Convener: Jon Pincus (@jdp23@neuromatch.social)

Participants who chose to record their names here:

• Erin Cochran (@erin@kvuzet.net)
• Eric Fassbender (@fassbender@sciences.social)
• Anca (@anca@mastodon.xyz)
• Mark Corbett Wilson (@mcorbettwilson@mastodon.social)
• Chris (@sturmsucht@mastodon.social)
• Jesse Baer (@misc@mastodon.social, @misctakes.com)
• Christopher Lozinski (@PythonLinks@Mastodon.Social)
• Alexis Bushnell (@alexisbushnell@toot.wales)
• Christopher Lozinski (@Uncensorednews@Mastodon.Social)

Website: https://privacy.thenexus.today/if-not-now-when/

Slides: https://thenexusofprivacy.net/data/fediforum-0607.pdf <– Has lots of great links to resources

Survey (including timing for followup discussions): https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/xZCvhxTsU+KA0Li7qvAglkzEkX2uuqR-+HEmoJ32ajI/

Zine about why fediverse is safe for organizing: https://www.sproutdistro.com/catalog/zines/organizing/fedizine/

Notes

Key takeaways

• Lots of interest! General desire to get off commercial social networks, increasing but still intermittent aware of risks to organizers/activists
• Online organizing complementing in-person
• Moving people over with orgs and communities - local focus
• Usability is a huge challenge
• Hard to explain because it’s so many different things
• All organizing doesn’t have to be in the same place – although, people already have too many accounts, so don’t want too many more

Interests: see a lot happening on Insta, how to make open networks more interesting to people who do organizing

• Working with US Green Party, ridiculous, so sad – almost nobody on Mastodon
• Excited by the possibilities, got If Not Now on Bluesky, how to be part of the revolution!
• Accidental activst – not sure how it happened, trying to figure out out to do that
• Been an activist since 2016, spending time with open source folks - level of understanding of privacy and security, what can be shared on Google Drive et al, trying to see how people can help each other and build things together
• Longtime organizer, involved with anarchist and anti-state organizing, collective member and moderator with Kolektiva, part of submedia (radical video media collective), written about Stop Cop City
• Mourning loss of Twitter, very valuable for activism – not able to recreate on Fediverse yet

Why aren’t there good alternatives to FB groups, which allow one account PLUS privacy while having conversations

What are some options? Friendica: UX/UI issues on Friendica (which seems the most advanced software)

Signal has become what almost everybody uses for organizing, socializing – more people begin to adopt this in response to oppression, when events happen in response to surveillance. There’s a resoponibility to sit down with people and talk people how to use some of these tools – in-person, 1-1, valuable for security perspeective, holding workshops. 67-year-old professor needed help getting started on Signal. How important introductions to these things are - let’s sit down and talk you through this. What do we mean by privacy? A lot of fear and misunderstanding of how these thungs work, breaking these things down. People will take the time to learn it!

The challenge is getting everybody on it. 1-1 isn’t feasible, for the number we have to move tot he platform; with Signal it’s overwhelm. When I contemplate what it would take to get people onto (say) Matrix, if people on Mastodon think it’s confusing, what hope does everybody have?

In-person workshops – “privacy drop-in hour”, we’ll help you get set up with Signal, switching over Insta. Put flyers over town, did a workshop that’s an intro to fedi. More community-based. Had very little luck trying to get “everybody” on it. Found myself depressed when I take the broader approach

People are capable of learning things if they think it’s valuable. People zone out when I explain privacy-related things, maybe that’s just how I’m explaining it?

Comes into the UI and also the overwhelm - they’re not seeing results, they’re not building communities. A lot of people are used to shouting into the void – a hot take does numbers, but not the same on fedi platforms, it’s a point of resistance.

Green Party is very active on Mastodon. What;s the elevator pitch for somebody signing up for the fediverse?

Shouting into the void on the fediverse: also a benefit, on commercial platforms it’s bombarded with content? Hard to get people in.

My friends and colleagues hate it on commeciral, they all want alternatives – an abusive relationship!

What’s been successful on Mastodon? An instance in Montreal for a DIY punk music scene, did a lot of workshops, got a lot of friends to go on it, here’s a show that’s happening, I’m having a yard sale, etc … it’s not a an organizing platform, but why does big tech need to be our first platofrm? no need to have these addictive platforms to stay in the know about local events.

Mutual aid societies aren’t just public, can be very private organizations. Setting things up for a group and making it exclusive is very different than “everybody’s here”. If you want to move people into an organization, set things up, make it welcoming, it’s not going to be perfect but that’s okay – and the time’s perfect

Focusing on how to get organizations and projects on, disengaged from one project because they’re only using a website where it’s okay for people to harass me (Insta), please put this info somewhere I don’t have to log in to see. Skeptical of Bluesky, but it’s still better. As more organizations get involved with it, that creates the incentive for people. (Suggestion is to focus on ORGANIZATIONS rather than individuals)

Question: Why don’t orgs use their email lists? Instead of posting on Instagram, etc. Just use the old-school tools.

Elevator pitch: connect with other people who are already here

Nice demo of Green Party map – connecting locally – https://GreenMaps.US

Small things – niche communities, #MushroomMonday hashtag

What time of organizing are people talking about? Even Mutual Aid is very contested … one way of understanding organizing is using social media to reinfroce community-based organizing at the local level, contrasts with a national viral

all orgnizing does not have to be in the same place!

What’s the elevator pitch for using the fediverse: (write yours here?)

A map of the us Green Party https://GreenMaps.US

Talk about Green Maps on the Green Party Tech Discord server. Here is an invite. https://discord.gg/vJvha9MP or contact @PythonLinks@Mastodon.Social