September 14th, 2015 IRC Meeting

Decisions

Decide where to donate anonymous $80 contribution to:

• Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless - 91.0% on services, Transparency Score of 78.00 of 100.00
• Horizons for Homeless Children - 75.6% on services, Transparency Score of 100.00 of 100.00

Task Status

• PirateCon 2015 Videos
  • Falkvinge Pirate Strategy video - posted to Youtube (jokeefe)
  • Evan Greer talk (Bluestreak)
• MAAPL form (srevilak, jokeefe, noe, ...)
• Newsletter (Kendra, paper_waves, ?)
  • Design & Feedback
  • Distribution Planning (besides emailing a pdf)
    • Gather list of people to mail it to (?)
    • Gather a list of places to distribute it (?)
    • Decide on the print run (?)
  • Distribute
• Bills
  • Video Gaming Tax Break - Hearing 9/22 - 9/15 advisory, 9/22 positions
  • GMO - Hearing 9/22 - Participate in the main press conference
• Media
  • Updated media list (fish/noe)
  • Sep. - Freedom Rally - Release dates - 9/18 & 9/25 or 9/26 morning
  • Oct. - Free Software & Innovation
  • Nov. - 2016 Elections
  • Dec. - ?
• Blog posts
  • Email lists
  • Ask for opinions on legislation (jokeefe)
  • Local/regional contacts (jokeefe) - Regional page up. Working on local pages.
  • TPP update (jokeefe)
  • CISA update (jokeefe)
• Tech - see for priorities
  • Bitcoin + Credit card gateway in CiviCRM (srevilak, js0000, Kendra)
  • Improve UI navigation of wiki & expose more wiki bits on blog (Noe, jokeefe)
  • Allow distributed organizing on CiviCRM (and pointers to get started) (Kendra, srevilak, Chris, jokeefe)
  • js0000 and jokeefe will work on building a tool to manage twitter:
    • design (jokeefe) - posted at Twitter API design
    • coding (js0000 & jokeefe)
  • Forum (or needed now that lists are publicized?)
• Materials
  • Stickers (igel)
  • Flyers
    • Need Freedom Rally flier
    • Need update to general flyer
      • ideas: UK Pirate Party materials / design ideas
• Policies update (jokeefe)
  • Check on the state of them
  • Write up doc on using git & commenting on & voting on changes.

Tasks: Wiki list, PiratePad version.

Event Planning

1. Sep. 22, 1pm, Public Hearing on Massachusetts GMO labeling bill (H.3242), Gardner Auditorium at the Massachusetts State House
2. Sep. 26th & 27th, Freedom Rally - Sign up form - Planning - have asked for volunteers in email as well
3. Sep. 30, 6-9pm, Somerville Cryptoparty, Parts & Crafts
4. Oct. 3, 7-11pm, FSF 30th Anniversary Celebration, CIC Boston, 50 Milk St, Boston
5. Oct. 13 (probably), Cory Doctorow Event - Working with other groups
6. Oct. 28, 6-9pm, Somerville Cryptoparty, Parts & Crafts
7. Nov. event?
8. Nov. 25, 6-9pm, Somerville Cryptoparty, Parts & Crafts
9. Dec. event?
10. Dec. 30, 6-9pm, Somerville Cryptoparty, Parts & Crafts

Every Thu., Digital Fourth meeting, 11:20am-1:30pm, Voltage Cafe, Third Street, Cambridge

Participants

• jokeefe (James O'Keefe, Somerville)
• bestpiggy (olivia píñeyro, Boston)
• srevilak (Steve Revilak, Arlington)
• benC (Ben Cook - Boston)
• Kendra
• Bluestreak
• js0000
• noe

Observers

• davidd
• Pharyngeal
• zby

Summary

We decide to make our $80 charity donation to Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless.

Jamie edited and posted video of Falkvinge's Piratecon 2015 talk.

Next meeting, after reviewing the bills and other research, we will revisit what our position on the video game tax break will be.

Minutes

 
20:51 [Users #masspirates]
20:51 [ davidd] [ jokeefe] [ Pharyngeal] [ srevilak] [ zby]
20:53 < jokeefe> ahoy
21:00 < srevilak> good evening
21:00 < bestpiggy> hey all!
21:01 < benC> evening crew
21:02 < jokeefe> good evening
21:02 < jokeefe> agenda -
        https://masspirates.org/wiki/September_14th,_2015_IRC_Meeting
21:02 < jokeefe> ids - James O’Keefe, Somerville
21:02 < benC> Ben Cook - Boston
21:02 < jokeefe> Agenda look ok?
21:03 < srevilak> agenda seems fine
21:03 < bestpiggy> olivia píñeyro, Boston
21:03 < srevilak> Steve Revilak, Arlington
21:04 < jokeefe> Decisions - Decide where to donate anonymous $80
        contribution to
21:05 < benC> I like that Mass Coalition for the Homeless doesn't get
        any government grants
21:05 < bestpiggy> I think Mass Coalition should get it
21:05 < jokeefe> srevilak?
21:05 < srevilak> I'm okay with Mass Coalition
21:06 < jokeefe> As am I.
21:06 < jokeefe> Lets go with that then.
21:06 < jokeefe> Moving on to Task Status
21:06 < srevilak> ok. Will send check to Mass Coalition, tomorrow or wed.
21:06 < jokeefe> thank you
21:06 < jokeefe> PirateCon 2015 Videos
21:07 < jokeefe> Made some progress.  Would likely make more if I had
        more disk space ;-)
21:07 < benC> I have plenty of disk space, but I don't have much
        experience doing this kind of video editing
21:07 < srevilak> I have a few more audio segments to do.  Will try to
        get back 1--2/week
21:08 < benC> Do we have really basic instructions on what we're
        looking for?
21:08 < jokeefe> thanks, srevilak
21:08 < jokeefe> benC - I have little experience, but I can put titles on.
21:08 < jokeefe> What os are you running?
21:09 < benC> I've got Debian and Windows 7 available
21:09 < jokeefe> I found that the Falkvinge video had a lot of noise,
        so I had to correct that.
21:09 < jokeefe> I think blender works on Linux, but I haven’t tried it.
21:09 < benC> it definitely does
21:10 < jokeefe> Video for adding titles to videos with blender -
        www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw-Hjc496ng
21:10 < jokeefe> How to add text in Blender's Video Editor -
        www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj80Z-LG27M
21:10 < srevilak> jokeefe: is the edited version of falkvinge on MEGA.
        Would like to put it on archive.org
21:11 < jokeefe> Yes it is
21:11 < jokeefe> Will send you the link and post it on the page
21:12 < jokeefe> Also Blender Reference Manual - Sound Editing
        https://www.blender.org/manual/editors/sequencer/audio.html
21:12 < srevilak> jokeefe: thx
21:12 < jokeefe> Video is at
        https://mega.nz/#!ropElQyA!lwgf1NBVSaFqT4E7B2Ye83aK3xnEvgMDpzrE-BSJ1-M
21:13 < jokeefe> it is in mp4 format
21:13 < jokeefe> Open Source is ogg, right?
21:13 < benC> Yes, Ogg Vorbis or WebM would be free/open formats
21:14 < jokeefe> Will see about converting
21:15 < benC> Archive.org does a good job of automatically converting
        videos to multiple formats
21:15 < srevilak> I was going to mention that: archive.org does format
        conversion
21:15 < jokeefe> oh good
21:15 < jokeefe> It is 5.16GB, btw
21:16 < srevilak> merp, archive.org wants me to install a download client
21:16 < jokeefe> ahoy Kendra & Bluestreak
21:16 < srevilak> archive.org also seeds torrents
21:16 < Kendra> hi all
21:16 < Bluestreak> sup
21:17 < jokeefe> Well, if you take on editing a video, just email it
        out that you are so we don’t have duplication of effort
21:17 < jokeefe>
        https://masspirates.org/wiki/September_14th,_2015_IRC_Meeting
21:17 < jokeefe> Wrapping up videos
21:17 < jokeefe> from pirate con
21:17 < jokeefe> MAAPL form - srevilak - report?
21:18 < srevilak> have 6 pages of fields uploaded, and laid out into
        online questionairre
21:18 < srevilak> online version is 26 pages long
21:19 < srevilak> have done 11 pages worth of fieldname -> proper
        questions
21:19 < jokeefe> are all the fields entered?
21:19 < srevilak> doing a bit each night, should be done in a few days
21:19 < srevilak> jokeefe: there are two more pages of fields.  Joe Boyer
        will be sending me field specs
21:20 < jokeefe> I can add a few if you want to send me a bunch.
21:20 < srevilak> I'll send instructions offline
21:21 < jokeefe> thanks, sounds like it is moving forward.  is there
        any other help that is needed?
21:21 < jokeefe> ahoy js0000
21:21 < jokeefe> agenda -
        https://masspirates.org/wiki/September_14th,_2015_IRC_Meeting
21:21 < js0000> hi
21:22 < srevilak> any help replacing field names with questions would
        help.  But it's a one-person-at-a-time endeavor
21:22 < jokeefe> is there a write up on how to do that?
21:22 < srevilak> pmurad also envisioned extensive embedded help, but
        there's enough there for him to get started
21:22 < srevilak> jokeefe: no write up, but I can put one together
21:24 < jokeefe> up to you, if you think it would help. I know that my
        time is limited, unfortunately.
21:25 < jokeefe> moving to Newsletter
21:25 < jokeefe> Sorry, I haven’t been able to help much, Kendra.
        Will have time later in the week and the weekend.
21:26 < jokeefe> any luck with the update to 1.4.5?
21:27 < noe> ahoy!
21:27 < jokeefe> ahoy noe
21:27 < Kendra> Hi, I had to reinstall Scribus and need to adjust
        some fonts.  Do we have a fianl deadline or maybe for the Freedom Rally
        something printed?
21:28 < jokeefe> I think it is too long to give out at Freedom Rally
21:28 < Kendra> I might add up.
21:28 < Kendra> printing costs
21:29 < jokeefe> Probably distribute as pdf
21:29 < Kendra> My debian distro wont allow me to upgrad, or I could
        not figure out how to do it, but I can change it all to more common fonts.
21:29 < Kendra> PDF distor is a good idea
21:29 < jokeefe> What is the highest version you can install?
21:29 < noe> Hmm . . . is it possible to condense and make links to
        online pdf?  Basically, headlines with little explanations and "for more
        see https://etcetcetc.org"
21:30 < jokeefe> yes
21:30 < Kendra> Ok we can think about something like that to link to
        the front page
21:31 < Kendra> Anyone have any thing else to submit or add?
21:31 < jokeefe> Possibly
21:32 < noe> What I've seen on there looks good!  If you want copyediting
        help, feel free to hit me up.
21:32 < jokeefe> That would be great.
21:32 < Kendra> Thanks Noe
21:32 < noe> I'm not great at layout, but I can do words.
21:32 < jokeefe> We have it up at an ownCloud instance.
21:32 < Bluestreak> link?
21:33 < jokeefe> download - https://owncloud.org/install/
21:34 < jokeefe> Suggest we move this to the list
21:35 < Bluestreak> k
21:35 < jokeefe> Bills - We have two hearings on 9/22
21:36 < jokeefe> Looks like the GMO is covered and we can join the
        statement on that one from multiple groups
21:36 < jokeefe> The Video Gaming Tax Break I haven’t heard anyone
        talk about it
21:37 < jokeefe> Thoughts on it
21:37 < jokeefe> ?
21:37 < Kendra> Do you get a tax break for playing or purchasing video
        games?
21:37 < jokeefe> no comments yet on the bills
21:37 < jokeefe> making
21:37 < noe> LOL
21:38 < Kendra> Or making them here in Massachusetts?
21:38 < Kendra> Like teh film industry tax breaks
21:38 < jokeefe> yes, making in MA
21:38 < jokeefe> yes
21:38 < jokeefe> not like everyone in MA gets them for free, unfortunately
21:38 < noe> I think there was noise about this years ago.
21:39 < jokeefe> maybe, might be a moot issue, don’t know
21:39 < Kendra> Didn't some baseball player just waste a bunch of money
        in Conncticut doing something liek this?
21:39 < Bluestreak> RI but yeah
21:39 < Bluestreak> Kurt shilling
21:39 < Bluestreak> Hollywood already gets breaks.
21:40 < Bluestreak> They sell it to us as a jobs builder.
21:40 < Kendra> I think the film tax breaks are not a good financial deal
        and the states almost always lose money on  the film making incentives,
        Michigan paidout more than they brought in
21:40 < noe> I know that smaller studios who do work for larger studios
        here would probably get a benefit, like Harmonix
21:40 < Bluestreak> I don’t want to give Sony tax breaks
21:40 < Kendra> Might be worth researching the outcomes
21:40 < Bluestreak> they have enough money
21:40 < jokeefe> RI lost $75 million backing 38 Studios with a loan
21:41 < Bluestreak> Bam. See?
21:41 < benC> industry tax breaks just shift jobs from one state to
        another
21:41 < Bluestreak> Sick of being played like this.
21:41 < jokeefe> Each MA job costs $108,000
21:41 < Kendra> They don't hire localy people as promised either, it's
        seems like an elaborate scam
21:42 < jokeefe> Chris R said he would write a statement for us since
        he is a game developer
21:42 < jokeefe> other opinions?
21:43 < noe> I don't think we have enough development going on locally
        to support it.  are we trying to lure other companies in?
21:44 < jokeefe> that seems to be the idea, or encourage startups to
        come here
21:44 < Bluestreak> I would support it for smaller developers, female
        developers, PoC develpers
21:44 < Bluestreak> The big boys don’t need help.
21:46 < Kendra> We need more info.  It seems like a unstable industry.
21:46 < jokeefe> Personally I don’t like tax breaks.  If the government
        wants to subsidize something, then it should be paid for explicitly
21:47 < jokeefe> What info do you want, Kendra?
21:47 < srevilak> jokeefe: I agree (re: tax breaks)
21:47 < Kendra> I am curious if these tax breaks have resulted in any
        measurable benefit to the people who pay for them.
21:48 < Kendra> So far
21:48 < jokeefe> The cost per job for the hollywood tax break is $108,000
21:49 < jokeefe> I very much doubt that someone working on the average
        job made that much in salary and benefits
21:49 < srevilak> jokeefe: grips, best boys, etc make much less than that
21:49 < jokeefe> It is a net loss and a subsidy to Hollywood
21:49 < jokeefe> tis true
21:50 < Kendra> That was the next question, even the person sweeping
        the set and emptying the garbage,  and what about union employees such
        as SAG and AFTRA, etc, are thier wages under cut?
21:50 < jokeefe> Don’t have that info
21:50 < jokeefe> Baker had a study done
21:50 < jokeefe> can find it
21:51 < Kendra> That was all I was wondering
21:51 < jokeefe> If there is some doubt we can do some research and
        revisit next meeting
21:51 < noe> i think that's a good idea
21:52 < Kendra> It's interesting to watch the tax break incentives for
        lotteries, casinos and now this stuff emerge
21:52 < jokeefe> ok, so defered
21:52 < noe> the more you spend, the more you save?
21:52 < jokeefe> Media - noe any update on the media list?
21:53 < jokeefe> We planned to send a PR out either by 9/22 or before
        Freedom rally
21:54 < noe> Fish had to stop due to their own scheduling issues.
21:54 < noe> Should I ask them for where they were at before they stopped
        and get it done?
21:55 < noe> I think its the easiest thing at this point.  I will try
        to get their work off of them this week.
21:55 < jokeefe> thanks
21:55 < jokeefe> please do
21:55 < noe> all right!
21:57 < jokeefe> Anyone have an update on the remaining task?
21:57 < jokeefe> tasks
21:57 < Bluestreak> Quick question:
21:58 < jokeefe> yes?
21:58 < Bluestreak> Joe G would like to read the video game bill… link?
21:58 < Kendra> Sadly no other update, long week
21:58 < jokeefe> both bills are at
        https://masspirates.org/blog/2015/09/12/state-house-bills-whats-your-opinion/
21:59 < Bluestreak> ty
21:59 < jokeefe> under the ones to oppose
21:59 < noe> https://malegislature.gov/Bills/189/House/H2487
21:59 < jokeefe> anything else anyone wants to bring up?
22:00 < noe> That's the video game bill link.
22:00 < noe> happy to be back from travelling!
22:00 < jokeefe> also H.2606
22:00 < noe> excited to see people again soon.  :)
22:00 < noe> https://malegislature.gov/Bills/189/House/H2606
22:02 < noe> move to adjourn since we're at time.
22:02 < noe> ?
22:02 < srevilak> motion to adjourn
22:03 < Kendra> 2nd
22:03 < noe> all in favor?
22:03 < srevilak> aye
22:03 < benC> aye
22:03 < noe> aye