DC v SF: A Clash of Visions for Tech Policy
Hosted by Reason, TechFreedom and the Charles Koch Institute
Monday, October 28, 2013 from 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM (PDT)
Hyatt Regency, 5 Embarcadero Center, San Francisco, CA 94111
> Event Details
>
> Do our nation’s policymakers and entrepreneurs share the same vision for technological change? Or are they fundamentally in conflict?
>
> What are the real fault lines in technology policy? Are traditional left/right divides breaking down? Where might a divided Congress reach consensus on policy issues crucial to the future of technology, such as privacy, immigration, intellectual property, censorship, Internet freedom, and biotech regulation? Can technology ultimately trump politics?
>
> For answers and more questions, join moderator Declan McCullagh (Chief Political Correspondent for CNET, @declanm), and a panel of technology policy experts: Berin Szoka (President, TechFreedom, @BerinSzoka), Larry Downes (Internet industry analyst and author), and Mike McGeary (Co-Founder and Chief Political Strategist, Engine Advocacy, @mdmcgeary).
>
> The event will be livestreamed and you can follow the conversation on Twitter with #DCvSF.
>
Livestream available at
http://fora.tv/event/dc_v_sf_a_clash_of_visions_for_tech_policy/livestream
hey all,
a friend forwarded this to me just now:
"http://gnome.org/opw/
The Outreach Program for Women (OPW) helps women get involved in free and
open source software. We provide a supportive community for beginning to
contribute any time throughout the year and offer focused internship
opportunities twice a year with a number of free software organizations.
Applications are now accepted for the new round of the Outreach Program for
Women internships. The application deadline is November 11, 2013 and the
internship dates are December 10, 2013 to March 10, 2014. Students from the
Southern Hemisphere, who will have a summer school break during this time,
as well as non-students from around the world are encouraged to apply.
Coding, design, documentation and other projects are available. The
applicants are asked to collaborate with mentors from the participating
organizations<https://wiki.gnome.org/OutreachProgramForWomen/2013/DecemberMarch/#Particip…>to
make a contribution relevant to the project they are applying for
during
the application process. The accepted participants will work remotely,
while being guided by their mentor, and receive $5,000 stipend. "
if you think you might be interested or might like some more info, please
email me off-list.
- marina
On Sun, Oct 27, 2013 at 12:55 PM, Matthew Harbowy <hbergeronx(a)gmail.com>wrote:
> Jenny,
>
> Are you reacting to my words, or are you willing to accept feedback?
>
> Matt H
>
I had thought my response to your feedback was both clear and constructive,
an honest effort to represent the values of our community. Were I feeling
less confident today, this private response questioning me for speaking my
mind could have the chilling effect of making me feel guilty and ashamed
for doing so. This frames my response as either a) 'reacting,' rather than
responding critically, or b) 'willing to accept feedback,' implying I
should accept your statements even though I disagree with many of them, and
it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise. I appreciate your speaking your
mind, and hope you can take my response in good faith.
Jenny
> On Sunday, October 27, 2013, Jenny Ryan wrote:
>
>> On Sun, Oct 27, 2013 at 11:04 AM, Matthew Harbowy <hbergeronx(a)gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> Quite frankly: no hierarchy is a bad idea. Minimal, flat, and respectful
>>> leadership with as much power devolved/delegated as possible is great...but
>>> there's always going to be people with less decision making authority than
>>> others. Not everyone is going to have signing authority at the bank, and
>>> most other organizations are going to want some form of continuity with
>>> regard to point of contact.
>>
>>
>> Our Articles clearly outline that decisions are made by either full or
>> majority consensus, meaning that no member has more or less decision-making
>> authority than any other member. The role of the board members would be to
>> finalize the collective decision-making process on paper.
>>
>> We do have a bank account, and those who can sign checks are essentially
>> those who've volunteered to do so.
>>
>> As it currently stands, whoever reaches out to another organization (be
>> it other hackerspaces or grant-making agencies) becomes the point of
>> contact for that relationship.
>>
>>
>>> Being on the board of a successful organization is a point of some
>>> pride, but likewise, being on the board of a sinking ship is stressful and
>>> nerve wracking, especially when creditors come calling. If you intend to
>>> operate as a cash business, you're going to need a leadership that can make
>>> decisions on when to save and when to spend. If you intend to take on debt,
>>> such as a mortgage or lease might entail, you're going to need to own your
>>> decisions for good or bad, and expect praise when you lead with clarity,
>>> and expect a lawsuit when you slack. You will not have any choice in the
>>> matter: all organizations have good and bad days.
>>>
>>
>> We are not a 'cash business,' but I may unclear on what you mean by that.
>> A primary value of Sudo Room is cultivating a 'leader-full' membership -
>> rather than no one having responsibility, we all do. I find it presumptuous
>> to assume that our organization 'needs' leadership, when many of our
>> members are involved in successful organizations that continue to run
>> without a traditional leadership structure.
>>
>>
>>> Honestly, Sudo Room seems to live hand to mouth every month because you
>>> do not have a leadership willing to make tough decisions to save a buffer,
>>> so that your landlord has less power over you. You had a plan to save but
>>> have not executed on it. You are indebted, whether you acknowledge it or
>>> not, to your (hopefully benevolent) dictators, like your Lord George, who
>>> because they hold the power of debt above you, disempower you. What you
>>> need is a renewed commitment to a savings plan, to live not at the lordship
>>> of the weather but to be free through the insurance policy of a positive
>>> cash flow. Perhaps this means developing relationships with a diverse set
>>> of sources of wealth: both talent that adds value as well as grant giving
>>> people and organizations.
>>>
>>
>> I would agree that the system of landlords and renting property is
>> innately corrupt, in part because of the top-down form of power and
>> authority it perpetuates. Part of the motivation for incorporating and
>> initiating the non-profit process is to be able to receive grants intended
>> for 501c3 organizations, and I agree it's important to diversify our
>> sources of funding.
>>
>>
>>> You cannot de emphasize your board if you expect to be taken seriously
>>> by other organizations, unless you only ever want to deal with
>>> organizations that have similar ad hoc leadership. Honestly, I don't
>>> believe that Noisebridge operates without the benefaction of invisible
>>> leaders who actually lever great power. I think that there is the visible
>>> process, and an invisible one, and you would be well served to make the
>>> invisible visible. I value honesty and radical transparency, and I think
>>> you should, too.
>>>
>>>
>> Sudo Room should not sacrifice its foundational values so as to be taken
>> seriously by traditional power structures. This is part and parcel of being
>> a vessel of social change. Noisebridge has an ad hoc and ever-changing
>> do-ocracy of leaders, as does Sudo. The inscription of a Board merely makes
>> static what is in actuality a dynamic aspect of the community, hence its
>> role (in the vein of honesty and radical transparency) is as merely an
>> on-paper minimum satisfactory requirement for bureaucratic processes. Come
>> to any meeting of Noisebridge or Sudo and it will be readily apparent who's
>> currently taking on leadership roles.
>>
>>
>>> What will happen if you are not cautious at this step is that everyone
>>> will want to lead when things are good, and no one will want to lead when
>>> fields are fallow. But the only time you ever really need a leader is when
>>> times are tough, and the path is not clear. In those times, your leader
>>> will have a quiet, wise voice, and you will need to have a board that is
>>> listening, not speaking, if you hope to recover. Listening to that quiet
>>> voice.
>>>
>>
>> I have long been impressed with our community's capacity to listen to
>> each other as equals in the leadership of our space.
>>
>>
>>> I am strongly opposed to any proposal that involves enforced (or even
>>> "recommended") silence. What your leaders need to do is not toot their own
>>> horn, but advocate for those who do in the do ocracy, whether they be board
>>> members or not. The board is the voice of those who do not have the
>>> strength or courage to speak for themselves. The board needs to listen, not
>>> speak, and learn who to hand the megaphone to. Such a board may seem
>>> invisible, indistinguishable from and much like your "no hierarchy" board,
>>> but it is a very different thing.
>>>
>>
>> Our Directors are not our leaders, and Sudoers quite often toot each
>> other's horns in supporting strong projects, contributions to the space,
>> and wise proposals. I think we could *all* benefit from some facilitation
>> training to become even better at supporting those who feel afraid or
>> uncomfortable speaking for themselves.
>>
>>
>>> A board must not speak for themselves, but be the voice of consensus.
>>> What I have seen is a very strange form of popularity contest, which is why
>>> I have chosen to withdraw my energy from this group over the last few
>>> months. When you resume your commitments to transparency and saving, I will
>>> give more strongly. But this "we're nearing zero balance" bullshit must
>>> end, and you need to elect leaders who will deliver that end, soon, because
>>> that is your path to freedom. Demand a plan for that, or withhold your vote.
>>>
>>> A popularity contest? Our commitment to transparency means that all of
>> our human dramas, our difficulties in overcoming lifetimes of living within
>> a system that perpetuates hierarchy and oppression, are there on the table
>> for you to dissect from the comfort of your inbox.
>>
>> Saving is possible when there is an excess of income, which we do not now
>> have nor have we ever had - this much is true. Hence moving forward with
>> acquiring non-profit status and concretizing our membership policy (which I
>> believe is next on the agenda after electing a board, with many ideas
>> already discussed in previous meetings).
>>
>>
>>> Your board may seem immaterial because success will be driven by your
>>> members, but if you are wise, you will elect people who *can* lead without
>>> power, drive without steering, promote without ego, and choose without
>>> deciding. That should be the board you elect: and you *should* give them
>>> all the power, because they will behave with your values and for you.
>>>
>>> Think about this: who listens for the sense of the group, then works
>>> actively, builds consensus toward that? Elect them. Who demonstrates your
>>> values?
>>>
>>
>> Under our Articles of Association and the values we have defined as
>> shared values from day 1, we are all imbued with these responsibilities and
>> any Board is a construct of the State to satisfy minimum basic requirements
>> of on-paper responsibility. If we could route around this requirement, we
>> would.
>>
>> Jenny
>>
>>
>>> Matt H.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sunday, October 27, 2013, Jenny Ryan wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Sat, Oct 26, 2013 at 8:43 PM, Eddan Katz <eddan(a)clear.net> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> just wondering how you're thinking about resumes that are available
>>>>> online or on a personal blog as different from LinkedIn, etc.. sincerely
>>>>> not sure what you mean by this paragraph below.
>>>>>
>>>>> sent from eddan.com
>>>>>
>>>>> > On Oct 26, 2013, at 8:12 PM, Jenny Ryan <tunabananas(a)gmail.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>> >
>>>>> > I also think it's important we de-emphasize the Board as much as
>>>>> possible - and in that vein would like to propose that anyone elected to
>>>>> the board not list their "position" on LinkedIn, Facebook etc to avoid the
>>>>> public image of having a hierarchical structure. However, it is indeed a
>>>>> position of responsibility that reflects commitment to the group and, as
>>>>> such, folks elected should be allowed to list it on job applications and
>>>>> resumes if so desired. In a similar vein, anyone on the compact should very
>>>>> much consider themselves a co-founder!
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Hi!
>>>>
>>>> Replying to you, Eddan, as well as the list, in case anyone else was
>>>> confused by this proposal. I was just thinking about the public perception
>>>> of hierarchy and ways to minimize that. My distinguishing between LinkedIn
>>>> and job applications was to distinguish between publicly- and
>>>> privately-communicated content - so an online [public] blog, resume, etc
>>>> would fall in the same category as LinkedIn for all intents and purposes.
>>>>
>>>> Just a suggestion, happy to discuss!
>>>>
>>>>
>>
On Thu, Oct 24, 2013 at 7:56 AM, Max Klein <isalix(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> I Max (notconfusing), nominate Jordan (yardena), Marina (mk30), Vicky
> (ykciv), Liberty (thattechgirl), Kare (kkr), and Jenny (tunabananas) for
> board membership.
I also must graciously decline the nomination at this time. Thanks Max.
At tonight's meeting there was consensus that we should move forward
with these articles as they are. So for our purposes right now, they
are officially ratified:
https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Articles_of_Incorporation
Unfortunately, this entails a Board of Directors. So far no viable
legal hacks have appeared to work around this. So the next detail we
need to tackle is exactly WHO will be on this Board. We decided that
the most legitimate way to do this is to let the mailing list nominate
names to a list, confirm they are willing, and then consent on the
list of names, to address any potential disagreements or conflicts.
Please use this thread to nominate yourselves or others to be on our
Board of Directors. Remember, this position requires your name on
official government paperwork, will come with legal liability, and
will be constructed with as little actual power as possible.
Hopefully this will be settled by next week's meeting (Oct 30), at
which point we can actually drive to Sacramento and file!
Sudo-ers-
The next Oakland Nights...Live! that we are hosting, on November 9th, is
going to have a different format and we were wondering if anyone from Sudo
Room would like to be involved. It is our 2nd birthday and we're going to
have a series of installations / tables / interesting places around the
room for people to visit and interact with rather than a proper show. Would
anyone be interested in doing a fun, interactive activity? Either
presenting something that you are working on or something else, either like
3D-printing, or making ice-cream, or bio-hacking, or wiki-ing, or any
projects?
I can give you more info to anyone who is interested. Thanks!
--
Jeremy Michael Dalmas
Host
Oakland Nights...Live!
FYI, Sudoers! In case y'all are interested.. a calendar / poster of
upcoming classes at the Public School -
Our latin slogan reads: "The Point Is To Change It."
Best
David
poets, lovers and hacker manic makers! here's a poetry contest for ya!
Stacy Doris Memorial Poetry Award
Fri, 09/27/2013 - 09:43
*Fourteen Hills* is proud to announce the inaugural *Stacy Doris Memorial
Poetry Award*. Guest judge is poet Chet Wiener. The winning poet will
receive *$500* and publication in the Spring 2014 issue of *Fourteen Hills*.
There is no submission fee. Poems not chosen for the award will be
considered for publication in *Fourteen Hills*.
Stacy Doris<http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2012/02/with-respect-stacy-doris-19…>
was
an Associate Professor in San Francisco State University’s Creative Writing
Department <http://creativewriting.sfsu.edu/>, where she taught for ten
years. Her work as a translator and a poet is widely recognized, and her
most recent posthumous collection, *Fledge: A Phenomenology of
Spirit<http://jacket2.org/reviews/longer-stay>
*, which poet Maxine Chernoff has referred to as “a miracle of
attentiveness,” is available from Nightboat Books.
Her other books include *Paramour *(Krupskaya, 2000), *The Cake Part*, *Knot
* (University of Georgia Press, 2006), *Cheerleader’s Guide to the World:
Council Book* (Roof Books, 2006), *Conference* (Potes & Poets, 2001), *Une
Année à New York avec Chester*(P.O.L., 2000), *La vie de Chester Steven
Wiener ecrite par sa femme* (P.O.L., 1998), and *Kildare* (Segue
Foundation, 1994).
She was also a translator, known for her work with contemporary French
poetry. She co-edited two anthologies, *Twenty One New (to North America)
French Writers* (Raddle Moon, 1997) and *Violence of the White Page* (with
Emmanuel Hocquard, Tyuonyi, 1991).
Doris was always creating new worlds with her unexpected poetics. Following
upon that spirit of creative invention and inventive creation; engaging wit
and ingenious playfulness; discovery in construction; and radical
appropriations based on classical forms, pastiche, and love:
the Stacy Doris Memorial Poetry Award will be given for a poem with a *truly
inventive spirit*.
Additional Requirements:
- Submission deadline: *January 1, 2014*
- Submissions only accepted via
Submittable<http://fourteenhills.submittable.com/submit>
- No minimum length; maximum 10 pages
- Maximum 1 poem per author
- Students currently enrolled at San Francisco State University are
inelligible
- Any poetry submitted for the award will also be considered for
publication in *Fourteen Hills*
http://14hills.net/node/725
