Invitation to participate in the Technology Infrastructure and Services Team / Invitación a participar en el equipo de infraestructura y servicios tecnológicos

In accordance with one of our highest voted member priorities May First Movement Technology is committed to organizing wider member participation in the support and development of our technology infrastructure and services.

Currently a limited staff of two persons takes on the responsibility for organizing the design, development, maintenance and support of the information technology services made available to May First members. We also want to recognize the contribution of the small band of dedicated volunteers who have provided strategic support for key services and accompanied us during emergencies over the years. The amount of work required to advance on all of our technical fronts is very demanding. Members both new and old have offered their help and feedback and we want to encourage their initiative by creating clear inroads and instruction for becoming involved in this work.

We also want to think about this work more holistically. Maintaining our infrastructure and services is not just about coding and system administration. We need lots of help and feedback from movement activists with interest in design, usability, resource management, communication and real field experience with how our services are being used and could be improved.

Organizing wider member participation also presents specific challenges which we hope to address. Re-affirming our organization’s commitment to combating racism and sexism and other structural inequalities will continue to be a priority for our technology team. We also hope to explore the concept of consentful technology in our work while fostering a culture of community service and mutual aid. Lastly, while the ultimate goal of this initiative is to bring more capacity to our organization it also creates new responsibilities. We ask our members for their solidarity and patience as we work towards maintaining a balance of expanding our technology team and sustaining our current infrastructure and services.

If you are currently logged into https://comment.mayfirst.org with your May First user account you can click here to join the Technology Infrastructure and Services Team


De acuerdo con una de nuestras prioridades más votadas por la membresía, May First Movement Technology se compromete a organizar una mayor participación de la membresía en el apoyo y desarrollo de nuestra infraestructura y servicios tecnológicos.

En la actualidad, una plantilla limitada de dos personas se encarga de organizar el diseño, el desarrollo, el mantenimiento y el soporte de los servicios de tecnología de la información puestos a disposición de la membresía de May First. También queremos reconocer la contribución del pequeño grupo de las personas voluntarios que han proporcionado apoyo estratégico a servicios clave o que nos han acompañado durante las emergencias a lo largo de los años. La cantidad de trabajo necesaria para avanzar en todos nuestros frentes técnicos es muy exigente. Muchas personas de la membresía, han ofrecido su ayuda y su retroalimentación, y queremos fomentar su iniciativa creando vías de acceso e instrucciones claras para participar en esta labor.

También queremos pensar en este trabajo de manera más holística. El mantenimiento de nuestra infraestructura y servicios no se limita a la programación y la administración del sistemas. Necesitamos mucha ayuda y retroalimentación de lxs activistas del movimiento interesadxs en el diseño, la usabilidad, la gestión de recursos, la comunicación y con experiencia real en el campo sobre cómo se utilizan nuestros servicios y cómo se podrían mejorar.

La organización de una mayor participación de la membresía también presenta retos específicos que esperamos abordar. Reafirmar el compromiso de nuestra organización con la lucha contra el racismo y el sexismo y otras desigualdades estructurales seguirá siendo una prioridad para nuestro equipo tecnológico. También esperamos explorar el concepto de tecnologías con consentimiento en nuestro trabajo, al tiempo que fomentamos una cultura de servicio a la comunidad y apoyo mutuo. Por último, aunque el objetivo último de esta iniciativa es aportar más capacidad a nuestra organización, también crea nuevas responsabilidades. Pedimos a la membresía su solidaridad y paciencia mientras trabajamos para mantener el equilibrio entre la ampliación de nuestro equipo tecnológico y el mantenimiento de nuestra infraestructura y servicios actuales.

Si está conectado a https://comment.mayfirst.org con su cuenta de usuario de May First, haga clic aquí para unirse al equipo de infraestructura y servicios tecnológicos

2 Likes

Hello everbody, pleasure to meet you (this is my 1st post). :slight_smile:

I welcome this initiative and kudos for it. :clap:
A couple of ideas to help make our services more usable and useful for more people (dissimilar in volume and complexity:

  • a shared mayfirst calendar to make like easier for the rest of the world (non México and US residents), lowering the barrier to participate.
  • an integrated office solution for users and organizations.

Since the 2nd is much bigger and complex, please let me elaborate it a bit.

People is used to integrated solutions from the mainstream (they don’t see what is included in the baggage, but that is another issue). That is, when they create an account, it comes with a mail account, a calendar, some space in the cloud, some kind of document editing tool/s, even a kind of (not really portable) but usable ID.

This integration is crucial for them to keep theirselves busy in their core missions, and not unfocused on the technology required to fulfill those missions.

It is our mission to provide those tools, so we should focus on building it, so they can just use it.

My perception is that today, our services in their current form cater to those people and organizations that are already technology oriented or savvy. If we keep in that path, we won’t be able to give service (and a smooth transition) to many other persons and organizations that should be on more conscious and consenting technological platforms, like the one we provide.

WDYT? :slight_smile:
Best regards…

1 Like

Hi Eduardo, thank you for this post. I think your suggestions for improving our services are very good but I think they would each get a more focused discussion if each is posted separately in its own thread in this category. I would like this topic here to focus on how we are organizing and provide answers to member’s questions about how they can get involved.

Ok, sure, sorry I didn’t understood the focus here. :slight_smile:

I’ll re post them in the tech category.

Best…

Hi - my name is Seth, I live in Detroit, and I was introduced to May First last year during the protests in the city, and have learned more in the recent weeks as I’ve been soliciting feedback for a low-level mapping tool for planning anti-racist demonstrations.

Impressed with the type of people who gravitate to this kind of community, and looking forward to meeting more of you!
Thanks, Seth

Welcome Seth! I think you just missed this post about our next meeting: https://comment.mayfirst.org/t/next-meeting-tias-team-proxima-reunion-equipo-tias/1955/30

Hope to see you there.

Hello Seth, I’m quite interested in this kind of tools. I’m happy to help if we do something like this. It’s about mapping, planning or both?

From some years ago (quite some, BTW), I remember Ushahidi (https://www.ushahidi.com/)…

Thanks and take care. :slight_smile: