Prompt's TechBlog

Some years ago I wrote a comment article for Internet Magazine, in which I suggested that in the future the web would become a useful weapon for dissidents living in oppressive regimes. Not only would it allow them to communicate better with each other, but it could help focus global attention on their plight by allowing them to communicate with the outside world in relative anonymity. The web, I postulated, could be critical in bringing down the walls of secrecy behind which many despots are left free to brutalise their own people. Perhaps more than any other article I'd written (apart from the one entitled 'Stop Whining about Microsoft') this piece drew a barrage of criticism from the readers. At best I was accused of naivety, and at worst, stupidity, ignorance and blind faith in the false god of technology.

I'm very happy, and not just a little smug, to report that Reporters Sans Frontiers has recently released a handbook full of advice to help dissidents protect their identity when publishing online. Perhaps when I first wrote the article, people didn't see how it was possible for the web to be harnessed in this way, but the advent of blogging has changed everything. So much so, that the Chinese government has recently felt the need to clamp down on unlicensed online publishers who clearly threaten to bring down the world's largest dictatorship if left to freely and openly discuss political matters without any 'official guidance'.

While we're on the subject of "Things I was Right About" - I once suggested in an article that in the future the majority of people would access the internet through a mobile device rather than a conventional PC. MIT's Philip Greenspun has recently had the same idea, he's a bit later than me but his theory is far more detailed and scientific than my vague assertion could ever be, so let's call this one a draw...