Tag Archives for radical politics informing the strategy

Media Justice and Open Source Solutions

We had a six-month check-in on How The Technology Was Working and to have a check-in on the data-mining creepiness that is the Googleverse.

Google Docs was acting buggy on some older computers [including mine] and from a class-accessibility standpoint, that was problematic: it’s important that participants feel they can “afford to participate” and that barriers be addressed and acknowledged.

Someone suggested that people who had trouble with google docs just “install google chrome” I took that as an opportunity to let folks know that g-chrome tracks your web movements more efficiently than any browser before and recommended Firefox with TACO add-ons. An example of a slightly didactic but gentle way to say this is:

Accessibility: Process and Outcomes

How was this development accessible?

Pushback on designer/web-creator’s role as a corrective to gatekeeping of former web developer and as a site of power for the input of individuals and committees:

  • Admin Logins shared with many [some security measures in place]
  • Author/user logins shared with all – ability to post to wp blog universal
  • Insistence that committees create their own content for web pages via shared google docs means that many people can input into the content and easily add and edit to it — more voices in the process of developing.

Why is building in wordpress accessible for this project? Because so many people are able to use WP and feel comfortable in it already or quickly after beginning to use it:

  • WP is accessible to many people at various states of comfort with technology due to its WYSIWYG interface, semi-obvious taxonomies, and [relative] build-out simplicity.

 

Radical Pedagogy

Theory: Seeing the connections between participant’s senses of Self-ownership, Responsibility to the project/process, and Horizontal Power

–       need systems that reinforce everyone’s power within the system: including people who think they “don’t know how to use the system”

–       Horizontal power is reinforced where there is leadership on the process and people who are resources, but no one owner

–       Ex: Google Forms instead of web forms, everyone had to learn to make them themselves [and that was a challenge for some folks], but now have power over shutting form down, control of info in form, access to applicants instantly, etc.

Community Participation:

The Femme Conference project has a built-in, existing community of 14 core organizers and about 35 total organizers who would be interacting with this media, either by creating blog posts, content for the web pages, or using the social media to let people know about the conference.

There is an additional community of several hundred people who will be visiting the site for information on participating in the the conference at performers, workshop presenters and attendees.

Theory: We had to pick a technology that community members would be familiar with and comfortable using that also allowed for the needed organization and dissemination of data.

Theory bonus: Organization and Dissemination are two of the three aspects of power-shifting digital technology, the other being production

Problem Statement: Develop Collaborative Technology for a Conference

This project’s goal is to create an internal communications system as well as a public social media and web presence for an LGBTQ conference which can be maintained by many, and which is manageable by an asynchronous, all-volunteer organizing collective.

A major goal of this project is to create a collaborative and horizontal web presence which is decentralized and which many people have access to and control[s] over, instigates interactivity and buy-in, while maintaining the safety of personal data [email addresses, server logins] as needed. For political reasons, it is important to create a space where many types of users feel welcomed to post on the blog, and for other users to find accessibility information on the site.

For marketing and registration purposes, we wanted to create a site that attracts people to the conference itself .

Lastly, members have requested a rideboard and housing-share board for the site. Questions about need for monitoring and safety have come up, so these boards should avoid spam and lurking, while remaining easy-to-use for a range of users.