Secrets and Transparency What is Wikileaks, and what is its future?

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/pontin/26314/?ref=rss

"There is a mystery in the soul of the state ..." Troilus and Cressida (III.iii.202)

I.

How do we begin to make sense of Wikileaks, the Internet-based organization that publishes the secrets of governments and businesses? Is it the prime mover of a new era of state and corporate transparency that will open unaccountable institutions to the light of public scrutiny, abolishing the injustices that are planned in shadows? Or is Wikileaks the singular wonder of a few days?

Begin with its guiding spirit and tutelary genius. Some people like to say that Wikileaks is "bigger than Julian Assange" (who describes himself merely as the organization's "editor-in-chief"), but they have interests that are parents to the thought. They are concerned to portray Wikileaks as a popular force, or else they are embarrassed or angered by Assange, who has a talent for alienating those with whom he works. In unguarded moments, Assange himself is more candid. In an online chat with one disgruntled Wikileaks volunteer—a transcript of which was leaked to the New York Times—he summarized the blunt facts: "I am the heart and soul of this organization, its founder, philosopher, spokesperson, original coder, organizer, financier, and all the rest." If we want to describe what Wikileaks is and what it is not, we must start with its creator.