4 ms·

Whistleblower Edward Snowden is tech person of year

115 points by ekm2 13y ago

kunai 13y ago
The comments on that article make me very sad.
- smtddr 13y ago
  Heh, well usatoday is mainstream media. If you're going to find anyone who thinks all this NSA stuff should have stayed secret for "the good of the nation", that's where you'll find 'em. I'm just glad that a mainstream site like usatoday is bold enough to give this award to him.
  - cJ0th 13y ago
    Perhaps it is mainstream media but that university student who thinks today's Russia is a communist country is taking the cake.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- reallyseriously 13y ago
  Most of the anti-Snowden stuff seems to get a fair amount of push-back. Agree with what others have said though, in choosing him as Tech Person of the Year isn't a high enough "honor".
judk 13y ago
Goes to show that the people who popularize get more recognition than the people who produce. Snowden was a publisher of the technical work of thousands of NSA staff.
- garrettgrimsley 13y ago
  The recognition Snowden is receiving is for the revelations about the NSA programs, not the creation of said programs. He isn't being lauded as a creator, but as a whistleblower. Would it not be absurd to thank McNamara for the work of Ellsberg?
  - eru 13y ago
    judk is just a mildly amusing troll.
drdaeman 13y ago
Tech? I don't want to diminish Snowden's doings a single bit, but I think what he did was only remotely tech-related. It's somehow like nominating a great journalist, who writes about modern research in physics, as a scientist of the year.
- endergen 13y ago
  Seems like you want more of a coder of the year. What's more interesting in tech than Snowden right now?
  - chc 13y ago
    I don't think that's right. I'm sure people would be willing to accept, for example, Elon Musk as tech person of the year — because what Musk's companies are doing is actually interesting technically. What Snowden did is copy a bunch of files that contain information which is interesting politically and societally. The fact that technology is somewhat involved in the story doesn't make it a technical advancement. There was technology involved in Watergate too (e.g. tape recorders), but I don't think anyone looks back at 1972 and sees Carl Bernstein as a good candidate for tech man of the year.
    - rdl 13y ago
      He's completely changed how people in the non-elite-security world view computers. Certainly his influence isn't limited to tech, but I think his impact on tech, at least IT and communications (god I hate the term "ICT"...) and startups and software and hardware... has been beyond any other single person this year. Or any company (2013 didn't see a lot of interesting products, IMO).
      - derefr 13y ago
        I guess a better way to put it is that Snowden released the tech story of the year. But the story of releasing a story is a story of journalism and politics, not itself technical. Maybe if we had a figurehead in the NSA to point to who approved PRISM et al., it would make sense to call them the "tech person of the year", because of their being in the tech story of the year.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

115 points by ekm2 13y ago

kunai 13y ago

The comments on that article make me very sad.

smtddr 13y ago
Heh, well usatoday is mainstream media. If you're going to find anyone who thinks all this NSA stuff should have stayed secret for "the good of the nation", that's where you'll find 'em. I'm just glad that a mainstream site like usatoday is bold enough to give this award to him.
- cJ0th 13y ago
  Perhaps it is mainstream media but that university student who thinks today's Russia is a communist country is taking the cake.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
reallyseriously 13y ago
Most of the anti-Snowden stuff seems to get a fair amount of push-back. Agree with what others have said though, in choosing him as Tech Person of the Year isn't a high enough "honor".

judk 13y ago

Goes to show that the people who popularize get more recognition than the people who produce. Snowden was a publisher of the technical work of thousands of NSA staff.

garrettgrimsley 13y ago
The recognition Snowden is receiving is for the revelations about the NSA programs, not the creation of said programs. He isn't being lauded as a creator, but as a whistleblower. Would it not be absurd to thank McNamara for the work of Ellsberg?
- eru 13y ago
  judk is just a mildly amusing troll.

drdaeman 13y ago

Tech? I don't want to diminish Snowden's doings a single bit, but I think what he did was only remotely tech-related. It's somehow like nominating a great journalist, who writes about modern research in physics, as a scientist of the year.

endergen 13y ago
Seems like you want more of a coder of the year. What's more interesting in tech than Snowden right now?
- chc 13y ago
  I don't think that's right. I'm sure people would be willing to accept, for example, Elon Musk as tech person of the year — because what Musk's companies are doing is actually interesting technically. What Snowden did is copy a bunch of files that contain information which is interesting politically and societally. The fact that technology is somewhat involved in the story doesn't make it a technical advancement. There was technology involved in Watergate too (e.g. tape recorders), but I don't think anyone looks back at 1972 and sees Carl Bernstein as a good candidate for tech man of the year.
  - rdl 13y ago
    He's completely changed how people in the non-elite-security world view computers. Certainly his influence isn't limited to tech, but I think his impact on tech, at least IT and communications (god I hate the term "ICT"...) and startups and software and hardware... has been beyond any other single person this year. Or any company (2013 didn't see a lot of interesting products, IMO).
    - derefr 13y ago
      I guess a better way to put it is that Snowden released the tech story of the year. But the story of releasing a story is a story of journalism and politics, not itself technical. Maybe if we had a figurehead in the NSA to point to who approved PRISM et al., it would make sense to call them the "tech person of the year", because of their being in the tech story of the year.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]