Using Integrations and Webhooks for Project Collaboration & Organizational Coordination

I’ve been relatively obsessed as of late with cross-platform integrations in Trello and, more recently, Rocketchat (a free and open source Slack alternative) for coordinating the many tasks involved in the day-to-day affairs of my two main project-babies: Omni Commons and Sudo Mesh. There comes a point where it all became too much to juggle […]

4799 Shattuck now belongs to the people!

2016 was a grueling year – I dreaded the end of each and every month, which meant we’d be scrambling for the funds to pay Omni’s $15K rent, with additional expenses sometimes adding up to nearly $20K. We got by (barely) thanks to the faith and generosity of comrades with savings, who lent a […]

Fighting to Win: On the Ground Tech Support at Standing Rock

the sunrise horizon at standing rock

window.fbAsyncInit = function() { FB.init({ xfbml : true, version : ‘v2.5’ }); }; (function(d, s, id){ var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js”; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’)); On December 2nd, as soon as the purchase of the Omni Commons was finalized (!!!), I packed […]

Weaving Together a Network of Networks: Report from BattleMesh v8

This summer marked the 8th annual Battle of the Mesh in beautiful Maribor, Slovenia at the foot of the Swiss alps. Each year, folks from around the world who work on open source mesh networking protocols (schemes for routing packets across a network) and community wireless networks converge to deploy a testbed mesh network, running […]

Omni Commons raises over $80K!

Months of many hands working to launch our IndieGoGo crowdfunding campaign finally paid off, and we ended our campaign with over $41,000 raised, plus $40K in direct large donations. Thanks so much to the 569 people who contributed to the campaign, and everyone who shared it with their communities!

Check out the amazing video tour […]

What is Information? A Sudo/BAPS collaborative alt summer schooling!

Last Saturday marked the final day of the Bay Area Public School’s weeklong Summer School, the theme of which was Information. We started the day with a Cryptoparty – hands-on workshops to assist folks in generating key signatures, using encrypted and off-the-record chat, and other tools such as Tor and Redphone – this went really […]

Monthly Cryptoparties @ Sudo Room: Party like it’s 1984!!

We’re having the first of what will become monthly digital security workshops at Sudo Room this month. I’m excited to co-facilitate with some hella smart friends and learn along the way. Hoping to increase digital literacy through raising awareness of basic digital security hygiene.

Here’s some of the topics we’ll cover through hands-on workshopping: * […]

Bridging the Physical/Digital Divide: Hyperlocal Networks and Community-Based Asset Mapping

Hyperlocalism seeks to bridge the physical/digital divide by focusing on the use of information to create technology tools and media oriented around a well-defined area and inspired by the needs of local residents. Maps and mesh networks are tools that can be particularly leveraged to enable hyperlocal connectivity and information flow; I’ll briefly unpack the […]

Slow Dev: What the Open Source Software Community Can Learn from Anthropologists

Among technologists, for whom information and communication flow at hyper-speed and social bonds are increasingly interest-based, developing relationships with people and communities outside of your comfort zone of easy compatibility can feel frustratingly slow. The world of software development does not typically attend to the kind of bottom-up, community-based research process I’m accustomed to as […]

How to Make a Mesh: Coalition-Building in Oakland

As I launch into week 5 of my work with the Open Technology Institute, I’ve begun to collaborate with a variety of groups, organizations and actors who constitute part of the emerging network of activity around developing community mesh networks and mapping applications in Oakland, California. The idea is to facilitate the grassroots (bottom-up) development […]