February 24, 2011, 1:33PM
Alex Howard on Government Security, Internet Freedom and Open Gov
3 CommentsDigital
Underground podcast with Dennis Fisher
In the triumphant return of the Digital Underground podcast, Dennis Fisher talks with Alex Howard (@digiphile) of O'Reilly Media about the open government and open data movements, how they're affecting security and the ways in which Internet freedom and privacy play into the current climate online.
*Podcast audio courtesy of sykboy65
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Comments
Seriously... Did I miss something? There is no content. 3 minutes 11 seconds of talking about Alex's job title at O'Reilly. Is there some talk about gov security I am missing?
Yeah, you need to go past the four minute mark. It's a long conversation and we covered a lot of topics.
I think one needs to acknowledge that security is an issue for all software solutions - open data or otherwise. I think this space is extremely innovative and no less secure than others. (See the TileMill , 311, or Civic Apps articles on Alex's site as examples of new ideas.) For every major security flaw, there are a ton of innovative solutions emerging in the space that provide secure options that solve difficult problems. As with any new sector, there will be challenges and the code bases are young - so there will be security issues. But, just check out any major browser or OS and I bet you would be amazed by how insecure they are. I for one want to see this market grow and I think an honest account that balances both the challenges and opportunities is the way to go. (I also want more attention on the poor quality of the data that is called open data - this is a way bigger issue than security in my opinion.) Thank you for the interesting program.