openDemocracy's quarterly London meeting. Bill Thompson led a discussion on journalism, the web and civil liberties. About 30 people made it - many people who had met online as part of the publishing and research volunteer-group, but never in the face -- great human moments, that knowing yet not-knowing someone.
Bill talked of the good old days -- when the guardian website was a computer on Bill's desk, and when he was its sys admin, webmaster, editor-in-chief and coder. He argued that the "good web" --- the liberating forces of the free-flow of information --- necessarily develops along-side all the abuses of technology, including State abuses. Bill's solution to privacy issues: radical transparency.
The discussion turned to "what is journalism-- or whatever you want to call what openDemocracy does -- for in a world where the technology and organisations we're creating can be used for authoritarian means. "Speak truth to power" was Bill's reply. Rosemary and Anthony were not completely satisfied with that: what about making a self-conscious, self-understanding society?
The formal meeting broke up, and I look forward very much to the next get-together.
