Re: the guardian article on J.E.D.

["xdaydreamx" <xdaydreamx@gmx.net>]

[: hacktivism :]

But Echelon has only really taken off as a topic of mass activism! In my
view, when it comes to Echelon, the first step may have to be taken by a few
individuals but it is the opinion of the masses that will force governments
to 1) admit Echelon exists 2) give some information about Echelon's
capabilities. Who knows where things go from there...
My point is that the first aim is publicity in this case and publicity has
been and is being achieved. Of course this may not be the best course of
action for all forms of activism. There I might have phrased my praise for
the effectiveness of hacktivism a bit too loosely. But you can't deny that
in this case things are going fairly well, considering that it has already
got the attention of the media in the UK and the USA, which, funnily enough,
are at the core of Echelon and thus profit most from it.

On a different note: I chanced across the following two sites:

www.ewatch.com
www.infonic.com

One might want to give them as little attention as that antionline site but
the fact is, they are pretty frank about their mission to do the best to
protect corporations from activism. They seem to do this in a completely
undifferentiated way and I would be interested in finding out what they have
to say about campaigns such as mcspotlight,  EDT etc...  Whether they can
see them as in any way valuable. Whether they are able to concede that there
might be some worth in (h)activism.

Some early morning thoughts from

jjf


----- Original Message -----
From: Brad Waugh <waugh@lola.phy.queensu.ca>
To: <hacktivism@tao.ca>
Sent: Friday, October 15, 1999 4:46 AM
Subject: Re: the guardian article on J.E.D.


> [: hacktivism :]
>
> I find the following quote worrisome
>
> xdaydreamx wrote:
> > What I find most interesting about this whole affair is the speed with
> > which what was loosely discussed on this list (an elsewhere as well,
> > I'm sure) found it's way into the big press. To me it demonstrates
> > that hacktivism is very effective,
>
>
> You do not define in what ways hacktivism is (or isn't) effective.
> Surely this has only "demonstrated" that hacktivism (in this instance)
> has been effective at garnering mainstream attention.  This is not the
> same as the statement that hacktivism is effective at making real
> change, or anything else for that matter.  Media attention (especially
> mainstream) is not our end goal, so unless you explicitly link this
> attention to that end goal you have not "demonstrated" anything.
>
> The truth is very convoluted when it comes to discussing the positive
> AND negative impacts of _any_ mainstream attention on a movement, and I
> am happy to admit that some strategies are good at grabbing headlines
> and even that at times this may be an effective route to take, but I
> have also worked on actions/campaigns where we have decided to resist
> the mainstream co-optation of our message by shunning the media...
>
> Brad
>
> [: hacktivism :]
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>



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