Hierarchies have long been a fact of human existence. From prehistoric chiefs to modern day heads of state and captains of industry, there have always been those clinging to what have been seen as positions of power. Even in contexts where the leadership swear up and down that such is not the case. Some even going so far as to put the descriptor “people’s” in the official name. There is, however, subtle but vital difference between position and power. One which the rapid digitizations of business and government is making increasingly clear. Ask most people who the most powerful person in a company is and they will likely say the CEO or the president. This is a perfectly reasonable response. Especially given the current cultural narrative in which those with the ability to make the most decisions are seen as the most powerful. Though thisdefinition of power is incredibly limited, based entirely, on perceived respect and the ability to control others. There are several other deviations so far power, such as the one that puts personal autonomy and choice above all. In this chase the most powerful people in any given company are those responsible for maintaining and repairing the computer systems.
Corporate IT departments tend to go more or less unnoticed by the larger corporate structure. A fact at the heart of the brilliant British sitcom The IT Crowd. Despite this overall lack of recognition, and in some ways because of it, IT workers are in one of the most powerful and privileged positions. They might not get the same respect or recognition as middle-managers but they also don’t really have a dress code, can come and go as they please and never get in trouble because a planned merger didn’t pan out. They are in a rarefied position that has them seen, when they are noticed, as the solution to a problem rather than the cause. They are powerless in the overall corporate context but are also primarily responsible for the computer systems on which the corporate structure is based, which makes them indispensable. So while even an all powerful CEO with six-figure salaries and sweeping decision making powers are still vulnerable to having their position reminded by a vote by the board, the IT worker’s job is secure, the board members being at least smart enough to know that without a smoothly operating computer network there would be no business to run.
(Edward Snowden )
This is also true in the context of government, particularly in terms of policing and intelligence agencies. In this case, the IT departments tend to staffed by civilians what the appropriate skills working for the agency on contract. Also having been empowered by the agency in some way. Such as the deputation of computer hackers used to entrap online predators. The most high profile case of this, demonstrating the risks, pitfalls and potential good of the system in that of Edward Snowden. A civilian with top-shelf programming skills, Snowden was hired by some of America’s most secretive intelligence agencies, monitoring and maintaining their data filing systems. A position which gave him free password access second only to the agency director and the President.
The term “going digital” can have some odd associations. Though it really only means content stored on a computerized device, there can be some peculiar assumptions made about what digital content is and should be. While there have been new genres and formats created or at least inspired by the new, digital infrastructure (blogs, vlogs, podcasting etc.), there is also a good deal of content in traditional styles that are available mostly, if not exclusively, online. In such cases, the web being used as a promotional tool as opposed to the platform itself. Much like when music videos were broadcast on traditional television to promote artists, while live performances and records were the primary commodity.
An element that stands out in the music currently available online, is how staunchly traditional some of it is. At times to the point of the anachronistic. There are the intentionally jocular “Pirate Metal” stylings of Alestorm, which are basically high-powered sea-shanties, and the partially a Capella pieces of Ye Banished Privateers, some of which are literal sea-shanties.
On the darker end there is Arkona who blend Russian Folk music and Death Metal in a counter-intuitive combination on par with peanut butter and chocolate.
Even deeper into the roots is Patty Gurdy. Primarily the hurdy-gurdyist and second vocalist for the 6-piece German Folk Metal band Storm Seeker (who also include a keyboardist and cellist), Ms. Gurdy also has a successful online presence on YouTube with a combination of instruction videos on the hurdy-gurdy as well as solo performances and collaborations with other YouTube musicians and members of her band, such as the acoustic version of the band’s song “The Longing” she did with the band's cellist.
There are also acts such as Faun. With a name referring to a mythical creature and using instruments that pre-date electricity by hundreds of years, all manner of descriptors can, and have, been used for their music, some of them more accurate than others. Though the fact is, the style of music they tend to do is so old that it pre-date the concept of genre itself. There is also a strong element of pre-Christian European paganism in the band's themes, instrumentation and visuals which point to a firmly Medivalist orientation.
So perhaps the web is not destroying traditional art forms, as many have claimed, so much as helping them spread and flourish. Switch they have always found a way to do. A large part of the reason they have lasted this long. (Gofundme/honest-technology-journalism) (Patreon.com/futuremeh)
Language is an interesting thing. The English language in particular. Of all the languages used by humans, English is, grammatically, the most complicated, many native speakers getting much of it wrong most of the time, and the most lexiconally vast. There are more individual words in English than in any other living language. Even so, there are still many occasions when even it falls short and a single term comes to describe many different things in the public imagination. One such term is the current use of the word “hacker.”
Applied to everyone from gamers using cheat-codes to those who perpetrate system breaches on banking systems, the terms “hack” and “hacker”, particularly as deployed by law enforcement officials, has become essentially meaningless. What is more, there are alternatives and qualifiers available for those concerned enough with accuracy to use them. The people using game cheat-codes are not really “hackers” at all. While this could be considered a hack in the expanded definition which includes any sort of short-cut. They are really just savvy gamers. The teams of programmers working to take down firewalls on Chinese networks to allow freer access to information there are better refereed to as “White Hat” Hackers or “Hacktivists”, a contraction of “hacker” and “activist”. This term has also been used variously for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and Anonymous. Those using their network-breaching skills to a criminal end, such as data destruction or theft, as happened with the Ashley Madison break-in, or even just the dissemination of official looking but misleading information are usually called “BlackHats”, “Darkside Hackers” or “Crackers”, a usage similar to safe-cracker in the olden days. To be called any of these three by someone in the Hacker community is usually taken, at the very least, as a personal slight.
A bit more nebulous are those inhabiting the shades of grey between WhiteHats and Crackers. This group, while not always working for the greater good like WhiteHats/Hactivists, are also not fully nefarious like Crackers/BlackHats. While they may use identical methods to the usually recognized groups, the purpose of the majority of hackers is simply to surf and connect. To go into a system to see if they can and snatch a random stream of data while they are there simply for bragging rights. Despite being “criminals” in the eyes of the law and in many cases, such as that of Kevin Mitnick, serving up to nine years in prison, their actions are most often victimless. Unless you count a few bruised egos. Though it is rather telling that this is also the type most likely to go into cyber-security after being released from prison, keeping other far more dangerous hackers from doing what they would ordinarily do. It would therefore best to come up with a new term for the majority in the middle. Somewhere between the crusading Hactivist and shadowy cracker. In my humble opinion a term such as “Grey Hat” or “Seeker” would fit the bill nicely. (Gofundme.com/honest-technology-journalism) (Patreon.com/futuremeh)
It is in the nature of paradigms that they will shift. Often suddenly and of their own accord, giving little chance for preparation, seat-of-the-pants adjustment and adaptation often being the only recourse. The true trick is that what can seem like a sudden change usually happens over a matter of years, with various indicators along the way that tend to missed. Leading to the sensation of waking up in a different world with little notion as to how one got there. Something that has been referred to as the "Rip Van Winkle Effect."
One of the more recent developments with a trajectory along these lines is the rapid increase in the popularity and use of not only dating sites (which are basically Lonely Heart’s sections moved from the newspaper page to the computer screen), but dating apps. Both methods of keeping someone at a distance, perceived if not physical, during the early stages of the courtship process. It could even be argued, with a heavy heart, that the word "courtship", in the truest sense, has become yet another funny reminder of a bygone era, like "courtesy" and "discombobulate."
The stand-up comedian and all-around gadabout Russell Brand once quipped that he had "the art of seduction down to a gesture." At roughly this same time, the programmers and marketers behind Tinder, Grinder and to a lesser extent OkCupid, were getting dating down to a science. Literally reducing the process finding a potential mate to a mathematical equation. The problem with this notion, the flaw at the core of the hypothesis is that people are not math equations and have more complexities, eccentricities and shades on an individual level than can ever be captured, let alone calculated or understood by a data stream. No matter how many stats are collected or how powerful or exact the processor, there is still the matter of all those darn, irritating "emotions" to account for. Something humans have still barely learned to manage after thousands of years of practice.
