This unique, field-based program brings together a group of competitively selected, highly talented individuals from around the world. You receive a holistic, future-oriented training endorsed by leaders across the social, business, education, and government sectors. Your 5-months in Nairobi will possess the depth and pace necessary to train for effective social change making – the intensity is equivalent to a 2-year traditional master's degree.
We are long overdue — a decade overdue — for a complete re-visioning of OSINT as OSC/M4IS2, ideally under the dual sponsorship of NATO, White SOF, and the regional (continental) associations.
Bruce Schneier & Jonathan Zittrain in conversation
April 4, 6:00pm ET
Langdell Hall South, 272 Kirkland and Ellis Classroom
From Bruce Schneier:
What I've Been Thinking About
I have been thinking about the Internet and power: how the Internet affects power, and how power affects the Internet. Increasingly, those in power are using information technology to increase their power. This has many facets, including the following:
1. Ubiquitous surveillance for both government and corporate purposes — aided by cloud computing, social networking, and Internet-enabled everything — resulting in a world without any real privacy.
In the “national security” area of the government–the White House, the departments of state and defense, the armed services and the “intelligence community,” along with their contractors–there is less whistleblowing than in other departments of the executive branch or in private corporations. This despite the frequency of misguided practices and policies within these particular agencies that are both more well-concealed and more catastrophic than elsewhere, and thus even more needful of unauthorized exposure.
The mystique of secrecy in the universe of national security, even beyond the formal apparatus of classification and clearances, is a compelling deterrent to whistleblowing and thus to effective resistance to gravely wrongful or dangerous policies. In this realm, telling secrets appears unpatriotic, even traitorous. That reflects the general presumption–even though it is very commonly false–that the secrecy is aimed not at domestic, bureaucratic or political rivals or the American public but at foreign, powerful enemies, and that breaching it exposes the country, its people and its troops to danger.
Even those insiders who have come to understand that the presumption is frequently false and that particular facts are being wrongly and dangerously kept secret not so much from foreigners but from Congress, courts or the public are strongly inhibited from speaking out by an internalized commitment to keep official secrets from outsiders, which they have promised to do as a condition of employment or access.
Do click on below to read the full, encouraging ad inspiring report…relevant for fracking, shale gas, factory farming, sludge dumping, large scale water withdrawals and industrial scale energy projects.
Dear Friends,
Last week, a Pennsylvania county court declared that corporations are not ³persons² under the Pennsylvania Constitution, and therefore, that corporations cannot elevate their ³private rights² above the rights of people. In a landmark ruling, President Judge Debbie O¹Dell-Seneca of the Washington County Court of Common Pleas denied the corporation¹s request on the basis that the Pennsylvania Constitution only protects the rights of people, not business entities. This same decision must be made in thousands of other courts across our country to lay the fallacy of “corporate personhood” to rest for good, but I am so grateful to this person of integrity for standing in the “jaws of the beast” and declaring the truth. And I am also grateful to the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) for their generous work in helping communities across the country adopt Community Bills of Rights that ban such projects as fracking, sludge dumping and other as violations of the community¹s right to a sustainable energy and farming future. Please take the time to read the language of Judge Debbie O'Dell-Seneca's decision. It is beautiful and inspiring and true.
How We All Survived Likely the Largest Collaboration in Journalism History
One of the most frequent questions people ask us these days is “How in the world did you get 86 journalists to work together?”
Photo: Shutterstock.I can understand their puzzlement. Journalists often compete fiercely to scoop each other. When they get a great tip or a unique document they don’t sit and wonder how they can share it with as many of their colleagues around the world as possible.
Many investigative reporters are classic “lone wolves,” working in isolation and extremely protective of their work.
What we had in front of us was 2.5 million files involving offshore dealings with links to more than 170 countries and territories. Global data on a truly global issue – business dealings and money flows. It became clear very soon that we could not tackle the job effectively from our Washington office or just with the small team of reporters ICIJ initially recruited to analyze the files.
We needed to open up the game as much as possible without compromising the investigation or the sources. It was a risky approach, but we did not see any other way around it.
Last summer, ICIJ member Nicky Hager and I scrolled down the list of 160 ICIJ journalists in more than 60 countries and began to make some choices. It was one of those moments in which having this network of trusted reporters and relationships we have built overtime made a huge difference.
In countries where we didn’t have a member we sought recommendations and checked out the work of potential collaborators. We did not pick journalists based solely on their media affiliation – we were much more interested in choosing the right people, the real diggers and the most trustworthy colleagues. (See, also, How We Chose Our Offshore Reporting Partners).
This is the page from Gulf Wild program. When you buy a fish that has a Gulf Wild ID number on it, you can find out everything about it.
Simply enter this ID number on their website or (cell phone) and it will provide you with:
Click on Image to Enlarge
The bio and history of the fisherman who caught the fish.
What the fish is, where the fish was caught (with a map) down to 10 miles, and when it was caught.
Info on fishing practices (e.g. was it caught as part of a sustainable fisheries program?).
NOTE: Canada has a similar program called “This Fish”
I believe we're going to see programs like this for all of the food (and an increasing number of products) we buy, from meats to vegetables.
Why? Info like this is addicting. Once you get it, you want it on everything.
Fortunately, it's also really easy to put a service like this together for local producers, and that's a good thing.
Here's why: This type of insight would positively differentiate fresh, high quality local produce from the generic products of indefinite age, quality, and origin we get from the global industrial system.
That would be a good thing, since it would help make local food more plentiful and that makes us ALL more resilient.
