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   Kit Malone (thekitmalone@hoosier.social)'s status on Monday, 01-Jan-2024 12:43:41 JST Kit Malone

   An antifascist IT collective that doesn't focus on ops but just helps local grassroots groups set up boring old web services and provides ongoing technical support

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     Kit Malone (thekitmalone@hoosier.social)'s status on Monday, 01-Jan-2024 12:43:44 JST Kit Malone

     in reply to

     Boring? Yeah. But if you wanna get activist groups out of the big tech surveillance bubble you need nerds willing to set up and maintain: DNS, email services, web hosting, secure comms, VPN, Mastodon instances, and document services. That's out of reach for many many groups doing the work of social justice. For much of the grassroots, throwing up a fb page and getting a Google account is honestly the only viable solution - they do not have the time or the resources to do anything else.

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     mike_hales 💔*!?¿* (mike_hales@social.coop)'s status on Monday, 01-Jan-2024 12:43:48 JST mike_hales 💔*!?¿*

     in reply to

     • May First Movement Technology

     @thekitmalone
     Maybe talk to @mayfirst ?

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     Earthworm (earthworm@kolektiva.social)'s status on Tuesday, 02-Jan-2024 05:00:24 JST Earthworm

     in reply to

     @thekitmalone

     I (non-techie) advocate always to use https://switching.software , riseup mail and pad as well as framadate.
     But hell, it *is* difficult for the laypeople not to just use a google drive...

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     Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK (vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de)'s status on Tuesday, 02-Jan-2024 05:00:27 JST Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK

     in reply to

     @thekitmalone this is how in the 90s/00s a lot of UK activist groups got infiltrated by spy cops, as they actively volunteered to do all the "boring/nerdy" stuff..

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     Kit Malone (thekitmalone@hoosier.social)'s status on Tuesday, 02-Jan-2024 05:00:29 JST Kit Malone

     in reply to

     It's a problem I see in non-tech activist spaces too. Folks would rather do something glamorous like start a new org or host a rally with themselves as the speaker ... or (on the tech side) start a whole new software project, create a Mastodon instance. But nobody wants to pass out bottled water, clean up trash, apportion email accounts, manage the backups.

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     Kit Malone (thekitmalone@hoosier.social)'s status on Tuesday, 02-Jan-2024 05:00:30 JST Kit Malone

     in reply to

     I think it's really interesting to see how many comments sorta make the assumption that the purpose of such an effort would be to ask grassroots activists to switch wholesale to Mastodon, install some specific toolset, switch to free software, whatever.

     Nah, but I do think that if we tell people "you should be self hosting your website and email" we have a duty to also help provide that labor, just as we might volunteer to pass out flyers at a rally or set up the chairs at an event.

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     Kit Malone (thekitmalone@hoosier.social)'s status on Tuesday, 02-Jan-2024 05:00:32 JST Kit Malone

     in reply to

     • Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK

     @vfrmedia yup. Which is why I tend to advise movement leaders to be incredibly careful with anyone who they bring into their leadership team or into their planning circle. It's everywhere in the movement - these days I only work on real stuff with people I've personally met and have a long-standing trust relationship with. It's also why I think this stuff is way better if it's ultra local.

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     abekonge (abekonge@sunbeam.city)'s status on Tuesday, 02-Jan-2024 05:00:37 JST abekonge

     in reply to

     @thekitmalone the potential is huge! Everyone needs this work done, if u wanna live outside big tech - it’s not difficult, but it’s necessary and often invisible work. It’s a good example of “we have all the tools for a utopian solarpunk future - but we gotta do the work”.

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