GlobalSecurity.org

210px
URL	www.GlobalSecurity.org
Commercial?	Yes
Type of site	News site
Registration	Only for forums
Available language(s)	English
Created by	John E. Pike
Launched	2000
Alexa rank	25,469 (June 2012[update])[1]
Revenue	Advertisements
Current status	Active

GlobalSecurity.org is a public policy organization focusing on the fields of defense, space exploration, intelligence, weapons of mass destruction and homeland security. The organization's office is located in Alexandria, Virginia. The organization was founded in 2000 by John E. Pike, who serves as its director.

The organization's website provides news and analysis on weapons systems and industry, as well as guides and directories of military and space related programs, entities, and facilities. GlobalSecurity.org also provides political documents, including legislative reports, political debates, hearings, and other materials, some of which is available online elsewhere, but which GlobalSecurity.org states that it processes and collates to make more accessible to its readers.

The website aims at news reporters, but also policymakers and the public. The website is behind a MyPressPlus paywall. Eight articles are free per month, beyond which a monthly subscription fee of $9.95 is charged.

The website is known for its "Where are the Carriers?" page, which gives status reports as to the whereabouts of U.S. aircraft carriers. Forbes.com reviewed the site as part of their "Best of the Web" directory. While praising GlobalSecurity.org for its "depth of military information" it criticized the basic graphics and that the site contained some dead links.^[2]

History[link]

GlobalSecurity.org, created in 2000, was originally a fork of http://www.fas.org, the website of the Federation of American Scientists, the former employer of GlobalSecurity.org's founder, John E. Pike. It uses some of Pike's content originally on the FAS site.^[3]

References[link]

External links[link]

• GlobalSecurity.org

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The Open Rights Group (ORG) is a UK-based organisation that works to preserve digital rights and freedoms by campaigning on digital rights issues, acting as a media clearinghouse service putting journalists in touch with experts, and by fostering a community of grassroots activists. It campaigns against digital rights management (DRM), the extension of the term of copyright protection afforded to sound recordings, e-voting, and numerous other issues.

History[link]

The organisation was started by Danny O'Brien, Cory Doctorow, Ian Brown, Rufus Pollock, James Cronin, Stefan Magdalinski, Louise Ferguson and Suw Charman after a panel discussion at Open Tech 2005.^[1] O'Brien created a pledge on PledgeBank, placed on 23 July 2005, with a deadline of 25 December 2005: "I will create a standing order of 5 pounds per month to support an organisation that will campaign for digital rights in the UK but only if 1,000 other people will too." The pledge reached 1000 people on 29 November 2005.^[2],[3] The Open Rights Group was launched at a "sell-out" meeting in Soho, London.^[4][5]

Work[link]

The group has made submissions to the All Party Internet Group (APIG) inquiry into digital rights management^[6],[7] and the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property^[8],[9].

The group was honoured in the 2008 Privacy International Big Brother Awards alongside No2ID, Liberty, Genewatch UK and others, as a recognition of their efforts to keep state and corporate mass surveillance at bay^[10].

In 2010 the group worked with 38 Degrees^[11] to oppose the introduction of the Digital Economy Act, which was passed in April 2010.^[12]

Goals[link]

• To raise awareness in the media of digital rights abuses.
• To provide a media clearinghouse, connecting journalists with experts and activists.
• To preserve and extend traditional civil liberties in the digital world.
• To collaborate with other digital rights and related organisations.
• To nurture a community of campaigning volunteers, from grassroots activists to technical and legal experts.

Areas of interest[link]

The organisation, though focused on the impact of digital technology on the liberty of UK citizens, operates with an apparently wide range of interests within that category. Its interests include^[13][14]:

Access to knowledge[link]

• Copyright
  • The public domain
  • Free and open source software
  • Creative Commons
• Digital Restrictions Management
• Software patents
• Crown copyright

Government and democracy[link]

• Electronic voting
• Freedom of information legislation

Privacy, surveillance and censorship[link]

• Automatic Vehicle Tracking
• Police DNA Records
• NHS patients’ medical database
• Communications data retention
• Identity management
• RFID
• Net Neutrality

Structure[link]

ORG has a paid staff^[15], whose members include:

• Jim Killock (Executive Director)
• Peter Bradwell (Campaigner)
• Javier Ruiz Diaz (Campaigner)

Former staff include Suw Charman-Anderson and Becky Hogge, both Executive Directors, e-voting coordinator Jason Kitcat, grassroots campaigner Katie Sutton and administrator Katerina Maniadaki^[16]. The group's patron is Neil Gaiman^[17]. As of February 2011 they have 22,000 supporters of which 1,400 are paying contributors^[18]

Advisory council and board of directors[link]

In addition to staff members and volunteers, there is an advisory panel of over thirty members, and a Board of Directors, which oversees the group's work, staff, fundraising and policy^[19]. The current board members are Emma Byrne, Simon Collister, James Cronin, Ben Laurie, Neil McGovern, Harry Metcalfe, Danny O'Brien and Vijay Sodiwala.

ORGCON[link]

ORGCON was the first ever conference dedicated to digital rights in the UK^[20], marketed as "a crash course in digital rights". It was held on 24 July 2010 at City University in London and included keynote talks from Cory Doctorow, politicians and similar pressure groups including Liberty, NO2ID and Big Brother Watch.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Open Rights Group website

See also[link]

• Digital Rights Ireland
• Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Electronic Frontiers Australia
• Electronic Frontier Canada
• Internet censorship
• Open Genealogy Alliance
• OpenMedia.ca