Nerds Against Mullahs

Slashdot describes itself as news for nerds. It's a news-aggregation site and public forum - but it's really more like the lounge area in the worlds largest engineering dorm. And amid the various subspecies of geek you can often witness some of the brightest minds on the planet engaging very difficult problems with the playful curiosity and quirkiness of people that are deeply technical.

So today somebody posts: "I'm working with some dissidents who are looking for ways to use the Internet from within repressive regimes ..." and goes on to ask for technologies that will protect those dissidents and their friends on the outside when they use PCs and networks. The mullahs and other repressive regimes recognize the danger of course, and routinely restrict access as needed. So naturally enough Slashdot community responds, and chatters away about encryption, packet routing, and operating systems that won't leave a trace on a hard drive.

What just transpired here seems so ordinary since the Internet became ubiquitous. But - just maybe - information was exchanged that could assist bona fide freedom fighters to organize, receive help from the outside, and actually fight totalitarianism. In the right hands, and smartly applied, it could be more potent than years of diplomacy and posturing by leaders in the West. And consider this conversation took place over the Internet, a system originally designed to route data around nuked military assets in a Cold War nightmare scenario.

Are we too jaded to recognize this is remarkable?