Here's a summary of week 11's lecture on Cyberpolitics!

• It is important to distinguish between the idealist view of a democracy on the web encompassing all citizens (cyberdemocracy) and the democratic uses of the internet to improve the quality of access to existing democracy. While cyberdemocracy is not particularly evident in the way cyberspace 1) is organised on hierarchical lines and 2) its uses for commercial purposes, the internet has become a valuable addition to the ways that debate occurs in our society.
• In The End of History and the Last Man Francis Fukuyama argues that the 1980s saw the near-universal triumph of liberal democracy and its representative institutions. He concludes from the dissolution of communist totalitarianism that the current practice of liberal democracy is 'the end point of mankind's ideological evolution [and] the final form of human government'.
• Representative democracy as we know it is very much the product of the nations of the industrial age so these simple accounts of democracy do not address the impact of the present period of rapid transition from an industrial to an information economy and the consequent challenge to the power of nation states by global economic and cultural processes.
• The increasing concentration, centralisation and commercialisation of the mass media appear to have foreclosed avenues for democratic participation in currently existing representative democracy. However, a number of theoretical counterpoints and interventions suggest that there may be ways in which the arena of deliberation, or the public sphere, may be extended via the application of new communication technologies and a better appreciation of the power of the audience.
• Deliberation and discussion are key attributes of democracy, maybe talk is the most important element of democratic activity. The ability to convince and the willingness to be convinced are what provide the give and take that makes democracy something for all citizens. And that requires access to free speech.
• The declaration of independence for the Internet is very specific about its disregard for traditional ideas about the usefulness and appropriateness of censorship.
• Hackers regard computer systems not as corporate property but as part the common wealth and do not believe it is wrong to break into systems to look around and understand.
• The word 'hacking' has a number of meanings that reunite in the work of the hacker: it suggests both cutting through thick foliage and managing or coping with a difficult situation, often with an appropriate application of ingenuity or a creative practical joke. Can you hack it?
• Hackers are descendants of phone phreakers who used anomalies in the phone system to make free calls.
• Hackers seek to free information and are at pains to distinguish themselves from crackers, intruders who damage or steal data whether in simple forms such as denial-of-service attacks or in systematic and clearly fraudulent ways such as credit card manipulation.
• Hacking has developed beyond its anti-social and avant garde origins to incorporate any approach to any media that seeks to use hidden potentialities and anomalies in that media to open interpretation and debate.
• Hackers are imbued with the cynicism of the machine, refusing to accept the 'official' story at face value, always digging and exploring to find their own truth beyond the standard explanation.

I found the information that was touched on about hackers within the community, extremely interesting, partially due to the fact that I did not know most of the information that was given! Hence why most of my notes are on the hackers!!