| 158 | | But, while our importance has never been greater, we are also often alienated by the progressive movement's dismissal of our politics, thinking, perspectives and experiences. |
| 159 | | |
| 160 | | In addition, much of the movement doesn't respect our work choosing to under-pay us or to hire large, flashy companies whose work doesn't build the movement. |
| 161 | | |
| 162 | | Finally, most of the movement has no respect for the principle of Free and Open Source Software. |
| 163 | | |
| 164 | | As a result, too many of us shy away from movement work. "Burned out" is now a common condition among prgoressive techies. And our political work has now been divided from our tech work. |
| 165 | | |
| 166 | | And the movement loses the political thinking and leadership of a group of people who are the leaders of the largest mass progressive movement in human history: the Internet. |
| | 163 | But, while our importance has never been greater, the principles of a free and open Internet are not yet recognized as a critical part of the progressive agenda. |
| 172 | | And the entire movement will be together, in one place, in June, 2010, at the Untited States Social Forum in Detroit. |
| 173 | | |
| 174 | | So we are making this call to all techies who support the principles of the Social Forum to gather in Detroit at the Forum for a four-hour |
| 175 | | |
| 176 | | Progressive Techie Congress |
| 177 | | |
| 178 | | that will wrap up a four month process of discussion and thinking on-line around these principles. |
| 179 | | |
| 180 | | After that Congress, we will distribute the principles to everyone at the Social Forum and propose them to the USSF's People's Assembly for ratification. On that basis, we will begin to build the kind of relationships inside the movement that will move us all forward. |
| | 169 | And the entire movement is here, in one place, at the Untited States Social Forum in Detroit. |
| | 170 | |
| | 171 | So we are making this call to all techies who support the principles of the Social Forum to gather in Detroit at the Forum for a four-hour Progressive Techie Congress that will wrap up a four month process of discussion and thinking on-line around these principles. |
| | 172 | |
| | 173 | After that Congress, we will distribute the principles to everyone at the Social Forum and propose them to the USSF's People's Movement Assembly for ratification. On that basis, we will begin to build the kind of relationships inside the movement that will move us all forward. |
| 188 | | There are now five websites handling the primary information functions, participant and organization registration, workshop registration, display and searching and other Social Forum activities such as the People's Movement Assemblies. All are interconnected and move seamlessly from one to the other. |
| 189 | | |
| 190 | | Putting together this swuite of websites was a central project of our ICT team for almost a year -- planning, exploring, researching capability and then finally doing the coding and testing. When the sites were launched, they went into immediate use as thousands of people began registering and Social Forum organizers began publicizing and announcing. |
| | 181 | We have over a half dozen interconnected web sites, including: the primary information site (www.ussf2010.org), the registration and donation site (community.ussf2010.org), the organizing and workshop registration site (organize.ussf2010.org), the Assemblies, Brigades, Caravans, and Detroit Expanded site (abcd.ussf2010.org), the video site (video.ussf2010.org) and many more. |
| | 182 | |
| | 183 | Putting together this suite of websites was a central project of our ICT team for almost a year -- planning, exploring, researching capability and then finally doing the coding and testing. When the sites were launched, they went into immediate use as thousands of people began registering and Social Forum organizers began publicizing and announcing. |
| 194 | | * Peoples Media Center Description |
| 195 | | |
| 196 | | People's Media Center Description |
| 197 | | |
| 198 | | Reflecting an alternative vision of media -- that everyone creates news and everyone should be able to record and report on it -- the PMC is a centerpiece of Social Forum thinking and innovation. Developed jointly by the Communications Working Group and ICT, the PMC contains video and audio editing areas, computers for storing media, blogging and other communications, quiet rooms for on-site interviewing, training areas and a distinct briefing area for daily press briefings about the Forum. |
| | 187 | === Peoples Media Center === |
| | 188 | |
| | 189 | Reflecting an alternative vision of media -- that everyone creates news and everyone should be able to record and report on it -- the People's Media Center (PMC) is a centerpiece of Social Forum thinking and innovation. Developed jointly by the Communications Working Group and ICT, the PMC contains video and audio editing areas, computers for storing media, blogging and other communications, quiet rooms for on-site interviewing, training areas and a distinct briefing area for daily press briefings about the Forum. |
