The topic of the Exclusive Excerpt by Micah L. Sirify features the Age of Transparency. All the ends of our world are becoming more interactive through the use of transparency. People in every community are becoming more engaged in gathering, sharing, and using information for their advantages. Politicians, corporations, and the like are being leveraged against to do the right things because the public is able to see what goes on from information they can attain from online communities such as the Huffington Post and WikiLeaks.

The Huffington Post is a news source on the Internet. It features news from around the world, blogs, and videos. In sharing such information, it creates a community for people with Internet access to join together and share what is going on. That being said, I think the Exclusive Excerpt was published on the Huffington Post because the subject matter is based on how we are at a period of time that technology (such as the Internet) has changed our politics, knowledge, and communities.

WikiLeaks is not a Wiki because it is not a website that can be added to and edited by anyone that has access to Internet. It is a media organization powered by online reporters who receive data and information then release a news story to go along with the intelligence provided. I know this based on WikiLeaks’ About page. This is important because the information on featured on WikiLeaks exposes controversial and high-security sensitive topics. If an article is being written to expose a politician or a government policy, then it should be accurate and supported. If WikiLeaks was a Wiki, then the people who do damage control could fix the information in their favor. In order to make more people informed about our world, accurate transparency is needed.

The main point of Sifry is that we are currently in an age of transparency and it is not going away. Technologically, we are in position to connect with so many people and just as much information with very little effort. We are becoming a tighter knit global community with more people standing up to stir up change against politics and businesses who hide things from people they are supposed to be working for. His point in this excerpt makes a convincing case relative to the audience of the Huffington Post. He wisely reaches out to people that have access to Internet and are interested in changing the world and making a difference. I liked that by touching upon the technology and the issues of social and political change, readers (like myself) feel even more motivated to be aware, proactive, curious, and courageous. The one thing I did not like about Sifry’s argument was at the end of the excerpt. He advises readers about privacy on the Internet. I think it’s there to help remind people that although we are in the age where information is easily shared, we have to remember to protect what we don’t want out there. I didn’t like this part of his argument because I would imagine that readers of his work, WikiLeaks, and the Huffington Post would already be aware of such a thing.

Since Micah Sifry is a co-founder of the Personal Democracy Forum and editor of its blog, techPresident.com, it appears he takes great interest in politics. Based on his websites and the information in his article, his focus is on how technology has affected politics. He seems very active in politics and reform. With his participation of sharing information and changing the face of politics, I think he is qualified to write about WikiLeaks, Assange, and this age of transparency.