  Simply teaching
people about what a computer is, how it works and what exactly the
Internet is & does is extremely worthwhile.  Getting people's hands on a
computer connected to the net before they see it through the filters of
commercialism or even the local library (which in the Milwaukee area seems
to think computers and the Internet are only for finding jobs and books)
will have a stronger effect on society than filling
/etc/httpd/log/error_log with a list of names *NO* one will ever see
(other than their web server administrator).


Steven White			/"\
http://barkingcat.org		\ /
			 	 X  ASCII RIBBON CAMPAIGN
				/ \ AGAINST HTML MAIL


[: hacktivism :]
[: for unsubscribe instructions or list info consult the list FAQ :]
[: http://www.tao.ca/~grugnog/hacktivism/ :]