There is an old tale in science, half a joke and half a truth, which talks about a frog.
If you take a frog and throw it into a can full of boiling water, the frog will jump out in a split second. But if you take the very same frog, put it into the very same can of water, cold this time, interesting things can happen. If you light a fire under the can, and rise up the water temperature in small and progressive steps, the frog will do nothing. Nothing at all, indeed, until the point the water is so hot that the frog is boiled.
The abovementioned example is paradigmatically used in order to explain that, given a closed system, the environmental conditions can be progressively altered for a good deal from baseline before the organisms inside realize that something dramatically changed.
Humans, as proud they can be about themselves, answer to the very same scheme. If you gradually alter the conditions in which a certain closed society (let's say a country) lives, you will get no reaction from the inhabitants. This is something that nazist, fascist and communist dictatorships have skillfully done; pieces of social network, solidariety and freedom have been gradually taken away, so that over a long period of time the environment was dramatically changed with no apparent reaction by citizens.
Indeed, there are some times when the frog jumps out even if conditions have been gradually changed. It usually happens when the frog is a smart one, some which maintains a focused attention on the surrounding environment.
A smart frog called Wikipedia jumped out of the water yesterday night, in Italy.
Wikipedia is the collaborative online encyclopedia, based on the principle of crowdsourcing, to which everybody can contribute. Wikipedia volunteers make an unpaid, obscure work, investing personal time and economic resources, in the view of a highest mission: no less than bringing the universal knowledge to the world.
They are what once were called "responsible citizens", people more concerned about the others' well-being than about the money to take home; people who believe that the construction of a better world passes through culture's diffusion; people who believe that shared culture can change the world, since only by learning new ideas and different interpretations of the reality, clashes among nations can be avoided.
In Italy, a law called "DDL intercettazioni” (or Wiretapping Bill) is currently on discussion at the Chamber of Deputies. Its aim is limiting the possibility for the police forces to put under control private telephones for pursuing wrongdoers; so as limiting the possibility that these conversations are published in the media, even if they are regarding penally relevant circumstances. I will not discuss the other parts of the law, but what made the frog to jump out was the Article 29. It gives the possibility to any person which feels to be misrepresented on a web page, to imperatively ask the editor of that page to publish a counter-information within 24 hours, with deep consequences if not compliant. Notably enough, this process can be activated on simple request of the "offended", without the fact is judged by a magistrate.
This kind of law could be the end of all the collaborative websites, and all the free-speech forums in Italy, including this blog. It is true and unquestionable that an unfairly offended person has the right to defend his own reputation, but for this is already available a specific law which protects the honorability of each Italian citizen. Naturally, it is necessary to discuss the case in a court, as it happens in all the democratic countries of the world.
The Wikipedia Italy users felt their freedom menaced, and took a resounding decision: the Italian pages of Wikipedia have been obscured, and a open letter to Wikipedia users has been placed on the homepage. In the letter, the Wikipedia community explains the reason for the decision, and that it is a sign of protest against the abovementioned Article 29.
The Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), within hours from the start of the protest, gave its support (http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/10/04/regarding-recent-events-on-italian-wikipedia/); Serbian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish and many other WMF local chapters all over the world gave their solidarity to Italian Wikipedians.
On Facebook, the protest mounted at a even higher growth rate. One of the most followed ( "Rivogliamo Wikipedia - Give us back Wikipedia" https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Rivogliamo-Wikipedia-No-alla-legge-bavaglio/185745561500946) has 219.648 followers in the minutes I'm writing these lines; it was open less than 24 hours ago, and it grows at the rhythm of 1.000 new followers per minute.
The echo of protest also hit the traditional media with the power of a sandstorm. Many major newspapers, prominent radios and televisions, like Radio24 and SkyTG24 voiced the protest and made the message resounding.
It is still undisclosed when and if the Italian Wikipedia will be put online again, but one thing is acclared: the frog is out of the water.
If you take a frog and throw it into a can full of boiling water, the frog will jump out in a split second. But if you take the very same frog, put it into the very same can of water, cold this time, interesting things can happen. If you light a fire under the can, and rise up the water temperature in small and progressive steps, the frog will do nothing. Nothing at all, indeed, until the point the water is so hot that the frog is boiled.
The abovementioned example is paradigmatically used in order to explain that, given a closed system, the environmental conditions can be progressively altered for a good deal from baseline before the organisms inside realize that something dramatically changed.
Humans, as proud they can be about themselves, answer to the very same scheme. If you gradually alter the conditions in which a certain closed society (let's say a country) lives, you will get no reaction from the inhabitants. This is something that nazist, fascist and communist dictatorships have skillfully done; pieces of social network, solidariety and freedom have been gradually taken away, so that over a long period of time the environment was dramatically changed with no apparent reaction by citizens.
Indeed, there are some times when the frog jumps out even if conditions have been gradually changed. It usually happens when the frog is a smart one, some which maintains a focused attention on the surrounding environment.
A smart frog called Wikipedia jumped out of the water yesterday night, in Italy.
Wikipedia is the collaborative online encyclopedia, based on the principle of crowdsourcing, to which everybody can contribute. Wikipedia volunteers make an unpaid, obscure work, investing personal time and economic resources, in the view of a highest mission: no less than bringing the universal knowledge to the world.
They are what once were called "responsible citizens", people more concerned about the others' well-being than about the money to take home; people who believe that the construction of a better world passes through culture's diffusion; people who believe that shared culture can change the world, since only by learning new ideas and different interpretations of the reality, clashes among nations can be avoided.
In Italy, a law called "DDL intercettazioni” (or Wiretapping Bill) is currently on discussion at the Chamber of Deputies. Its aim is limiting the possibility for the police forces to put under control private telephones for pursuing wrongdoers; so as limiting the possibility that these conversations are published in the media, even if they are regarding penally relevant circumstances. I will not discuss the other parts of the law, but what made the frog to jump out was the Article 29. It gives the possibility to any person which feels to be misrepresented on a web page, to imperatively ask the editor of that page to publish a counter-information within 24 hours, with deep consequences if not compliant. Notably enough, this process can be activated on simple request of the "offended", without the fact is judged by a magistrate.
This kind of law could be the end of all the collaborative websites, and all the free-speech forums in Italy, including this blog. It is true and unquestionable that an unfairly offended person has the right to defend his own reputation, but for this is already available a specific law which protects the honorability of each Italian citizen. Naturally, it is necessary to discuss the case in a court, as it happens in all the democratic countries of the world.
The Wikipedia Italy users felt their freedom menaced, and took a resounding decision: the Italian pages of Wikipedia have been obscured, and a open letter to Wikipedia users has been placed on the homepage. In the letter, the Wikipedia community explains the reason for the decision, and that it is a sign of protest against the abovementioned Article 29.
 |
| The Wikipedia Italia homepage, with the message to readers |
The Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), within hours from the start of the protest, gave its support (http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/10/04/regarding-recent-events-on-italian-wikipedia/); Serbian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish and many other WMF local chapters all over the world gave their solidarity to Italian Wikipedians.
On Facebook, the protest mounted at a even higher growth rate. One of the most followed ( "Rivogliamo Wikipedia - Give us back Wikipedia" https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Rivogliamo-Wikipedia-No-alla-legge-bavaglio/185745561500946) has 219.648 followers in the minutes I'm writing these lines; it was open less than 24 hours ago, and it grows at the rhythm of 1.000 new followers per minute.
The echo of protest also hit the traditional media with the power of a sandstorm. Many major newspapers, prominent radios and televisions, like Radio24 and SkyTG24 voiced the protest and made the message resounding.
It is still undisclosed when and if the Italian Wikipedia will be put online again, but one thing is acclared: the frog is out of the water.
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