Has WikiLeaks gone too far?

Online whistleblower WikiLeaks has made quite a splash of late.

By making available various pieces of information that governments, corporations and mainstream media don't want us to know, it's been busy rewriting the rules on information sharing.

It has attracted fierce critics from the right, supporters from the left and caused lively debate in both the traditional and social media, while its eccentric founder Julian Assange has become quite the mystery man.

It's even made its way onto Stephen Conroy's list of sites to be banned under the proposed controversial internet filter.

But by releasing documents related to the war in Afghanistan that contain names and locations of informers, has WikiLeaks gone too far?

In this article from The Australian, Assange denies having blood on his hands after the Taliban started tracking down and killing some of those named. Instead, he lays the blame at the feet of the US military, saying it was widely known on the ground who the sources were and the US military failed to protect their safety.

"We are a source protection organisation that specialises in protecting sources and have a perfect record from our activities," he said, continuing "In our four-year publishing history, no one has ever come to physical harm that we are aware of."

But how can he be sure that there are incidents that he is not aware of? And even if it was known in Afghanistan who US sources might be, WikiLeaks did the Taliban a wonderful service by collating them all in one, easy to find, place. Can he really say there is zero blood on his hands?

What is WikiLeaks really all about?

I'm not opposed to whistle blowing. There is always more than meets the eye to every issue that the media won't tell you. Media outlets will always have their biases and their agendas. It's quite refreshing to have a cat amongst the pigeons, or dare I say, a "shit stirrer".

But what is WikiLeaks' real purpose? Are they about releasing privileged information in its raw form, and leaving it up to the consumer to make up his/her mind? Or do they have their own agenda?

In this video (four and a half minutes long and well worth watching), Assange explains that due to a lot of the source documents WikiLeaks gets being exceptionally long and difficult to understand, they are interpreted – and Assange admits this interpretation goes beyond a mere summary – to make them understandable and consumable for the general public.

The problem is that the minute anyone interprets anything its meaning gets altered. There is no journalist on Earth who can take thousands of pages of complicated source material and transform it into one page of plain English without affecting, and indeed influencing how its meaning will be perceived.

To his credit, Assange explains that the original material is always released alongside the interpretation. But he’s already said the source data is too long and complicated for most people to understand. So what are the chances of them going back to it to check that what they’ve just read/viewed is an accurate interpretation?

Assange adds that the material is edited for impact. Given that impact is an extremely subjective thing, this further complicates matters given that the perceived meaning of the material will then be firmly in the hands of the editor.

Assange also freely admits that WikiLeaks is indeed an activist organisation, with a goal. Yes, that stated goal is an honourable one – justice – but the mere existence of a goal at all means the organisation can’t be objective.

The bottom line

WikiLeaks has done an enthusiastic job of keeping governments, organisations and the mainstream media in check, but who will keep it in check?

What do you think? Please leave a comment and join the discussion.

You know you're addicted to Foursquare when...

Time for a bit of humour! For those who use location-based social networking service Foursquare (or if you know someone who does), there's a few sure signs that a 12-step program might be in your or that person's future.

Without further ado, you know you're addicted to Foursquare when:

1. You make extra stops on the way home just to check in
2. You check in to your house when you get home at night AND when you get up the next day
3. Every one of your friend’s houses is on Foursquare... even though not all your friends are
4. You check Foursquare to see where your friends are instead of just calling them
5. You get excited when you meet someone new who’s on Foursquare. Genuinely.
6. You check in at every train station on the way home for the points
7. You check Foursquare for restaurant suggestions before you check the SMH Good Food Guide/Zagat
8. You go through locations reading tips when you’re bored.
9. You go through locations adding tips when you’re bored.
10. You start collecting badges that you’d rather not be awarded (e.g. a MALE friend of mine who scored the “Housewife” badge!)
11. You turn on international data roaming and pay a fortune so you can check in on vacation
12. You time your check ins so that you don’t do more than three in 15 minutes
13. When you read that you knew what it meant
14. You get upset when there’s no 3G reception and you can’t check in
15. You get upset when Foursquare says you’re too far and withholds points
16. You get really excited when you become mayor of a venue
17. You do a victory dance when you become mayor of a venue
18. You get upset when you’re ousted as mayor of a venue
19. You make it a point to win back that mayorship
20. You start Twitter stalking the guy who stole that mayorship

New Domain for Doing All Write!

Different address - same great blog!

Doing All Write can now be found at www.doingallwrite.com.

I'll continue to share my thoughts on journalism, social media and how the two collide. Please comment freely and often.

Journalism is undergoing a metamorphosis - no one can deny that anymore. Traditional news mediums are no longer the be all and end all. The news has become a conversation.

Join my conversation today!

"Wow, I've got a story here!"

Today's entry is purely a journalism-related one. As you may know I started a contract at a new paper last week. Well, on Tuesday I was reminded of one of the things I love about journalism.

Being a journalist, you're always going to get a mixed bag of stories to work on. Some will be really interesting, some will be less so. Some will be sad (I had such a story this week). Some will involve merely re-writing a media release, while others will involve trying to find an angle in some fairly dry source material.

On Tuesday I was handed what seemed like a fairly dry report to read through and find an angle on for my paper's readership. And I very nearly missed something that was staring straight at me.

After spending much of the day getting regulation comment from the appropriate spokespeople, I decided to read a section of the report I had skimmed over. I had skimmed over it because it concerned the research methodology and I was only interested in the findings.

In short, I had decided what I was looking for. Now if you don't have a lot of time, deciding what you're looking for can help you to turn out a fairly decent news story quickly. But it can also sometimes mean you miss out on something far more important.

Well, I'm glad I decided to read through the methodology section. For in it I found my real story.

At the start of this ramble I said I was reminded about one of the things I love about what I do. In short, that thing is the rush you get when you realise you really have something. Something more than just dry commentary or an everyday interview.

Rather, an important piece of information that your readership don't know; one that they should know; and that they will now know because you will tell it to them.

It's those little moments of satisfaction that make it all worthwhile.

The moral of the story? Don't decide what you want to find. Open your mind. Think outside the square. And remember, the best stories are often to be found where a lot of people won't go looking for them.

Getting into the swing of Twitter

Love it or hate it, Twitter has irreversibly changed the way we communicate online, as Facebook did before it. From humble beginnings to a worldwide phenomenon, Twitter is huge and still growing.

Celebrities use it. Politicians use it. Sportspeople use it. Organisations use it. And most important of all, everyday people like you and me use it.

In an Australian first, a “Twitter debate” was held prior to the by-election for the state seat of Penrith. And now with a federal election imminent, Prime Minister Julia Gillard has finally risen above the laggards and joined the microblogging service herself.

This will be the first Australian election where social media will be such an important key battleground. It has simply become too big a forum to ignore.

But you probably know all of this already. You know how big Twitter is and chances are if you’re interested in this blog post then you’re into it.

But do you remember what life was like before there was Twitter?

I remember life before mobile phones. We made do, but all of us thought at some point or another how useful it would be to have a phone we could take with us. There was a need there.

But Twitter was not invented to fill an obvious void. For something that we’ve come to rely on with such vigour, it’s not something that any of us, once upon a time, would have thought we needed.

I joined Twitter in January 2009. At the time I did so because I thought it might be interesting to explore how I could leverage it in my then-career as a Marketing Manager.

My first experiences were how unnatural using Twitter was. As it had not been something I’d needed I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. I recall one time sitting at my computer for twenty minutes, staring at the screen, wondering what the hell I should type.

In those early days my tweets were few and far between. It simply wasn’t something that slotted into my day-to-day life. It never occurred to me to just let go and update random thoughts, start conversations with strangers or tweet my views on a particular issue. So apart from the occasional spruik for my sports blog, my Twitter account remained largely unloved.

Even at the start of this year as I jumped onto the next big thing, Foursquare, I still wasn’t tweeting very much. I remember selecting the option to feed my Foursquare to my Twitter account just so my followers wouldn’t think I’d died.

I can’t say when it happened. But the other day I looked at my day’s tweets and was struck by how many I’d sent. I just hadn’t realised, that during the normal course of my day I’d had so many things to share. The luxury of having a smartphone had allowed me to casually tweet as things occurred to me, and I’d barely noticed I was doing it.

Something I hadn’t needed was now entrenched into my life.

When did you first realise Twitter was entrenched in your day-to-day life? Please comment.

Social Media Day! (#smday)

A throng of tweeters, facebookers and bloggers gathered in Sydney last Wednesday to celebrate the first international “Social Media Day”.

The brainchild of online social media bible Mashable, over 600 meetings were held worldwide with Sydney’s time zone making the gathering at the Ivy Ballroom one of the first.

Participants sipped bubbly as they mingled and exchanged ideas and contact details.

Internationally acclaimed blogger and public speaker Euan Semple (Twitter: @Euan) was the keynote speaker.

Euan was one of the first to introduce social media tools into a large organisation when he worked for the BBC ten years ago and has since worked with Nokia, the World Bank and NATO.

He told the gathering the biggest challenge was trying to “demystify” social media.

“What we’re talking about is globally distributed near-instant person-to-person conversations,” he said.

“[It’s] nothing geeky, nothing about business, [it’s] just about people being able to connect.”

Giving an example of the power of social media, Euan described how his presence as speaker had come about from a Twitter conversation with Sydney event organiser Laurel Papworth.

Prior to the event I spoke to Laurel (Twitter: @SilkCharm), who was last year heralded by Marketing Magazine as being the “Head of Industry” for social media for Australia.

She told me the event represented the birth of a new industry.

“From shaky legs a few years ago [social media] is clearly making its mark on the world in a way that very few people foresaw,” she said.

“We’re heading towards the top of a curve at the moment where in about 10 years ... it will be so much a part of our life.”

Laurel said the purpose of the event was to bring people together.

“With social networking online there’s an interest in meeting offline,” she said.

“There was a study done a few years ago by the World Internet Project ... they showed that 20.3 per cent of people who meet online want to meet offline.

“So I’m looking forward to it because it means there’ll be a bunch of people that I only know from their Twitter handles and their Facebook avatars and now there’s a chance for me to meet them in person.”

In the spirit of social media’s participatory nature, anyone in attendance was welcome to brave the podium and address the gathering following the keynote speech.

Yours truly took up the opportunity, commenting on the implications the rise of social media is having on traditional journalism channels.

Photos by Kurt Neurauter (Twitter: @kneu_photo)

Yours truly with @SilkCharm

@Euan addresses the crowd

Last days of Sydney Writers Festival

The Sydney Writers Festival finishes on this Sunday 23 May 2010.

There are still plenty of interesting sessions happening around town so check out their website at www.swf.org.au for more information.

Also, be sure to check out aMUSE, the Alternative Media Group's independent review of the festival, available in this week's City News or City Hub newspapers.