Wait! Before you build that next great activist tool…
After the election, there was a tweet going around insisting the solutions that save our democracy won’t come from Silicon Valley, but from good old-fashioned organizing (can’t find it now so you’ll have to trust me). This gave me some pause at the time: I understood the point, but I didn’t want to believe it, because building tools for the resistance felt like such a meaningful way to give back. Like many of us, I was excited to see what problems technology could solve — and not just create — when applied to civic engagement.
Today, I can say I’ve been on both sides of the developer-activist relationship. As a member of the tech community, I’ve spent the last five years as a product manager on the engineering team at Xamarin (now Microsoft), where I immerse myself in the worlds of mobile and .NET and help keep our developers focused on building things people need. As an organizer, I’ve had the privilege of running a chapter of Indivisible with my friend Joe. We grew from a small Facebook group to 1000+ people in a few short months and I’ve been there every step of the way. I started our tech committee; I chose the tools we use, I set up our website, and I talk to people on the ground every day about what they need and expect from technology. So please believe me when I tell you your app/tool/website is a great idea — and we probably don’t need you to build it.
That sounds harsh, but hear me out.
Since November we have seen an avalanche of projects aimed at progressive activists. This is inspiring and powerful in its own right, but the results of the renaissance have been overwhelming for newly-minted activists. Over and over, people are showing up to our meetings saying they’re overwhelmed with the technology out there, wanting desperately to connect with their community in person and looking to us to provide some direction. And yet new tools keep getting built. There is a disconnect in activist circles where technical knowledge is badly needed, but technical expertise is often applied in ways that don’t help us. So before you build a tool for us, please follow some basic guidelines.
First, don’t build something that already exists. There are so many daily action sites and newsletters that people are not doing any actions. There are so many calling apps that people are starting to give up on making phone calls altogether (“I want to make calls but I don’t know what I’m supposed to call about” is a common thing we hear). Activists aren’t just looking for sources, they’re looking for trusted sources, and another app won’t fix this. Conversely, if you build something unique, be prepared to invest in maintaining it — not just the code, but the content. You will have to keep up with a ludicrous-speed news and event cycle — have you seen how fast things move? If we bring your tool into our organization, can we rely on you to keep it up to date and usable?
Second, have a plan to get what you build into our hands. Don’t assume we will use your app or website just because it exists. Websites often get visited once and then abandoned. Apps have a steep adoption curve — I tried to convince our members to download my beloved Countable app, which has a beautiful design and a $5 million valuation, and they’re still using this. There’s also the real danger that if you throw too many new tools at people who are already wary of technology, they will shut down and use nothing. Tools for an activist org must be chosen deliberately and marketed internally with a religious zeal — I’ve got my Slack elevator pitch down to syrupy drawl that would put Stewart Butterfield to shame. It takes work to convince people to try new things.
Third, help the organizers. Organizers are entrusted with making choices for the group, and our needs are not being met. Recently there’s been a palpable wave of panic through our local activist communities about security of online communication tools. The concern is healthy, but when you expose technology newbies to a paranoid media and a fearful political climate, you leave people spooked to the point of paralysis. Organizers need developers who understand cybersecurity to show up and calmly explain the organization’s threat model, and promote a realistic, holistic approach to personal security — so we don’t pigeonhole on “WhatsApp has a backdoor” while our Facebook password is password1234. Also, if you care about organizers, please stop building event aggregators. Every time our group hosts an event we have to submit it to five or six different sites, and this takes time. The first person to update every existing aggregator with Google Calendar integration will be a goddamn hero of the revolution.
We have seen some amazing projects emerge since November: SwingLeft comes to mind, also Flippable and Vote.org. But if you look closely, it’s easy to see why these projects are succeeding. SwingLeft started as a tool to find your local swing district, but they’ve followed up with face-to-face meetings, encouraging activists to engage with people in their community who want to work on swing districts. Debra Cleaver started Vote.org way back in 2008, with $5000 and a team of volunteers — a real upfront investment and a long time to refine the approach. It’s equally important to realize that some of the most powerful movements began without writing a single line of code: Women’s March started as a Facebook event. The Indivisible Guide was born out of a Google doc. Jess Morales Rocketto, who organized OccupyAirports, was running the whole thing from her Twitter account until she asked her friend to throw together “the ugliest website you’ve ever seen”. It may be that right now, we don’t need powerful tools to fuel the resistance. We need powerful people.
So if you want to help the resistance, start on the ground, not on Github. Show up at your next local progressive or Indivisible chapter meeting. Learn people’s names. Ask the organizers if they need a website. Help them set up Slack (or WhatsApp, or Signal) and then help walk 30 scared strangers who tell you “I’m not good with technology” through downloading the app to their phone. While you’re at it, ask if they reuse their passwords across services and set them up with a password manager. Do these things sound mundane? Yeah, they are. Are they valuable? More than you could possibly imagine.
If you do decide to build, build mindfully. Know what scaling looks like with a product meant for millions of people new to activism and overwhelmed by technology. Know who will adopt and promote what you create, and set aside time for maintenance. Build something open source, reusable, and easy for organizers to set up. Most importantly, build something that meets the basic needs of people on the ground doing the work. Your community will thank you for it, and if we play our cards right, your country will eventually do the same.
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Here is a list of questions to ask yourself before building the next great activism tool:
- Does something like this exist already? Can I contribute to that instead? As always, our best work may be done by helping each other.
- Is there an existing organization looking for developer/design/PM help that aligns with my skill-set? (ProgCoders has a list of volunteer opportunities. We’ve got a wishlist as well, and we’re especially interested in PRs from people who have never contributed to open-source).
- Is there an existing local organization that needs my help? Can I get a team together to work on a local political org’s website? Can I provide technical support and advice for a shelter or advocacy group, or volunteer for my town/city?
- Do I have time to devote to maintaining this project for as long as people are relying on it, including bug fixing, feature development, promotion, user research, content updates, and support?
- Given that I have limited time and energy for activism, where are my skills and ideas going to be most valuable today?
