• Communication commission discussion

(EN) Report from WSF Software Support Community meeting in Paris, April 2010

from Mallory Knodel on May 17, 2010 05:01 PM
This document has been compiled by the participants of a meeting in 
Paris in early April 2010 on Software Support technologists within the 
form process.

There is no translation at the moment, but if someone can translate 
this, please respond.

This document has yet to be posted publicly online, but should be found 
in the WSFSSF OpenFSM space.

Thank you to everyone who participated in drafting this document! It 
will be integrated into the Communications Plan for the WSF IC Comm Comm.

-Mallory


********
The Paris meeting was proposed within the working group on technology, 
World Social Forum Software Support Community (WSF SSC), attended by an 
international group of Free Software developers, some members of the WSF 
IC Communication Commission, as well as the representative of the 
African Social Forum secretariat for tech/communication issues.

The meeting began with an introduction to the World Social Forum 
Communications Commission and its relationship to Free Software, use of 
online tools, and other media platforms. Also, a framing of the 
political and attitudinal dynamics of the Communications Commission was 
explained in order to understand our moment for acting, creating, 
visioning, and organizing ourselves.

One aspect of this frame continued throughout the weekend was our 
interest in collaborating more closely with Methodology and Strategy 
Commissions of the IC. Also to frame the discussion we recognized that 
not all of our work was applied just to the WSF and other fora but to 
related global events such as Copenhagen and the Bolivian conference on 
climate justice.

During the meeting, we had two online exchanges: one with the Sao Paulo 
WSF office staff regarding WSF websites. The second exchange was with 
the USSF ICT working group. From the first meeting we learned that there 
has been work done on websites for the 2010 WSF event and also for the 
2011 forum, which is expected for launch by mid-April. Both sites are in 
Drupal and will require continued collaboration to maintain and build 
out the functionality. We also agreed to exchange information between 
the WSF office and the Comms Commission in order to start the 
collaboration for the restyling of the historical, WSF portal website at 
www.forumsocialmundial.org.br.

The second meeting was done with the May First/People Link Collaborative 
Democracy Software for a one-hour collaboration on "Strategies for 
efficient use of Technology within Social Movements". The results of the 
collaboration can be used to build upon a process for reaching out to 
more technologists that can volunteer within the Commission, building 
within the ongoing WSF SSC group, and also to highlight the political 
alliances that we hold in common with other actors within global social 
movements.

In order to address the backlog of coordinating work between us all, we 
listed existing tools and structures and then recently passed and 
upcoming events and their use of these and other online tools and 
strategies.

After the general overall analysis of the different events that the WSF 
and the movements in general are going to organize in the next months, 
we approached common themes about the diverse communication needs and 
the different possibilities in response. We identified the five most 
important tools for ongoing collaboration, although we hope to continue 
to identify important specifications for each site in a fuller list.

First, we spoke of how to approach the work organizationally, as a team 
of technologists and actors and within the Communications Commission. 
There was an attempt to identify possible associations with other 
organizations & initiatives.

We spoke of updating the outreach, statement document of WSF SSC group 
and how to relate to the WSF process:
     a. Create and draft a Communications Commission presentation before 
Mexico with mention of the role of tools and cooperation with internet 
technologists, and addressing the cooperation with other commissions, 
namely Expansion, Methodology, Strategy, and Resources.
     b. Contact organizers from Algeria-Union SF, Belem-Culture, 
Paraguay-FSA, Pan-amazonian, and other upcoming event organizers.

We engaged a discussion on five priority tools: Video/Streaming, 
OpenFSM/Wiki (intranet), Expanded Social Forums tools, Database of 
participants & Registration tool, and WSF Portal. However, we were 
unable to give full attention to the final three but have planned these 
meetings for the future.  And we identified follow-up work and 
strategies for reviewing and evaluating our process politically.
[You can view all the meeting log at http://notes.ussf2010.org/20100402.wb ]

These are some of the proposals for the improvement of the WSF internet 
spaces and technology:
     1. Common repository on virtual server. The most important point 
discussed was the proposal to have a virtual repository for the software 
(in the common server, now located in Germany), and the possibility for 
other programmers to use it, test it, and develop it. The information 
about the software in use currently will be available also on a web page 
to increase collaboration. Besides a common working technical 
environment, we proposed to: think about ways to maintain permanent 
relations with techies and users (tracker); produce screencast videos to 
explain the use of the tools; maintain a database of technologists that 
can consistently work together, specifying their availability, 
expertise, etc.
     2. Methology and guidelines on using software. It was proposed a 
methodology for the choice of software to avoid problems (such as what 
has been experienced with OpenFSM, where the core developers left the 
project). A two-step process was proposed:
         a. Every software proposed must be tested before release; when 
released, the software must come with all the instructions, and the code 
has to be commented to facilitate the comprehension for the next 
user/developer.
         b. Check the usability with a common test made by the working 
group and the communication commision before the presentation to the IC 
members.
     3. Communication system between the IC's members. We have discussed 
3 systems for internal communication. The first is OpenFSM, after taking 
into account the different criticisms, we propose to make a new skin to 
facilitate the navigation and the usability of the site, as well as new 
features such as tagging and geolocation. The second is the 
communication system of collaborative tools in use at the USSF (wiki and 
tracking system). The last was the proposal to use an intranet software 
developed by Mediatria the test of it will be available soon (the system 
is already used by many organizations, like Unions, NGOs, etc).
     4. Video, WSFTV and videostreaming. We discussed the possibility 
for WSFTV to have dedicated channels for different forums (eg. USSF, 
Dakar, etc.). WSFTV.net will be also available to webcast during the 
World Social Forum in Dakar 2011. With regards to streaming, we 
discussed about the use of proprietary/commercial systems in two ways: 
one is the free of charge streaming, but with advertising that some 
people consider not compatible with the WSF charter of principles;  the 
other is a paying system that comes with a clear screen with no logo and 
no advertising and with also the possibility to record and save the 
video files to archive which is a very important service. Another 
possibility is to have an independent system to host and generate the 
streaming, with no corporate support and using free software. This will 
be tested and possibly adopted as the better solution. (The commercial 
system analyzed are: Livestream.com, Ustream.com, Ubicast.eu; free 
software: RED5, Bigblue Button and others).
     5. Meetings of the WSF SSC. Our ongoing working meetings are each 
Saturday at 13:00 UTC. (Upcoming: 10 Apr on process site for tech 
collaboration, 17 Apr on video streaming, 24 Apr on OpenFSM or Expanded)

-- 
Mallory Knodel

May First/People Link Leadership
...Growing Networks to Build a Just World...

mayfirst.org
malloryknodel.net/blog



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