xeni on digital cameras in war zones

Xeni was on NPR's Day to Day recently speaking about digital photography and wireless devices in war zones. (realaudio)

War is awful and keeping civilians from ugliness has been important to combatants since the Crimean War. Out of band information is frustrating to commanders, but perhaps informing the public and causing debate is a much greater good.

Independent of being right or wrong, ubiquitous digital cam coverage is probably unstoppable. We are nearly at the point of having $10 one megapixel cams that are good enough for documenting human rights violations. We may be getting to the point where a dozen photos are worth a regime change.

The next big thing may be wrestling with the impact of several million photoshop artists. It may be that independent cooberation of photos (several images taken from different cameras) are required to give a warm feeling of truth.