= Introduction to Collaborative Democracy workshop - March 26, 2009, Detroit - for the USSF 2010 =

Welcome! Let's start with a very brief go around in which everyone says their name and the organization they are representing.

Thanks. My name is Jamie - I am one of the co-directors of May First/People Link. MFPL is a membership-based activist organization with nearly 300 members. Our mission is to organize the left online - ensure that the values of collaboration, openness and democracy are defended and expanded on the Internet so our members can effectively organize the Internet for real political change.

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.

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.

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.

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
 * How to ...