Minutes of Spring HacktionLab 2010

Minutes of HacktionLab meeting Oxford 10th/11th April 2010

Hacktivist Booklet

We brainstormed the purpose and target audience of the book, of which the salient points were worked into the style guide (see below). The salient points were:

• Aimed at both grass roots and NGO activists.
• The focus should be on helping people to approach these topics.
• The booklet need not offer complete coverage of a topic, just be an introduction.
• It should not not be dictatorial.
• It should not attempt to scare-monger readers.
• It should be aimed at those with little or no technical knowledge, but with an interest in the topics and a willingness to find out more.

We discussed the use of Crabgrass for the writing of the book and unanimously agreed that it was an unweildy tool for the job. The Booki tool was suggested as a new tool that could be used to develop the book content for the purpose of the book sprint and agreed upon.

All the content pages were then ported from Crabgrass to Booki.

http://www.booki.cc/tech-tools-for-activists/

New style guide

A new style guide was derived from the brainstorm of ideas and general discussion. This was used to develop and/or rework each of the chapter contents:

• Maximum 24 x A5 pages, including front and back covers. 1,200 for the Intro and 600 words for each chapter aka article: Make it shorter if you can and accept that some could be longer.
• Articles are self-contained in their own right, bound together by the introduction.
• Article format ought to be (where practicable):
  • user story
  • current practice (scenario)
  • software solution
  • user story/results (optional)
• Articles should be introductions, without going into detailed step-by-step instructions: signposts to the information on the net.
• Articles are limited to being about software technology.
• Articles should be accompanied by an image, where available.
• It's a guide for NGO and grass roots activists.
• Focus should be on helping people to approach these topics, not be dictatorial nor about scare-mongering.
• Humour and pictures should be used where possible, but not over used.
• Images should be between 200 and 300 pixels wide, TODO: get a suitable image resolution.
• Only use headers for title of the article and sub-headings.
• It will be a PDF.
• Anything we control is under CC attribution licence. Add licensing info and sources to the to article itself.
• Add URL references to the article itself using http://tiny.booki.cc/

Book production

By the end of the day's session we had produced a first draft copy at http://www.booki.cc/tech-tools-for-activists/ that covers the following subjects:

• An Introduction to this Booklet
• Browsing the Internet anonymously
• Organising Online
• Securing your Email
• Publishing your News
• Uploading Media to the Internet
• Hiding Stuff on your Computer
• How to get pages removed from Google Cache
• Free as in Freedom
• Further information and links

Next steps

We identified the following stages left to get the booklet out there:

1. Final article editing
2. Final proof reading
3. Design and setting of booklet
4. Printing
5. Distribution

We agreed that we would from now on use the hacktionlab list for any major article edits and discussions. A number of people said they would be responsible for overall editing and working the articles into their final form, but that contributions from any hacktionlabbers would be welcome.

It was agreed that we would approach the Trapese collective to see if they would help up get the book from its current state to a released item. We felt that Trapese may be able to help with:

• Final proof reading (including giving them the option to re-work/re-write the introduction).
• Design and setting of the booklet
• Distribution

We got a rough estimate for printing 500 copies through Oxford Green Print at around sixty pounds, or seventy pounds using some colour on the cover. It was agreed by all there that the booklet, at least the initial run, could be self-funded.

Planning for BARNCAMP 2010/02

Objectives

We brainstormed this and picked out some highlights:

• Happy Gathering
• Shared work & shared knowledge
• Raising awareness of free network services
• Barndance
• Sunny
• Openness
  • nonjudgemental to different ways of working
  • creating an inclusive and outwards-facing gathering, publicity & attendance
• Movement building - bring together, socialise, network, strengthen & reinforce
• Empowerment - putting the tools in peoples' hands
• Knowledge sharing - peer-learning
• Pipes of Peace
• Paradigm adjustment facilitation - with respect to knowledge of free software, DIY ethos, community orientation
• Socialising - nice carrots
• Healthy tech - rocket stove, nature walk, foraging
• (Self)-discipline - being up on time, keeping the show on the road

Geek segregation Vs integration

There has been much talk of the possibilities of either having 2 parallel stream of activities (for geeks and 'learners'), versus integrating everyone. We did a SWOT analysis of these possibilities:

Single-stream event (could still have multiple sessions at any time)

STRENGHTHS: public centred, accessible, probably better gender diversity	WEAKNESSES: could alienate some hacktionlabbers, could be simplistic
OPPORTUNITIES: more people, new people, get rid of nerd gag, fresh ideas generated, broader exchange of knowledge	THREATS: disgruntled nerds, people might not do workshops

Dual-stream event (nerds emerge from behind a curtain)

STRENGTHS: segregation, choice, more inclusive	WEAKNESSES: segregation, facilitation harder
OPPORTUNITIES: diversify workshops	THREATS: spread ourselves to thin, tech overtake, divisive nerdery, could be seen

After discussion we agreed that we will have a single-stream event, i.e. no segregation of nerds. We hope to have two spaces running workshops in parallel, which people will book.

Target Groups

• People & Planet
• Schnews
• hacktionlab (part of)
• seeds for change
• climate action groups
• people that attend barcamps
• people that attend social media cafes
• student activist groups
• no borders
• indymedias
• visionon.tv video activist groups
• NUJ new media members
• radical social centres
• permaculture groups
• radical roots
• travellers
• campaigners (NGO)
• Oxfam fundraisers

Wording of call-out

To be decided

Children

Nobody wants to exclude young people or their parents, but if kids are disrupting the workshop, their parents need to take them out of the space. If several parents are present, one of them could volunteer to facilitate a kids' space. Nobody present at the meeting was planning on bringing kids, so nobody was allocated to this role.

Date & location

• Highbury farm 11-13 June 2010
• any alternatives? discussed and discounted 2

Cost

• £31 per person, including food and camping
• Deposit must be paid in advance to book a place

Maximum participants: 60

Roles

We agreed that everyone who comes to the event should expect to contribute work during the event, but we need some coordinators to make sure that delegation happens when spontaneity falls short.

Job	Volunteer
Production manager/s (preferably one per day?)	Mike H + Mark R
Spaces coordinator	Ben G
Facilities	Acesabe
Promotion
Meeters & greeters	JimDog, Llanos
Finance & Bookings	Mike H
Kitchen	Becky and John
Ents	JimDog
Bar	J Freeman
Workshop coordinator	Mick Fuzz
Site management	Woodsy
Childcare coordinator	volunteer needed

Spaces

• The Barn - one workshop space
• John's Marquee - 20'x30' - second workshop space - 4-6 to erect
• Bristol Wireless tent - 6mx4m - Kitchen - 4-6 to erect

Types of workshop

People suggested these types of workshop:

• Show & Tell
• Discussion-based
• Blatant self-promotion
• Lecture
• Task-based (we are going to set up a crab-face group)
• Practical (this is how you use a piece of software)
• BarCamp (including show & tell) will need super facilitation and consent from everyone to be on-time and on-task

We then talked about it and reached a decision: We will have 6h barcamp & 8h practical

Titles of Workshops

These were the first things we thought of. The list needs more work & allocating people to topics.

• 12v theory & practice
• overview of communication techniques
• synfig
• liberating your laptop - dual boot
• food forage
• social media strategy for activists inc. aggregation
• OSS DTP - Gimp & Scribus
• rocket stove
• permaculture ICT
• collaborative authoring
• the leaflet

Timings

Thurs

Probably infrastrucure starts to appear on site

Fri

Evening: campfire, bar open, etc.

Sat

• 10-11 plenary
• 11-13 workshops
• 13-15 lunch
• 15-18 workshops

Sun

• 12-14 workshops
• 14-15 plenary

Total=7h x 2 spaces = 14h workshops