Roundtables
Keywords: political engagement, il/legality, disobedience, repression of users and infrastructures
Where should we host our services? Is it useful for collectives to have their data stored in proximity to, or even within, the local community? What are the advantages and disadvantages of hosting in different countries? How do collectives approach, manage or ignore the legal system in different locales? This roundtable explores these questions to see how different projects deal with the problems of protecting the integrity of user data while maintaining reliable services.
Keywords: autonomy, individualization, collectivization, mutual aid
This roundtable will discuss the consequences of decentralising technical architectures and how this impacts the provision of services. On the one hand, decentralisation may provide added protection from repression. On the other, it may make it more difficult to maintain robust services in the face of spam and other attacks. How do we strike a balance between the desire for autonomy and the increasing need for specialisation and reliance on other individuals and collectives?
Keywords: sustainability, work, human resources, responsibility, turnover
This roundtable will discuss the challenges of providing stable services for the long haul by examining both ephemeral groups, as well as several organisations which have continued to run email and other services for a decade or longer. We will discuss various organisational models and how they impact sustainability and resiliency to both external repression and internal strife.
Keywords: empowerment, specialisation, service provision, DIY, relationship with users
At this roundtable we will discuss the role of the techno-activist within social movements. If the technology that we work on is not widely adopted, how does it help the movement? How can we balance the need for strong cryptographic tools with the goal of widespread adoption and usability? On the other hand, how do we balance the need for ready-and-easy-to-use solutions with the will to share our skills and make our users more autonomous? How do we do not to be only service providers?