Changes between Version 1 and Version 2 of projects/kindleproject-proposal

Timestamp:

Oct 24, 2013, 4:06:47 PM (7 years ago)

Author:

Jamie McClelland

Comment:

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projects/kindleproject-proposal

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  * Organization mission and vision (0 of 1000 max characters)
 
+May First/People Link's mission is to defend and expand the Internet as a movement for free and open communication in order to strengthen the global movement for justice. We envision a world in which technology is freely shared, accessible to everyone, and used for everyone's benefit. We see a critically important role for progressive and social justice activists to play in uniting this vision of the Internet with the broader left's vision of a more just world. 
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  * Brief description of your organization or project. (0 of 1000 max characters)
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+May First/People Link is a politically progressive member-run and controlled organization that redefines the concept of "Internet Service Provider" in a collective and collaborative way. May First/People Link's members are organizers and activists. Like any democratic membership organization, we gather together each year to evaluate the past year's experiences, plan the coming year's work and elect a Leadership Committee to apply what we've decided. Like a coop, we pay dues, buy equipment and then we all use that equipment as we need to for websites, email, email lists, and just about everything else we do on the Internet.
 
  * Description of your organization or project for use on our website. (0 of 500 max characters)
 
+May First/People Link is a politically progressive member-run and controlled organization that redefines the concept of "Internet Service Provider" in a collective and collaborative way. May First/People Link's members are organizers and activists. Like any democratic membership organization, we gather together each year to evaluate the past year's experiences, plan the coming year's work and elect a Leadership Committee to apply what we've decided. 
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  * History of organization and key accomplishments (0 of 5000 max characters)
+May First/People Link formed in May 2005 when May First joined forces with People Link.
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+People Link started in 1995 as a project of the Institute for Mass Communication. Back when pictures on the web was a new thing, People Link was hosting web sites, setting up email accounts, and providing email discussion lists for activists all over the country.
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+May First Technology Collective began in 1999 (then it was called Media Jumpstart). A worker run collective from the beginning, MFTC provided technology support to New York City nonprofits, ranging from designing web sites to fixing networks.
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+In May 2005, faced with funding cuts and increased overhead, MFTC decided it was not able to effectively meet it's mission. However, several of its staff and board members expressed a desire to continue with its social mission of providing technology support to the social justice movement but to now concentrate specifically on the Internet.
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+With the outgoing Board's blessing May First formed a new board to pursue this goal by combining the skills, experience and the already developed technology, equipment and infra-structure of both organizations to build a new, larger and more ambitious one. In June 2005, May First/People Link was launched.
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+In 2006, we held our first meeting of active members of the organization. Fifteen individuals came to together to write our Statement of Unity and to organize ourselves as a membership organization.
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+In 2008, May First/People Link formed our first Leadership Committee picked from our most active members and empowered the Leadership Committee to set the political direction of the organization. In 2011, we organized our first annual membership meeting in which the Leadership Committee was democratically elected by the membership, and each year since then we have elected a new Leadership Committee.
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+In 2011, we received a request from LaNeta, a similar organization in Mexico, that was no longer able to continue hosting over 100 activist organizations in Mexico. With the cooperation of the LaNeta leadership, all organizations were invited to join May First/People Link and we setup an office in Mexico City. Since then, our leadership and organizing efforts have combined the resources of both the Brooklyn and Mexico City offices.
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  * Programmatic overview. (0 of 3000 max characters)