Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Project PM Moving to Voxanon

Later today, Project PM's IRC channel moves to the Voxanon server. Signing on to irc.project-pm.org with an IRC client will automatically redirect you to our new home, which is irc.voxanon.net #projectpm; Voxanon's website, as opposed to its IRC server, is at www.voxanon.net. Note that irc.project-pm.org will remain functional and simply redirect to irc.voxanon.net but, as of 11 AM CST, it may take a couple of hours in such a way that it works for everybody; you can also always connect directly to irc.voxanon.net. We're also going to be actively recruiting participants to assist in our work, which generally involves bringing greater attention to the dangers of the "cyber-industrial complex" - the intertwining of civil, military, and corporate power that threatens the health of democratic institutions.

A great deal of what we do simply involves finding and spreading little-known or poorly-understood information, much of which we compile at our wiki, echelon2.org. If you haven't done so, consider taking a look at that research, which derives from unique sources (read: e-mails stolen from contracting firms that got on the wrong side of Anonymous) while also drawing upon both mainstream and independent reporting on related topics. Our contributors have spent a great deal of time on this subject in large part because it's difficult to look at the material in question and not come to the conclusion that populations across the world are being put at risk by the march towards greater surveillance, better propaganda, and further control of information. And with most major media outlets being more interested in covering U.S. Secret Service sex scandals than they are massive new NSA projects or Western firms that help dictators monitor and oppress dissenters, there's a considerable need for more individuals to act on whatever level they can so that others can be educated on the problem and motivated to address it themselves.

Even if you can't participate with research or writing, simply reading and spreading the information available on our wiki is an easy way to contribute to this project; activists in particular need to know about the evolving ways in which they are now being targeted by companies and governments alike, while the citizenry at large needs to have at least a general idea of what is now known about high-tech violations of their collective and individual privacy. Few issues are less-reported while more fundamental to the health of democratic institutions than this one, and every successful effort made to bring it into the public consciousness helps to incubate further solutions.