Changes between Version 21 and Version 22 of techies_of_color

Timestamp:

Aug 26, 2010, 11:01:39 PM (14 years ago)

Author:

alfredo

Comment:

--

techies_of_color

@@ -47 +47 @@
 For us to be able to do this, we rely on a smaller number of us who administer these resources.
 
- * Service Administrators, or Chief technologists, actually install and maintain websites and email programs and their work is critical to the functioning of any organization on-line. Many larger organizations have one of at least one person with these skills on staff; those who can't afford such a professional full-time have access to one or more for hourly work.
+ * Office Tech Staffer actually install and maintain websites and email programs and their work is critical to the functioning of any organization on-line. Many larger organizations have one of at least one person with these skills on staff; those who can't afford such a professional full-time have access to one or more for hourly work.
 
- * Finally, there are system administrators. These are people who
+ * Finally, there are System Administrators. These are people who
 
    * -- keep the servers and systems that run the web, email and other services functional; 
@@ -59 +59 @@
    * -- are there when something major breaks down; when the staff who run websites can't figure out a problem they're having; when a new server, networked computer or router must be installed, fixed or upgraded. In short, these are the people who run the system.
 
-What is interesting is that many people look at the Internet and, like most of us who drive cars, see only the "vehicle" that moves and gets us places. They see the websites and they work with the email and they interact with lists. And when something goes wrong, they talk to their staff person who then either "fixes" it or, if they can't, makes a phone call to some other person most of us never see or meet.
+What is interesting is that many people look at the Internet and, like most of us who drive cars, see only the "vehicle" that moves and gets us places. They see the websites and they work with the email and they interact with lists. And when something goes wrong, they talk to their Office Tech Staffer who then either "fixes" it or, if they can't, makes a phone call to some other person most of us never see or meet.
 
 That person is the techie: the person who actually manages the Internet.
@@ -65 +65 @@
 Techies run systems, develop software, make major decisions about how we are going to use the Internet and what tools we will need. Unquestionably the final decision on Internet issues is still in the hands of very large and powerful corporations, the day to day, month to month decisions about what happens on the Internet are in the hands of techies. They run the Internet in a very practical sense. They can close it to people or open it up to the world. They determine how it will be used and how it will develop. They are the Internet's day to day leadership.
 
+The absence of people of color in these ranks is both disempowering and, ultimately, destructive to the entire movement.
+
 == The Politics of Techie Diversity ==
 
-To understand the impact of this it's important to remember that Internet functionality is fundamental to social change and the most important means of social organizing today. Virtually every demonstration, campaign, and movement developing in this country heavily uses Internet technology to communicate. 
+To understand the impact of this it's important to remember that Internet functionality is fundamental to social change and the most important means of social organizing today. Virtually every demonstration, campaign and movement developing in this country heavily uses Internet technology to communicate. 
 
 The United States Social Forum movement, for example, would simply not be the same (as large, diverse or successful) if it weren't for the Internet on which it heavily relies. Everything at the USSF from registration to outreach to organization of transportation, housing and, of course, the over one thousand events that took place in Detroit was organized over the Internet.
@@ -75 +77 @@
 Server Administration is very political and the composition of the people who make those political decisions is a critical issue.
 
-While the movement itself has made huge gains in "democratizing" its leadership through racial, gender and national diversification, the fact that the progressive movement's interaction with the Internet in this country is managed by white activists represents a significant weakness.
+While the progressive movement has made huge gains in "democratizing" its leadership through racial, gender and national diversification, the fact that the progressive movement's interaction with the Internet in this country is managed by white activists represents a significant weakness.
 
 1 -- This lack of representation is actually a lack of empowerment. The important contributions people of color make in combating racism, raising issues that are hidden by color, diversifying the "recipient" population and so much else simply doesn't "get" to the Internet's techies and users as it could and should. Too often, the movement's functioning on the Internet represents the recolonization of people of color.