Citizen Media in our Community

The Toronto Waterfront is my Creation

http://spacing.ca/wire/2009/04/03/econsultation-another-way-to-inform-waterfront-redevelopment/

If you are one of those people who never want to miss out on an event then you don’t want to miss out on this article.  Personally, I love Toronto and I try my best to make it out to every event I possibly can.  The Toronto Waterfront realizes this important issue as it has created a website for the main purpose of conducting public consultation on what should be done to the waterfront from Jarvis to Logan.  

They are allowing normal citizens to have a large say in what inevitably happens to this stretch of land.  Anyone has the ability to voice their opinions and concerns about what should be done with the waterfront.  Ideas will be taken seriously as no one knows Toronto better then it’s citizens.  This internet site is a great source to encourage and improve public participation in urban planning process.  I think it is very important to get the input of the people before making plans and building a project that will forever change the city.  These urban development projects are for the people and as such, the people should be involved and informed.  I really like the idea of being involved in urban development and better a city.  This is not the first time that the city has used the internet for public assistance and opinion to help in the planning process.  Many transportation plans go through residents to make sure they work efficiently.

For years they have been talking about fixing that area of Toronto and now we can help make it a real hot spot for Torontonians.  What is better then having a say in what happens with the city you love?

Anyone who knows Toronto knows how beautiful and important the waterfront is to Toronto.  The comments and posts will be used to help inform the Environmental Assessment process.  I have been looking at a lot of the posts and comments and most people have some great ideas and I really hope that the city council does listen to these people.  If citizens feel involved in the planning process they will have a greater appreciation and respect for project when it is done.  They will be proud to say they helped in making the waterfront just a little more beautiful.  

Hackers taking over the World?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/technology/29spy.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&th&emc=th

The idea of the hacker is nothing new, especially to individuals who understand the concepts of citizen media.  Hackers “hack” to give power back to the people and promote the free knowledge of information.  I found an article in the New York Times called Vast Spy System Loots Computers in 103 Countries.  The article is a great example of hackers in today’s society.  The power that hackers can conjure up is immense.  Depending on their skill, they can break into secure sites and basically destroy anyhting in order to get their point across.  Sometimes they break into personal e-mails to gather information from societies elites.  

For me there is two different types of hackers.  There are the hackers that we discussed in class that take part in “hactivism”, the idea of spreading free knowledge.  Usually when these hackers go to work it is more of an online protest and activism.  On the other hand you can have very powerful hackers that break into secure areas to gather restricted information for political or personal reasoning.  

The article discusses a group of hackers, which they believe are working in various locations in China.  This group has infiltrated computers and stolen important documents from hundreds of government offices.  They have even hacked into the Dalai Lama’s secured files.  A group of researcher from the University of Toronto have taken on the important task of finding these individuals.  They already found that this hacker group has cracked into “1,295 computers in 103 countries.”  This group is supposedly called GhostNet and has focused mainly on governments in South and Southeast Asia.  This is the largest spying operation in many years as it has affected many countries.

The researchers have found that GhostNet is not looking for random customers information, but rather they are looking for very particular information.  The group is even able to turn on camera and audio recording on infected computers.  The power that these individual hackers have is scary at times.  It is even scary to think about what they want the information for?  Do they want to use it in a negative way to hurt people and better themselves or for the good of society?  I think its is important to never underestimate the power these individuals posses. 

This is an issue we discussed thoroughly in class and one I wanted to look at again in a different context.  The power of the hacker is immense and is an important and sensitive subject.  There are many people taking part in the idea of hacktivism which I believe is important and positive for society.  But, I do believe most hacktivists get a bad rap because of groups like GhostNet who seem to being bad things with the information they are gathering.