4 ms·

1984 Day - Rally Against Surveillance

136 points by sinak 13y ago

skylan_q 13y ago
Honest question... what is he purpose of such a rally?
- selter01 13y ago
  Raise awareness for starters.
Hario 13y ago
Slick site.
mumbi 13y ago
Sucks that the vast majority of Americans don't give a shit.
- smokeyj 13y ago
  They're ignorant due to factors outside their control. But we're not all ignorant, and it's up to the informed to do something about it.
  - mumbi 13y ago
    Very true and I commend those who continue to inform others. It seems when I try to talk about it though, too many(all) won't listen, so I've given up. I'm sorry.
  - Torgo 13y ago
    It is my experience that even when informed, most people cannot or will not do due diligence to understand the potential risks or long-term consequences of these things, nor will they make the connection to how it could affect them. When it affects them personally and individually, only then they will take notice. I have a friend who works for a medical marijuana dispensary. It is legal in our state, but under federal law he is committing a serious crime multiple times a day. They organize their deliveries by gmail. I have warned him that they are listening, and his opinion is "they won't come for me." The fact that even today in California the federal government does in fact go after these people does not even register to him as a concern. He will not care until he is sitting in a jail cell. Many, many people cannot be reached. This is a fact that has to be taken into consideration when trying to reach people, that _many_ people will simply _never_ be receptive.
- e3pi 13y ago
  Europe, and Asia do. Why is it we see all those Germans rallying and we stateside do not?
miriam_lockhart 13y ago
is this tweets count random? i see 18 on my mobile and 27 from the office PC
- thomasfromcdnjs 13y ago
  Not random, set up a custom share buttons/counts and having problems with the cloudfront caching sitting in front of it...
  - sinak 13y ago
    Thanks to Thomas for a) being awesome and b) setting this up. The reason for cacheing is to prevent user's browsers from pinging Twitter/FB/Google with every visit, and hopefully helping protect their privacy. We'll try and release this as open source code soon.
lettergram 13y ago
I made a suggestion a while back on HN and decided to write a blog post about it: http://austingwalters.com/hacker-news-the-nsa-and-freedom/ http://austingwalters.com/hacker-news-the-nsa-and-freedom/ I think it would be more effective to try what I mention in the post. I know I'm currently in Illinois and would not be able to attend any rallies (having no car). Kudos on the website though.
sschueller 13y ago
USA Only?
zackliscio 13y ago
might be worth having a DC presence.
- presidentender 13y ago
  I'm right next to DC this week. I was excited to attend the protest that I assumed would take place. The absence of such a protest is disappointing.
  - sinak 13y ago
    Sorry about that, DC have been a bit slow in organizing, but there is a Meetup page set up where you can sign up. I just added it to the site, and it's also here: http://www.meetup.com/Prince-William-Libertarians/events/132071442/ http://www.meetup.com/Prince-William-Libertarians/events/132...
zeteo 13y ago
For all the naysayers, I'd like to mention that the rally is a much more effective political tool than say online petitions, precisely because it requires significant effort to attend. It's very easy to ignore a bunch of people who clicked links online, much harder when they abandon their Sunday plans and show up downtown to make a lot of noise. However, the age of the rally is waning these days. It was all the rage during the French Revolution, but telephony and television have created much better influence tools; such as the phone-in campaign or the political ad buy. It would be good to at least upgrade to '50s style politics and organize people for either phoning in to Congress ("OK Bob you want to help? You can call congressman Goodlatte's office around 3pm this Friday, here are some possible talking points") or running Kickstarter-style ad buys ("Donate $5 for running this ad on prime time national TV and we'll post your name on our wall"). Of course, the Internet offers new possibilities for politics that have barely begun to be scratched. Everyone uses Google, and Google is a democracy of sorts allowing for tactics such as Google bombing. It's hard to quantify its effect on the presidential campaign of senator Santorum (Republican runner-up last year), but it was probably out of proportion with the small number of people involved. And I'm sure there are many other things possible, if only more smart people directed their attention towards such issues. Politics is important - it won't make you as much money as a successful app, but can change the world a lot more.
- 00rion 13y ago
  I'm currently working on a social network that helps groups of people make decisions and build consensus. In most organizations, decisions are made from the top down and then implemented by small groups within the organization. The goal will be to enable large groups to make decisions involving broad-based goals and provide a mechanism to form working groups to carryout the actions necessary to implement those goals. What does HN think?
  - tocomment 13y ago
    I've always wondered how a system like that could work. If you do it right, it could be very useful. It would be interesting if for example Hacker news discussion threads could something decide on collective actions to take.
nfoz 13y ago
"RSVP on Facebook!" sigh
- smokeyj 13y ago
  If you had a point to make, it wasn't articulated very effectively.
  - northwest 13y ago
    I suppose the idea was "we need some sort of social network that a) does not collaborate with the NSA, and b) offers real privacy". Networks like http://retroshare.sourceforge.net/ http://retroshare.sourceforge.net/ seem like a good start to me.
tome 13y ago
Anyone know about any such rallies in the UK?

136 points by sinak 13y ago

skylan_q 13y ago

Honest question... what is he purpose of such a rally?

selter01 13y ago
Raise awareness for starters.

Hario 13y ago

Slick site.

mumbi 13y ago

Sucks that the vast majority of Americans don't give a shit.

smokeyj 13y ago
They're ignorant due to factors outside their control. But we're not all ignorant, and it's up to the informed to do something about it.
- mumbi 13y ago
  Very true and I commend those who continue to inform others. It seems when I try to talk about it though, too many(all) won't listen, so I've given up. I'm sorry.
- Torgo 13y ago
  It is my experience that even when informed, most people cannot or will not do due diligence to understand the potential risks or long-term consequences of these things, nor will they make the connection to how it could affect them. When it affects them personally and individually, only then they will take notice. I have a friend who works for a medical marijuana dispensary. It is legal in our state, but under federal law he is committing a serious crime multiple times a day. They organize their deliveries by gmail. I have warned him that they are listening, and his opinion is "they won't come for me." The fact that even today in California the federal government does in fact go after these people does not even register to him as a concern. He will not care until he is sitting in a jail cell. Many, many people cannot be reached. This is a fact that has to be taken into consideration when trying to reach people, that _many_ people will simply _never_ be receptive.
e3pi 13y ago
Europe, and Asia do. Why is it we see all those Germans rallying and we stateside do not?

miriam_lockhart 13y ago

is this tweets count random? i see 18 on my mobile and 27 from the office PC

thomasfromcdnjs 13y ago
Not random, set up a custom share buttons/counts and having problems with the cloudfront caching sitting in front of it...
- sinak 13y ago
  Thanks to Thomas for a) being awesome and b) setting this up. The reason for cacheing is to prevent user's browsers from pinging Twitter/FB/Google with every visit, and hopefully helping protect their privacy. We'll try and release this as open source code soon.

lettergram 13y ago

I made a suggestion a while back on HN and decided to write a blog post about it: http://austingwalters.com/hacker-news-the-nsa-and-freedom/ http://austingwalters.com/hacker-news-the-nsa-and-freedom/ I think it would be more effective to try what I mention in the post. I know I'm currently in Illinois and would not be able to attend any rallies (having no car). Kudos on the website though.

sschueller 13y ago

USA Only?

zackliscio 13y ago

might be worth having a DC presence.

presidentender 13y ago
I'm right next to DC this week. I was excited to attend the protest that I assumed would take place. The absence of such a protest is disappointing.
- sinak 13y ago
  Sorry about that, DC have been a bit slow in organizing, but there is a Meetup page set up where you can sign up. I just added it to the site, and it's also here: http://www.meetup.com/Prince-William-Libertarians/events/132071442/ http://www.meetup.com/Prince-William-Libertarians/events/132...

zeteo 13y ago

For all the naysayers, I'd like to mention that the rally is a much more effective political tool than say online petitions, precisely because it requires significant effort to attend. It's very easy to ignore a bunch of people who clicked links online, much harder when they abandon their Sunday plans and show up downtown to make a lot of noise. However, the age of the rally is waning these days. It was all the rage during the French Revolution, but telephony and television have created much better influence tools; such as the phone-in campaign or the political ad buy. It would be good to at least upgrade to '50s style politics and organize people for either phoning in to Congress ("OK Bob you want to help? You can call congressman Goodlatte's office around 3pm this Friday, here are some possible talking points") or running Kickstarter-style ad buys ("Donate $5 for running this ad on prime time national TV and we'll post your name on our wall"). Of course, the Internet offers new possibilities for politics that have barely begun to be scratched. Everyone uses Google, and Google is a democracy of sorts allowing for tactics such as Google bombing. It's hard to quantify its effect on the presidential campaign of senator Santorum (Republican runner-up last year), but it was probably out of proportion with the small number of people involved. And I'm sure there are many other things possible, if only more smart people directed their attention towards such issues. Politics is important - it won't make you as much money as a successful app, but can change the world a lot more.

00rion 13y ago
I'm currently working on a social network that helps groups of people make decisions and build consensus. In most organizations, decisions are made from the top down and then implemented by small groups within the organization. The goal will be to enable large groups to make decisions involving broad-based goals and provide a mechanism to form working groups to carryout the actions necessary to implement those goals. What does HN think?
- tocomment 13y ago
  I've always wondered how a system like that could work. If you do it right, it could be very useful. It would be interesting if for example Hacker news discussion threads could something decide on collective actions to take.

nfoz 13y ago

"RSVP on Facebook!" sigh

smokeyj 13y ago
If you had a point to make, it wasn't articulated very effectively.
- northwest 13y ago
  I suppose the idea was "we need some sort of social network that a) does not collaborate with the NSA, and b) offers real privacy". Networks like http://retroshare.sourceforge.net/ http://retroshare.sourceforge.net/ seem like a good start to me.

tome 13y ago

Anyone know about any such rallies in the UK?