Current State of Mailing Lists / Forums about Internet Freedom, Security and Privacy?

Steve Kinney admin at pilobilus.net
Wed Dec 27 18:28:00 PST 2017



On 12/26/2017 12:27 PM,
BM-2cXCAVedtJwvdVXg9HeMPZp8k5UAakzTMs at bitmessage.ch wrote:
> It seems that the Internet is no longer an academic thing and compared to
> popular culture online, the research community becomes almost invisible and
> finally led to the collapse of many of them.

[...]

> Where are all the hackers, developers, cryptographers, activists, researchers, etc gone? 

Nowhere and Everywhere.  Seek and ye shall find, but probably not what
you expect to find:  One can never step into the same river twice.  The
Internet actually has produced changes in human organization and, big
surprise, it does so first among those who are most immersed in its
technological and strategic/tactical aspects.  We now have a fluid
global community, where distinct forums, projects, etc. pop up, serve
their ad hoc purposes, then change radically and/or or just dry up and
blow away.  Sometimes an accessible archive of Very Useful Bits will be
left behind, sometimes not.

> It seems that the Internet is no longer an academic thing and compared to popular culture online, the research community becomes almost invisible and finally led to the collapse of many of them.

No Duh and Yes Duh:  The Internet stopped being an 'academic communiy'
in every practical sense with the advent of AOL.  But this did not cause
research communities to collapse:  See above.  Sometimes they work
themselves out of a job, or become obsolete when their subject matter
loses relevance.  On the darker side, such communities may fall prey to
political forces hostile to their nominal missions, especially when
people make the transition from noncommercial virtual interactions to
business enterprises in meatspace:  Check the rise and fall of EFF's TOR
Project for a fascinating case study.

Curious 3rd parties are not supposed to find their way into technical
forums and the like, not easily that is, because look up the phrase
Eternal September.  But like minded clever people will find each other,
for better or worse.

"Somewhere there are people just like you.  Go there."
- Jerry Pournelle

:o)


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