[olsx-tech] Fwd: Open Community Web Forum

Tue Nov 22 19:12:46 GMT 2011

Jonathan just launched this:
http://occupylondon.info/

An online forum for our occupations, with the goal to use this to better connect the physical sites with all online communities/participants. E.g.: an opportunity to reach and coordinate volunteers. An open "market place" for occupy information.

Details below.

m.

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "J L" <hemipemi at hotmail.com>
> Subject: [Occupy London] Open Community Web Forum
> Date: 22 November 2011 17:44:27 GMT
> To: <occupylondon at groupspaces.com>
> Reply-To: OccupyLondon at groupspaces.com
> 
> Hi,
> 
> This is Jonathan from Outreach.
> 
> A while ago John Sinha and I started a project with the aim to bridge the gap between our online communities, working groups, and occupiers on the ground across the UK. With further work and input from the recent communications meetings, this project has turned into a web forum, currently hosted at occupylondon.info (with the aim to move to a more suitable occupyforum.org pending domain transfer).
> 
> I personally believe that all discussions about Occupy should be held in public, in the spirit of our general assemblies and in the interests of accountability and transparency. I feel that these values are at the heart of our movement, and it saddens me to see that some of the most important topics of debate tend to be held among small groups, behind metaphorical closed doors.
> 
> I believe this is mostly an issue of logistics rather than a desire to keep discussions private, and I would like to propose how a web forum can be a solution to this problem.
> 
> We currently have (as far as I can tell) 5 main platforms of community interaction. Occupylsx.org, Twitter, Facebook, IRC, and Livestream. Every day literally thousands of messages run through these systems, and every day almost as many messages are lost or ignored. Only a small handful will ever find their way to the attention of Occupiers on the ground, or any of the more active members of working groups.
> 
> As an online contributer or supporter, this can be disheartening, and although we appear to keep a fairly steady stream of support, there is a definite drop-off rate, or "churn", as we lose active supporters on a daily basis. We are failing to engage with our supporters.
> 
> I believe this is because, with the exception of IRC, all of the above channels are essentially one way media platforms. They are designed primarily for outgoing information, and when faced with the task of managing a community of thousands of users, they fail.
> 
> A web forum, if properly managed and integrated into the workings of the Occupy movement could enable full community engagement at all levels of operation, and the flexibility of the open source phpBB3 Forum Software allows it to be directly integrated into Wordpress, Facebook, Twitter, etc 
> 
> - News stories on a wordpress website, when expanded, can go directly to a forum discussion on that story
> - Twitter and Facebook updates can be automatically reposted as forum discussion threads
> - Users can be allowed to log in to forum with their Facebook account 
> 
> There are many other advantages that would come from adoption of this software for our communications. To list a few:
> 
> - Topics are viewed in order of "last update", so if a subject remains relevant, it will always be visible. This is a stark contrast to how important news is quickly lost through social media platforms.
> - Important topics can be "stickied" to remain prominent regardless of activity
> - The forum software has a complex but intuitive permissions structure that allows users and usergroups to have specific permissions with regards to moderation and administration tasks
> - Wiki-like index threads can be used to collate valuable information  
> - Personal and group agendas can be maintained through links and information affixed to posts in the form of an automatic "Signature".
> - Usergroups can be set up for each working group, and these groups can be contacted, so everyone in that group will recieve all messages directed to it (through the forum and also to their email inbox). This is perhaps more practical than having a single email set up for each working group.
> 
> The phpBB software is generally some of the most flexible software around for community management, through the plugins and addons available, and by it's CSS layout that allows full customization of all elements.
> 
> A few steps would be required to achieve the maximum potential of this system, but most of them are easy enough to achieve (another list, sorry :D). Most of these I would be happy to undertake myself (or to source help where I can get it) but some, like updates to Twitter or the OccupyLSX website would require external support, and generally I am quite stretched at the moment with a number of projects.
> 
> - Identifying our key areas of "pass-through" interest, for example the General Assembly, Tent City University, Info Tent, Kitchen, Tea & Empathy, Library, etc, and making sure the messageboard has a very visible presence there. For example a large poster or banner at the GA speaking point that reads "Discussion of all topics raised at this Assembly will continue at (domain link)".
> - Availability of flyers with information and domain links at these pass-through points
> - A "Forum" link on the main OccupyLSX.org page - possibly where the "Bank of Ideas" link sits currently.
> - Regular forum updates and announcements where suitable on the Facebook and Twitter feeds.
> - Making sure every active working group member at least has a forum account registered, along with their working group affiliations. This would allow them to recieve messages directed at their working group, with no commitment of time necessary to actually use the forum itself
> - A physical inbox with note-block & pens available on each occupation site where people without Internet access or forum accounts can drop off a message to be relayed through the forum
> - Integration with the General Assembly by distilling the agenda into topics of discussion, and relaying them as forum discussion topics.
> - To encourage use of a Process forum in order to ensure regularity of the general assemblies. Rather than meeting 1 hour in advance, process could begin their discussion publicly, online, 24 hours in advance.
> 
> Ultimately I think it would be highly beneficial to have at least one permanent workstation (low powered netbook) locked in to the forum through net control software (to prevent abuse of facility) at all key areas of occupation. One of these at the info tent for example, could supplement the pigeon-hole system, allowing for immediate communication between occupiers and working groups.
> 
> The forum is currently hosted on a dedicated cloud server with regular FTP backup service, so it is secure against hacks and other forms of appropriation.
> 
> I know there are already like a billion working groups so I'm not going to make another one, but more help with this project would obviously be appreciated as it's quite a massive undertaking. I will be making regular callouts at the GA to this effect.
> 
> I'm very interested to hear people's thoughts or concerns about this project. Hopefully you'll get a chance to look at the forum also: occupylondon.info
> 
> Cheers,
> Jonathan Lamb
> You are subscribed as martin at dekstop.de
> Manage your subscriptions | Unsubscribe
> Mailing list powered by GroupSpaces - Manage your group online

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://www.email-lists.org/pipermail/olsx-tech/attachments/20111122/0a89c51f/attachment-0001.html>