The coup "Wikileaks"

Dec. 5, 2010 - PRLog -- Hundred and sixty-six years were needed after the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg in 1439, to appear first newspaper in the world. During the following centuries newspapers (and the development of a mass education) completely changed the way people see the world around them, and communication between those with power and managed by them.

Is it possible to live in a time when that equation is changing again? This week witnessed a global "sunrise" of the phenomenon Wikileaks, which for several years gaining strength and experience. Controlled release of hundreds of thousands of secret documents to the U.S. State Department turned a formerly little-known organization in the primary source of information for the vast majority of the media, while the secrets out of the hands of a closed diplomatic caste and allow every individual access to raw material .
Brief History

Wikileaks there by the end of 2006, their first major blow was the disclosure of corruption in one of the leading Kenyan politicians in 2007 With this history, which then found a place on the pages of the newspaper Guardian, they even managed to influence the elections in the African country.

The initial version of their site allegedly created by a group of enthusiasts, including Chinese dissidents, journalists and computer specialists. Julian Asandzh seems to be unifying their unit and engine. The site was closed again due to lack of funds, local is several times of servers around the world, is currently in Iceland, where the law protects such organizations. In early versions of allowing readers, is now much more restrictive policy and very secret manner of operation.

Among their hits are the secrets of Scientology books, haknatiyat mail of the candidate for Vice President Sarah Palin, stolen letters between scientists and climatologists evidence of irregularities in the Cayman branch of the largest Swiss bank Julius Baer. At the beginning Asandzh and his adherents manuscript annotations and write articles about the documents.

In April this year they begin to break in pieces and huge packet of information placed on video from Iraq, which shows how an American helicopter killed 12 people, including journalists from Reuters. After induced turbulent but short furor, Wikileaks released "diaries of war" - a collection of daily reports of the military in Iraq and Afghanistan, in cooperation with three media-Guardian, New York Times and Der Spiegel.
This spectacular success ambitious project will not only cause serious consequences for the U.S. administration (see text), but can cause many other holders of sensitive information to share it in this way, changing the equation in areas such as finance, banking, industry, and of course is politics. Today more than ever it seems that access to any information is unlimited. Almost 50 years after the creation of the Internet, or three times faster than newspapers, the information age came of age.

Good idea, good opportunity and good partners

Like any revolution, this has its background (see box). The reasons may not have heard of Wikileaks before this year (and even a few months) are few. First, many of their previous initiatives related to African or Asian countries, and smaller in size events - Kenyan corruption or hacking of the email to the candidate for Vice President Sarah Palin. Still live in zapadnotsentrichen world and only focus on U.S. and their actions led to the boom of attention to the organization.

Another reason is the amount of disclosure - the huge packet of information submitted by the 23-year-old Bradley Manning (or others) brings together a diverse documents such as daily reports of the military in Iraq and Afghanistan, video of murder and diplomatic quarter of a million programs. To draw such a complete picture of the actions of the global superpower in a similar way before 20 and even 10 years would have been impossible (more on the findings here).

So the timing and great information have combined with the third reason for the global furor - the decision by Wikileaks to take an active role and to partner with media, rather than being just a box for information. "I think Julian Assange is extremely intelligent and create a technical solution to the editorial problem that hinders the journalism of the century, told Kapital new media specialist and lecturer at Birmingham City University Paul Bradshaw, who traces the phenomenon from the beginning. "The problem is how to safely let a large amount of documents, how Connect journalist and source. They decided, and several issues in motion. For example, as iznesesh information about how you arrive to a wide audience. Before working with three newspapers are now five."

This is not the way things were planned in the creation of Wikileaks. "When we started, we wanted the analysis to be made by bloggers and people who write articles in Wikipedia for example, explained in an interview this week on Skype for Time Assange, who is hiding from prosecution. "It is certainly more interesting to write about secret Chinese document than to write a blog about things already published or cat. It turned out that this is not true. Severe assays are made by us and by professional journalists and activists for human rights. But then, when the story becomes news, then society is involved seeking more information and perspectives. "

Access to the editorial potential of the media in four major languages (rumors claim that the Italian media are disappointed that they were not included in the package), allowing Assange and people behind it to disseminate information faster, better and longer. The media does verifying his position and proved as a necessary player. It is this combination in which the old channel "certification" of the new information proved to be effective sweeping.

Today, governments, banks tomorrow

One of the things that interfere in the latter, the greatest impact on Wikileaks, are indeed an indication of the new circumstances we face. Thousands of declassified diplomatic documents do not really have a unified theme as previous findings. They removed the light of day mainly because of the motto of the organization that it is "intelligence agency people." And therefore raise questions as everything is secret, it is subject to disclosure? In "Capital" also has different opinions on the matter and you can see the outcome of their clash in the debate, which spent a place.

However, this topic will become increasingly important. Assange's statement that the next victim will be a big U.S. bank, and rumors that it is Bank of America, pulled down the prices of its shares by 3%. Decrease in quotations, however, is far worst effects of financial companies from leaks. Potential benefits for society more transparent banking could be enormous - to prevent abuse, can not hide taking greater risks and therefore prevent bubble such as that led to the current crisis. Most eyes could see better what is happening.

Just as in the case of diplomatic programs, however, it is idealistic and optimistic. Bankers are known for their secrecy - their business is built on trust and expertise. The risk from the publication of personal data, confidential transactions, etc. can lead to a collapse in goodwill and flow of customers, if their every decision flow out, banks are less willing to invest in financial expertise, which then provided freely to all of the market. "Wikileaks is obviously deeply subversive system because it causes the two most important components of state and koprorativna power - the authority and secrecy, as summed up in front of Capital Dan Gilmore of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communication.

# # #

About the author:
Ilina Hadzhieva is indipendent author and owner of http://makemoneyonline78.com
Make Money Online