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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，
and not just complain about it.
你不是仅仅在旁边抱怨，而是会找到方法去解决问题。
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。
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”
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。
