I got an email from a representative of Tucson Unified School District today alerting me to their Facebook page. That was interesting to me in part because TUSD has a Facebook page and also because they bothered to let me know. They certainly didn’t have to. And then I thought, why not do a little roundup of 5 Facebook pages that got my attention this week.

1. TUSD – I’m not a parent, and I don’t regularly cover TUSD as a reporter, so it’s not a page that came to my attention in the past. But when I checked it out, I found TUSD’s Facebook page surprisingly engaging and helpful. There’s info on bullying, on going back to school and solar panels. It seems a timely source of news that TUSD would like to get out there and a valiant attempt at putting other news out there to compete with the Ethnic Studies program and desegregation for domination of the local education agenda.

2. Tucson Community Darkroom – I know. How decidedly anti-computer. It may be a strange choice for this blog, but I’m enthusiastic. The idea is to have a darkroom where local artists can rent space. They’re passionate, and not everything has to be digital, right?

3. TEDxTucson – In the page’s own words: “In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is call TEDxTucson, where x=independently organized.” If you haven’t been watching the TED videos, you’ve been missing out. They feature smart people coming up with innovative solutions. You can watch the videos here. The local group’s first meetup was about local food and hosted by Janos Wilder at J Bar.

4. Tucson Food Trucks – Food on the move: I love it! Apparently, a Tucson food truck fest is under contemplation. And Dinnerware Artspace is holding its first outdoor food event this Thursday.

5. Powhaus Productions – If you’re interested in finding out about fun, creative stuff happening in Tucson, especially downtown, this is a good place to start looking. Powhaus does videos, live events and (whatever I put in this spot would be an understatement). Also check out their website.

Maybe I’ll even make this an occasional series. Tell me about your favorite local uses of social media. You can find me @carlibrosseau on Twitter.

On Independence Day, we celebrate our freedoms and those who fought for them. We celebrate the legacies of battles to define freedoms and the system that sustained a dialogue within which those particularly American definitions could form. On the Fourth of July, we pay homage to the United States of America, our history and most of all what it represents — to Americans and, less often, to the larger world. America, we say together in the glare of carefully engineered fire, the land of the free.

While enjoying the fireworks, the corn and the hamburgers, we would do well to remember that freedom is negotiated. Its definition is always in flux. Changes can happen in fits and starts or they can happen imperceptibly. But inevitably, change will come.

Over the past two weeks, a series of hacker attacks were aimed at the Arizonan iteration of freedom. When the hacker group LulzSec released hundreds of Arizona Department of Public Security internal documents, the members portrayed their motivation as the larger social good. They were protesting SB1070, a policy they view as racist and unjust.

LulzSec’s presumed successor Anti-sec released a manifesto — as part of a hack, of course — that claimed dedication to “the eradication of full-disclosure.” The leaks, the hackers say, are intended to point out carelessness in online security, an implied lazy self-satisfaction.

The next frontier in the definition of freedom is the Internet, the modern town square rendered global. The leaks highlighted the vulnerability of our personal information, much of which is stored online, but the lesson we should take from these attacks is much larger. How do we define freedom on the Internet? Who owns it and why? How do we reach agreement when the whole world and a lot of money is involved? They are big questions with very personal consequences.

Security and freedom sometimes seem to be friends and other times enemies. The hackers argue they are doing the world a service in providing incentives for improved security. Institutions must join the arms race or leave members susceptible to personal harassment — cell phone and Social Security numbers exposed. DPS officials were understandably annoyed to have their personal effects scattered on the information superhighway. But to what effect?

The bottom line in the Arizona hacks was that little information of operational consequence was released. DPS looked vulnerable, but if LulzSec was truly protesting the state’s handling of border issues, DPS — highway patrol — was the wrong choice. Encouraging agencies already inclined toward secrecy to clamp down on information seems a strategy of self-sabotage and counter to the venerated spirit of the First Amendment.

Freedom, as we’ve defined it, depends on information. You are unlikely to have chosen to buy local grass-fed beef for your celebratory burger without a label to tell you it was so, nor the security of knowing the FDA vouched the beef won’t poison you. It’s worth remembering that in our choices — from eating local beef to clicking the Facebook “Like” button — we define freedom.