#isdayeight

[khanhdphan-blog]

Information Activism means that the release of information out to the public and people who releasing these information is known as Anonymous. Their goal is to get attention from people to many different issues that they release. These anonymous is trying to get the secrets information reach out to people and they believe that people have the right to know about these secrets. They are struggling against with political censorship and these activists are fighting for people’s right of freedom of information, freedom from surveillance and privacy.

The anonymous is covering their face with mask whenever they are publishing the news and all people in this organization is wearing the same mask. Even though people usually called them a hacker, however they are doing it in a good way by provide people information that they should have known and things happen behind the scene of politic.

[khanhdphan-blog]

The main point of this article is to study how the protocols of Twitter activity relating to WikiLeaks and how WikiLeaks works with the hidden information of the government. The author mentions about the process between the pirate culture and hacktivism mostly in the article. Pirate culture is the social contexts online where the information is sharing and remixed and re-circulated and then therefore emerging source of power. It takes to develop in different forms of doing media and politics such as radical citizen journalism, remix culture, and copy left, peer-to-peer. The WikiLeaks, also known as hacktivist, is an organization posting secret information, news leaks, and classified media from anonymous sources. This organization works with some clusters for each different topic.  Some groups are posting about general issues of censorship and democracy, others are asking for donation, and others are posting about specific leaks. Eventhough it seems like this organization is doing illegal thing on the Internet, yet everyone has the right to know about these secrets and hidden information. For the organization to organization and mobilize to people, the organization needs to speak a common languages, agree on the definition of the situation and formulate a shared vision on the information that they post; this practice called ‘cognitive praxis”. Moreover, it easier for the organization to mobilize the information and reach-out to larger groups of people through Twitter, so that they could have more followers.  The issue that they are struggling against with is about the censorship of government. Because the information that they post are the secret information and people could not able to see it publish on news.

This is somehow related to the information concept because people could able to find these politic secrets through WikiLeaks and I believe they have the right to know about the information since they are the citizens of a country. Also, WikiLeaks as well as citizen have the privilege to have free speech, freedom of surveillance and they could share the information on the Internet. The artifact above shows how the government is denounced by people through information provided by WikiLeaks. Even though the hacktivism deals with political issues reaching far beyond strictly on the digital space, yet if the government has nothing to hide it has nothing to fear.

[emilytesdale-me-blog]

Information activism really revolves around anonymous group and as well as wikileaks, hacking and listening in on to the information people are looking at around political views. This involves interface as well as networking and information. 

[paigeypaigerrrs-blog]

'Twitter. An online social networking service that enables users to send and read short messages called "tweets"...Registered users can post tweets, but unregistered users can easily read them.'

It should go more like this.. 

'Twitter. An online social networking service that enables users to identify as whoever they chose to portray or be - whether for professional, recreational, or political use - in an array that they will find other twitter users who either think as they do or have a similar thought on the tweet.'

Social networking sites (such as Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus) allow you to create whatever online identities you want. Whether or not you choose to take on your physical identity or create an entirely new identity that represents your virtual self is completely up to you. People use these networking sites for a variety of reasons. Whether it is a way of self expression or confession or even for the mere purpose of contacting with friends that exist in the real world as well. But have you ever thought about the users that use these as a way to relay information? And no I'm not talking about the information that relates to your life personally, but the information that everyone deserves to know (information that some people want to hold confidential when in actuality, it is the people's information.) The kind of information that leaks through anonymous users on Twitter, viral YouTube videos or bloggers who don't leave their trace. These people often disguise their identities because they don't want to get in trouble by the major capitalist companies or the government for sharing this information. They just strongly believe that the people deserve to know this information. 

These type of social media users are activating their right to having a digital freedom. Similarly, this concept can go directly back to freedom or speech and the idea that we should have a freedom of being watched (kept under a close surveillance.) These users, and other types of anonymous users and groups as well, often start movements and "operations" this way. Sometimes in order for a change or a protest to take place in society today, people use their online identities as a shield in order to protect themselves from the dangers such that can occur, 

[emilytesdale-me-blog]

This article talked mainly about how the queer community comes out over facebook because they are able to connect with people their age easier. This shows how they engaged in "online embodiment" and it's okay to come out. This article shows the networking through Facebook to be able to connect with others that are relatable. 

[kanishatippens]

Anonymous is a group of online hackers and protesters who target the Church of Scientology. This group hacks into government and other major websites and leaks private information to the public The picture above features the mask that the Anonymous group uses as their trademark and their official slogan. 

[kanishatippens]

The occupy Wall street movement is a movement that quickly grew by using Twitter. Protesters and supporters of the movement used their platform on twitter to inform the public about the demonstrations. People would tweet out about where protests were being held, and those tweets were being retweeted. Eventually more and more people would get the information and the protests grew rapidly. Another use of twitter for the OWS movement was that people who were actually at the events, could live tweet was was happening at the event for people who couldn't make it or just to inform people of what is going on. Supporters also use hashtags on their tweets to archive them correctly so more people can find them.

The picture above is a tweet from an occupy wall street account that contains information telling people when and where a protest will be happening. This user helped get word out about the movement by using a hashtag. This tweet, has 57 retweets so the more people can get the information. 

This article relates to the topic of social networking sites because the OWS movement expanded though a social network. The organizers of the movement used Twitter to their advantage to help their campaign.

[paigeypaigerrrs-blog]

In the article, Burning Man at Google: A Cultural Infrastructure for New Media Production, Fred Turner goes into depth about not only the Burning Man festival itself, but why Google chooses to support and thrive on this festival so much. 

Now if you're anything like me you might be asking yourself, why the hell is there a festival all about a burning man? Well this is where symbolism comes into play. In the late 1980's a couple of guys decided that they wanted to burn a man (a 9-foot wooden interpretation of one - not a real one!) as an act of radical self-expression. Over the next 30 years, this event made it's way to becoming one of the biggest Arts festivals on the Globe. Now known as the Burning Man, this week long festival draws over 65,000 people to create this alternative and experimental city known as Black Rock City, NV. 

This festival draws creative people from all different types of backgrounds. From dancers and musicians, to software geeks and computer hackers, these people all come to Black Rock City for the same mutual purpose - to push their creativity and their minds to places never having been before. Those who have been to the Burning Man festival say that it is an experience like none other. 

Now one thing that many people don't know about the festival is how much it can offer up to major industrial companies - in this case such as Google. In 1999, Google's founders went to the festival for the first time and have returned every year since the first time. Google's Executive Chief attended in 2001, and was hired on to the Google team shortly after Burning Man. But why is Google such a strong backer of such a cultural experiment and self-expressive movement? Google wants people and developers that are willing to think outside the box of regular society norms. Google wants people who will push their digital freedom (and freedom within society) past their set boundaries. In order to get ahead in technology, they need people who won't be afraid to test these limits and take chances.