Terrorism 2.0

[Tony Black]

Wired Magazine has released an article about a recent US army report into the use of 4iP interests (web 2.0, mobile and social networking technologies) by terrorist organisations in their fight against the west.

It is a truly interesting article and made me wonder 'Should we take the terrorist usability of new technologies and services born out of 4iP into account?'.

I don't for a minute think that the inventors of Twitter should be held accountable for it's use as a technology to synchronise attacks but should such outcomes be taken into consideration? Are all the new services we come up with really furthering human development and who bears the brunt of any negative effects?

There has been a lot of talk about the service which highlights bad service in hospitals throughout the UK which is a brilliant idea but does this have an adverse effect of undermining the future improvement and development of said hospitals? I realise that the aim is to spur 'bad' hospitals on to do better but if the service was a house hold name what damaging effect could naming and shaming have on hospital numbers and in return investment figures?

I'm not usually this pessimistic but the Wire article did leave me pondering these questions.

Read it at blog.wired.com/defense/2008/10/terrorist-cell.html

[Dougal Perman]

Very interesting point and certainly intriguing to see subversive use of new technology but I think that progress should never be halted due to fears that new products and services may be used for evil, not good. People will always do bad things. It's up to the good people to do bigger and better good things to counteract it, using all available platforms and technologies.

[Stuart Cosgrove]

Its a great talking point - who is to blame the knife or the perpetartor? My view is that all sorts of otherwsie innocent and unremarkabble everyday objects, tools and technologies can be used delibaretaly or unintentionally to harmful effect. You can burn yourself on a teasmaid so I wouldn't blame twitter for terrorism. Equally, you could can blame cats for the spread of allergens or describe them as lifetime friends, take your pick. I'm sure Manuel doesn't blame Radio he balmes Russell Brand. Technologies can either enrich or entrap our lives its the user's decision.