March 14th, 2017 IRC Meeting

Projects

Planks

Previous work in this area: https://github.com/masspirates/planks

Conference

Topics so far:

• Fact Checking Real News vs. Fake News Using the CRAAP Method
• The need for the voice of the people; The need for democracy
• How storytelling and narrative can help raise awareness to issues around privacy, transparency, and overall civil rights in a digital age
• The power of community around technology, music, and art
• Ranked Choice Voting -- what it is, why it is important, and how the statewide educational campaign is progressing
• badmirror.tv - a personalized video broadcasting system that connects viewers with their local and global communities
• Using the lessons learned from Occupy to build a web-enabled democratic movement and platform for future governance
• Cryptocurrency regulations and its effects on privacy, exchangers, and entrepreneurs and why you should be concerned (Lightning Talk)
• Passing local surveillance ordinances
• How to FOIA

Projects On Hold For the Moment

First two of these could be topics for future hackathons.

CCTV Camera Map

Looking at organizing a map-a-thon.

Upcoming Events

• 3/19, 1:30-4:30pm, Rhode Island Cryptoparty, Providence Public Library, 150 Empire Street, Providence, RI 02903
• 3/24, 3-5pm, Annoying Legislators for Freedom: A talk with Alex Marthews, National Director of Restore the 4th, Encuentro 5, 9A Hamilton Place, Boston
• 3/25, afternoon, LGBT-focused Cryptoparty (tentative), Make Shift Boston, 549 Columbus Ave, Boston
• 3/25-26, 9am-5:30pm, MassAlliance Grassroots Campaign Training, Greater Boston
• 3/25-26, LibrePlanet 2017, MIT, Cambridge
• 3/29, 6-9pm, Somerville Cryptoparty, The Sprouts, 339R Summer Street, Somerville

See: 2017 calendar

Participants

• jokeefe (James O'Keefe)
• srevilak (Steve Revilak)

Observers

• davidd
• igel
• Portable_Cheese
• sankey

Summary

Local surveillance ordinances. Last night, Arlington BoS should have heard proposal from town manager, re surveillance study group. Town manager's proposal was pretty favorable.

Dedicated hosting MF/PL is a bit beyond our budget. Entry level is $600/year. Instead of discourse, we can look at other software.

We have a number of proposed talks. Want to leave one slot for platform building (via small groups); that leaves three slots, plus lightning talks.

Fundraising. Have almost broken even. That's not ideal, but not bad -- we did outreach.

Minutes

 
21:03 < jokeefe> Agenda:
        https://masspirates.org/wiki/March_14th,_2017_IRC_Meeting
21:03 < papegaai> Title: March 14th, 2017 IRC Meeting - Mass Pirate Wiki
        (at masspirates.org)
21:03 < jokeefe> ids
21:03 < jokeefe> James O’Keefe, Somerville
21:03 < srevilak> Steve Revilak, presently residing in Columbia Heights,
        DC
21:04 < jokeefe> how are things there?
21:05 < srevilak> 2" of wet snow
21:05 < srevilak> was nice during the day, now below freezing and
        really windy
21:05 < srevilak> not as many surveillance cameras as I would have
        expected
21:06 < srevilak> except around the FBI building
21:06 < jokeefe> lol
21:06 < jokeefe> maybe they are smaller
21:06 < srevilak> well, all the more reason to contribute to open
        street map
21:06 < jokeefe> Worcester has a lot of traffic intersection cameras
21:06 < jokeefe> Anything to review?
21:07 < srevilak> Short item
21:07 < srevilak> local surveillance Ordinance.
21:07 < jokeefe> great
21:07 < srevilak> Last night's selectmen meeting should have heard
        proposal for surveillance study group
21:08 < srevilak> formulated by town manager and myself
21:08 < srevilak> Being out of town, I wasn't able to attend, but can
        watch video when it's posted
21:08 < srevilak> Town managers proposal to board of selectmen was rather
        promising, for a study group
21:09 < srevilak> (end of review)
21:10 < jokeefe> thanks
21:10 < jokeefe> Any Decisions/Endorsements?
21:10 < srevilak> nothing here
21:11 < jokeefe> Projects then
21:12 < jokeefe> Planks - Writing blog post / email about discussing it
        on github for now
21:12 < srevilak> Related to discussion software, heard back from MF/PL
        regarding dedicated CM
21:12 < srevilak> Related to discussion software, heard back from MF/PL
        regarding dedicated VM
21:13 < srevilak> seems like that might be out of our budget for now
21:13 < jokeefe> yes, could put it in a budget and try to fundraise for it
21:14 < srevilak> MF/PL seems very willing to negotiate members on need
        and ability to pay, but $600/year would be a bit much
21:14 < srevilak> $600/year is entry level point
21:14 < jokeefe> Yes
21:15 < jokeefe> So lets see what we can do with other software
21:15 < srevilak> agreed
21:16 < jokeefe> Conference - Posted the topics people have suggested
        so far
21:17 < srevilak> jokeefe: plank writing could be a good topic for
        piratecon
21:17 < jokeefe> Yes
21:17 < srevilak> small group discussions, write stuff on big pieces of
        paper, and tally up afterwards
21:18 < srevilak> seems a good way to get lots of ideas in a short period
        of time
21:18 < jokeefe> yes
21:19 < srevilak> If we have four 1hr slots, and dedicate 1 of them to
        building platform, that should leave us with three, no?
21:19 < srevilak> (options for three speakers, panels)
21:19 < jokeefe> Yes
21:20 < jokeefe> plus lightning talks allow for options as well
21:20 < srevilak> agreed
21:21 < jokeefe> WorkBar was too expensive, but a cryptoparty is a
        possibility
21:21 < srevilak> ok
21:21 < jokeefe> Will get out an announcement about the location out
        tomorrow.
21:21 < srevilak> thx
21:22 < jokeefe> Fundraising - No update from last meeting.
21:22 < srevilak> So far, I like surveillance ordinances, RVC.
2,3,4 could be presented as one panel
21:22 < srevilak> We've almost broken even on fundraising
21:23 < srevilak> That's not too bad
21:23 < jokeefe> and we still need to follow up with the other potential
        donors
21:24 < jokeefe> Campaign Workshops - Tuesday, 4/25 works for you?
21:25 < srevilak> Logistics will be a bit tricky, but I can make it work
21:26 < jokeefe> great.  I will plan it as well.
21:27 < jokeefe> Could also be a topic at the conference. Might get
        pizza for lunch and get another hour talk
21:28 < jokeefe> Message board application - any progress?
21:29 < srevilak> Nothing from me, beyond info about dedicated VM hosting
21:30 < srevilak> but it seems like we have other options to explore
21:31 < jokeefe> self hosting loomio looks useful. PPNL used it to write
        their platform.
21:31 < srevilak> nice
21:32 < jokeefe> Local Surveillance Ordinances - you already covered it
        for Arlington, no update on Cambridge/Somerville. Will know more Thursday
21:32 < jokeefe> Cryptoparties - Still working on the LGBT cryptoparty
        date/location
21:33 < jokeefe> That is all I have.  Anything else?
21:33 < srevilak> nothing here
21:34 < jokeefe> shall we adjourn, then?
21:34 < srevilak> I did get a good FOIA resonse before I left
21:34 < jokeefe> oh?
21:34 < srevilak> from NSA -- their intranet home page
21:34 < srevilak> will post when I'm back
21:34 < srevilak> Only took three years
21:34 < srevilak> two of them for segregation
21:34 < srevilak> we can adjourn
21:34 < srevilak> motion to adjourn
21:34 < jokeefe> 2nd
21:35 < srevilak> will post transcript
21:35 < jokeefe> have a good night
21:35 < jokeefe> thanks