Open Technology Communities and their relevance today

Human society is built on communities and every community at its heart has a open space where free flowing discussions are encouraged. Historically these discussions are the reason for most important structures of this society. Be it democratic governments or intergovernmental organizations, discussions and negotiations are used to make decisions.

Software engineering in the 60s was a result of the military and space requirements of certain parts of the world (US and Europe). The software was initially written by individuals and freely shared and distributed. But in the 70s vertical systems were introduced and software production by individuals was discouraged. Bundled software became the norm. Slowly this prevented software developers from studying and modifying the software. This also interestingly led to ethical discussions on software creation and that led to the birth of the free software movement. Communities started playing a central role in software creation, competing with software corporations for talent, effort and products until the early 2000s.

When I began my career as a technologist in the late 90s, these communities were in full bloom. They helped me learn both the hard skills of software engineering and taught me about the ethics of software development. These communities included Barcamps, Linux User Groups (LUGs) & other Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) communities. One particular community, Random Hacks of Kindness, had had a direct influence on my life and work. Random Hacks of Kindness is a global community of hackers and makers who come together through locally supported community-based humanitarian hackathons.

These discussion spaces in the 90s and early 2000s were largely volunteer led, They were of all sizes from as few as 10 people to as many as 100 people and would happen infrequently. As community events that were special, because they weren’t so common, they attracted the smartest people within the local community and directly addressed its needs.

It has become so hard to see these spaces today. They have either disappeared or slowly morphed into walled spaces. While we have a increased number of innovation spaces and rise in number of so-called community events, the questions to ask are: Who is running them? Who is participating?What do they address? Most often the answer to these questions are associated with money and profitability and less to do with society and its practices and even less to do with rights.

Every day we read stories of how the introduction of certain technologies or technology processes are leading to exclusion or to our loss of individual rights. Often the excluded groups or individuals are unable to articulate their needs or even the issues they face. Some of this is a result of systematic bias, while the rest is due to unequal access and the methodologies used in Internet adoption. The Internet is still in its teens and while it is a useful medium human society, it needs time and a proper understanding to be completely adopted by humanity as a life tool. While some of us have the privilege to learn and understand it over a period of time thanks to these communities, the majority of the world is still discovering certain parts of its functionality. When we’re in such a position, pushing for the use of the Internet as a part of our society is a horrible thing to do. We need more time as a global human society to understand the Internet, to debate its rules and decide on how to properly adopt it into our lives. To adopt the Internet on terms that does not take away from our humanity, we need more of these communities not fewer of them. We need more people to create spaces to empower people on how to use the Internet as a part of their life, to make informed decisions on how to adopt it.

This is something I am trying to do. I initially started off by learning about various processes to include people in building technology. I initially worked with my own city of Bangalore at the time I started working with different groups in India to help them build these spaces. Now I work with people from around the world. Today I hold the position of Global Coordinator for Random Hacks of Kindness in addition to running The Bachchao Project, a community effort to build technology and frameworks for gender issues.

How do you contribute to keeping these spaces open ?

Once you have identified a community you are well-equipped to work with, which resources (like time or money) you can contribute and the skills you can use, here are some things you can do:

Volunteer to coordinate or Lead

Community coordination is tedious work! It requires a degree of self-motivation and leadership skill. This includes organizing and enabling the community with the means to find the right people to hold discussions, finding expertise to share and motivating the team. It helps if you are rooted in the location or groups you are already working with.

If you plan to do this it is important that you are able to understand the needs of the community and to constantly check your biases and privilege. However, in the end this kind of leadership also provides the most rewarding experiences.

Volunteer to hold discussions

In some communities the coordinator or the lead holds discussions and events. But this role can be separated from coordination. A volunteer holding discussions could be a subject matter expert, or can simple invite some one who is. An effective discussion can be held by through models of hosting and by various event formats. Some communities have hackathons , while others have participatory discussions or learning workshops.

Volunteer to share skills

There are two ways to share skills. The first one is using a specific skill for helping someone coordinate the community. The second one is knowledge sharing. In most communities there is a huge need of this and this is one of easiest ways to contribute.

Contribute your wealth

Most of the work done with community esp concerning sharing unbiased technology knowledge, attracts very little sustainable funding. Volunteering can be hard and often requires as much effort as a paid job. Contributing money to such organisations could help them in various ways. It helps sustain resources such as a space and the ability to offer food, as well as supporting the people who put in the effort.

Build materials that can be shared

Sharing Knowledge can be done in more than one way. It does not require you to be physically present. You could also contribute by creating documentation, videos and other materials for volunteers who don’t necessarily have the skills that you have to learn and share.

Copy edit contributions by Nick Farr