Changes between Version 2 and Version 3 of internet_rights_wrkshop/intro-ussf2010

Timestamp:

Mar 25, 2009, 5:43:27 PM (16 years ago)

Author:

Jamie McClelland

Comment:

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internet_rights_wrkshop/intro-ussf2010

@@ -7 +7 @@
 You may have heard of us in relationship to the 2007 social forum. We were ''not'' the organization that did the technology for the social forum. We ''were'' the group that organized the technology team that did the technology for the social forum. And that distinction is one of the most important to us, especially with regard to the 2010 social forum and, fundamentally, the reason we wanted to meet with you tonight.
 
-Alfredo addition:
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 Technology is the term used to describe the tools humans use to do what we think we have to do. It's really no different than anything else human beings do and the way we develop it is no different. We talk about it, each of us bringing to that discussion what we've learned up to now, and we make decisions about it collaboratively. There are people who try to argue that technology is something made by a few people or a company or some other organization and then offered to the rest of us to use. But the truth is that everyone who works in developing a technology brings to that work what he or she has learned from countless other people and that, in the process of the development of that technology, it's the users who really guide where it's going and what it looks like.
 
 That's the core thinking that guides our organization and everything we do, including our work at the Social Forum.
 
-As we all know, it's also the core thinking that drives the Social Forum and that's why we have always believed that technology is no different from any other aspect of the social forum:
+As we all know, it's also the core thinking that drives the Social Forum and that's why we have always believed that technology is no different from any other aspect of the social forum: the best way to organize it is democratically and with political intent, just like we organize outreach, fundraising, registration and all the other committees. We simply can't afford to out source it or treat it as something separate from the politics of the social forum itself.
 
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-(We believe that technology is no different than any other aspect of the social forum): the most effective way to have good tech is to organize the technology democratically and with political intent, just like we organize outreach, fundraising, registration and all the other committees. We simply can't afford to out source it or treat it as something separate from the politics of the social forum itself.
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-I'm very proud with what we accomplished in 2007. However, quite frankly, the tech team had to put together the political rationale by the seats of our pants. I think we did well, however, one thing we recognized is that the political rationale needs to come from a broader and more politically integrated body - in this case, both the local organizing committee and even the NPC.
+I'm very proud with what we accomplished in 2007. However, quite frankly, the tech team had to put together the political rationale by the seats of our pants. One of the biggest lessons from 2007 is that the political rationale needs to come from a broader and more politically integrated body - in this case, both the local organizing committee and even the NPC.
 
 Some of the political issues we faced in 2007, to give you a sense, were:
 
- * How to choose between different software platforms
- * How to evaluate offers of "free" technology and software
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-Alfredo additions:
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+ * How to choose between different software platforms, including offers of "free" technology and software. We had numerous entrepreneurs offering us every product under the sun for free (in exchange for the promotion of the product). 
  * How to integrate the progressive use of technology with the Social Forum's normal build-up and organizing activities (including preparatory decision-making)
  * How the Social Forum can best address the major issues facing technology like transparency, full and open use, and the innovative use of technology to advance the struggles people are waging.
- * How to make technology "inclusive" and resist the lure of racist and sexist patterns of decision-making in making technology decisions
+ * How to make technology "inclusive" and resist the lure of racist and sexist patterns of decision-making in technology decisions
  * How to "internationalize" the activities at the Social Forum so that the world that is so interested in what's happening in this country right now can get a good look at what we're doing here and how committed and strong our movements are.
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