[FM Discuss] cryptoparty book & Tech Tools for Activism

Fri Oct 26 22:30:31 PDT 2012

I just remembered there is an activist-themed book fair today. A
booklet like Tech Tools for Activism might be interesting to people
going there, but it should perhaps be localized a bit. There are no
localized versions for many of these projects, for an example the
Finnish version of Indymedia went down ten years ago, but at least one
similar project has survived for a very long time now.

It is too late to do anything for the book fair now, but maybe it
would be possible to create something like a translated and localized
version of Tech Tools for next year? It is not published on English FM
at all?

The StatusNet manual needs a chapter about why you should use
StatusNet instead of something like Twitter. One of the funniest
things is that Twitter seems to be closing down their API so that it
becomes very hard to develop third-party applications. And after
playing with the configuration files it seems the StatusNet federation
model is actually quite mind-blowing, but there are all kinds of
hidden tricks for both users and administrators that are very hard to
figure out without a proper manual.

2012/10/26 mick fuzz <mickfuzz at clearerchannel.org>:
> For me Case 2 is more interesting.
>
> Try to find me in IRC in irc.freenode.net #flossmanuals
>
> Or even better in irc.indymedia.org #aktivix - and I'll put you in touch
> with some people that should be able to help as they have been running an
> installation for quite some time
>
> Have a look at this page as well which might be useful -
> https://techtoolsforactivism.org/alternatives-to-twitter
> and this one which is a remix -
> http://booki.cc/tech-tools-for-activism-update/_draft/_v/1.0/replacing-twitter/
>
> BTW we have printed 1,000 copies of Tech Tools for Activism and getting them
> sent down to the Bookfair in London tomorrow. It will work out about 35p per
> 32 page leaflet for 1000 which I think it a pretty efficient way of getting
> a lot of content out there.
>
> And I just sent the printers a pdf straight out of booki.cc and another one
> created in Libre office for the cover. I'm really happy how easy it was.
>
> I used the following settings for the output see attached. image. -
>
>
> here's the 'advanced css' I used.
>
>
> .objavi-subsection .initial {
>   font-size: 0.7em;
>   color: #000;
> }
>
> .objavi-subsection{
>   display: block;
>   page-break-before: always;
>   text-transform: uppercase;
>   font-size: 15pt;
> }
>
> body .objavi-subsection:first-child{
>   page-break-before: avoid;
> }
>
>
>
> .objavi-subsection-heading {
>   font-size: 15pt;
>   text-align: center;
>   line-height: 300px;
>   font-weight: normal;
> }
>
>
> nice one
> Mick
>
>
> On Thu, Oct 25, 2012 at 10:42 PM, Tomi Toivio <tomi at flossmanuals.net> wrote:
>>
>> There is also a huge issue with the manual, since there are two completely
>> opposite use cases for StatusNet.
>>
>> Case 1: Privacy
>>
>> You want to have private communication, so you set up a private StatusNet
>> for an organization or a group of people. Naturally you cannot use
>> syndication at all.
>>
>> Case 2: Open Source
>>
>> You want to set up an open source microblogging platform. Here syndication
>> is extremely important, since many of the people you want to communicate
>> with would be on other StatusNet installations.
>>
>> Case 1 would be easier for this first version of the manual, since we
>> cannot even get all of the syndication features to work on this
>> installation.
>>
>>
>> 2012/10/26 Tomi Toivio <tomi at flossmanuals.net>
>>>
>>> Hey,
>>>
>>> I was fooling around with the StatusNet configuration file and now the
>>> syndication works a lot better: http://fi.flossmanuals.net/statusnet/
>>>
>>> Syndication is exactly what is needed to beat Twitter. I think it can be
>>> syndicated even further. I don't think that I can make all of the
>>> syndication plugins work on this server. I think that syndication has to be
>>> documented in English, I am not exactly sure about some of the settings.
>>>
>>> The funny thing is that the local users are using it as a sandbox for
>>> documentation and then you have a constant stream of syndicated messages
>>> from some very active external users.
>>>
>>> I was looking at various StatusNet installations and some of them have
>>> totally drowned in spam. Spam bot prevention seems to be the most painful
>>> issue here.
>>>
>>> Regards
>>> Tomi
>>>
>>>
>>> 2012/10/11 Tomi Toivio <tomi at flossmanuals.net>
>>>>
>>>> > January sounds like a good date to go for.
>>>> > I really wonder what the best strategy for creating the English
>>>> > Status.net
>>>> > manuals is.
>>>>
>>>> At least the more technical chapters should be written with
>>>> developers? I couldn't get the spam bot prevention plugin to work,
>>>> which is a bit scary, since now I have to delete spam bots manually.
>>>> So this is one example of an important plugin that really needs
>>>> documentation.
>>>>
>>>> > There is a strong user community that we can reach out to, to ask for
>>>> > volunteers.
>>>> > OR
>>>> > I even wonder if we can do it as a Kickstarter project. There are a
>>>> > lot of
>>>> > identi.ca users out there and the social reasons for using Status.net
>>>> > are
>>>> > very strong.
>>>>
>>>> It has to be in some more civilized country than Finland, since
>>>> Kickstarter is not allowed here! Seriously, one Finnish collaborative
>>>> writing project didn't get a permission to use Kickstarter funding, so
>>>> they had to return all of the money they received:
>>>> http://newshub.fi/archives/688
>>>>
>>>> Actually I have to advertise this collaboratively translated article
>>>> as well, since it might be quite interesting to the readers of this
>>>> list, it is the story of how Nokia screwed up the Linux-based MeeGo
>>>> and ended up being eaten alive by Microsoft:
>>>> http://taskumuro.com/artikkelit/the-story-of-nokia-meego
>>>>
>>>> Due to examples like these I have been wondering why Finnish FLOSS
>>>> advocacy is so unpolitical. There is an urgent need to find a
>>>> localized version of Stallman.
>>>>
>>>> > I know Adam talked to the team before but I might try to contact them
>>>> > to see
>>>> > what their take on it is. I think it's great that you are doing one in
>>>> > Finish! That might shame them a bit into supporting a good beginner
>>>> > level
>>>> > manual.
>>>>
>>>> I mentioned this project on Identi.ca and there was a brief discussion
>>>> about it, but haven't really tried to contact them properly yet.
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Best Regards
>>>> Tomi Toivio
>>>> Open Source Coordinator
>>>> http://fi.flossmanuals.net/
>>>> tomi at flossmanuals.net
>>>> +358453536625
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>> Discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net
>>>> http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
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>
>
>
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-- 
Best Regards
Tomi Toivio
Open Source Coordinator
http://fi.flossmanuals.net/
tomi at flossmanuals.net
+358453536625