Addressing Privilege: "Acknowledge the distress while continuing to point out the difference in scale"

In this excellent, excellent piece on addressing privilege, Doug Muder goes beyond "Fuck privilege" to discuss how to effectively engage gatekeepers. His piece is itself a commentary on this (marginally less excellent) piece by Owldolatrous, which is a response to the recent kaffufle over the head of Chick-Fil-A's homophobic comments. Reading Muder's post, I felt like someone had clearly articulated something I've been trying to say for a long time.

Group Works: A Pattern Language for Bringing Life to Meetings and Other Gatherings

A friend loaned me a deck of these cards at The Evergreen State College's 40th Anniversary. They look intriguing. Here's a bit about the project:

Welcome to the online home of the Group Works cards. Why is it that some meetings bring life to your soul, while others leave you wishing you'd never stepped in the room?  What happens at the best ones, that makes them productive, fulfilling, sometimes even magic? 

This deck of 91 full-colour cards names what skilled facilitators and other participants do to make things work.  The content is more specific than values and less specific than tips and techniques, cutting across existing methodologies with a designer's eye to capture the patterns that repeat.  The deck can be used to plan sesssions, reflect on and debrief them, provide guidance, and share responsibility for making the process go well.  It has the potential to provide a common reference point for practitioners, and serve as a framework and learning tool for those studying the field.

The Group Works cards have been created by more than fifty volunteers (the Group Pattern Language Project) from diverse organizational backgrounds who collaborated over three years to express the core wisdom at the heart of successful group sessions.  The cards are accompanied by a 5-panel explanatory legend card and a booklet describing the deck's purpose, story, and ideas for suggested activities. 

• Find out more about the deck.
• BUY A COPY of the deck, or download a free PDF copy.
• Donate to the project, to help us develop additional tools to help facilitators and group process workers.
• Join our mailing list to keep up to date on what's happening on the project.
• Learn about the mobile/phone app.
• Contact us.

Dead Drops: Anonymous, Offline, Peer-to-Peer File-Sharing Network in Public Space

Thanks Technoccult! Fascinating...

Posted on February 23, 2012 by Klint Finley

‘Dead Drops’ is an anonymous, offline, peer to peer file-sharing network in public space. USB flash drives are embedded into walls, buildings and curbs accessable to anybody in public space. Everyone is invited to drop or find files on a dead drop. Plug your laptop to a wall, house or pole to share your favorite files and data. Each dead drop is installed empty except a readme.txt file explaining the project. ‘Dead Drops’ is open to participation. If you want to install a dead drop in your city/neighborhood follow the ‘how to’ instructions and submit the location and pictures.

Dead Drops

(via Theremina)

If only there was some way to keep these from filling up with malware, porn and spam.

Trevor Blake wrote here a few years ago:

Now is a good time to establish lines of electronic communication that are not entirely (if at all) reliant on the Internet as it currently exists. Hand delivery of a stack of media is still one of my favorites. At a certain point it the best bit-per-second value known, it has certain privacy features that can’t be beat and it requires very little technical know-how or fancy equipment or money. For all the gnostic freakout of The Matrix, the scene where a disreputable character knocks on Mr. Anderson’s door and passes him a data disc might be the most prophetic.

Learning about cryptography, fidonet and the postal system won’t do anyone any harm. Nothing beats trusted person-to-person connections established in many only-partially overlapping social / professional circles.

See also: sneaker net.

This entry was posted in Misc and tagged Cryptography, darknet, darknets, encryption, p2p, peer-to-peer, sneakernet,sneakernets. Bookmark the permalink.

Come Visit Our Book Dome at the Okanogan/Tonasket Barter Faire

We'll be on the North end of one of the aisles, as usual. Look for the Pirate Flag!

Taking Ourselves Seriously: Developing Strategy for Social Transformation

A talk led by longtime anarchist organizer and author Chris Dixon!

A short talk will be followed by discussion. Come one, come all!

Sponsored by the Institute for Anarchist Studies - http://www.anarchist-studies.org/

The question of strategy - how we might win in the near and long term as we struggle against domination, exploitation, and oppression - is pressing. As anti-authoritarians, however, we frequently face barriers to thinking and acting strategically. These include fixating on principles over plans, fetishizing specific tactics, and organizing in crisis modes. Drawing on interviews with organizers across North America, this presentation will discuss these barriers, and potential ways we can move past them toward developing effective approaches for the long haul of social transformation. Together, we will explore how to build movements in the world as it is - engaging with where and how people are struggling - while cultivating strategies toward the world that we want. Emphasizing history and research, this presentation will especially highlight strategic approaches based on fighting for non-reformist reforms and building dual power.

Bio:
Chris Dixon, originally from Alaska, is a longtime anarchist organizer,
writer, and educator who recently received his PhD from the University of California at Santa Cruz. He lives in Sudbury, Ontario, where he is involved with anti-war and Indigenous solidarity organizing. Dixon serves on the board of the Institute for Anarchist Studies and the advisory board for the journal Upping the Anti. He is currently completing a book, tentatively titled Against and Beyond, based on interviews with anti-authoritarian organizers across the U.S. and Canada involved in broader-based movements.