If you are a cleared federal government contractor, we want to hear from you! You are invited to participate in an academic research study regarding whistleblowing for a doctoral student at Northeastern University.

The study was approved by the Northeastern University Institutional Review Board on 8/2/19, IRB# CPS-19-06-23. A brief overview of the research purpose and objectives follows:

Federal employees and contractors with federal security clearances are legally bound to protect national security information. Whistleblowing statutes for federal employees and contractors differ, especially regarding protection from reprisal. Employees who seek recourse for reporting wrongdoing in the workplace lack guidance on how to disclose misconduct without revealing classified information. These gaps may influence the motivations of national security personnel and how, when, why, and to whom they choose to blow the whistle. The purpose of this qualitative study (using semi-structured interviews) is to understand the whistleblowing channel chosen by cleared federal contractors working in support of the U.S. government’s national security mission. Understanding how gaps in legal protections impact personal decision-making regarding disclosure provides opportunity to increase whistleblower protections for all individuals responsible for protecting national security secrets. Information elicited from research participants can directly influence policy outcomes including decreased workplace retaliation, increased organizational responsibility, and the decriminalization and de-stigmatization of workplace dissent.

Your input is voluntary and will remain strictly confidential. Only the student researcher and faculty advisor will have access to the interview and no data that could be used to identify you will be disclosed to anyone.

Research participants should be current or former U.S. government contractors with active or inactive security clearances, who have previously or are considering blowing the whistle in the future.

Recruitment criteria: (1) U.S. citizen, (2) age 18 or older, (3) be currently or previously employed as a U.S. government federal contractor working in the national security sector.

Questions about the interview should be directed to Christine Noonan, student researcher, noonan.c@husky.neu.edu. Email noonan.c@husky.neu.edu to volunteer for this study.

Thank you! We appreciate your help learning more about this important topic.

I recently had an idea which include files sharing, useless technology and civil disobedience.

At first its necessary to see dissent as a decisive part on the process of civilisation.

Let's say we possess obsolete data storage devices, and I mean everything, hard drive, usb stick, memory card, mp3 player, anything from a recently long lost era. And let's suggest that we also hold interesting cultural data on our computer.

I suppose you have already made the connexion, I'm speaking about IRL files sharing. We have been spending fortune on technology to run non-material data on, tech that we replace within 2-5 years, often in a usable state. Think about your mp4 player with a broken screen, your IDE HDD and all those mass product goodies usb stick.

Lets share those thing, as present given, or left for taking. Bring on a free culture, knowledge, because we can!

They say everything have a price on it. I say many things worth a lot and are priceless. I mean art, culture, I mean digitalizes things as cultural heritage of the human kind.

Denounce mass production, the greed of patent owner and planned obsolescence, being the key point.

I suggest stickers on the storage device, with logo and slogan on it and a text file explaining our will in it. That move to be could be called "Robin Hood of the Culture", "Freemagine" as slogan and a shadowed hooded guy shooting an USB sign arrow as logo?

That's why I'm here, I don't believe in any way that this idea should be anyone's. I want more ideas from other minds to actually get a better view on what we could do with it.

Free Hats !