I did an interesting experiment last week related to all this WikiLeaks buzz. I’ve been following the story for a while, as it’s interesting from a blogging perspective.

As an entrepreneur, and someone who’s managed through crisis’, I know that NOT EVERYONE needs to know EVERYTHING all of the time. In most cases, people can’t handle the truth. If we all knew how close the world was to utter disaster on a weekly basis, we’d probably all be going gray like most incoming Presidents seem to in their first few months of office.

While I admire the WikiLeaks ‘mantra’ of open, accountable government, I don’t like the guerilla-style attacks that all of these “anonymous” hackers have initiated in conjunction with attempts to stop the flow of confidential information. Granted, I think many of these so called hackers are not in any way related to WikiLeaks or Anonymous. I think they are probably just frustrated or bored.

I also really didn’t like that I published one blog post asking whether or not WikiLeaks was good or bad, and subsequently got hit by a denial of service attack that left me out of business for some 30 hours last week.

While this attack may not have even been related to anything “WikiLeaks”, it did cost me thousands of dollars and a whole bunch of frustration. Talk about gray hair.

What was really interesting, and great to see – because I was in crisis (ie: needing to bring some 15,000 blogs back live after being crushed by hackers or spammers), was that there are TONS of really talented techies out there.

I was encourage by the prospect of how much good can come when people on the web come together.

I won’t list the companies and individuals that helped bring our site back (I don’t want any trouble for them), but the collaboration was amazing.

Individuals in Florida, Maine and India worked together via Skype to troubleshoot and bring back our injured servers. In real-time, they worked together to solve a complex problem.

While the whole thing was going on, and while I was really wishing I had never mentioned WikiLeaks in my blog, I was able to catch an interview from Julian Assange, WikiLeak’s founder as he was being released from prison. While I don’t agree with his tactics, I did agree with something he said.

(Paraphrased)

“Think of all the people who have no voice, who sit in prison with no hope, no legal team and no press coverage to help them out. Use my situation to bring attention to them…

Having spent some time in the 3rd world, I know that we as Americans have it pretty darn good. Our suffering is generally minimal. Justice and aid is usually not that far off. This is not so for many people. There are people right now that lay dying, sick, persecuted and hopeless.

An idea began to form. Why not come together in this world of open information, social networking and revolutionary spirit to do real good in the world. Rather than being angry, why not be helpful.

Instead of WikiLeaks, why not WikiPeace.

Spread the word.

P.S. Please don’t hack me or hit me with a denial of service attack. I get it, you can cause trouble. If you are that talented, I probably have a really, really good job for you.

I first heard about WikiLeaks about a year after they published this video (Warning, very graphic) about what looks like a mass military take-down of lots of Iraqi’s by U.S. forces.

Like most things like this on the web, I seriously questioned the validity of this video and the site itself. I believe in the freedom of expression, and of course our right as Americans to question authority, but the whole thing seemed a little ‘conspiracy theory’ to take seriously.

Now, this global tug-of-war for Julian Assange has brought WikiLeaks to the forefront of the media once again.

Whether or not you agree with Assange or not, the whole thing does raise some interesting questions.

WikiLeaks - does it help keep governments open?

Earlier this week, the powers that be shut down WikiLeaks.com. This apparently didn’t stop Assange, who had a contingency plan. Now the site is popping up in hundreds of new places (called mirrors), put up by individuals all over the world. It seems it is nearly impossible to stop.

Assange was recently detained in Britain, which  triggered a new move. He’s threatened to release a “Doomsday Package” that unleashes all kinds of new materials that expose some kind of database of new ‘secrets’. It uses 256 bit encryption to secure it, so apparently even the best hackers can’t open it.

Dead or alive, free or imprisoned, Assange has found a way to get this information to the world.

I’ve tried to read through some of the ‘cables’ and don’t see much other than a large amount of technical incident reports. Apparently, it’s meaningful to some people, as it’s creating quite a stir.

Either way, has Assange gone too far under the banner of  ”Freedom of Speech”, or is this widespread access to information somehow useful to the advancement of society?