On tech, activism and BarnCamp

These are extracts from a list discussion between “tech” and “non-tech” people. I found them useful for a wider public, for even wider discussion, even for reference for the future. That is another way blogs can be used for.

Excuse the plagiarism.

“[…] The only way, in my honest opinion, for righteous techs to help activists be more tech savy is to […] seeing how the world looks from a non techy activist mindset.. and then to take the […] steps required to cater to the needs of people who do not feel or think the same way as techs do […],

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BarnCamp

HactionLab has run apparently for a few years, with two events, one in the summer in a farm, and one in the winter in a city. This year’s summer event, BarnCamp, is going to be over three full days: Friday 10th, Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th, at Highbury Farm again and it’s live on the web at
http://hacktivista.net/barncamp
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Hotmail keeps bouncing my emails

Are you having problems between your cool email service provider and corporate email providers?

For the purpose of this explanation, a “cool email provider” is a provider listed as signatories of the statement on Data Retention on this page:

https://lists.aktivix.org
or here:
https://help.riseup.net/en/security/resources/radical-servers
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Certificates

Firefox and IE give you that warning because they do not want to interact with indymedia’s certificate. Both browsers (most if not all) are part of the corporate world and only interact well with certificates created within the corporate world. Indymedia and friends keep out of the corporate world as much as possible. That is why they work with certificates that do not come from that world.
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GPG

If we would not accept to receive our bank statements on a postcard and we always seal our love letters, why do keep sending non-encrypted emails? Probably, because encrypting an email is not as simple as sealing an envelope. While it only takes a simple gesture to close an envelope, email encryption requires, namely: a pair of keys, a passphrase to activate them and a program to handle it all. One of the most popular ways to use encryption is probably with Thunderbird and its PGP plug-in. Once both are installed, it is all pretty intuitive.

But what do you do if you don’t even have a computer, and/or you have to use computers that are not yours, to connect to the internet? Continue reading