Communication in the time of Wikileaks

From KLAMediaWiki

Date : 9 February 2011

Time: 16h 30

Place : Faculty of Science and Technology, UCAD Dakar

A seminar with Boaventura de Sousa Santos

Rita Freire from Ciranda speaks first, in Portuguese, to introduce the Wikileaks theme. She said that there is a dispute about information within the WSF. She raised the question: does  the WSF have a concept of 'shared 'communication'.  (The  consecutive translation into French is difficult to follow. The amphitheatre of the physics faculty is filled with people, The temperature is high. )

Jamie (?) from May First / People's Link=

The second speaker was Jamie (?) from May First / People's Link : WikiLeaks has rised the consciousness of the value of information. Showed the weakness of our system and and resilience of our people. 

When WL moved its server to Amazon the corporation was criticized by powerful political figures. And so Amazon took down WL. Other attacks folowed, their bank accounts were frozen etc.

We need to evauluete the decision of WL to move their site to WL. How can we, from the left build an internet that resists attacks from the system? 

The counter-attacks against  PayPal etc. were a kind of direct action. The mass-mirroring was an effort to produce a resistent internet.

It was a poor strategic choice from the side of WL to present it self as a journalistic organisation.  They should have identified themselves with 'the movements'. The speaker criticized WL for being   a very secretive organisation.  

Boaventura de Sousa Santos

At 18h, Boaventura de Sousa Santos, the sociologist and key speaker, had not yet arrived! He arrived finally at 18.17.