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I'm going to talk about hackers.
今天我要談的是有關黑客的話題。
And the image that comes to your mind
當我說到“黑客”這個詞的時候
when I say that word is probably not
你腦中所出現的畫面可能不會是
of Benjamin Franklin,
本杰明·富蘭克林，
but I'm going to explain to you why it should be.
但我想要告訴你，為什么應該是富蘭克林。
The image that comes to your mind
你腦中出現的畫面
is probably more likely of a pasty kid
估計是一個面色蒼白的年輕人
sitting in a basement doing something mischievous,
在地下室里做壞事
or of a shady criminal who is trying to steal your identity,
他可能要盜用你的身份，
or of an international rogue
或者進行有政治意圖的
with a political agenda.
跨國詐騙。
And mainstream culture has kind of fed this idea
主流文化告訴我們
that hackers are people that we should be afraid of.
黑客是我們應當害怕，并且遠離的人群。
But like most things in technology
但是，在科技世界里的
and the technology world,
大部分科技活動，
hacking has equal power for good as it has for evil.
黑客制造福祉，和破壞的能力是等同的。
For every hacker that's trying to steal your identity
有個在試圖盜用你身份的黑客
there's one that's building a tool
同時就有一個黑客在創建
that will help you find your loved ones after a disaster
可以幫助你在災難后尋找親人的工具，
or to monitor environmental quality
或者在漏油事件后
after an oil spill.
監控環境質量的工具。
Hacking is really just any amateur innovation
黑客行為真的只是一種對現有系統
on an existing system,
的業余創新行為，
and it is a deeply democratic activity.
并且是一種影響深遠的民主活動，
It's about critical thinking.
它與批判性思維有關，
It's about questioning existing ways of doing things.
它也與挑戰現有的處事方式有關。
It's the idea that if you see a problem, you work to fix it,
主要的意義是，當你發現問題，
and not just complain about it.
你不是僅僅在旁邊抱怨，而是會找到方法去解決問題。
And in many ways, hacking is what built America.
從某種程度上來說，黑客行為建立了美國，
Betsy Ross was a hacker.
貝琪·羅斯是一個黑客。
The Underground Railroad was a brilliant hack.
地鐵的設計是一個絕妙的黑客發明。
And from the Wright brothers to Steve Jobs,
從懷特兄弟到史蒂夫·喬布斯，
hacking has always been at the foundation
黑客行為一直是美國
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，我想要告訴你們最重要的是，
it's that the next time you think about who a hacker is,
下次當你們想黑客是什么樣的時候，
you think not of this guy
你不要想到這個家伙，
but of this guy, Benjamin Franklin,
而是這位先生，本杰明·富蘭克林，
who was one of the greatest hackers of all time.
他是史上最偉大的黑客。
He was one of America's most prolific inventors,
他是美國最多產的發明家之一，
though he famously never filed a patent,
盡管他不曾有一個專利，
because he thought that all human knowledge
因為他認為，人類的知識發明
should be freely available.
應免費共享。
He brought us bifocals and the lightning rod,
他發明了雙光眼鏡和避雷針，
and of course there was his collaboration
當然，他還協助建立了
on the invention of American democracy.
美國民主制度。
And in Code For America, we really try to embody
我所在的機構“為美國編程”
the spirit of Ben Franklin.
就嘗試去實踐本杰明·富蘭克林的精神。
He was a tinkerer and a statesman
他是一位多面手和政治家，
whose conception of citizenship
他認為，作為公民
was always predicated on action.
需要將公民的想法付諸行動。
He believed that government could be built
他認為政府可以
by the people,
由人民建立，
and we call those people civic hackers.
我們稱呼這些人為公民黑客。
So it's no wonder that the values
所以不足為奇的是
that underly a healthy democracy,
支撐起健康的民主機制的價值基石，
like collaboration and empowerment
像協作和賦予權力、
and participation and enterprise,
參與和創業精神，
are the same values that underly the Internet.
和互聯網的價值基石是同樣的。
And so it's no surprise that many hackers
所以不令人意外的是，很多駭客
are turning their attention to the problem of government.
把注意力轉向政府的問題。
But before I give you a few examples
但在我給你舉幾個例子
of what civic hacking looks like,
告訴你什么是公民黑客之前，
I want to make clear that you don't have
我想要清楚地告訴你，
to be a programmer to be a civic hacker.
你不需要先成為一名程序員才能做公民黑客。
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世紀的現代工具來解決
on the problems that government faces.
政府面臨著的問題。
And we hear all the time from our community
我們時常發現，我們
of civic hackers at Code for America
“為美國編程”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術性工作
actually went into civic hacking projects.
進入民間黑客項目。
So keep that in mind.
因此，請記住，
All of you are potential civic hackers.
你們都有可能成為公民黑客。
So what does civic hacking look like?
公民黑客是怎樣的呢？
Our team last year in Honolulu,
我們團隊去年在檀香山，
which in this case was three full-time fellows
這三位都是全職雇員，
who were doing a year of public service,
他們正在擔任為期一年的公職，
were asked by the city to rebuild the website.
工作是按市政府的要求重建網站。
And it's a massive thing of tens of thousands of pages
它是成千上萬頁面的大規模工作，
which just wasn't going to be possible
這工作，在他們僅有的幾個月時間內
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，他們決定建立一個平行的網站
that better conformed to how citizens actually
更好地符合公民實際上
want to interact with information on a city website.
想要從城市網站上，汲取信息的需求。
They're looking for answers to questions,
他們在尋找答案，
and they want to take action when they're done,
他們想要在網站做好的時候人們可以有實際的行動
which is really hard to do from a site
從這樣的一個網站
that looks like this.
真的很難。
So our team built Honolulu Answers,
隨后我們的團隊搭建了“檀香山答案”，
which is a super-simple search interface
它是一個超簡單的搜索界面，
where you enter a search term or a question
你只需要輸入搜索詞或一個問題，
and get back plain language answers
就可以得到用平實語言寫成的答案，
that drive a user towards action.
這驅使用戶繼續使用。
