Mary Joyce is a dedicated democracy activist, with whom we’re collaborating on the P2P Toolkit project, which aims to compile a mini-handbook of the best collaborative and open source technologies for activists (the project is just starting).

She recently blogged about her proposed Google-bombing campaign:

“A creative new method is being undertaken to free jailed Egyptian blogger Alaa Abdel Fatah. A group of concerned blogger/activists is trying to start a global Google-bombing exercise. The goal? When someone googles the “Egypt,” instead of getting a story about tourism or the British Museum, they will find the Free Alaa blog at the top of their screen.”

This is a method that is problematic, since it manipulates a public resource for temporary political gain and the very first comment on her blog entry, echoes a similar feeling. I wrote the following email as well:

“Dear Mary:

I’m going to disappoint you. I share the feelings of the first commentator of the page. It is quite a morally contentious issue to distort the workings of a public resource, for a short term political goal. Now, I understand why you do it, and many many people with resources of course try to improve their rankings, that’s how you exist in cyberspace, but, when you go from the personal handicrafting to such a massive campaign, the manipulation changes in nature. What makes sense to you as an individual activist, becomes counterproductive is you have copycats. It’s an example of the tragedy of the commons.

Now, I understand the motivation, and perhaps it is worth the goal of saving that one person, but assuming its succeeds, the countermeasures that Google can take, which include the banning of your resource from the search rankings –in that, your first commentator is right– would make it a temporary strategy at best .”

In any case, we hope the best for Alaa Abdel Fatah.
Michel Bauwens