Increase Digital Justice Focus

(see all of Proposals)

At the start of the 2025-2026 Committee year, we agreed to focus on on LoRes approaches so that we moved quickly to delivering value without losing out focus. So far, we have a working tech stack for the Multi-node Wikipedia process, with approximately 15 volunteers working through setting it up, but progress is slow. None have completed the process in a two month period, several are close.

We have a lot of energy from interested volunteers this year, particularly after the first Solarpunk meetup which attracted about 70 people who were excited about either climate resilient tech, or getting off big tech.

We have a grant application in focused on the educational angle of training people to setup and run servers.

The process of setting up a LoRes mesh is currently bottle-necking at Node Stewards. There are ways that we can improve that situation. Perhaps more direct hands-on training is needed. Perhaps a more simplified setup would help. Perhaps better instructions for volunteers using Windows or Mac on their computer. We have discussed that one of the goals here isn't just to get nodes setup, but to empower volunteers to understand nodes so that they can become community node stewards, and also so that some of them (the more technical ones) can get involved in developing and maintaining Co-op Cloud recipes and/or FOSS software.

Meanwhile, I (Jade) have been focusing on laying the groundwork for the next milestone, Static Websites. This is already looking like it's going to be a big and difficult technical challenge. Hosting stuff on Co-op Cloud is well understood, getting things like user identity, website files, domain name management and so on syncing across nodes in a way that is compatible with internet outage conditions is a large technical challenge. I understand this space very well, and am working on it professionally as well, and am well positioned to deliver on this, but am largely doing this solo at present.

The Digital Justice Society is a group on Kaurna Country (Adelaide) which has been focused on moving individuals and progressive groups off big tech, regardless of how far along that journey they are. They have had particular success with a few programs:

• Digital lounges. They run a drop in space on a weekend once a month where people can move the next step in getting off big tech. They have a big of a “skill tree” sheet they hand to people, which starts with installing a password manager, but people can choose their own adventure from there, whether it's moving to Linux, or just installing Firefox with an ad-blocker.
• Tech Radar. They have a set of recommendations for different ethical tech platforms as an alternative to google, etc.
• Get off Spotify. They have a fun workshop to help people move off unethical streaming services at whatever level of intensity they like, from picking a slightly more ethical streaming service, all the way to engaging more directly with the local music scene.
• Hosting. They are running some servers, mostly in one location, with the aim of hosting some open source apps for local progressive organations. They are using Co-op cloud for this and are interested in LoRes and other collaborations.