Creative Synthesis

Inspired by the same interface and knowledge-sharing model as Wikipedia, Wikileaks plans to provide an uncensorable, anonymous forum for sharing information about corrupt or immoral actions in the public realm.  Wikileaks will make leaked documents available for public review and host investigative articles exploring government and corporate practices and discussions related to specific documents and issues.  The site’s creators cite the impact of the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War as an example of the potential for publicly-released “mass documents” to increased awareness among laypeople and a new approach to policy-making–brought about largely by increased transparency–among officials.

Though still in development, Wikileaks has made some analysis available (to some extent to provide an example of how the system will work) and has helped share videos of recent protests in Tibet against the government of China.   The site has also faced challenges–most notably by the Julius Baer Bank and Trust, which argued that leaking of documents by a former employee violated a confidentiality agreement.