== Global South Day 2 - Next Steps
=== What can we do? What events did we miss? (Community Team will be making a roadmap)
Push Tor to make the next meeting in the Global South Ppl are thinking Stockholm to overlap w/ PETS, but that's too far, too boring, too North, etc...
Deficit of Global South locations - not equitable to start by going back and forth - we have to make up for our past failings, first!
=== Conversation:
M: Oaxaca, Mexico is an option! - Next steps: Could be useful to have a space where ppl from the South facilitate geopolitical analysis of the region - in a way that Global South is a concept that includes SE Asia, Africa, in the region - super complex! Latin America is sooo diverse! There are many different realities in the 'Global South,' so we need local contexts. Political violence, economic crisis, psycho-social violence - we need a space to share about and learn the local realities. And from here, with this info in mind, we can decide where to have the next meeting. - What part of the Global South? We need to be very careful about what NGOs represent/mean in local realities - sometimes it's better to have contact with NGOs, but ALSO ppl involved in social movements - NGOs are often seen as doing bad things in a region, so we need to be careful who we work with - and we need local perspectives to know what NGOs are doing and how they affect local people! - Religious groups are taking power in Mexico - and this is not a small problem! In the next years we will see power conflicts btwn catholics & protestants in the region.
F: Question: - Yesterday we were talking about the difficulty of contacting local orgs. After talking w/ others, wondering about what level of duplication Tor wants when organizing an event. What groups are we targeting? Do we want to run the same events in many regions? All of us in our local countries can help to identify points of contact? Run local workshops to establish contact & relationships?
G: - In some countries, we've been doing v private workshops - but the host company/org determines how public it will be. In some countries this will be seen as an external group meddling, so we want to be careful - we don't want to be deported b/c of being seen as a business. In some countries where we feel there's less risk, we'll have open days (like MX, Brasil, etc) - Sign-ups! We can get people to sign up for contact, interest
x: - Theme of the event determines reception - if we market our event as being more general interest, less 'troublemaking' - we might see more success/welcoming voices
B: - Culture clashes talk - It would be cool to have a speaker from the area speak about something relevant to a local social movement, journalist security in Mexico - but place the event in a time slot where everyone can go/is obligated to go
G: - Debian's meeting decisions - the main beneficiary from Tor meetings must be the Tor Project - where does the project/org gain the most? - we need to make sure that ppl can go to the meeting X: - Hackerspace in Costa Rica - can we reach them to organize something there? Something in Central America? Guatemala? - Privofest in Costa Rica ((not sure if I caught the name correctly))
G:
- Every month is a meeting in IRC - monthly global south meeting
- open meeting, where ppl can come and share their projects, ask for support from Tor
- Invite ppl and orgs to Cryptorave - it's open, it's political rights defenders, activists, FREE event
- G is trying to make a calendar of events, but it's hard! Many things are very local - how do we decide which events to go to?
N: - Mozilla involvement - Mozilla has a very global reach - maybe we can partner with Mozilla in some way, or ask them to help setup smaller local mtngs related to privacy & the web - can we benefit from their reach, connections? - contacts in SE Asia
A: - I don't think a lot of the cities are difficult for people to get to - or, not more difficult than other countries! - Making the first few meetings go really smoothly - easy to setup, easy to get to - so that in the future, it's easier for us to get a 'Yes' for locations that are harder to get in and out of. - Every 5th meeting, we commit to going to a place that's harder to get into, as an act of solidarity - we accept that this will be harder, and we do it /because/ it is harder - Can we alternate btwn global north, global south?
X: - Global South is a work in progress - it's important to have a roadmap, a schedule, a guide for what to do - there are lots of challenges, and we need to have a clear idea of the next steps - re: how to reach ppl in new places: - it can be useful to join forces with other orgs that are already doing trainings - focus on digital security - build horizontal, not vertical - We can go to /their/ events, do small talks of our own - we can potentially use the IFF tracker for event tracker - they only show events with CoCs, so we may miss some newer events because of this - Debian community as an example of how to reach ppl - they create local meetings in diff places, as well as global stuff - it's important to create trust, grow our network
X: - Continuous exercise of considering local realities & political contexts - this is so important! - we sometimes forget that this is not necessarily a heterogeneous group - ppl have different ideas, and we need to make sure everyone is aware of politics - sometimes, the message of Tor being for 'the people who need it most' can block others from using it - should we re-work to focus on 'Tor is for everyone?' Look at Guardian Project and the personas they're making
e: - meetings are great, but maybe we need to think about smaller scale stuff - local projects, USER TESTING!!!; make sure we're not just thinking about small events, but thinking about longterm projects in communities
S: - we should have a list of priorities for choosing a place - is everyone safe here? how easy is it to get there? etc
P: - Global South is HUGE! Consider again the different contexts in all these places. - seconding Alison's idea of picking a difficult-to-reach place every 5th mtg - easy-to-access places in India: Bangalore, Mumbai - could be a ton of local participation
A: - A lot of the work we're currently doing is keeping local contexts in mind - framing user testing as community building, having talks about local politics - like the idea of having a longer-term presence - would love to hear ongoing criticisms of these things - how can we keep ourselves accountable? - A is in position to help organize this stuff - we can also have a smaller meeting in these difficult places, before the next tor meeting - like, just community team, etc
X: - trying to make Tor use a normal thing in these places - ppl who could benefit from Tor but might not want to use it bc of fear, misconceptions
X: - maybe identifying people working in privacy in these locations - they can be an 'in,' a connection - help us set up events etc - make mini events, conferences, and bring a /group/ of people, rather than just one representative - a privacy event sponsored by Tor - spread our own presence while empowering local groups
X: - Costa Rica - meeting that's happening before November - so this is a potential connection/opening - regional contexts - not just Global South. Every country has different struggles. - what happens in India, Brasil, etc - all so different - we also need to provide a space where ppl can speak in THEIR language about THEIR struggles and THEIR solutions - empower people
X: - meeting in Spain in a few weeks
M: - How to facilitate Tor as a tool for everyone - young ppl in LA are the gateway - children showing their parents how to use whatsapp, digital tools, etc - the origin of growth - Have a specific track for young people!
N: - two events: - Ghana - internet freedom in Africa - just happened - RightsCon in Tunis - RightsCon can help ppl get visas - this is an opportunity for us - Guardian Project - Letting partners and communities reimagine the apps and the need - "How would you reimagine this app for your own country?" - Building different Tors for different people
X: - proposed to do a Tor mailing-list in Spanish - we could organize this now - we would need help for this - not just one person running it
P: - Normalizing Tor - creating the content that normalizes Tor in different languages!! - localization
e: - we're currently hiring a sysadmin - can we get someone from the Global South involved here?
E: - normalizing Tor, making things less intimidating - the simple ways that people can use Tor - just to avoid ads, etc - it would be beneficial to take advantage of the translator community - there are a lot of surprising partnerships we might find there - ppl associated w/ civil rights, hacker spaces, etc
== Get involved! #tor-south IRC channel (not sure if I got this right) - monthly open meetings