[Air-L] Canadian general warns that Wikipedia postings may be aiding the Taliban

[Peter Timusk]

I have no idea of what the readers think of war on this list. I do  
know that AOIR rejected a conference panel on cyber security a few  
years back. Not that I think we must visit the war for discussions.

I am still wondering about the only complete stranger stranger who  
tried to add me as a friend on facebook who apparently was a student  
in Florida who wore Arabic traditional clothing. I do not even know  
if this would be normal in Florida. I wear traditional Baltic  
clothing some times.

I am also still slightly concerned with photos I upload that have  
apparently having changed according to dream weaver (my web mastering  
software), after I have read more in depth about secret writing that  
is done by hiding in the computer code that digital photos are made  
of. The photos when rendered do not show the flaw but the code will  
reveal the message.

Wikipedia as security threat... never heard of that before but I have  
read that US libraries took city water maps out of circulation after  
911 so there are precedences to this sort of statement.

I edit information about my neigbourhood on wikipedia and I am  
concerned with being identified by that.

That is just the beginning of course because actually I live in a  
fairly safe world generally safe from bombs and guns.

Peter who goes back to reading Cyberfeminisim in a Norther Light



On 15-Feb-08, at 8:19 PM, Barry Wellman wrote:

>> From the Toronto Star, February 15, 2008. (I am not making this up).
> Allan Woods, "Military Issues Web Warning"
>
> "Brig.-Gen Peter Atkinson... warned that seemingly innocuous photos,
> videos and news reports can be the source for as much as 80% of the
> intelligence that insurgents routinely gather on operations....
>
> "Wikipedia is among the most dangerous of the public-access  
> websites, he
> said.... 'Due to its collaborative content contribution, anybody  
> can add
> to the content, providing a compilation of details on a specific  
> incident,
> like the descriptions of a casualty, photos, locations, and news  
> articles
> contributed by several sources,' Atkinson told reporters."
>
> BW: To check this out, I searched on Canadian, Taliban and 2008,  
> and found
> nothing currently revelatory, even in the article, "War in Afghanistan
> (2001-present)".
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Afghanistan_%282001%E2%80% 
> 93present%29
>
> I do not have the time, inclination or resources to search the  
> history of
> every article to see who revealed what, when, where, why, or how.
>
> As an influential essay on Wikipedia says, "Wikipedia is not a  
> newspaper."
> Therefore, I wonder if there will be much operational reporting on  
> it that
> lasts more than a short while.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_is_not_a_newspaper
>
> YMMV.
>
>  Barry Wellman
>   
> ______________________________________________________________________ 
> _
>
>   S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC              NetLab Director
>   Centre for Urban & Community Studies           University of Toronto
>   455 Spadina Avenue          Room 418          Toronto Canada M5S 2G8
>   http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman            fax:+1-416-978-7162
>   Updating history:     http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php
>          Elvis wouldn't be singing "Return to Sender" these days
>   
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