Statistically ‘Intriguing’ Onion
0:45 Public Sector strikes in the UK
1:18 Website analytics
- Steady rise in traffic from those retweeting and redenting – thanks!
- Most users visiting the site are using linux
- UK and US main countries but many others from around the world
- We’re trying to build a community of practice – get involved
6:20 Privacy concerns and the limits of cyber-utopianism
- There’s been a lot of talk about the Arab Spring being a Facebook and Twitter revolution – how true is this?
- We talk about unions and technology a lot – does this mean we are cyber-utopians? Do we think tech is the future for unions?
- People who are enthusiastic about tech are often utopian – we aren’t. We see potential and danger, and we’re trying to figure out the best way through it
- For some cyber-pessimism, it’s worth engaging with The Net Delusion – by Evgeny Morozov
- Read Cory Doctorow’s review
- Anonymous supporting workers in Wisconsin
9:50 Privacy tools: The Onion Router
- Tor is an anonymous rerouter
- Tor’s hidden services let users publish web sites and other services without needing to reveal the location of the site.
- Individuals also use Tor for socially sensitive communication: chat rooms and web forums for rape and abuse survivors, or people with illnesses.
- Journalists use Tor to communicate more safely with whistleblowers and dissidents.
- Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) use Tor to allow their workers to connect to their home website while they’re in a foreign country, without notifying everybody nearby that they’re working with that organization.
- Relatively simple to set up
- Can be run from desktop browser bundle or a USB for internet cafes
22:30 Feedback
- Want to thank Keir for his comment about the our previous show relating to building a central wiki for research
- In future show we’ll be having guests from both the Open Source and Labo(u)r Communities
- We’ll look into Bitcoin in a future show
- Creative Commons clarification does not mean free – read The Power of Open for more info
- GPL and LGPL – understanding the General Public Licence
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Some thoughts (in advance!) on Bitcoin:
I’ve looked at it a wee bit and studied many of the underlying technologies at Uni. Its a beautiful piece of software engineering and as such I’m very happy to see it has already succeeded to a large degree.
Key thing is it can’t be taxed, this is some ways makes it very right wing (inability to tax wealth) and also makes it likely that governments will move against it if it becomes sufficiently popular (by making it illegal to accept bitcoins)
Where it is interesting for TUs I think is that using it to store finance would make it impossible for unions to be sequestered, the kosh the government in the UK uses to ensure the unions comply with the law and condemn any unofficial (ie effective!) strike action.
Hello from Guadalajara again!
I just listened and I want to thank you for the recommendation of the book Little Brother, I just read it and a totally enjoyed it ( I used my dicctonary spanish-english a lot ).
I knew of you because I read something about you in Planet Debian and then I just typed Cyberunion in Yandex ( I like it better than Google, who is evil ). I am recommendating you to my friends and professors, I hope they like it as much as me.
May the force be with you.
Adiós.
Hi Joaquin
Thanks for the support – I am glad you find the show interesting, and thanks for recommending us. We want people to listen and give us feedback.
Sorry it’s all in English!
Hola Jaoquín,
Muchas gracias! It great to see that you read Little Brother it is a great book. I highly recommend For The Win by the same author. In our last 2 episode we discuss the book a lot. It is gret to read that you like the show we are starting to get into a good rythm. Planet Debian has driven a good amount of traffic to the site and show. Have you looked into http://identi.ca it is the social network that we both are active on you can find my statusnet accounting or you can find the show there too Cyberunions identi.ca account
Please share feedback we are always trying improve the show and enjoy reading the feedback.
In solidarity,
Stephen