Blockchain technology offer us a revolutionary new way to do business using the same database — a shared ledger, in effect, that is available to anyone who knows how to use it and has access to the tools. A ‘world database’ (as suggested recently by Vinay Gupta in his highly recommended piece on Medium, ‘Programmable blockchains in context’) that is owned by everyone participating, and controlled by no-one. This is trust through computation. Nothing is ‘entered’ in this environment unless it is agreed by the many thousands of computers that make up the network. …
Making honestly based decisions about information release
The recent Twitter debate between Glenn Greenwald and WikiLeaks regarding the redaction of the Snowden documents raised important points on the speculative nature of many reasons given to not disclose information. In publishing, in government FOI, and in archival access the possibility of ‘something bad happening’ is frequently used as a reason to redact or withhold, or is a claim made by governments condemning the recklessness of journalists in publishing secrets.
In the case of the WikiLeaks disclosures of 2010, potential for harm to innocents, even ‘blood on their hands’ were invoked often by the US Government, mostly in an…
Cassie Findlay
Digital archivist. Trying to be a decent human being.
