I'm currently en route from Minnesota, where I helped the Progressive Technology Project train community organizations on using PowerBase, to Detroit for the 2011 Allied Media Conference. This will be my second time in Detroit (I was here for last year's US Social Forum) but my first time at the AMC, and I'm thoroughly excited, not only because the entire event is sure to be amazing, but also because I'm presenting! Josue Guillen of the Progressive Technology Project and I will be presenting "From Open Source to Community Source: Collaboratively Created Tech for Movements."
The daily choices we make around technology, storing and sharing data, and communications have political implications for issues important to our movements: privacy, self-determination, labor & economic justice, and corporate control to name a few. Our session will address these issues, providing ways to make good technological choices and strategies for reclaiming control of our technology and shaping it ourselves to fit and help our movements and politics. We will explore how "free" software often demands risky compromises, how open source can help avoid those compromises, and how community organizations and activists can and must be involved in shaping open source. We will us ourpowerbase.net and letsduwthis.org as examples of community source tech developed by and for our movements.
If you'll be at the AMC I hope you come check out our session! It's on Saturday at 2:10pm in Room 1515 (Law Classrooms). I also completely understand that for every slot at a conference like this there are too many great workshops to choose from, so I plan to post a recap of the session later. You can also follow tweets on our session with the #mvtech hashtag and my tweets (@jackaponte) from the entire AMC with the #AMC2011 hashtag. I'll also be giving folks Palante Tech stickers featuring our awesome logo (both designed by Jamie Stafford-Hill), so find me, say hi, and grab one of those, too!
Cross-posted at letsduwthis.org