It has now been established that the monitoring consulting group was actually doing PR for Gaddafi and nothing more. The entire program was a cynical effort by the firm and related academics to make money off the fact that Gaddafi was rich and evil.

Shirky needs to come clean utterly with what payments he received for his work, and how he could have imagined that he could have improved the situation in Libya with a technology project.

Shirky’s own country men were killed by Gaddafi on several different occasions. If Shirky can not clarify this he can join Assange in the ranks of want to be cyber-activists we could all do without.

This post is not contrite enough given the evil regime you were involved with. You have no business pointing the fingers at anyone else right now if you were taking money from Libya.

Frankly I don’t assume you were doing it for free, but your avoidance of the subject makes the hole worse.

Every idea in your books has been had and written by another person and written in another book, don’t take the global communities forgiveness or understanding for granted. Also a lot of people have died recently because of Libya, and the regime got a lot of consulting from top level US and UK intellectuals, you being actually a fairly minor one.

But as I see it you have no business but to make a full and total apology for this as a terrible mistake, without excuses. Failure to do so will only be used to further critic your ideas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk8x3V-sUgU&feature=channel_video_title

Thanks
Becca

if you were able to take the bombers money, wouldn’t you have a moral obligation to do so?

The point is not whether money is received or not. The money is merely evidence of the more important question, “did you help the bomber or not?” Taking money from the bomber is by itself actually helping to thwart the bomber’s plans. And taking money from the bomber to provide healthcare to the bomber’s neighbours is also fine. So of course what the money is for matters.

I wish there was this much scrutiny of the dealings of Big Oil.

Technology alone may not be the “necessary and sufficient” cause to end global slaughters, that would be naive to think so, but that is also NOT what we ask of it.

It is a tool, and when used effectively it can influence political will, exercised by the people of a non democratic regime it can create democratic results, in the interim, whether or not it brings about a full democratic revolution is not the goal.

To try and spread and foster this idea is a noble cause. Paid or unpaid is irrelevant. Results matter.

-CD

Alex: He was working with an official of Gaddafi’s government — the Libyan IT minister is an official in that government. I appreciate Clay’s explanation, but I find it lacking. There’s no circumstance under which I would have taken money from the man who ordered the Lockerbie bombing — much less brag about it in my author bio on a book. I’m amazed at this abhorrent bit of news.