my friend Chris just sent me a link to an article about the SETI program, which while a bit long is worth reading if you care about what people are doing to contact alien civilizations. in addition to scanning the skies for signs of intelligent life among the cosmos, there's a small number of people with access to large radio transmitters doing their part to send signals out so that anyone else listening can know that we're here.
i really like that someone is actually doing something to try to make contact instead of passively listening, but the issue the article brings up is that there is no international board deciding who gets to send these messages, what they should send, or if they should even be giving our presence away to any possibly hostile entities. yes this is an actual diplomatic concern that a few top officials are taking quite seriously. if you think this is silly keep in mind that the first radio broadcast ever leaked into space was Hitler. it's good to have a set of quidelines. personally i think that this is something that the UN should have some say in, since it is our little get all the nations together and figure stuff out club.