I’m going to spew a couple of cliches and some thoughts now. I’d like you to read them in context of Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, and his project, the documents being published and the public reading it.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Keep your friends close and enemies closer.
Who gate-keeps the gatekeeper?

Let me state upfront that I am in support of WikiLeaks and Assange. I think he is fast become a world wide target for governments and private entities and he needs to be protected and WikiLeaks needs to be secured.

I must also state however, that I am a journalist by trade. I have studied media theory, media law, media ethics and many, many more subjects around media and journalism. Assange is now in the business of media and publishing and has dabbled in media practices in the past (He ran an activist magazine when he was a kid) but he is, by trade, a programmer. This is scary to me. It’s scary to me that he is skilled and well-versed in technology platforms, that he is well-connected and that he is being sent some of the most sensitive information the world has every seen. Let me reiterate: Absolute power corrupts absolutely. What makes Assange different? He is no saint (I don’t even believe that saints are saints). There is no such thing as altruism, so what’s in this for Assange?

What does Assange get out of doing what he is doing? Everyone does something for a reason. There’s no such thing as a free lunch so who’s paying for Assange’s lunch? Who’s paying Assange NOT to publish their sensitive documents? What happens when Assange is bumped in to walking down the street and he launches an all out information war on the person who bumped in to him?

How much does the public really know? As well protected as WikiLeaks is, is not perhaps too open and therefore hiding something in plain sight?

I am not a conspiracy theorist but I am 100% certain that human beings are corruptible, are fallible and the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. How can we possibly put so much faith in to one human being and trust him with all of this information? I know that there is much information being published by WikiLeaks that is open to the public, but for every document being published I am sure there are thousands and thousands that are being sifted through, stored and held in the back just in case they are needed further down the line.

Again, I have to reiterate here that I am in complete support of what has been done so far by Assange and WikiLeaks but we have to be sure, as a people, not be swept up in the moment and maintain our role as public gatekeepers. Just because WikiLeaks is publishing it does not make it 100% fact, does not give anything context or relevance and does not mean that the source is reliable.

What I am calling for, I think, is a sense of ownership of information, judgement and opinion. Have your own opinion and research it, inform yourself and spread the knowledge you gain.

Charl Norman, the man behind Bandwidth blog, Blueworld Communities and many, many more local online success interviewed Vincent Maher and I recently about our company, Motribe.

Here’s the full interview (I suggest unclicking “HD” if you want the video to load faster).

The Motribe interview with Vincent Maher and Nic Harry from Bandwidth Blog on Vimeo.

The year 2010 will go down in my life’s history as one of change, definition and epiphanies. I have learned more in this one year than any other that I can recall.

Things that happened to me in 2010

I resigned from Vodacom SA.

I almost destroyed the best thing in my life. Fortunately I learn fast and she took me back.

Vincent Maher and I received Venture Capital from 4Di Capital and started our own company, Motribe.

I moved to Cape Town.

I’m doing long distance, again, with the same woman.

I was nominated as a Game Changer in the 2010 Men’s Health Man of the year awards (I didn’t win but a deserved Jon Cherry did!)

Here’s a little quote from my end of year blog post from last year:

“Next year is going to be about consolidation, establishing a platform and working off of that platform in my personal life and in my career. The killer concept next year is going to be mobile. There is no doubt about that in my mind. We are going to see some amazing mobile developments emerging out of Africa (I say Africa because the developed world still believes that mobile = iPhone).”

This year has definitely NOT been about consolidation at all. It’s been manic, hectic, insane and another cracking year for me. I was right about one thing though; this year has been about mobile and we did build a platform that we now work off of.

Continuing from last years list, here’s a my list of things for 2010:

Some of my favourite things from 2010

The rediscovery of 2010
Jen.

My favourite achievement this year

I STOPPED SMOKING!

Game
Bejeweled (iPod Touch)

Album
Mumford and Sons – Sigh No More

Song
Bon Iver – Skinny Love

TV series
How I Met Your Mother
Mad Men
Boardwalk Empire

Movie
Kick Ass

Book
SnowCrash – Neal Stephenson

Take out
Chef Pons Asian Cuisine

Restaurant
Fat Cactus

Airline
Kulula.com (2 years in a row)

Day of the week
Monday (Now that I run my own company)

Thing about Cape Town
Sunset arrives at ±8pm

Web application/Service
8tracks

Mobile application
miCoach (running application)

Website
damnyouautocorrect

Blog/lifestream
Blacknotes (2 years in a row)

Webisode
Jake and Amir (2 years in a row)

Online comic
Channelate

Tech Blog
ReadWriteWeb

Twitter personality
@JustinSpratt – Most interesting & relevant content of 2010.

Twitter stream
The Big Picture

Hobbies
Reading – New retro entry for 2010 with thanks to the next item on my list.
Acoustic guitar
Running

Gadget
Amazon Kindle

Night club
Movida

Drink
Lipton’s Peach Ice Tea

Alcoholic drink
Southern Comfort & Lime on the rocks in a tall glass

Coffee
Nespresso espresso

Event
The first African Football World Cup, held in South Africa. What a proud experience for us all.

_____

I’m not going to be making any predictions for next year. I’m pretty bad at being a “futurist” so I’ll stick to what I do know:

Mobile is the next big thing that is happening right now.
Music can cure any headache if you choose the right song.
Life will happen.

And finally some advice that I think we all can learn from 2010:

Write a diary (your chronicles) because you never who might want to make a movie about you someday.