There is a "privacy divide" emerging issue there. Using FB may help to reach the masses, but some people (activists and not) will never use a FB account and will be unreachable. Same for Google: for instance, the link below to Google Docs is unavailable with my privacy setting.
Some open source and selfhosted alternative to FB is listed here <http://alternativeto.net/software/facebook/?license=opensource&platform=self-hosted> Alberto On 19/02/2017 20:36, Yosem Companys wrote: > First of all, I want to commend Steven for all he has done over the > years. He was a pioneer of e-democracy in the 1990s, when the Internet > was a mere curiosity for most people. And Steven has worked arduously > over the years to help foster e-democracy around the world. That is to > be commended and thanked. > > That said, Thomas, you raise important points. If we look at the > alternatives out there for grassroots organizing, they tend to be > proprietary like NationBuilder. I do not know any open-source > alternatives off hand. > > Please review Rand Strauss's list at > https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Jz_X1ZVCtX2W3etsgjX5iCBylsMBPyUKD7I05ZF0FuI/edit. > Kudos to Rand for putting the list together. > > If I want to look for good open-source solutions to start a movement > and I'm not tech savvy, I need either someone to build it for me or I > want it to be easily installed on a server. > > That is why Bram Wets' suggestions were so on point -- I repost them > here in case you missed them: > > Idea 1: > An idea list where the Liberationtech community can post ideas for > projects, upvote (and downvote) them, put your name with an idea > to contribute. > This would facilitate your call for ideas/projects ;-) > I actually like the format of software bugtracking. It maybe can > be used for such an idea list. Or a github-like structure with > pullrequests... > > Idea 2: > An overview of tips, good practices, tools and apps for secure > communication and digital privacy. And the organisations and > platforms that work on this topic. > Yes, there is a lot out there and some organizations already have > done terrific work. So the focus has to be on the overview, not on > doing all there work over again. > Additionally we can add good practices in how to reach people and > teach them those privacy tools. > > > Just having a simple wiki of tools and people willing to help for free > or a nominal fee would be a contribution. Being able to evaluate tools > with up or down votes would also be a contribution. > > In the meantime, if you go to sites like Progressive Exchange, you > will see that pretty much everyone recommends closed-source software > with questionable security for online organizing. Putting all your > activist friends on NationBuilder, for example, is a security risk. We > don't know if NationBuilder under a different management team might be > tempted or forced to give the entire list to the government for > surveillance purposes. > > And Rick has outlined the risks of Facebook already, as Thomas writes, > so I won't reiterate those. Maybe we need to build another Diaspora > and this time build it right: open-source, best encryption, > Napster-like one-to-one capabilities, hosting of data in servers in > privacy-friendly regimes, ability to connect to the large social > networking sites like Hootsuite for widespread dissemination, > non-profit or at least cooperative status, and so on. > > If this is a project folks are interested in, we can start doing some > research on what it should look like and look for funding sources to > make it happen. > > Best, > Yosem > > On Sun, Feb 19, 2017 at 11:10 AM, Thomas Delrue <tho...@epistulae.net > <mailto:tho...@epistulae.net>> wrote: > > On 02/19/2017 01:46 PM, Al Billings wrote: > > Someone remind me again what the alternatives are to Facebook that > > are actually easy to use for "normal" users and which they will be > > able to quickly sign up and use... > > Oh, and before I forget, why the need to "sign up"? Why is that a > requirement? If you're doing something that at some point could be > deemed subversive, why would you maintain a list of members of said > activity/thinking that can easily be requisitioned or compromised? > > Why does everyone need everyone else to sign up and hand over > information in order to use a simple website? Why does everyone > want to > lock up everything behind a login-wall? > > Maybe that's the big problem... Everyone thinks that you need to > maintain a list of users and a login form in order to run a simple > website... > > -- > Liberationtech is public & archives are searchable on Google. > Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: > https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech > <https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech>. > Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing > moderator at compa...@stanford.edu <mailto:compa...@stanford.edu>. > > > > -- - TagMeNot http://tagMeNot.info @dontTag -- Liberationtech is public & archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu.
