Catherine Bracy: Why good hackers make good citizens

翻译人员: Zhiting Chen 校对人员: Geoff Chen

I'm going to talk about hackers.

今天我要谈的是有关黑客的话题。

And the image that comes to your mind

当我说到“黑客”这个词的时候

when I say that word is probably not

你脑中所出现的画面可能不会是

of Benjamin Franklin,

本杰明·富兰克林，

but I'm going to explain to you why it should be.

但我想要告诉你， 为什么应该是富兰克林。

The image that comes to your mind

你脑中出现的画面

is probably more likely of a pasty kid

估计是一个面色苍白的年轻人

sitting in a basement doing something mischievous,

在地下室里做坏事

or of a shady criminal who is trying to steal your identity,

他可能要盗用你的身份，

or of an international rogue

或者进行有政治意图的

with a political agenda.

跨国诈骗。

And mainstream culture has kind of fed this idea

主流文化告诉我们

that hackers are people that we should be afraid of.

黑客是我们应当害怕 并且远离的人群。

But like most things in technology

但是，在科技世界里的

and the technology world,

大部分科技活动，

hacking has equal power for good as it has for evil.

黑客制造福祉 和破坏的能力是等同的。

For every hacker that's trying to steal your identity

有个在试图盗用你身份的黑客

there's one that's building a tool

同时就有一个黑客在创建

that will help you find your loved ones after a disaster

可以帮助你在灾难后寻找亲人的工具，

or to monitor environmental quality

或者在漏油事件后

after an oil spill.

监控环境质量的工具。

Hacking is really just any amateur innovation

黑客行为真的只是一种对现有系统

on an existing system,

的业余创新行为，

and it is a deeply democratic activity.

并且是一种影响深远的民主活动，

It's about critical thinking.

它与批判性思维有关，

It's about questioning existing ways of doing things.

它也与挑战现有的处事方式有关。

It's the idea that if you see a problem, you work to fix it,

主要的意义是，当你发现问题，

你不是仅仅在旁边抱怨， 而是会找到方法去解决问题。

and not just complain about it.

And in many ways, hacking is what built America.

从某种程度上来说， 黑客行为建立了美国，

Betsy Ross was a hacker.

贝琪·罗斯是一个黑客。 （译者注：她设计并缝制了美国第一面国旗）

The Underground Railroad was a brilliant hack.

地铁的设计是一个绝妙的黑客发明。

And from the Wright brothers to Steve Jobs,

从怀特兄弟到史蒂夫·乔布斯，

hacking has always been at the foundation

黑客行为一直是美国

of American democracy.

民主的基石。

So if there's one thing I want to leave you here with today,

所以今天，我想要告诉你们最重要的是，

it's that the next time you think about who a hacker is,

下次当你们想黑客是什么样的时候，

you think not of this guy

你不要想到这个家伙，

but of this guy, Benjamin Franklin,

而是这位先生，本杰明·富兰克林，

who was one of the greatest hackers of all time.

他是史上最伟大的黑客。

He was one of America's most prolific inventors,

他是美国最多产的发明家之一，

though he famously never filed a patent,

尽管他不曾有一个专利，

because he thought that all human knowledge

因为他认为，人类的知识发明

should be freely available.

应免费共享。

He brought us bifocals and the lightning rod,

他发明了双光眼镜和避雷针，

and of course there was his collaboration

当然，他还协助建立了

on the invention of American democracy.

美国民主制度。

And in Code For America, we really try to embody

我所在的机构“为美国编程”（ code for america）

the spirit of Ben Franklin.

就尝试去实践本杰明 · 富兰克林的精神。

He was a tinkerer and a statesman

他是一位多面手和政治家，

whose conception of citizenship

他认为，作为公民

was always predicated on action.

需要将公民的想法付诸行动。

He believed that government could be built

他认为政府可以

by the people,

由人民建立，

and we call those people civic hackers.

我们称呼这些人为公民黑客。

So it's no wonder that the values

所以不足为奇的是

that underly a healthy democracy,

支撑起健康的民主机制的价值基石，

like collaboration and empowerment

像协作和赋予权力、

and participation and enterprise,

参与和创业精神，

are the same values that underly the Internet.

和互联网的价值基石是同样的。

And so it's no surprise that many hackers

所以不令人意外的是，很多骇客

are turning their attention to the problem of government.

把注意力转向政府的问题。

But before I give you a few examples

但在我给你举几个例子

of what civic hacking looks like,

告诉你什么是公民黑客之前，

I want to make clear that you don't have

我想要清楚地告诉你，

to be a programmer to be a civic hacker.

你不需要先成为一名程序员才能做公民黑客。

You just have to believe that you can bring

你只需要相信，你可以

a 21st-century tool set to bear

用 21 世纪的现代工具来解决

on the problems that government faces.

政府面临着的问题。

And we hear all the time from our community

我们时常发现，我们

of civic hackers at Code for America

“为美国编程”社群的公民黑客

that they didn't understand how much nontechnical work

并不懂到底有多少非技术性工作

actually went into civic hacking projects.

进入民间黑客项目。

So keep that in mind.

因此，请记住，

All of you are potential civic hackers.

你们都有可能成为公民黑客。

So what does civic hacking look like?

公民黑客是怎样的呢？

Our team last year in Honolulu,

我们团队去年在檀香山，

which in this case was three full-time fellows

这三位都是全职雇员，

who were doing a year of public service,

他们正在担任为期一年的公职，

were asked by the city to rebuild the website.

工作是按市政府的要求重建网站。

And it's a massive thing of tens of thousands of pages

它是成千上万页面的大规模工作，

which just wasn't going to be possible

这工作，在他们仅有的几个月时间内

in the few months that they had.

是不可能完成的。

So instead, they decided to build a parallel site

所以，他们决定建立一个平行的网站

that better conformed to how citizens actually

更好地符合公民实际上

want to interact with information on a city website.

想要从城市网站上 汲取信息的需求。

They're looking for answers to questions,

他们在寻找答案，

and they want to take action when they're done,

他们想要在网站做好的时候人们可以有实际的行动

which is really hard to do from a site

从这样的一个网站

that looks like this.

真的很难。

So our team built Honolulu Answers,

随后我们的团队搭建了“檀香山答案”，

which is a super-simple search interface

它是一个超简单的搜索界面，

where you enter a search term or a question

你只需要输入搜索词或一个问题，

and get back plain language answers

就可以得到用平实语言写成的答案，

that drive a user towards action.

这驱使用户继续使用。

Now the site itself was easy enough to build,

网站本身是容易建成的，

but the team was faced with the challenge

但团队面临的挑战是

of how they populate all of the content.

他们如何填充所有内容。

It would have taken the three of them

这将会占用他们三个人

a very long time,

很长的时间，

especially given that none of them are actually from Honolulu.

特别是在他们都不是 檀香山本地人的情况下。

And so they did something that's really radical,

所以他们做了一件真的很前卫的事，

when you think about how government

之所以这么讲，是因为

is used to working.

要他们颠覆了人们关于政府该如何运作的想象

They asked citizens to write the content.

他们要求公民自己书写内容。

So you've heard of a hack-a-thon.

你应该听说过“编程马拉松” (hack-a-thon)。

They held a write-a-thon,

他们举行了“书写马拉松” (write-a-thon)，

where on one Saturday afternoon --

在某个星期六的下午 --

("What do I do about wild pigs being a nuisance?") (Laughter) —

("野猪被人讨厌要怎么办?")（笑声）--

Wild pigs are a huge problem in Honolulu, apparently.

在檀香山，野猪显然是个大问题。

In one Saturday afternoon,

在星期六的下午，

they were able to populate most of the content

他们能够书写填充大部分内容

for most of the frequently asked questions,

以解答大多数的常见问题，

but more importantly than that,

但比这更重要的是，

they created a new way for citizens to participate in their government.

他们创造了公民参与政府互动的新途径。

Now, I think this is a really cool story in and of itself,

我觉得这本身就是一个很酷的故事，

but it gets more awesome.

它变得越来越棒。

On the National Day of Civic Hacking

今年的公民黑客日

this past June in Oakland, where I live,

在六月时，在我居住的奥克兰举办，

the Code For America team in Oakland

“为美国编程”团队在奥克兰

took the open source code base of Honolulu Answers

采取了开放“檀香山答案”源码的代码

and turned it into Oakland Answers,

并把它变成了“奥克兰答案”，

and again we held a write-a-thon

于是我们再次举行“书写马拉松”，

where we took the most frequently asked questions

我们收集了最常见的问题，

and had citizens write the answers to them,

并号召市民做出解答，

and I got into the act.

随后我开始行动。

I authored this answer, and a few others.

我和其他几个人创作了这个答案。

And I'm trying to this day to articulate

这一天我试图感觉到

the sense of empowerment and responsibility

我对所生活居住的城市

that I feel for the place that I live

有被赋予权力和责任的滋味，

based simply on this small act of participation.

这样的感受只是基于 参与活动这件这小小的举动。

And by stitching together my small act

把我的小小行动和

with the thousands of other small acts of participation

成千上万人参与的 小小行动加在一起

that we're enabling through civic hacking,

我们就有能力通过公民黑客行为，

we think we can reenergize citizenship

重振公民权利，

and restore trust in government.

并且恢复对政府的信任。

At this point, you may be wondering

此时，你可能会想

what city officials think of all this.

市政公务人员会如何看待这一切。

They actually love it.

他们很喜欢。

As most of you guys know, cities are being asked

你们中大部分人知道，

every day to do more with less,

人们每天期待着 城市能花小钱办大事，

and they're always looking for innovative solutions

他们一直在寻找 创新的解决方案

to entrenched problems.

来处理这根深蒂固的问题。

So when you give citizens a way to participate

所以，当你给予公民参与的路径

beyond attending a town hall meeting,

除了出席市政厅会议以外的路径，

cities can actually capture

城市实际上可以汲取

the capacity in their communities

居住在这里的社群的能力

to do the business of government.

来为政府出谋划策。

Now I don't want to leave the impression

我不想留下这样的印象

that civic hacking is just an American phenomenon.

公民黑客只是美国才会出现的现象。

It's happening across the globe,

在全球其他地区也在发生着，

and one of my favorite examples

我最喜欢的例子之一

is from Mexico City, where earlier this year,

是墨西哥城，今年年初，

the Mexico House of Representatives

墨西哥众议院的代表

entered into a contract with a software development firm

与一个软件开发公司签订了合同，

to build an app that legislators would use

要建立一个应用程序，

to track bills.

使议员能够用来跟进条例草案。

So this was just for the handful of legislators

这只是为少数几个

in the House.

在众议院的议员。

And the contract was a two-year contract

合同为期两年,

for 9.3 million dollars.

数额为 930 万美金。

Now a lot of people were really angry about this,

很多人都对这件事表示很生气，

especially geeks who knew that 9.3 million dollars

特别是程序员们知道，

was an absolutely outrageous amount of money

要写这样一个非常简单的应用程序

for what was a very simple app.

930 万绝对是夸张到令人愤慨的高昂报价。

But instead of taking to the streets,

但他们没有走上街头抗议，

they issued a challenge.

而是发出了挑战。

They asked programmers in Mexico

他们要求在墨西哥的程序员们

to build something better and cheaper,

创建出更好且更便宜的程序，

and they offered a prize of 9,300 dollars --

他们提供的奖金是 9300 美元 --

10,000 times cheaper

比政府合同

than the government contract,

便宜一万倍，

and they gave the entrants 10 days.

他们给参赛者 10 天时间。

And in those 10 days,

在那十天里，

they submitted 173 apps,

参赛者共提交了 173 个应用程序，

five of which were presented to Congress

其中五个被筛选出来送往议会，

and are still in the app store today.

目前仍然能够在苹果在线商店看到它们。

And because of this action,

因为这一行动，

that contract was vacated,

该合同被撤销了，

and now this has sparked a movement in Mexico City

在墨西哥城，现在 这行动引发了一场运动，

which is home to one of our partners,

这是我们另一个伙伴的故事，

Code for Mexico City.

“为墨西哥城编程”。

And so what you see in all three of these places,

你在这三个地方可以看到的是，

in Honolulu and in Oakland and in Mexico City,

它们是檀香山，奥克兰和墨西哥城，

are the elements that are at the core of civic hacking.

公民黑客核心要素的组成部分。

It's citizens who saw things that could be working better

公民看到可改进的地方

and they decided to fix them,

于是决定要修复它们，

and through that work, they're creating

通过这项工作，他们正在创建

a 21st-century ecosystem of participation.

参与政务的 21 世纪生态系统。

They're creating a whole new set of ways

他们正在创建一套全新的方法

for citizens to be involved,

让公民参与，

besides voting or signing a petition or protesting.

除了投票、签署请愿书 或抗议之外的政治参与行动，

They can actually build government.

实际上，他们可以建立政府。

So back to our friend Ben Franklin,

所以回到我们的朋友 本杰明·富兰克林，

who, one of his lesser-known accomplishments

他不那么鲜为人知的成就之一

was that in 1736 he founded

就是于 1736 年，他在费城创立了

the first volunteer firefighting company in Philadelphia,

第一个志愿性的消防公司，

called a brigade.

叫作“消防小分队“。

And it's because he and his friends noticed

这是因为他和他的朋友们注意到

that the city was having trouble keeping up

城市所遇到的麻烦

with all the fires that were happening in the city,

通常与在城市内着火有关，

so in true civic hacker fashion,

正是因为他们有公民黑客的潜质才能这样做，

they built a solution.

他们建立了一个解决方案。

And we have our own brigades at Code for America

我们在“为美国编程” 组织内也有自己的旅

working on the projects that I've just described,

从事我刚才所描述的工作，

and we want to ask you

我们希望你

to follow in Ben Franklin's footsteps

能够跟随本杰明·富兰克林的脚步，

and come join us.

来加入我们。

We have 31 brigades in the U.S.

我们在美国有 31 个旅，

We are pleased to announce today

今天我们很高兴地宣布

that we're opening up the brigade to international cities

我们的“小分队”要向国际城市开放

for the first time,

这是第一次发生的事，

starting with cities in Poland and Japan and Ireland.

我们开始与波兰、日本 还有爱尔兰等城市合作，

You can find out if there's a brigade where you live

你可以在 brigade.codeforamerica.org 这网页

at brigade.codeforamerica.org,

找出在你居住的地方是否有一个旅，

and if there's not a brigade where you live, we will help you.

如果你居住的地方没有旅，我们将帮助你，

We've created a tool kit which also lives

我们已经创建了一个工具包，也可以在

at brigade.codeforamerica.org,

brigade.codeforamerica.org 这网站上找到，

and we will support you along the way.

我们会支持你一路向前。

Our goal is to create a global network of civic hackers

我们的目标是创建 一个公民黑客的全球网络，

who are innovating on the existing system

其中聚合所有试图 在现有系统上做出创新的人，

in order to build tools that will solve

为了生成能够解决

entrenched problems,

根深蒂固的问题的工具，

that will support local government,

能够用于帮助地方政府，

and that will empower citizens.

能够用于提高公民被赋予的力量。

So please come hack with us.

所以请来和我们一起当黑客。

Thank you.

谢谢。

(Applause)

（掌声）