Hacktionlab Manchester 2011 Notes

Groups

People here are involved in the following projects:

• Mute
• Bristol Wireless
• Network23
• Catalyst Radio
• Be The Media
• Indymedia - Oxford and Alba
• Aktivix
• No Flag
• Manchester Mule
• Indy.im

Making connections brainstorm

• Hosting
• List of radical-friendly hosting - what is radical-friendly hosting?
• Sharing costs & good suppliers
• Tachanka - how to promote?
• Developing trusted (personal & tech) networks
• Clear guidance on how trust systems work & how people can access services
• Repeated cross linking - embed codes
• Include propaganda in for e.g. welcome messages for new accounts
• Sharing skills e.g. how to set up hosting
• Combined media releases
• Accessibility of entry point - e.g. welcoming web sites
• Model letter to suggest people use radical resources
• Simple aggregation of other project's content
• Using each others resources - e.g. email list providers
• How to keep up to date with each other - Jabber, indy.im, diaspora?

Tech Tools for Activists Booklet v 2.0

• Intro to old booklet
• What publishing system to use?
• Give bookie a try as a collaborative tool - can also be used for updating post-publication
• Export to Scribus to print copy - try and replicate this with bookie
• Get an ISBN number so book is visible to book sellers?
• Use print on demand (POD) 44p / copy + £12ish P&P for 300
• Keep similar format - explain the why & what, but not the how.
• Hows can be linked
• Could made a larger book that includes the how
  • Agreed* Ben G to be project slave driver whip-cracker type of thing
• Other roles ...
  • Content providers
  • Proof-reading - Beth, Becki (?)
  • Design
    • Art work - illustration
    • Cover design
    • Pics
    • Layout, fonts, etc.
  • Copy writing
  • Promotion
  • Distribution ( could be somewhat improved from v1 or words to that effect)
  • Finance
• Licence? Not decided
  • Content*
• Do we need a new focus - 1st edition was very security focused
• Is the title the best one?
• Better intro - what the booklet's about, what you'll get from it.
• Revisit intro to each chapter & make very very very simple.
• Use real case studies
• New / revised content
  • Status net / indy.im
  • Anon blogging
  • Internet radio / catalyst
  • unspeak.im
  • Secure hosting
  • SSH
  • VPN
• Editorial process? Let list know before completely overhauling somebody else's content
• Time scale: content writing will be over by Christmas

Pricing and distribution

http://www.imprint.co.uk/digital/stapledeconomy.html

Printing a 32 page, self cover (meaning no extra cardboard cover, although for an extra price you can have one), 300 copies, £0.44 per copy, £133 in total (Zero VAT), delivery £10 per carton DHL 3 day delivery (the 300 copies are most likely one carton). Imprint are a short run printers so you need to do orders of at least 100 copies on pamphlets and 25 copies on books.

http://www.lightningsource.com/

Up to 32 pages, size needs to be 216 x 140 mm and would have a colour gloss cover, £1.82, -20% if you print 300 copies, £1.46. The useful thing about these guys is that they are print on demand proper, in that you can do one copy. Delivery charges are minimal DHL prices + £1.25 per order, these are if you make orders yourself. You can also have copies printed in the US and posted from the US. The other things these people do is automatically distribute for you, they send out metadata that all the major and minor online retailers pickup. Your books get sold, printed and sent out without you doing anything, for a 20% commission off your sales price.

Distro

Separate from the printers we can have books distributed to the online retailers for a commission of 15% FbA per unit, fulfillment £0.98 if the held in a warehouse and automatically sent out, on top of this the user will pay their own postage when they buy online.

intro session - 30mins

• WTF are we to?
• How our projects interact

Hacktionlab on the road - 120mins

• lab - some content is offered from Mute
• hacktionlab - on the road tour, how to organise this - a look at
• funding - is the under the hacktionlab remit? - some things we might need paying for
• festivals - do we do festivals?
• social centres - do we do social centres/unis/colleges
• courseware -lesson plans/online activities/too ambitious?/open
• licence - how can we work on workshop materials together?

Tech Tools for Activists Booklet v 2.0- 60mins

• new version of Tech_tools_for_activists?
• booki.cc - get tech tools from source to publishable document HOW?
• editor - tech tools needs an editor
• epublishing - how can you make ebooks - structured books - progressive
• publishing system (PPS)

BeTheMedia front page - 90mins

• session to sort this out this content, looking at how BTM works with other groups
• Make a working process for the tech group - Drupal

catalyst website - 90mins

• streaming server trouble needs sorting, airtime
• skills to share, create a wishlist, look at the airtime GUI to suggest features/bugs
• Strategy for world domination
• media players - look at online media players and how to use them

outreach/publicity session - 6omins

• Ideas
• new hacktionlab website - wiki is a bit inaccessable currently - new front end WP or Drupal

Closing plenary - 45mins

• defining ourselves - where next?