Hacking has more to do with scandal or political undermining. In this inspirational speech at TED, Catherine Bracy describes it can be both good and bad. It turns us into some bourgeois-inspired works in Honolulu, Auckland and Mexico City - and makes the compelling assumption that we all have what it takes to get involved.
The subtitles of the video
0: 11 I'll talk about hackers. The picture that comes to your mind when I say this word is probably not Benjamin Franklin's, but I'll explain why it should be.
0: 22 The picture that comes to your mind is more like a sick child sitting in the basement and doing scandal, or a dark criminal trying to steal your identity, or an international scammer for political purposes. The prevailing culture has somehow fueled this idea that hackers are people we must be afraid of.
0:48 But like most things in technology and the tech world, hacking can do both good and bad. For every hacker trying to steal your identity there's one building a tool to help you find your loved ones after a disaster or monitor environmental quality after a leakage πετρελαίου. Στην πραγματικότητα το χάκινγκ είναι απλώς οποιαδήποτε ερασιτεχνική καινοτομία σε ένα υπάρχον σύστημα και είναι μια βαθιά δημοκρατική δραστηριότητα. Έχει να κάνει με την κριτική σκέψη. Έχει να κάνει με την αμφισβήτηση των υφιστάμενων τρόπων να κάνουμε πράγματα. Είναι η ιδέα ότι εάν δείτε ένα πρόβλημα, δουλεύετε για να το φτιάξετε και δεν παραπονιέστε απλά γι' αυτό. Και από πολλές opinions, το χάκινγκ είναι αυτό που δημιούργησε την Αμερική. Η Μπέτσι Ρος ήταν χάκερ. Ο υπόγειος σιδηρόδρομος ήταν ένα σπουδαίο χακάρισμα. Από τους αδελφόυς Ράιτ έως τον Στιβ Τζομπς, το χάκινγκ ήταν πάντα στη βάση της αμερικάνικης δημοκρατίας.
1: 43 So if there is one thing I want you to remember today is that the next time you think of a hacker, you will not think of this guy, but Benjamin Franklin, one of the most important hackers of all seasons. He was one of America's most productive inventors, though he never filed a patent because he believed that all human knowledge must be freely available. He brought us the double-glasses and the lightning rod, and of course he was also cooperating in the invention of American democracy.
2: 17 And in the Code for America, we are really trying to incorporate the spirit of Ben Franklin. He was a craftsman and a politician whose perception of citizenship was always based on action. He believed that the government could be built by people, and these people call them urban hackers.
2: 37 So it is not surprising that the values behind a healthy democracy such as cooperation, empowerment, participation and business are the same values that lie behind the Internet. And it is not surprising that many hackers turn their attention to the government's problem.
2: 56 But before I give you some examples of how urban hacking looks like, I want to make it clear that you do not have to be a programmer to be an urban hacker. You just have to believe that you can bring a set of 21 century tools to deal with the problems this government has. And we are constantly hearing from our community, the urban hackers in the US Code of Conduct, that they did not understand how much, indeed, non-technical work had urban hacking projects. So do not forget this. You are all potential urban hackers.
3:25 So what does urban hacking look like? Last year, our team in Honolulu, who in this case were three full-time fellows doing a year of public serviceς, τους ζητήθηκε από την πόλη να φτιάξουν την ιστοσελίδα εκ νέου. Αυτό είναι ένα τεράστιο έργο με δεκάδες χιλιάδες σελίδες που απλώς δεν θα ήταν δυνατό στους λίγους μήνες που είχαν. Έτσι, αντί γι' αυτό, αποφάσισαν να φτιάξουν μια παράλληλη ιστοσελίδα που ήταν καλύτερα προσαρμοσμένη στο πώς οι πολίτες θέλουν να αλληλεπιδρούν με πληροφορίες σε μια πολιτειακή ιστοσελίδα. Ψάχνουν για απαντήσεις σε ερωτήσεις, και θέλουν να αναλάβουν δράση όταν τελειώσουν, κάτι πολύ δύσκολο από μια ιστοσελίδα που μοιάζει με αυτό. Έτσι η ομάδα μας έφτιαξε το «Απαντήσεις της Χονολουλού», το οποίο είναι μια απλουστευμένη διαδραστική αναζήτηση όπου εισάγετε έναν όρο αναζήτησης ή μια ερώτηση και λαμβάνετε απαντήσεις σε απλή γλώσσα, το οποίο οδηγεί έναν χρήστη προς τη δράση. Η ίδια η σελίδα ήταν αρκετά εύκολη στο στήσιμο, αλλά η ομάδα αντιμετώπισε την πρόκληση του πώς να συμπληρώσει όλο το περιεχόμενο. Θα έπρεπε οι τρεις τους να δουλεύουν για πάρα πολύ χρόνο, ιδιώς επειδή κανένας από αυτούς δεν ήταν από τη Χονολουλού. Και έκαναν κάτι πραγματικά ριζοσπαστικό, αν σκεφτείτε το πώς η κυβέρνηση συνηθίζει να λειτουργεί. Ζήτησαν από τους πολίτες να γράψουν το περιεχόμενο. Έχετε ακούσει για τη σειρά εκδηλώσεων hackathon. They did a series of writing events. where on a Saturday afternoon — ("What do I do when wild hogs get annoying?") (Laughter) — Apparently, wild hogs are a big problem in Honolulu. In one Saturday afternoon, they managed to fill in most of the content for the most popular questions, but more importantly, they created a new way for citizens to take part in their government.
5:00 I think this in itself is a pretty great story, but it gets even more awesome. On National Urban Hacking Day last June in Oakland, where I live, the Code for America team in Oakland took the open source code of "Honolulu Answers" and made it "Oakland Answers," and again we set up a series of writing events where we took the most popular questions and had citizens write their answers, and I participated. I wrote this answer and a few others. I still try today to articulate the sense of empowerment and responsibility I feel for the place I live based simply on this small act of participation. And, by putting my small act together with the thousands of other small participatory acts we make possible through civic hacking, we believe we can re-enable citizenship and restore trust in government.
5: 58 At this point, you might be wondering what city officials think about all this. Actually, they love it. As most of you know, cities are invited to do more with less every day, and they are always looking for innovative solutions to tangible problems. So when you give citizens a way to participate in a meeting in the town hall beyond their presence, cities can perceive the capabilities in their communities to do the job of the government.
6:25 I do not want to leave the impression that urban hacking is just an American phenomenon. It happens all over the world, and one of my favorite examples is from Mexico City, where earlier this year, the Mexican House of Representatives signed a contract with a software development company to build an application that lawmakers would use to monitor the bills. This was only for the few legislators in Parliament. And the contract was a two-year contract for $ 9,3 million. Many people were really angry with this, especially computer users who knew that $ 9,3 million was a completely outrageous amount of money for such a simple application. But instead of taking to the streets, they posted a challenge. They asked developers in Mexico to make something better and cheaper, and offered a prize of $ 9.300 - 10.000 times cheaper than the government contract, and gave participants 10 days. And in those 10 days, 173 applications were submitted, five of which were presented to Congress and are still in the application market today. And because of this action, this contract was canceled, and now it has sparked a movement in Mexico City that is home to one of our partners, the Mexico City Code.
7: 49 So what you see in these three parts, in Honolulu, Auckland and Mexico City, is the evidence that is at the heart of urban hacking. Citizens who saw things that could work better decided to correct them, and through this work, create an ecosystem of 21 century participation. They create a whole new set of ways to engage citizens, in addition to voting or signing a request or protest. They can really build governance.
8: 20 So, back to our friend, Ben Franklin, whose one of his lesser known achievements was the founding, 1736, the first voluntary firefighting company in Philadelphia, called brigade. And this was because he and his friends noticed that the city had difficulty coping with all the fires that were happening in the city, so, with real urban hacking, they found a solution.
8: 46 We have our own US Codex Brigades that work on the works I just described and we want you to follow Ben Franklin's footsteps and come with us. We have 31 brigades in the US. Today we have the pleasure to announce that we are opening the brigade to world cities for the first time, starting with cities in Poland, Japan and Ireland. You can find out if there is a brigade where you live at brigade.codeforamerica.org, and if there is no brigade where you live, we will help you. We have created a set of tools that also exists at brigade.codeforamerica.org, and we will support you along the way. Our goal is to create a global network of urban hackers who innovate in the existing system to build tools that will solve fixed problems that will support the local government and empower the citizens.
9: 37 Come on, then, chase with us.
9: 40 Thank you.
9: 41 (Applause)
