Share your Internet Freedom Story
Our aspirations for the IFF Community Stories Publication
There’s so many amazing people and stories to be told in this community. In my few short days as IFF’s new Community Coordinator, I’ve had the great fortune of reconnecting with old friends and virtually meeting new friends working on Internet Freedom. Whether it’s hacking on tools or building communities, it’s great to be working with a community united in supporting our human right to safe, secure and available means for freedom of expression.
While we started as a festival, IFF is here to support and strengthen the community throughout the year. With resources like our new Job Board, the IFF weekly we’ve published for some time and many other efforts in between, we’re constantly working to connect and promote the amazing people and projects that share their efforts at the festival. This is why we launched this Medium publication and why we’re asking for your contribution.
We’re looking for 5 minute reads that talk about the work being done and the amazing people doing it. While this space and its content will naturally evolve to meet the needs of the community, we’re initially looking for three kinds of posts to help build connections from within and inspire those who need to know more about the work we do.
Our Tools: Stories, Starting Points & Successes
Whether you’re getting ready to launch a new tool, or simply noticed a digital security strategy or best practice everyone can implement, we want to let the world know! Our community is always at work on new tools and improvements to existing ones, yet we can always improve our efforts to get these tools into the hands of those that need them the most. We also feel that we haven’t heard about the human side behind our tools. How did you come to collaborate with your fellow devs? What strategies did you use to improve functionality and usability? Whether it’s framing the existing toolset in a unique way at a cryptoparty or coding from the ground up to meet a persistent need, we hope you’ll use this space to share these stories and strategies and help others in the community repeat your success.
Diversity & Inclusion in our Community
One of IFF’s greatest strengths is its diversity and inclusion. While this is still a loaded term in many tech communities, IFF prides itself on bringing in voices from all around the globe, reflecting many different cultures and backgrounds. Many of these diverse communities are those who have the greatest need for our work, yet we don’t hear enough about the challenges they face or the ways they use our tools to overcome the oppression they face. One story at a time, we hope that by sharing these stories we can improve the work this community produces while encouraging the personal ties that flourish at the festival every year.
Community Profiles
Have you ever wondered about the emerging talents and the leaders in our space that help and encourage them along the way? Every vibrant community shepherds and develops their next generation of leaders. We’d like to showcase these new voices and talents and hear from them how they’ve grown with us, what they’ve learned and where they see our community going in the future.
One of the things I’m so thrilled to say is that it’s actually my day job to help you! Please feel free to reach out to me or the team as a whole so we can get your story out. While we can’t accept every submission, I’m always available to help you with your ideas and writing. I encourage you to start your own Medium, but you absolutely don’t need one to publish here. Y no permita que el lenguaje sea un problema, queremos publicar en varios idiomas y podemos traducir su historia al inglés!
We can’t wait to hear from you and read your story! Reach out at team@internetfreedomfestival.org with your words for the community or any suggestions or other thoughts you have for us.
