Newsletters/Orientations/Trainings - Help Strengthen OccupyChicago's Recruitment Strategy!

[Kelvin Ho]

Hi All,

Attached is the first issue of a weekly newsletter a couple of us have been working on since April 7th. Using various chicken-scratch emails collected since September, we managed to scrounge up about 800 working emails for this first issue. Let me know what you think. We're looking for a lot more help - it actually takes quite a bit of time to compile and rewrite all the different event notices. If we get enough people we might be able to start streamlining the website, calendar, facebook, twitter, txt alert, and these newsletters all together. Also, if anyone happens to have any html or graphic design experience, we're looking to spice this stuff up (scroll all the way down to see OWS's fancier version).

If anyone knows how to get a subscribe button onto the website please let me know!

You can also help us out by emailing any events/actions/trainings you know of (using the format below) to socia...@occupychi.org and ochi_ne...@riseup.net.

I'd also like to make a pitch about the importance of really investing time in creating an effective recruitment strategy as we go into Spring. Occupy Chicago in my opinion has decentralized significantly since the beginning, allowing it to take on much more than it did back in the beginning of the movement. That being said, it seems that we are heavily lacking in a coordinate recruitment strategy that really makes it easy for new people to get involved in the projects they find interesting. Part of what some of us are trying to do with these weekly newsletters, txt alert systems, weekly orientations, and trainings is to address that gap in the movement infrastructure. It's gonna take a lot of work but it will pay off tremendously in the long run. Part of what made many of the Arab Spring revolution and the various Otpur-related movements in Europe so successful was a highly coordinate movement strategy of Recruitment-Training-Action every week. We've been lacking the former two for a long time, let's work to fill that hole.

Let  me know if you're down to help with any of these things - the newsletter, orientation sessions, or training sessions.

Solidarity forever,

Kelvin

P.S.

I've attached an updated Occupy Chicago registration/contact sheet to pass around at any upcoming events. Please print them out and pass them around at any events you go to!

P.P.S.

Can anyone volunteer to distribute these at the incarceration action today or the City-wide general assembly? I can't make either of them unfortunately.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: OChi Newsletter <ochi_ne...@riseup.net>
Date: Thu, Apr 19, 2012 at 4:33 AM
Subject: #OccupyChicago Updates for the Week of April 16
To: ochi_ne...@lists.riseup.net


Welcome to the Occupy Chicago weekly newsletter.  You can expect no more
than one email per week detailing upcoming actions and events related to
Occupy Chicago.  Below is a list of events, teach-ins, trainings and
information on our General Assemblies and Neighborhood Occupations.

Important Occupation Update:
Since last Thursday, April 12, Occupy Chicago has joined in solidarity
with the Mental Health Movement's ongoing occupation at the Woodlawn
Mental Health Center at 6337 S. Woodlawn, demanding Mayor 1% to stop his
attacks on mental health in the city. After breaking through the
barricades early morning last Friday, the Chicago Police preceded to
arrest 23 mental health consumers and advocates. Since then, the MHM and
their allies along with Occupy Chicago have continued to occupy the vacant
lot across the mental health clinic, setting up a tent city that was
subsequently taken down twice, further leading to two illegal arrests. The
occupation continues however, and needs all the support in can get,
whether it be food, drinks, blankets, sleeping bags, or even warm hugs.
Please stop by if you can! To read more about the struggle check out the
article:
http://open.salon.com/blog/bobbosphere/2012/04/18/occupy_mental_health_save_chicagos_clinics
And follow #SaveOurClinics on Twitter for real-time updates.
***As a result of this, the General Assembly has decided to relocate to
the Woodlawn Clinic at 63rd&Woodlawn for Friday(4/20) and Saturday(4/21)

Occupy these Upcoming Events:

Stop Mass Incarceration! National Day of Action in Chicago
Thursday, April 19, 5:00pm-
Federal Plaza (http://g.co/maps/ygj8v)
This country imprisons more people than any other country on the planet.
On Thursday, April 19th, everyone who is concerned about injustice will
join in saying -- NO TO MASS INCARCERATION -- in a loud voice.
https://www.facebook.com/events/336266843087061/

All City General Assembly
Thursday, April 19, 7:00pm-9:00pm
Woodlawn Mental Health Center, 63rd&Woodlawn (http://g.co/maps/zezgf)
The Mental Health Movement #SaveOurClinics occupation invites participants
from Occupy Chicago, and every neighborhood and campus Occupy groups in
the city, to come together this Thursday at 7pm, at Woodlawn & 63rd, for
the first City-Wide General Assembly. Come to learn about the ongoing
struggles of the Mental Health Movement along with upcoming events from
all the other Neighborhood Occupations
https://www.facebook.com/events/394381807246428/

Chicago 2012 LGBTQQIAAP Civil Rights March
Saturday, April 21, 12:00pm-
Pritzker Park, State&Van Buren (http://g.co/maps/ynaa3)
Chicago will join numerous other cities in a march for equal civil rights
for the LGBTQIA community worldwide on Saturday, April 21st. The overall
goal for these marches is to have the community and its allies come
together to demand and acquire full civil rights that all other sectors of
society enjoy. Everyone is encouraged to participate in this historic
event regardless of identity, orientation, or age. There will be an all
ages afterparty at Oak Street Beach afterward, weather permitting.
https://www.facebook.com/events/266615296766480/

People's Health Fair and Rally to #SaveOurClinics
Saturday, April 21, 10:00am-6:00pm
Woodlawn Mental Health Center, 63rd&Woodlawn (http://g.co/maps/zezgf)
Join us for an all day health fair and rally with healers, free blood
pressure screening and health education, music, poetry and powerful
testimonies from the brave people fighting to #SaveOurClinics. This
Saturday marks a week since Occupy Chicago has joined the Mental Health
Movement and its allies in setting up camp outside the Woodlawn Mental
Health Clinic and 9 days since they occupied the clinic, one of 6 mental
health clinics facing closure as a result of Mayor 1%'s budget.

Occupy Chicago Weekly Orientation
Saturday, April 21, 2:00pm-4:00pm
Woodlawn Mental Health Center, 63rd&Woodlawn (http://g.co/maps/zezgf)
Join us for our second round of Occupy Chicago Orientation sessions this
spring! This time, we'll meet at the #SaveOurClinics Occupation at 63rd
and Woodlawn this Saturday at 2pm. We'll have a mix of newbies, occupiers
and activists. Our hope is to give the lay of the land, discuss the issues
we all care about and get people immediately connected to the groups and
projects that they are most passionate about. Look for an Occupy Chicago
Banner when you get there!
https://www.facebook.com/events/394381807246428/

Weekly Street Tactics Training
Saturday, April 21, 4:30pm-6:00pm
Woodlawn Mental Health Center, 63rd&Woodlawn (http://g.co/maps/zezgf)
Following the Weekly Orientation, we'll be kicking off the first of many
street tactics training in preparation for #MayDay #NATO and
#ChicagoSpring.  Inspired by a curriculum recently developed at #OWS,
we'll be going over a variety of fun and useful march tactics that will
better allow us to move intentionally in large groups in a highly
coordinated, unified, and militant manner while avoiding the violent
implications and hierarchical methods of the military.
https://www.facebook.com/events/394381807246428/

Livestream/Twitter Training
Saturday, April 21, 6:00pm-7:00pm
Woodlawn Mental Health Center, 63rd&Woodlawn (http://g.co/maps/zezgf)
Come and meet some of our livestream and social media gurus and learn
everything you need to know about being an OccupyChicago citizen
journalist.  We'll be going over any and all questions you have about
tweeting and livestreaming - necessary equipment, ethics, tips, and
step-by-step walkthroughs!

The Global Teach In-Chicago Chapter
Wednesday, April 25, 11:00am-3:00pm
Ferguson Hall, RM. 101, Columbia College 600 S Michigan Ave
(http://g.co/maps/k8x66)
Hear speakers from around the world discuss issues of worker owned coops,
moving money, common infrastructure, a green new deal, direct democracy
and social movements and putting it all together: creating an alternative
economy for the 99% of the world.
http://vimeo.com/39371903
https://www.facebook.com/events/409934595685657/

Nonviolent Direct Action Workshop Series — Working with Others
Tuesday, April 24, 6:30pm-9:30pm
DePaul LPC Arts and Letters Hall
Rules of engagement for police, press and pedestrians; practicing
nonviolent communication; how to defuse violence by other protestors.
https://www.facebook.com/events/258580964236393/

Occupy these Meetings too!

Nato Popular Assembly/Spokes Council
Thursday, April 19, 6:00pm-8:00pm
Dining Hall, Jane Addams Museum, 800 S. Halsted (http://g.co/maps/ygj8v)
Come discuss how you and your group, community or organization wants to
respond to the upcoming NATO conference coming to Chicago May 20-21, 2012.
Each organization should select or elect one or two representatives to
speak publicly.
https://www.facebook.com/events/283452085065393/

Occupy Chicago NATO Working Group Meeting
Friday, April 20, 6:00pm-8:00pm
Unit 501, 500 W. Cermak

Chicago May Day Mobilization Meeting
Saturday, April 21, 12:00pm-3:00PM
333 South Ashland, Workers United Union Hall
Join immigrants rights, union, occupy, community activists and others to
organize for MAY DAY 2012
https://www.facebook.com/events/145321642262639/

NATO Housing Working Group - First Meeting
Saturday, April 21, 2:00pm-4:00PM
Congress&Michigan
A new working group is forming to address issues of providing housing
opportunities for protestors coming here for NATO and the Chicago Spring.
If you have ideas about this please come to the meeting!
https://www.facebook.com/events/341388502586341/

People's Summit Publicity Committee Meeting
Sunday, April 22, 6:00pm-8:00pm
Unit 501, 500 W. Cermak

People's Summit Organizing Meeting
Monday, April 23, 5:30-7:30pm
Unit 501, 500 W. Cermak

Weekly Neighborhood Occupation General Assemblies

Occupy Rogers Park General Assembly
Sunday, April 22, 5:00pm–7:00pm
For This Weeks Location Visit:
https://www.facebook.com/occupyrogerspark?sk=wall

Occupy El Barrio General Assembly
Tuesday, April 17, 6:30pm–7:30pm
1640 S Blue Island Ave
https://www.facebook.com/groups/317120191637371

Occupy the South Side General Assembly
Thursday, April 26, 7:00pm–9:00pm
Unitarian Church 5650 S. Woodlawn
http://www.facebook.com/occupythesouthside

Occupy the Northwest Side General Assembly
Saturday, April 21, 3:00pm-500pm
Logan Square Library - 3030 W. Fullerton

Occupy Chicago General Assembly
Friday/Saturday, April 20,21 7:00pm-9:00pm
Woodlawn Mental Health Center, 63rd&Woodlawn (http://g.co/maps/zezgf)
NOTE: Check back on Facebook, Twitter, and occupychi.org for location of
future General Assemblies (most likely will be back at the Bowman Statue
@Congress&Michigan)

Occupy the date:

May 1 - Immigrant and Labor March
12:00PM at Union Park, 1501 W Randolph St.
Occupations all across the globe will stand up and defend the 99% on May
1st. Occupations in cities across the country are calling for a General
Strike. In Chicago, we are organizing a massive gathering of laborers,
immigrants, students & more. On May 1st, we will march for the 99%! JOIN
US IN CHICAGO!
http://www.facebook.com/events/331802843528785

May 12-13 - People's Summit
10am, Occupy Chicago Space, 500 W Cermak
http://peoplessummitchicago.org/
http://www.facebook.com/events/181301288639448

May 18 - NNU March against G8
11am, Daley Plaza
http://www.facebook.com/events/180493272068416/

May 20 - IVAW March
9am, Grant Park, Balbo & Columbus
http://www.ivaw.org/blog/nato-call-action-march-veterans-justice-and-reconciliation

May 20 - CANG8 March
12pm, Grant Park Petrillo Bandshell
www.cang8.org
http://www.facebook.com/events/426066087409610

May 12-21: Occupy Chicago Ten Days of Actions
http://www.facebook.com/events/295772130492710

Interested in emergency SMS/text alerts about important actions/events?
Text @OccupyChicago to 23559 to sign up! For email alerts, visit
http://cel.ly/c/OccupyChicago
Expect at most 3-4 texts/week.

Donate to Occupy Chicago:
https://npo.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscriptionId=1005176

For General Inquiries or Committee-specific questions:
http://occupychi.org/contact

You are receiving this because of your ongoing support and participation
in Occupy Chicago, which you expressed when you gave us your email at an
Occupy-related event since September 23, 2011. This newsletter includes a
partial listing of events related to the Occupy Movement in Chicago. For
the most up to date info on Occupy Chicago be sure to check the following
sites:
occupychi.org
chicagospring.org
http://www.facebook.com/OccupyChicago
http://twitter.com/#!/OccupyChicago

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Your inbox: occupied. News and calls to action from #occupywallstreet in NYC. View online. The American Spring is here, so ‘Take a Chance’ with us. Below you will find a Great Meeting, Kiss-in against Corporate Greed, Eviction Theater and many other chances to assemble, learn and celebrate.    This Week in Occupy Is Education an “Asset”? Wednesday, April 4th 1230-2pm Union Square, the Gandhi statue in the southwest corner of the park Join Occupy University and Occupy Student Debt Campaign for a lunch-time discussion about education-as-asset. This discussion is part of a series of events leading up to the day that student debt reaches $1 Trillion, to be (mis)celebrated on 4/25. Meet at the Gandhi statue. These discussions about the crisis of higher education are sponsored by Occupy University. It is also a lead up educational event for 1T day. http://www.1tday.org The Great Meeting Wednesday, April 4th 630-930pm Union Square, the large assembly area at the northmost end at 17th street After weeks of arrests and wounds, amazing actions and incredible solidarity, we want to come back together to discuss political questions surrounding anything ranging from economic equality to food and health care justice to upcoming actions to the Spanish general strike, to dream together of the new world that we think is possible enough that we’ve stuck it out for all of these months, and perhaps to discuss practical concerns about our shift toward Union Square as a reclamation of the Commons.  NY State Public Campaign Financing Town Hall Brooklyn: Wednesday, April 4th 530-8pm. Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon St. Manhattan: Thursday, April 5th 530-8pm. NY Hotel Trades Council, 707 8th Avenue  It’s time Albany finally returns to government of, by, and for the people – not government bought and paid for by CEO campaign contributors. But, as long as politicians are accountable to corporations and lobbyists who finance their campaigns, they’re never going to be accountable to us. Join us to learn more about this exciting campaign to win fair elections for New York in 2012 and to let our elected officials know that we support strong public campaign financing in NY State! Gather outside at 5:30pm for a pre-meeting mini rally to show support. Bring a mop or a broom if you can. Occupy University Horizontal Pedagogy Workshop Thursday, April 5th, 8pm-10pm Public Atrium at Trump Tower (56th St & Madison Ave) Join the Empowerment & Education Working Group – Occupy University subgroup for a discussion experiment/pedagogy workshop for Occupy University. Open to all. Horizontal / facilitated / consensus-model learning with a dose of problematization. We promise the Trump Tower is not as scary as it sounds. It’s empowering to Occupy the Trump Tower, please join us! We’ve been doing it every Thursday eveningfor weeks now. Stand for the poor at St. Patrick's on Good Friday Friday, April 6th, 1:00pm St. Patrick’s Cathedral, 14 East 51st Street on 5th Avenue Join Catholics United and Occupy Catholics this Good Friday as we take a stand for the poor among us at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. Catholic Congressman Paul Ryan's 2013 budget proposal doesn't do it, and Cardinal Dolan won't do it either. As Catholics, at one of our country's most visible places of worship, we will prayerfully speak from the social justice tradition of our faith. We will deliver a petition asking Cardinal Dolan to use his influence as shepherd of the American church to oppose Ryan's proposal. Spring Training: Weekly Wall Street Marches  Friday, April 6th, 2:00pm Liberty Square  Every Friday at 2PM, Occupy Wall Street will converge in the streets once again and launch the first in a series of spring training marches from Liberty Square to Wall Street in preparation for May Day, a day of massive economic non-compliance and strike. These marches will occur weekly and will allow occupiers to practice various street tactics and theatrics. The schedule is as follows: Meet at 2 PM in Liberty Square for sign making and a short march tactics training. At 3 PM occupiers will march to Wall Street and descend on the New York Stock Exchange to counter the closing bell with “The People’s Gong.” Following the march there will be a potluck dinner at 60 Wall Street. OWS Open Space Friday April 6, 2012, 6pm to 10pm Unity Hall, 235 West 23rd Street between 7th Avenue and 8th Avenue What's the conversation that you want to have? Come start a new conversation, or continue an ongoing one, at the OWS Open Space. (Check out pics from past Open Spaces here and here.) In the Open Space format, all participants are welcomed to host conversations on whatever topics  interest them. Participants only take part in the conversations that awaken their passion and interest. You are free to leave a conversation at any time, and join another one or start your own.  NYC Kiss-in Against Student Debt and Corporate Greed Saturday, April 7th, 10am-12pm Union Square If the banks can make out like bandits, so can we. On April 7th at 1pm, students and folks with student debt in groups around the country will kiss in public spaces to protest the out of control tuition hikes and education cuts that are plaguing the country. This is a creative and effective way that we as students can bring awareness to this issue that is so often ignored. Spread the word, invite your friends, let's get on the news and get the country talking! Find out more atoccupystudentdebtcampaign.org and 1tday.org. Train the Trainers, Educate the Educators, Facilitate the Facilitators w/Jason Ahmadi  Sunday April 8th, 5pm-8pm 220 E 23rd St. 7th Floor This Easter Sunday, member sof Direct Action will be hosting a workshop to share skills in giving what is known in the activist scene as Non-Violent Direct Action trainings.  The workshop will cover issues of popular education, non-hierarchical learning, radical pedagogy and direct action.  We will teach each other skills and practice exercises and role plays in the theme of direct action as well as develop tips and tools for facilitation. The goal is giving away our skills so folks can return to their affinity groups to explore new ways of knowledge creation and practice direct action.  Occupy Yoga Meditation Class  Every Monday-Friday, 630pm. Union Square, on the steps of the south end A new age of change is upon us. We all sense it universally in the movement. It is a new time to lead with new values, compassion, perseverance, integrity, and kindness. We all want to overcome oppression and change the world, but what practice can we teach to improve our personal awareness and strength to keep up with the changes? Join this seated movement & meditation class for Occupiers and experience how yoga, meditation, and these specific Aquarian Age teachings can take humanity through this time of change with strength, intuition, courage, and open hearts. Eviction Theatre Every evening we are at Union Square Park, 1130pm - 1230am Union Square Join the NYC Community as they bear witness to a nightly mini-raid eviction that begins at the stroke of midnight. Witness comedic feats of strength as NYPD & The Occupy Movement say goodnight to one another in a theatrical setting. This week’s themes are: WEDNESDAY: We Hide and Seek While Cops Pick up Goofy Stuff THURSDAY: The Runaround (aka Modified Portland Lap) FRIDAY: Rap Battle III (with special Pre-Battle Maneuvers) SATURDAY: Banker Pirates v. Anti-bank Ninjas SUNDAY: Who Can Occupy More Parks? Contest Check out our Facebook page for more updates!   Save the Date Spring Awakening 2012: Occupy NYC People's Assembly: April 14, 2012 Join Occupy Wall Street on #A14 to kick off exciting spring and summer events. On April 14th, New York City will converge on Central Park to unite with organizations and activists to create a transformative, citywide, mass movement. The day will give individuals an opportunity to connect with organizations and foster ongoing collaboration of groups working on common issues. Join us at our Facebook event for updates! A Day Without the 99%: May Day 2012 The 1% needs us to continue reaping their profits, but WE DON'T NEED THE 1%.  This May Day, Occupy Wall Street, in coalition with numerous other organizations and occupations, calls for a Day Without The 99%: No Work, No School, No Shopping, No Housework, No Compliance. Let's take the streets, reclaim our communities, and support each other. NOT the 1%. On May 1st, let us stand together to reclaim our jobs, our communities, our lives. Withdraw your consent and strike! If you’d like to be added to the announcement and/or discussion listserv or have any questions regarding meeting time, location, structure, please contact may...@nycga.net or learn more at www.maydaynyc.org   Occupy Everything Don’t know where to begin? Want help connecting to specific groups and projects? Join us at the next OWS Orientation every Saturday at 2pm at the Gandhi statue in the southwest corner of Union Square. Can’t make it? Email Tascha and the rest of the crew at orien...@nycga.net and we’ll do our best to get you sorted out! This week’s featured Occu-Project:  Occupy Your Workplace The Occupy Your Workplace group believes that building democratic workers' organizations is critically important for social and economic change. Working for someone else doesn't mean you have to stop Occupying - in fact, we think that building democratic assemblies at work is vitally important to building a just society based on equality. We work in solidarity with everyone who is interested in organizing on the job to improve wages, benefits, and working conditions. Please fill out our confidential survey about Occupiers in the larger economy so we can brainstorm together about ways to spread the Occupy message in the workplace. Contact us by email occupyyou...@gmail.com or visit us on Facebook Join us every Sunday from 5-7pm, location posted on our email group and NYCGA site. The Occupy Wall Street Project List is a monthly periodical that informs people about your projects and provides the necessary contact information to help them reach you and get involved. The first issue can beviewed here and the second issue is currently in production! SubscribeForward to a FriendDonate to OWSWe are sending this to you because of your ongoing support and participation in Occupy Wall Street, which you expressed when you gave us your email at an Occupy event or registered on NYCGA.net. This newsletter includes a partial listing of events related to the Occupy Movement in New York City. Please find full meeting listings and group information online atNYCGA.net/events.  You are subscribed to the group OWS Newsletter Recipients using the emailmjo...@gmail.com.  Unsubscribe from mailings on this topic. See all our public mailing lists and subscribe to the ones you're interested in. 118A Fulton St. #205 New York, NY 10038 United States Opt-out of all future mailings from us at OWS.

[Hooked Oncraigslist]

last time i talked to todd, like.. last night? night before? i was like: hey, need a new email. is there a process for that?

and he was all like: i'm not tech anymore.

and i was like: uh-oh.

then everything broke.

On Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 11:06 AM, ItsLennysFault <lenny....@itslennysfault.com> wrote:

Hey guys,

So I never e-mail all of the committees... However, our website has now been down for a day and there is no sign of it coming back online.

First of all, Has anyone talked to Todd?

I tried to contact him and I know others did too. If anyone has successfully contacted him please let me know. It would be nice to know why it's down and if we even have a back up available.

Now, on to action steps... We obviously need to move to new hosting. That costs money. I'm willing to do it but I need OC GA to approve funding for a year up front. I just cannot afford to foot the bill... I have no time this weekend so if we want this to happen I need someone (anyone) to do an emergency proposal for $1000 for a year worth of web hosting... The new hosting will be more accessible and will allow more people to have e-mail addresses if they want them. We can do this with or without todd I just need the money ASAP and I can do it as early as Monday.

There is one BIG caveat... If we cannot get in touch with Todd to get the latest site backups we will be losing a lot of content / site progress. I've got a backup of the site but it's out dated by about a month so anything that happened on the site or forums in the past month will be gone.

TL;DR .. important points...

- Someone get in touch with Todd PLEASE.

- Someone PLEASE make an emergency proposal for $1000 for a year worth of web hosting

- I can act as the hub for all of this but I cannot get to GA to do it myself.

- whoever wants to do this please contact me so we don't have like 5 proposals for hosting. We only need 1.

thanks,

Lenny

[ItsLennysFault]

[Ben Burton]

Even if we get to the most recent backups we should reduce the technical complexity of the site so it's more accessible on both the front and back end. This will also reduce the reliance on an individual to run it.

A drupal front end and the phpbb forum is basically all we had running. Those can be hosted on a simpler system for a lot less money and (again) reduce the "fear" of someone pulling the plug.

-Ben

[Rachael P]

Todd sent me a message on his chat server when I asked about the sites. That is the best way to reach him. He said, "billing issue"

I am down to fund raise, people will donate for tech. Let me know when to start blasting. A GA proposal might go better if there is also an active fund raising campaign happening. And it'll be easy, cause we can say - HELP! SITE DOWN!

I post more than half of the font page content and I have all of that saved. I can easily re-pot it chronologically if needed.

Rach

On Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 11:08 AM, Hooked Oncraigslist <hookedoncraigs...@gmail.com> wrote:

--
Rachael Perrotta
773.653.5073
plus...@gmail.com
Twitter: @plussone
Occupy Chicago Press Relations
773.417.6491
pr...@occupychi.org
Facebook.com/PressComm
Twitter: @OCPress

[Evelyn]

Billing issue?

What about the massive budget we gave Todd when he proposed it? Which we approved line by line? Which included hosting for a year?

 

Not counting the 2,000 we gave Todd for the internet proposal?

 

Hm.

--
Evelyn DeHais

evelyndehais.com

Graphic Design, Illustration & Amateur Clowning

evelyn...@gmail.com

914. 439. 2960

[samsa...@gmail.com]

We approved funding for 6 mos and that was backdated to september. The internet project is still getting kinks worked out AFAIK.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

---

From: Evelyn <evelyn...@gmail.com>

Sender: oc_soci...@googlegroups.com

Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:24:32 -0500

To: <oc_soci...@googlegroups.com>

ReplyTo: oc_soci...@googlegroups.com

Cc: <a7...@googlegroups.com>; Kelvin Ho<hoke...@gmail.com>; Todd Freeman<to...@cruxtech.net>; Ruben ? (Web / Drupal / Occupy Chicago)<an0nl...@gmail.com>; Andrew Smith<macf...@gmail.com>; Abel Mebratu<occup...@gmail.com>; X X<moccu...@yahoo.com>; <secretaria...@googlegroups.com>; <oc_re...@googlegroups.com>; Tech te...@occupychi.org><te...@occupychi.org>; educ...@occupychi.org educ...@occupychi.org><educ...@occupychi.org>; Secretariat<secre...@occupychi.org>; ar...@occupychi.org ar...@occupychi.org><ar...@occupychi.org>; conf...@occupychi.org OC<conf...@occupychi.org>; <oc_co...@googlegroups.com>; coordi...@occupychi.org coordi...@occupychi.org><coordi...@occupychi.org>; direct...@occupychi.org direct...@occupychi.org><direct...@occupychi.org>; dona...@occupychi.org Donations<dona...@occupychi.org>; le...@occupychi.org le...@occupychi.org><le...@occupychi.org>; pr...@occupychi.org pr...@occupychi.org><pr...@occupychi.org>; secu...@occupychi.org secu...@occupychi.org><secu...@occupychi.org>; rese...@occupychi.org rese...@occupychi.org><rese...@occupychi.org>; hou...@occupychi.org hou...@occupychi.org><hou...@occupychi.org>; < outr...@occupychi.org><outr...@occupychi.org>; socia...@occupychi.org Media<socia...@occupychi.org>; <cachec...@googlegroups.com>; <oc_v...@googlegroups.com>; <visua...@occupychi.org>; <oc_c...@googlegroups.com>; <oc_orgo...@googlegroups.com>; <occupy...@googlegroups.com>; <occu...@googlegroups.com>; <occup...@googlegroups.com>; working-group-60637<working-g...@googlegroups.com>; <me...@occupychi.org>; OccupyChicago LaborOutreach<union.taskfo...@gmail.com>; <oc_s...@googlegroups.com>; <oc_dire...@googlegroups.com>; <oc_ou...@googlegroups.com>; Tom Rainey<absolu...@gmail.com>

Subject: Re: [OC_SM] Re: [a7wg] Do we want a website? (URGENT)

[ItsLennysFault]

I messaged Todd twice in the past 3 days via that chat server once to offer helping taking the burden of hosting off his hands and once asking why the site was down and both times he ignored me completely.

Yes, fundraising = good idea... if you can take point on that that'd be AMAZING... we should should for $2,000 if we can actually.. it will provide us with better hosting, but at $1,000 we'll be "okay" .. either way I need to pay it a year in advance to go ahead.

The remaining issue is we don't have a solid backup of the old site. The old site has 100's of hours worth of development time (mostly Ruben's.. a little mine) put in to it. So if we cannot get that.. I don't know.. maybe we start over? Either way.. we need to get this switched over and get funding so that ball should start rolling ASAP.

Can some cute girl (they seem to be the only people Todd will talk to) get in touch with Todd and see what he needs to get us a backup of the site... If he needs to pay an existing balance we need to know that so we can accommodate for it.

Also, about the previous funding.. the hosting we were on before was much more expensive than what I'm proposing so he only got funding for 3 months forward (and 3 months backwards.. reimbursement) which has already passed... the chicago internet project however? (I have no clue) If Todd is no longer part of occupy Chicago Tech (as 99 says he said) any equipment he bought with the $2000 of Occupy money should be returned to Occupy Chicago.

[Rachael P]

I feel like I need some kind of consensus to start and emergency fund raising project. Lost of folks are represented on this list. Please BLOCK this by 5pm today or I'll kick it off.

The language will state that we need emergency funds to get our websites back online. I'll give instructions on how to donate online and by check.

Rach

[Tom Rainey]

I know the problem is not just money, BUT - the Propaganda Committee could raise a couple thousand dollars at all the events in May selling t-shirts, buttons and stickers if I get some support and funds. I know there is a lot of sentiment against selling stuff, but selling shirts, stickers, buttons on the website would be a way of paying for ongoing hosting. I'll work on making this happen if there is support.

On Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 11:06 AM, ItsLennysFault <lenny....@itslennysfault.com> wrote:

[Lucas Vereline]

So, this won't be an emergency spending vote tonight?

We can have it in the agenda if necessary.

Also, lets all be careful to avoid personal attacks.  Not that anyone has done so yet, but we all know how quickly a thread can go off the rails. 
Lucas

[Evelyn]

Tom,

 

You may currently sell material with any designs I have personally made, if -- and only if -- ALL proceeds go to OC. Again, please don't share the vector work with anyone.

 

That's my way of contributing to OC.

[ItsLennysFault]

Thanks Rachael. 

We're dead in the water until we get funding. Once we do it'll take me about 20 hours to migrate everything and get the new sever ordered / set up.  if we can get funding over the weekend we can expect to be live again by the end of next week.

in the mean time... anyone with an occupychi.org email address should back up their e-mails because once we move any e-mails not backed up will disappear if you're using IMAP (which if you don't know you probably are). So be sure to back up any important e-mails.

[Kieran]

Please: Don't sell stuff in OC's name! Ever! 

Please! 

We have plenty of money from donations, and we can get more if we need it.

No merchant capitalism in these parts. 

kthxbye

Kieran

---

From: Tom Rainey <absolu...@gmail.com>
To: ItsLennysFault <lenny....@itslennysfault.com>
Cc: Kelvin Ho <hoke...@gmail.com>; Todd Freeman <to...@cruxtech.net>; Ruben ? (Web / Drupal / Occupy Chicago) <an0nl...@gmail.com>; Andrew Smith <macf...@gmail.com>; Abel Mebratu <occup...@gmail.com>; X X <moccu...@yahoo.com>; secretaria...@googlegroups.com; oc_re...@googlegroups.com; "Tech te...@occupychi.org>" <te...@occupychi.org>; "educ...@occupychi.org educ...@occupychi.org>" <educ...@occupychi.org>; a7...@googlegroups.com; Secretariat <secre...@occupychi.org>; "ar...@occupychi.org ar...@occupychi.org>" <ar...@occupychi.org>; "conf...@occupychi.org OC" <conf...@occupychi.org>; oc_co...@googlegroups.com; "coordi...@occupychi.org coordi...@occupychi.org>" <coordi...@occupychi.org>; "direct...@occupychi.org direct...@occupychi.org>" <direct...@occupychi.org>; "dona...@occupychi.org Donations" <dona...@occupychi.org>; "le...@occupychi.org le...@occupychi.org>" <le...@occupychi.org>; "pr...@occupychi.org pr...@occupychi.org>" <pr...@occupychi.org>; "secu...@occupychi.org secu...@occupychi.org>" <secu...@occupychi.org>; "rese...@occupychi.org rese...@occupychi.org>" <rese...@occupychi.org>; "hou...@occupychi.org hou...@occupychi.org>" <hou...@occupychi.org>; "< outr...@occupychi.org>" <outr...@occupychi.org>; "socia...@occupychi.org Media" <socia...@occupychi.org>; cachec...@googlegroups.com; oc_v...@googlegroups.com; visua...@occupychi.org; oc_c...@googlegroups.com; oc_orgo...@googlegroups.com; occupy...@googlegroups.com; occu...@googlegroups.com; occup...@googlegroups.com; working-group-60637 <working-g...@googlegroups.com>; me...@occupychi.org; OccupyChicago LaborOutreach <union.taskfo...@gmail.com>; oc_s...@googlegroups.com; oc_dire...@googlegroups.com; oc_ou...@googlegroups.com; oc_soci...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2012 11:39 AM
Subject: [OC_Research] Re: Do we want a website? (URGENT)

[James]

I'm all about Rachel having keys. If someone can create a we pay account I will gladly tweet the fuck out of it. I say we stop looking for God aka Todd and fix it ourselves with Lenny, Ben, Ethan and others. Chicago has a plethora of tech ppl who can help us. I've never been a huge fan of the website and this might be our chance to make it look like the awesome ChicagoSpring site. 

I just wrote a long thread yesterday about Todds lack of responses and helpfulness when asked. I wrote about if he leaves or pulls the pluggs we may be fucked.  Now the server is down and he's MIA.  

When people bring up problems,OC usually doesn't listen untill it's too late. I know we are all busy but we need to make time to problem solve. 

I have no problem tweet blasting whatever tech needs. Tweet blasting a WePay account for Tech. 

As far as Todd and this $2,000 I'm extremely uncomfortable knowing he's not responding and the website is down yet he received $2,000 of OC money. We should figure out what, if anything, we can do about that. 

I think this is a blessing in disguise kinda. We can get a much better website, and tech can start growing. Many people wanted to help and were turned away from Todd and with no public weekly meetings it's hard to get new folks involved. Let's make the best of this situation. Let's grow tech. 

James

[Amy C. Buckler]

Re: selling stuff.

Just put up a sign saying that you're accepting donations. $10 donation gets you a t-shirt, $1 donation for a button. Or whatever. My full time job is in fundraising and we do that ALL the time. It's not Evil Capitalism- it's smart. 

Some people just won't donate unless they get something for their money. (unfortunate, but true) Why not use the resources we have?  Take a look at the Kickstarter we set up that funded the A7 tree- people got benefits for donating at a specific level.  Same deal. Sadly, we don't have a lot of money from donations. And our needs have increased more rapidly than our cash flow. And donations don't make themselves. 

Please support me in helping empower Occupiers to raise funds any way they can.

Much love,

Amy

--
Amy C. Buckler
amycb...@gmail.com

[Kelvin Ho]

I've been gathering a list of people with web design experience/ interest in UI/ thinking about general layout and what sorts of gadgets oc could benefit from for the past few weeks. Let me know if you're interested in being part of this discussion.

-Kelvin

[Natalie W]

i texted with todd. he said he was working on it.

[Kelvin Ho]

I'd also encourage everyone to reach out to any web developers/designers they know that might be interested in Occupy. It'd be nice to have a much better staffed tech team

On Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 2:27 PM, Philip DeVon <philip...@gmail.com> wrote:

Lol, Lenny's "he only responds to cute girls" proves true!

Still, we need to get Tech expanded and get new people on board. Ben Burton from SM can answer emails and fill the void Andrew left. Lenny can develop, Ethan is working with James and built a Visual Media platform in 3 days, which still needs to be put up on the OC server. Let's move forward, with or without Todd.

--

Regards,

 

Philip J. DeVon

#OChi Social Media Committee

www.occupychi.org

Click HERE to follow me on Twitter!

[Evelyn]

Please also remember that Lenny is leaving the country soon, and he has been shouldering pretty much everything tech-wise in the last two months. He can't really do that from abroad...

[Kelvin Ho]

Here's an example of the street training I'm planning for tomorrow: Anyone down?

http://vimeo.com/40386192 

[Matthew Johnson]

I'm pretty sure we can get free or discounted hosting from mayfirst.org;  they've been providing this for occupy in other cities. Even if we paid, it's only $200 a year and we'd join their cooperative.  I'm happy to get that started if whoever owns the domain can contact me to have it redirected.  That is, of course if folks want me to do that.

- Matt

--------
Please excuse any brevity, this was sent from my mobile phone.

[Mark Banks]

I've had sparse contact with Todd recently.  He expressed a bit of frustration with things happening in OC (he did not go into specifics), and as someone who has gone through plenty of moments of frustration, I understand the feeling and I do not feel critical of him in any way.  We do need to figure this out quickly, but I just kinda wanna make a few points in Todd's defense.  In my opinion Todd has been one of the most dedicated, hardest working members of OC since he first started coming around back in late september/early october.  Much of what he does is behind the scenes, but it's labor-intensive work, and moreover he has probably spent more money out of pocket on the movement than anyone else has (I have personally been with him when he's spent hundreds of dollars on nifty tech gadgets and other things that he uses exclusively for OC).  The difficulty we are experiencing as a result of his recent elusiveness is, in my mind, a reflection of how important his contributions have been to all of us, and how much he has personally aided in pushing the movement forward.  The reason I say this is to stifle any voices that would take a more critical than necessary view of him in response to these recent developments.  People get burned out when they are overworked and disappointed.  Maybe he just needs a little break or a change of pace.  I find it completely understandable.  I would ask that everyone refrain from attacking his person or questioning his motives. 

With that said, I do believe that he is still interested in our 'internet related' projects, and is still working on those, although perhaps a bit more independently than before (perhaps due to the fact that he has received little to no assistance with that over the past few weeks/months?).  I don't know what's up with our website.  I can't speak to that, as I have not discussed it with him.  Personally I am not worried about him misusing any funds that were allocated to tech.  Todd has my full confidence in terms of trustworthiness.  The question therefore becomes one of simply figuring out what role he wishes to play moving forward (if any), and I doubt that we have a deeper issue on our hands (aside from logistical concerns, such as getting the website back up).  Unfortunately I'm not very tech savvy, and so the extent of my ability to help fix these things is limited to conveying what I know about Todd's stance on these things, and I will attempt to contact him today.  Despite the quite critical notion that he only responds to attractive women, I tend not to have this problem when reaching out to him, and I would strongly refute that suggestion (indeed I'm rather annoyed and dismayed by it).  Again, my guess is that he's just a little burnt out or frustrated with the way things are moving forward.  

-Mark

[Evelyn]

Mark, Todd is a great guy, no one is saying otherwise. But, well, he's been impossible to get a hold of by numerous people. No one here is criticizing the work he's done, but if he doesn't want to work with OC anymore (which is fine), we need to just get server access back from him. As for the website itself, it was primarily developed by Ruben and Lenny, as Todd lacks any development skills, and so it is slighly disrespectful for 100's of hours worth of work to become completely inaccessible because Todd is feeling frustrated with the movement. I asked about funds because it is important to know whether he has funds and just hasn't allocated them, or whether he needs funds to continue service; it's not meant as an attack, it's simply a matter of what we need to do on a financial end in order to proceed here.

 

Again, I have nothing but fondness for Todd, he and I have always gotten along and I am VERY aware of all the work he's done. I think we all just want OC to have a functioning website as we move into spring.

On Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 3:07 PM, Philip DeVon <philip...@gmail.com> wrote:

I think people may be missing the point here.

We all know how much Todd has done for OC. We know how much cool stuff he does via Tech work. However, Todd control's tech because he has the keys. For many many many months, he has simply refused to let people in the Tech circle.

I understand the sensitive nature of tech and the need for trust. Which is why Ben Burton of Social Media asked to join in 2011. He still has not been brought into the fold, and that is what is disheartening. We appreciate Todd and welcome his immense contributions.

I am in no way interested in mud slinging or speculating on Todd's reasons for this or that, I just want OC to have control of Tech, not solely Todd. We have many people waiting excitedly to be turned loose on our tech needs.

[ItsLennysFault]

People need to understand a lot of things...

1.. YES todd did a shit load of work. TONS OF HOURS probably more than anyone else.

2.. Tech CANNOT just grant server access to anyone ... having one administrator with full access IS the correct way to do things and I don't actually fault Todd for that. HOWEVER, you cannot be the 1 administrator and go off the radar... You have to pass the keys on when you do that... or be able to pass the keys and until recently the hosting / email was so entangled with other shit of Todd's he had no ability to do so.

3.. people that do not understand tech being in tech just slow down the process. More people is RARELY the answer in tech situations.

4.. I'm not talking out of my ass I've been making websites professionally and managing servers for more than half of my life now.

5.. numbering is super fun

6.. May first looks like a great option and a cheaper option... can someone ask GA for $200 tonight? that should be a no-brainer

7..  I contacted May first... it looks like they can set us up with everything we need before we even pay them and we will ... someone do a proposal for $300 at GA our needs are a little beyond their standard hosting requirements so we should pay $300 to be fair to them for their service this is still VERY VERY CHEAP .. our old hosting was $300 a month... this new hosting is $300 a year.

8.. The veil is gone... There is no tech committee and never has been. Andrew created the first website... ruben created the 2nd website.. Todd set up the hosting... when ruben left I took over managing / updating the website and did one major update / overhaul. We've never voted on anything or acted as a committee for anything. 

9.. So... would anyone like to START a tech committee?

On Apr 20, 2012, at 3:07 PM, Philip DeVon wrote:

I think people may be missing the point here.

We all know how much Todd has done for OC. We know how much cool stuff he does via Tech work. However, Todd control's tech because he has the keys. For many many many months, he has simply refused to let people in the Tech circle.

I understand the sensitive nature of tech and the need for trust. Which is why Ben Burton of Social Media asked to join in 2011. He still has not been brought into the fold, and that is what is disheartening. We appreciate Todd and welcome his immense contributions.

I am in no way interested in mud slinging or speculating on Todd's reasons for this or that, I just want OC to have control of Tech, not solely Todd. We have many people waiting excitedly to be turned loose on our tech needs.

On Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 3:02 PM, Mark Banks <wolfya...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Mark Banks]

It's cool, I know Lenny and others have also worked extensively on tech stuff, and I have a great deal of appreciation for that.  That wasn't my point.  Let's be honest, some people on this thread have gone quite a bit overboard (not you evelyn), referring to Todd as 'God'.  Wtf is that, seriously?  And I reject the notion that Todd holds magical keys to tech land.  If anyone is as capable and knowledgable with the things that Todd does, then it's news to me, and that's my interpretation of why he handles the things that he does.  I certainly couldn't do his job.  Anyway, let's not get off topic...I just wanted to curb what I saw a few instances of slander.  We need to get the website up asap, so let's keep our eye on the ball.

-Mark

[Mark Banks]

Clarification:  when I said I do not think Todd holds the magical keys to tech land, I meant to indicate that he does not do so tyrannically.  As Lenny has pointed out, not just anyone can do that sort of thing.  It requires an ENORMOUS amount of proficiency and knowledge, which, so far as I know, none of us have.  Todd has been desiring help with his work for ages, but it's not enough to just volunteer one's time.  One must have the necessary skills, and that has been the problem for some time.  

-Mark

--

Occupy Chicago Press Relations Committee google group
internal (members only) email address: ocp...@googlegroups.com
external (non-members) email address: pr...@occupychi.org
To unsubscribe email: ocpress+u...@googlegroups.com
group url: http://groups.google.com/group/ocpress?hl=en?hl=en

[Nate]

In response to the discount server suggestion: didn't Mayfirst.org just get their server confiscated in the RiseUp.net raid?

[Andrew Smith]

Wow not the email thread I wanted to wake up to. At any rate I still hold the domain and am working with lenny to get something back going. As for anything else, I have to work a few hours today then I'm free. If anyone needs me email me back and I will be happy to help work the problem. Love ya all. 

Sent from my iPhone

[Ben Burton]

On Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 4:00 PM, Philip DeVon <philip...@gmail.com> wrote:

BEN BURTON! START TECH COMMITTEE!

See [1].

-Ben

PS <3

[ItsLennysFault]

Yes... and that is all the more reason we should support Mayfirst by paying them for their services... 

The server was an anonymous e-mail server and has no effect on the hosting.. INFACT taking it has no benefit to the FBI and was done as a way to slap riseup on the wrist. It's actually quite bullshit... basically they have no legal grounds to charge riseup or mayfirst with ANYTHING so they go around the law and punish them by taking away a computer. Pretty childish. The computer they took had no logs and was self-cleaning so there is NO useful information on it.

here is May First's release about it.

https://mayfirst.org/fbi-attacks-anonymous-speech

[Matthew Johnson]

I'm on board for aiding in tech work.  I do web development and systems administration for my union.  I just don't know how to get brought into the fold.  Let me know and I'm in.  

Thanks everyone for working on this too!  It's an important conversation and I'm glad we're having it.

- Matt

--------
Please excuse any brevity, this was sent from my mobile phone.

[Daniel Edward Massoglia]

I think the pros made it clear that more is not better. they maybe can
do something but i trust lenny who has been doing this professionally
for years

On 4/21/12, James <james...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Ethan really wants to help and be a part of the convo.
>
>
> origina...@gmail.com

[Ethan Thompson]

I trust lenny to the limited degree I know him as well. However, I think the importance of more people involved is to create a non heirarchal structure to avoid the situation that got us here in the first place. For that reason, the responsibilty should not rest with one person. No matter how awesome they may be. ^_^

[Daniel Edward Massoglia]

I understand that. As an outsider and a hoper in the power and goodness democratic structures, I think more eyes, even if it is just errand boys and girls, is advisable because it increases accountability and all transparency. As someone with no IT experience, and who knows lenny and Todd both well, however, I have to believe them when they say more isn't better at this point. Obviously not my call, as I am not involved with running the site, so I defer. I do think it is worth noting that people aren't accusing sabotage or some kind of power grab, just carelessness via overwork (right?).

Happy Saturday everyone

[Benjamin Burton]

Here's what Lenny said:

"3.. people that do not understand tech being in tech just slow down the process. More people is RARELY the answer in tech situations."

If you re-read it, it's quite possible he's talking about more people that do not understand tech rarely being the answer. 

At the very least a larger number of people should be involved so they know what's going on and if someone does burn out and leave, there isn't a scramble to fill the void. Even if the Occupy movement is horizontal, the Tech committee could be hierarchical based on on skill and time with passwords held by a minimal number of people. SM was run like this for quite a while and it worked well.

Regardless, like any committee, Tech will have a tough time if OC doesn't set a few goals and expectations of it. That'll help attract talent and achieve results.

-Ben

[Tom Rainey]

YAY! the site is back up. Great work to all of you in the Tech trenches! FreeGeek chicago responded to me, and I'll send the new contacts when they come.

I know this is complicated, and just crying "horizontalism" doesn't make us a functioning website. Horizontalism is not the GA voting to tell our web techs to do more work, either. It's so easy to say what horizontalism is Not. Let's give ourselves some slack and realize that this is an experiment. If it was easy to build freely associated and functional horizontal organizations, it would have happened already.

I made some noise early on coming into Occupy Chicago in Feb. about how the website was not a fully functioning, and transparent communications tool. I offered to volunteer but was told that it would take too long to get me up to speed and the techs would make better use of their time to do the work themselves. I hope we can figure out a way for new people to contribute, and not just as worker bees.

On Sat, Apr 21, 2012 at 1:54 AM, James <james...@gmail.com> wrote:

Whoever is starting tech committe: here are all the people who responded or were referred to us for our call for tech help on twitter today:

@cbolton97

@jamesisjames1 

@superbranch

@Ows_tech

@eddysammy316

@typhona

@olfashdeb

@TunaTraffic

 And Tom from Ochi Prop said he was talking to FreeGeek Chicago, a group of Linux web programing activists. 

Let's not forget Ethan with visual media.

That's just from one day. We can get more. 

Hope that helps. I feel that's enough to get some new ppl involved.

James

On Apr 20, 2012, at 4:00 PM, Philip DeVon <philip...@gmail.com> wrote:

BEN BURTON! START TECH COMMITTEE!

[an non]

Oops, really sorry I missed this thread. I might be able to get us free shit at mayfirst.org by dropping some names... maybe... :) See, I was originally going to get us hosted through there, but Todd wanted a server in Germany (which honestly didn't seem like a bad idea at the time). Funny that this is where it ended up... but that's how things go sometimes!

I just want to say I can help with the migration if necessary or whatever is up. Lenny feel free to hit me up on the personal for whatever.

--
Solidarity and <3,
Ruben

I'm Occupied

[Rachael P]

SO Lenny do you need that $300 or not? If so, GA did approve it, so please tell me who to have a check made out to.

Also, I sent an email this morning but the clear internet at Cermak is giving a warning when you log on that the bill has not been paid and service will stop soon.

Yep. -Rach

--

Occupy Chicago Press Relations Committee google group
internal (members only) email address: ocp...@googlegroups.com
external (non-members) email address: pr...@occupychi.org
To unsubscribe email: ocpress+u...@googlegroups.com
group url: http://groups.google.com/group/ocpress?hl=en?hl=en

--
Rachael Perrotta
773.653.5073
plus...@gmail.com
Twitter: @plussone
Occupy Chicago Press Relations
773.417.6491
pr...@occupychi.org
Facebook.com/PressComm
Twitter: @OCPress

[James]

More people responded on twitter yesterday. People want to be involved. Even web designers from other occupys. We can't make tech let new ppl join, but it sucks ppl arent being welcomed into so called "open committees" in this open movement.

I just wanted to know if anyone has heard from Todd at this point. How much of the $2,000 does he have? Has he provided any receipts? Why have 2 bills not been paid for tech needs and tech just received $2000. That's a lot of money to just throw around. 

I'm uncomfortable knowing that money was approved by GA for things like Internet and website maintenance yet the website wasn't being maintained and Internet bill is yet to be paid. 

[an non]

No one is trying to close people off from "helping" with tech for no reason. The points have already been made and at this point your replies are only serving to inflame.

People can't just be allowed to "be in tech" if that means having administrator access! Do you have specific access privileges you'd like to grant people that are necessary to serve some function that is currently lacking? I want to come and talk about this stuff. I want to screen all these volunteers. I'm looking for work at the moment otherwise I'd be around a lot more.

Replies about how tech are all just a bunch of behind-closed-door jerks just might be one of the major things driving the actual competent people away. Please keep that in mind before you hit the reply button. Thanks.

--

Let's hold off on paying mayfirst.org for a sec. They're straight as far as I can tell and they aren't just going to shut us off. When I was in Portland for a Drupal summit during the first wave of Chicago arrests at the horse I talked to Sam Boyer (sdboyer) about Occupy solutions. We were strategizing on how to use Drupal to build websites for the occupation (go figure, right? ^^). He mentioned some people to contact but my laptop recently crashed and I lost the names.

I may be able to get in touch about that but it would help if whomever is talking to mayfirst would mention that Sam Boyer and I had a conversation about Occupy and Chicago's server needs back in September, and due to our arrangements with the server in Germany, I didn't make the connection... but if we could now that would rock. Let's try this, I'm willing to talk to whomever about whatever is necessary to pull these strings. A lot of tech people are down... we've been living counter culture (read: geeks) for years already anyways :P

Your loving geek,

[James]

Those aren't my intentions and I apologize if that's how it reads. I have nothing but nice things to say about almost everyone in tech. You guys work hard and we all see that.

I think the problem is just lack if communication with the rest of us not in tech, and tech having committee meetings etc so people can get involved where u need them. 

I'm hearing that in tech more people to train is a headache. I get that. But I feel many people coming forward aren't inexperienced, and I just want to find a place for them. We were told to do what we are good at in this movement. Get involved by doing what we already do well. That means tech/web for some but where can they turn? 

If I wanted to join SM but was told there was already enough SM people and they would only be in the way anyway, I would be discouraged not empowered. 

This conversation has been very productive and I do thank all of the tech members who have responded and shared their thoughts on this. This convo is important. 

Also, people are tweeting us like crazy for help. I included some twitter handles in this thread. Is there a contact person in tech? I have no answers for these folks and I feel they would be better off talking to ppl in the actual committee. 

I don't think anyone is asking to just give strangers admin access from the jump. That's not what I want, that's silly. I think someone we trust for sure and whos been here a while. Just wanted to clear that up.

Thanks again to all who are letting us know what's going on and communicating. This is good and productive. We are reaching understandings now not assumptions. Cheers guys

James 

[an non]

Thank you James, I appreciate you communicating with people on twitter. Maybe I should get a hold of the credentials again at some point. I'm sure (well, not entirely, heh) that they've been changed since I left back when.

Like I said, I totally agree that we do need more meetings. My main problem right now is that I've been using my time on other things besides making money for so long and that's coming to a head. I'm working on getting back to a place where I can be around more to hold these kinds of meetings.

I think on top of thinking about what we have and how we will staff it, we should focus on new ideas. I think that's really important. Even more content integration would be great, like how we gather the youtubez. Gathering tweets and stuff would be nice too. Not just our 'official' stuff, though we could curate what comes through. Consider that the way posts are approved was at first just an imagination, and I'm glad to see people using it and seeing fresh(ish) content on the front page. (Love ya Rach) I am more than willing to consult anyone on any idea they have for the website or in general and why I think it's a great (or terrible, impossible!) idea =)

Since you have access to twitter, could you do a temp check on when is good for most people to attend a tech meeting? Some time Saturday or Sunday would work best for me. I personally feel a lot of responsibility for 'tech droppin the ball', and I want to help get us moving in a better direction...

[Tom Rainey]

It's not true that people have to be given "Administrative Access" to do work on the website and contribute skills, ideas, and labor to tech. That is not the problem here and professional web techs are familiar with this. This is a difficult organizational issue already, I don't think this has to be reduced to a security issue.

I used to work full time on websites, developing for web start ups and for corporations. I never had "Administrator Access" to the live website or the server at these jobs. I did work on a development (test) server that has a copy of the live site, and when my boss and quality control staff had tested, and approved the new code i built, only then was it sent to the live server by an Admin. There's a whole system of "version control" to manage this process.

If something has changed, please let me know.

[Alex Forgue]

Hey all,
1000 for website hosting is WAY TOO MUCH

[chris carmean]

Please remove me from the occupy mailing list(s).

[Alex Forgue]

Hey all,
1000 for website hosting is WAY TOO MUCH, YOU CAN GET GREAT SERVERS FOR LESS THAN $5 A MONTH.
These are the sites I like:

1. http://www.bluehost.com/ (heard good things about this service)

2. http://byethost.com/index.php (I use their free service and their free/shared servers are super fast, and their support is amazing. They fixed a website error that I had within five minutes when I opened a ticket and were super nice about it. With their paid hosting ($4/ month or $48/year), you should have no problem hosting Occupychi.org, and with their standard paid hosting you are able to add 20 addon domains (Meaning you can host 20 other sites with it and have no problem.)

Hope this helps,
Alex

On Sun, Apr 22, 2012 at 2:00 PM, Alex Forgue <alex.for...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey all,
1000 for website hosting is WAY TOO MUCH,

[an non]

I know, Tom. You are correct. With the migration to the new server (which I'm not if it has been completed since I have admittedly been out of the loop and am trying to get rolling again), we can set up a sandbox and allow people to push into our git repository. Don't worry, I know what version control is and set it (git) up as soon as I came in. :)

Again, I must raise the issue of... what are we lacking right now then? Do people want to contribute HTML/CSS/JS? No access is necessary honestly, but no one has really offered that beyond the core team (and by that I mean me and Lenny). A lot of people talk about doing it but hardly anyone shows actual working stuff. It's work. So what do people need access for? Can anyone give me an example? :)

You have to realize that this is a total volunteer operation and that means the dev server is gonna be on the same physical server as production most likely, and that *does* carry security implications. You could dump the DB or inject code through the database. Believe me I am rather security minded (read: paranoid) so, arguing about whether there are real security implications is a losing battle. Give me only the ability to read db credentials (by giving me code running on apache, dev server, however you want to think about it) and I could XSS everyone. I am fully aware of the risks and I don't intend to open things up more than I feel are responsible, unless the issue is forced with consensus of lots of people in which case... what do I need to be around for anyways... :P

Let's take a second and pause and think about responsibilities that we want to define. and think about the privileges that go along with these responsibilities. And then everyone is going to have to hear me voice all my concerns out in the open and if people still want to open certain things up even if I think it's a really bad idea for some case, then that's fine and I'll defer. I'm only trying to look out for things, but I know... talk is cheap.

Let's consider our needs and our possibilities!

[an non]

The number for mayfirst.org is $300/year and they will take much more care to not keep logs forever and other things that appeal to subversive and potentially radical movements like Occupy. Things you won't get from cheap hosting. I know, there is some really good cheap hosting out there but as far as privacy goes, we're going to pay for it one way or another if you catch my drift. I'd rather be safe than sorry but again, I'm paranoid.

Also, we may still be able to get mayfirst.org to hook us up for nada, so let's defer any judgment on that at least for the time being.

[Andrew Smith]

Glad everything worked out. Also I want to remind everyone that GA or tech needs to figure out what to do about the domain. I'm thousands of miles away and to help solve the issue I had to give Lenny the password to the account that has the domain registration. Now if that were the only account I had it would not be that big of a deal but seeing as though it also houses several other sites I administer as well as my credit card info, you can see where it can get sketchy. I trust Lenny not to screw me over but I'm not going to give it out anymore, especially to people I don't know. 

Sent from my iPhone

[Tom Rainey]

Thanks for your thorough reply! I'm learning. So, if the development server was on its own machine, and the Admin had final control over moving the code to the live server, would that make the process secure "enough" to allow more participation without making it overly burdensome for the admins?

I can tell you from my own experience, that I offered to help several times directly to many individuals and on the email lists, with some basic editing, troubleshooting, or anything else needed. In the process of complaining, I heard from several others who also offered. I gave up even thinking about it awhile ago. I suspect others did, too.

Here are examples of things people like me could do (I think):

-update meeting times, locations (location of GA's change from time to time. Is the Mon. GA at the horse, or Woodlawn Clinic for example?)

-solicit and post new printable fliers under the "flier section".  Mayday, People's Summit, NATO, etc.. fliers should be up there now.

-edit this line: "There is someone in front of the Federal Reserve Bank building at Jackson and LaSalle 24/7. Come out and join us.." on http://occupychi.org/join-movement.

-I'd also like to expand the GA section to post some of the more important statements passed by the GA, like the Chicago Principles.

[an non]

Tom, do you think you can participate in a meeting this coming weekend? The things you've mentioned all make sense, and they are the kind of thing that can be delegated without too much pain. I would love to run people through how to do this kind of stuff.

The flier thing for instance, I feel like committees should be able to add in flyers into the list, that would open that up a lot. Well...

I'm really thinking overall that perhaps the move to a more committee-centric system while seeming to make sense when everyone was together more, seems like it's worth considering if there's a better more open way to structure things. Things like the approval system which was passed by GA will have to be considered ultimately... the system was put in place to save effort (believe it or not).

We should get everyone together (while having an IRC chat and if some don't know what that means, then they will let the geeks handle tech ;p lol). Seriously though, I think getting together and talking about this will go a long way. People who are engaging others on twitter thank you, and please direct people towards http://forum.occupychi.org/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=2755 so we can have a discussion about the best times for people to meet.

[Lenny]

If you think you can get "great" web hosting for $5 a month you are an idiot... $1000 a year is big time budget hosting. We're looking at $300 through mayfirst which is super cheap. If you don't understand shit about shit don't chime in... I'm really tired of this. You're not comparing apples to apples. A dedicated server, vps, cloud, and shared hosting are not the same things and as such are not priced accordingly.

Alex Forgue <alex.for...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey all,
1000 for website hosting is WAY TOO MUCH

[Matthew Johnson]

Lenny,

There's no need to be an asshole.  People are trying to be helpful and if the suggestions are I'll informed you don't have to listen to them.  But, there's no point in being mean.  I work in tech and I understand the frustrations of people not understanding fully what I do, to the point where their expectations are not in line with reality.  Well, tough shit.  That's something I have to deal with, and be kind about because I want more people to feel empowered and to contribute.  Shutting people down for offering help is rude and does not move us forward.  It's just no way to treat folks is all.

- Matt

--------
Please excuse any brevity, this was sent from my mobile phone.

[Kelvin Ho]

Hey,

I'm totally down for this weekend. I would prefer a weeknight but if that can't be done, I'll see what I can do to shift my schedule around. Whatever the case, count me in.

-Kelvin

[Sugar Solidarity]

At this point, please create a list of those responding and take this into your own email. This is beyond the emergency issue it started as where all the groups needed to be on it.

Thanks

[Sugar Solidarity]

[Keith Smith]

Please delete my email address and remove me from all of your googlegroups. Thank you

 

On Mon, Apr 23, 2012 at 8:25 AM, <philip...@gmail.com> wrote:

Ahhh I can't wait to not hear from you again Todd. You're responses resemble 4th Grade mental capacity. Bon voyage pal.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

---

From: Todd Freeman <to...@cruxtech.net>

Sender: oc_soci...@googlegroups.com

Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2012 00:19:21 -0500

To: <oc_...@googlegroups.com>

ReplyTo: oc_soci...@googlegroups.com

Cc: James<james...@gmail.com>; oc_s...@googlegroups.com<oc_s...@googlegroups.com>; ocp...@googlegroups.com<ocp...@googlegroups.com>; ItsLennysFault<lenny....@itslennysfault.com>; Philip DeVon<philip...@gmail.com>; oc_soci...@googlegroups.com<oc_soci...@googlegroups.com>; oc_dire...@googlegroups.com<oc_dire...@googlegroups.com>; oc_orgo...@googlegroups.com<oc_orgo...@googlegroups.com>; Amy C.Buckler<amycb...@gmail.com>; occupy-chicago-recre...@googlegroups.com<occupy-chicago-recre...@googlegroups.com>; oc_re...@googlegroups.com<oc_re...@googlegroups.com>; Andrew Smith<macf...@gmail.com>; Abel Mebratu<occup...@gmail.com>; X X<moccu...@yahoo.com>; secretaria...@googlegroups.com<secretaria...@googlegroups.com>; Tech te...@occupychi.org><te...@occupychi.org>; educ...@occupychi.org educ...@occupychi.org><educ...@occupychi.org>; a7...@googlegroups.com<a7...@googlegroups.com>; Secretariat<secre...@occupychi.org>; ar...@occupychi.orgarts@occupychi.org><ar...@occupychi.org>; conf...@occupychi.org OC<conf...@occupychi.org>; oc_co...@googlegroups.com<oc_co...@googlegroups.com>; coordi...@occupychi.orgcoordinators@occupychi.org><coordi...@occupychi.org>; direct...@occupychi.org direct...@occupychi.org><direct...@occupychi.org>; dona...@occupychi.org Donations<dona...@occupychi.org>; le...@occupychi.org le...@occupychi.org><le...@occupychi.org>; pr...@occupychi.org pr...@occupychi.org><pr...@occupychi.org>; secu...@occupychi.org secu...@occupychi.org><secu...@occupychi.org>; rese...@occupychi.org rese...@occupychi.org><rese...@occupychi.org>; hou...@occupychi.org hou...@occupychi.org><hou...@occupychi.org>; < outr...@occupychi.org><outr...@occupychi.org>; socia...@occupychi.org Media<socia...@occupychi.org>; cachec...@googlegroups.com<cachec...@googlegroups.com>; oc_v...@googlegroups.com<oc_v...@googlegroups.com>; oc_c...@googlegroups.com<oc_c...@googlegroups.com>; occupy...@googlegroups.com<occupy...@googlegroups.com>; occu...@googlegroups.com<occu...@googlegroups.com>; occup...@googlegroups.com<occup...@googlegroups.com>; working-group-60637<working-g...@googlegroups.com>; me...@occupychi.org<me...@occupychi.org>; OccupyChicago LaborOutreach<union.taskfo...@gmail.com>; oc_ou...@googlegroups.com<oc_ou...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: [OC_Tech] Re: [OCPress] Re: [OC_SM] Re: [OC_CommunityOutreach] Re: [OC_Research] Re: Do we want a website? (URGENT)

If you want to know what happened to the $2000 that took the GA 2 months to approve, maybe should should ask, I dunno, the treasury. Or I don't know READ THE TECH PROPOSAL and see what money was actually allocated for and what time range it was to cover, hint, it stopped covering the hosting 2 months ago.

While you are busy making alarmist statements, you can also notice that the internet budget was also NOT paid for in the tech proposal, not only that, but I have also never been reimbursed for the internet that has been paid thus far, sugar paid for 1mo, I have paid for all the other months.  The reason the internet hasn't been paid for cermack, was the same reason the server hadn't been paid for, I have had to juggle my personal fiances because occupy HAS NOT been paying for it. As of now, I paid back and current month for the hosting,  I am not paying for the internet again. You all have 25 days to move the site. I will make sure Ben and Lenny have the root login details for the server the site is on. For everything else, I am withdrawing any support because while many sit here and complain on the mailing list about how people are being pointlessly rude despite the information they are providing, or doing nothing but making wild claims/accusations while knowing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about any of the aspects of the situation.

Also it warms my heart knowing I have easily spent over $5000 on occupy chicago out of my pocket, and as soon as ANYTHING goes amiss, I am basically labeled as someone who is childish and untrustworthy who did this all to steal less money then I make in a month. I see a bright future for your "organization".

--

Keith D Smith, Independent Associate
Small Business Specialist
www.gosmallbiz.com
A Fran Tarkenton Company
Cell: 630.450.4154
Chicago, IL 60626
atsbh...@gmail.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/keithdsmith

[ItsLennysFault]

TO ANYONE ASKING TO BE DELETED... Do it yourself... go to http://groups.google.com log in and remove yourself.. no one at occupy is going to remove you so if you REALLY wanna stop getting e-mails you should probably remove yourself.

Phil - that e-mail is absolute bullshit. Todd just explained how he spent a ton of time AND money on occupy and that's your reply? 

To anyone else bad mouthing Todd - As I've said before I'm almost certain that Todd spent more time on occupy chicago than anyone and I'm 100% certain he's spent more money on Occupy Chicago than anyone. He's been one of the most generous members / donors (of time and money) that we've had and I for one will be sad to see him go. I really hope this can blow over and he can come back in a less demanding capacity. 

Todd - The rumor mill said that there was an additional $2000 for the Chicago Internet / wifi project (above the tech proposal). I didn't realize that that wasn't true. So sorry for assuming it was the truth without confirming it. Also, thanks for everything you've done for occupy. Fuck anyone that can't appreciate that. I hope to see you around.

On Apr 23, 2012, at 8:25 AM, philip...@gmail.com wrote:

Ahhh I can't wait to not hear from you again Todd. You're responses resemble 4th Grade mental capacity. Bon voyage pal.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

---

From: Todd Freeman <to...@cruxtech.net>

Sender: oc_soci...@googlegroups.com

Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2012 00:19:21 -0500

To: <oc_...@googlegroups.com>

ReplyTo: oc_soci...@googlegroups.com

Cc: James<james...@gmail.com>; oc_s...@googlegroups.com<oc_s...@googlegroups.com>; ocp...@googlegroups.com<ocp...@googlegroups.com>; ItsLennysFault<lenny....@itslennysfault.com>; Philip DeVon<philip...@gmail.com>; oc_soci...@googlegroups.com<oc_soci...@googlegroups.com>; oc_dire...@googlegroups.com<oc_dire...@googlegroups.com>; oc_orgo...@googlegroups.com<oc_orgo...@googlegroups.com>; Amy C.Buckler<amycb...@gmail.com>; occupy-chicago-recre...@googlegroups.com<occupy-chicago-recre...@googlegroups.com>; oc_re...@googlegroups.com<oc_re...@googlegroups.com>; Andrew Smith<macf...@gmail.com>; Abel Mebratu<occup...@gmail.com>; X X<moccu...@yahoo.com>; secretaria...@googlegroups.com<secretaria...@googlegroups.com>; Tech te...@occupychi.org><te...@occupychi.org>; educ...@occupychi.org educ...@occupychi.org><educ...@occupychi.org>; a7...@googlegroups.com<a7...@googlegroups.com>; Secretariat<secre...@occupychi.org>; ar...@occupychi.orgarts@occupychi.org><ar...@occupychi.org>; conf...@occupychi.org OC<conf...@occupychi.org>; oc_co...@googlegroups.com<oc_co...@googlegroups.com>; coordi...@occupychi.orgcoordinators@occupychi.org><coordi...@occupychi.org>; direct...@occupychi.org direct...@occupychi.org><direct...@occupychi.org>; dona...@occupychi.org Donations<dona...@occupychi.org>; le...@occupychi.org le...@occupychi.org><le...@occupychi.org>; pr...@occupychi.org pr...@occupychi.org><pr...@occupychi.org>; secu...@occupychi.org secu...@occupychi.org><secu...@occupychi.org>; rese...@occupychi.org rese...@occupychi.org><rese...@occupychi.org>; hou...@occupychi.org hou...@occupychi.org><hou...@occupychi.org>; < outr...@occupychi.org><outr...@occupychi.org>; socia...@occupychi.org Media<socia...@occupychi.org>; cachec...@googlegroups.com<cachec...@googlegroups.com>; oc_v...@googlegroups.com<oc_v...@googlegroups.com>; oc_c...@googlegroups.com<oc_c...@googlegroups.com>; occupy...@googlegroups.com<occupy...@googlegroups.com>; occu...@googlegroups.com<occu...@googlegroups.com>; occup...@googlegroups.com<occup...@googlegroups.com>; working-group-60637<working-g...@googlegroups.com>; me...@occupychi.org<me...@occupychi.org>; OccupyChicago LaborOutreach<union.taskfo...@gmail.com>; oc_ou...@googlegroups.com<oc_ou...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: [OC_Tech] Re: [OCPress] Re: [OC_SM] Re: [OC_CommunityOutreach] Re: [OC_Research] Re: Do we want a website? (URGENT)

If you want to know what happened to the $2000 that took the GA 2 months to approve, maybe should should ask, I dunno, the treasury. Or I don't know READ THE TECH PROPOSAL and see what money was actually allocated for and what time range it was to cover, hint, it stopped covering the hosting 2 months ago.

While you are busy making alarmist statements, you can also notice that the internet budget was also NOT paid for in the tech proposal, not only that, but I have also never been reimbursed for the internet that has been paid thus far, sugar paid for 1mo, I have paid for all the other months.  The reason the internet hasn't been paid for cermack, was the same reason the server hadn't been paid for, I have had to juggle my personal fiances because occupy HAS NOT been paying for it. As of now, I paid back and current month for the hosting,  I am not paying for the internet again. You all have 25 days to move the site. I will make sure Ben and Lenny have the root login details for the server the site is on. For everything else, I am withdrawing any support because while many sit here and complain on the mailing list about how people are being pointlessly rude despite the information they are providing, or doing nothing but making wild claims/accusations while knowing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about any of the aspects of the situation.

Also it warms my heart knowing I have easily spent over $5000 on occupy chicago out of my pocket, and as soon as ANYTHING goes amiss, I am basically labeled as someone who is childish and untrustworthy who did this all to steal less money then I make in a month. I see a bright future for your "organization".

On 2012-04-22 12:45 PM, James wrote:

[Kieran]

Amy,

With all due respect, what would you know about how much money we have?

Second, just because you say it isn't "evil", doesn't mean it's not merchant capitalism. 

I absolutely block this proposal, with whatever force such a gesture can muster. This is not in the slightest way personal either. I am opposed exclusively to the notion of selling things. This in itself would be enough to discredit any political movement aiming to build commons in my eyes. 

Kieran

---

From: Amy C. Buckler <amycb...@gmail.com>
To: occupy-chicago-recre...@googlegroups.com
Cc: "oc_re...@googlegroups.com" <oc_re...@googlegroups.com>; ItsLennysFault <lenny....@itslennysfault.com>; Kelvin Ho <hoke...@gmail.com>; Todd Freeman <to...@cruxtech.net>; Ruben ? (Web / Drupal / Occupy Chicago) <an0nl...@gmail.com>; Andrew Smith <macf...@gmail.com>; Abel Mebratu <occup...@gmail.com>; X X <moccu...@yahoo.com>; "secretaria...@googlegroups.com" <secretaria...@googlegroups.com>; "Tech te...@occupychi.org>" <te...@occupychi.org>; "educ...@occupychi.org educ...@occupychi.org>" <educ...@occupychi.org>; "a7...@googlegroups.com" <a7...@googlegroups.com>; Secretariat <secre...@occupychi.org>; "ar...@occupychi.org ar...@occupychi.org>" <ar...@occupychi.org>; "conf...@occupychi.org OC" <conf...@occupychi.org>; "oc_co...@googlegroups.com" <oc_co...@googlegroups.com>; "coordi...@occupychi.org coordi...@occupychi.org>" <coordi...@occupychi.org>; "direct...@occupychi.org direct...@occupychi.org>" <direct...@occupychi.org>; "dona...@occupychi.org Donations" <dona...@occupychi.org>; "le...@occupychi.org le...@occupychi.org>" <le...@occupychi.org>; "pr...@occupychi.org pr...@occupychi.org>" <pr...@occupychi.org>; "secu...@occupychi.org secu...@occupychi.org>" <secu...@occupychi.org>; "rese...@occupychi.org rese...@occupychi.org>" <rese...@occupychi.org>; "hou...@occupychi.org hou...@occupychi.org>" <hou...@occupychi.org>; "< outr...@occupychi.org>" <outr...@occupychi.org>; "socia...@occupychi.org Media" <socia...@occupychi.org>; "cachec...@googlegroups.com" <cachec...@googlegroups.com>; "oc_v...@googlegroups.com" <oc_v...@googlegroups.com>; "visua...@occupychi.org" <visua...@occupychi.org>; "oc_c...@googlegroups.com" <oc_c...@googlegroups.com>; "oc_orgo...@googlegroups.com" <oc_orgo...@googlegroups.com>; "occupy...@googlegroups.com" <occupy...@googlegroups.com>; "occu...@googlegroups.com" <occu...@googlegroups.com>; "occup...@googlegroups.com" <occup...@googlegroups.com>; working-group-60637 <working-g...@googlegroups.com>; "me...@occupychi.org" <me...@occupychi.org>; OccupyChicago LaborOutreach <union.taskfo...@gmail.com>; "oc_s...@googlegroups.com" <oc_s...@googlegroups.com>; "oc_dire...@googlegroups.com" <oc_dire...@googlegroups.com>; "oc_ou...@googlegroups.com" <oc_ou...@googlegroups.com>; "oc_soci...@googlegroups.com" <oc_soci...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2012 1:51 PM
Subject: Re: [OC_Research] Re: Do we want a website? (URGENT)

[Mark Saulys]

     Don 't go Keith, we NEEEEED some adults here!

--
"To live outside the law you must be honest"
      Absolutely Sweet Marie  -Bob Dylan

[Keilah Becker]

I am happy that we have so many people working on this and that some new and old members who havent been active lately are getting back on the Occupy train :)

I am sorry all this happened Todd and that it had to come to this for people to actually pay attention to the issue.

If people want to block any proposal then they should show up and vote no. Blocking in an email is not appropriate, nor does it hold any validity

<3 Keilah

On Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 11:06 AM, ItsLennysFault <lenny....@itslennysfault.com> wrote:

Hey guys,

So I never e-mail all of the committees... However, our website has now been down for a day and there is no sign of it coming back online.

First of all, Has anyone talked to Todd?

I tried to contact him and I know others did too. If anyone has successfully contacted him please let me know. It would be nice to know why it's down and if we even have a back up available.

Now, on to action steps... We obviously need to move to new hosting. That costs money. I'm willing to do it but I need OC GA to approve funding for a year up front. I just cannot afford to foot the bill... I have no time this weekend so if we want this to happen I need someone (anyone) to do an emergency proposal for $1000 for a year worth of web hosting... The new hosting will be more accessible and will allow more people to have e-mail addresses if they want them. We can do this with or without todd I just need the money ASAP and I can do it as early as Monday.

There is one BIG caveat... If we cannot get in touch with Todd to get the latest site backups we will be losing a lot of content / site progress. I've got a backup of the site but it's out dated by about a month so anything that happened on the site or forums in the past month will be gone.

TL;DR .. important points...

- Someone get in touch with Todd PLEASE.

- Someone PLEASE make an emergency proposal for $1000 for a year worth of web hosting

- I can act as the hub for all of this but I cannot get to GA to do it myself.

- whoever wants to do this please contact me so we don't have like 5 proposals for hosting. We only need 1.

thanks,

Lenny

--

Keilah

Social Media

@OccupieChicago

[Amy C. Buckler]

You're right, Kieran, I don't know exactly how much money OC has. I'm not keeping the ledger. 

But I  DO know that whenever Arts & Rec has asked for funding- we've been met with a resounding NO because we need to save the money for tents or whatever- legit concerns. So we raise our own funds. Almost ALL the money Occupy My Heart raised went to fix a broken window that someone (non arts & rec) kicked in at Grace. Arts & Rec didn't get to use the funds that it raised for it's own operations. We've thrown 2 awesome events that both raised money that we've used to fund the next event. Wanna know HOW we raise it? WE SELL THINGS!!! Or, you know, like I said before, ask for donations and provide benefits for donating. Donate $8 at the door, you get to see an awesome collection of visual and performing arts. Donate to this kick starter - you get your wish on a leaf/ on the tree/ whatever. Not to mention the hundreds of dollars in cash/ gas/ man and woman hours we've poured in (like Todd and countless other occupiers).

EVERY committee does this. So unless YOU want to start writing us all checks to do what we do for Occupy I would suggest that you refrain from dis-empowering folks to raise funds by any means at their disposal. In the meantime, Arts & Rec will continue to raise funds, as we have been, to make your signs and banners, buy your drums and throw your cultural events, etc. etc. 

Much love,

Amy

[Kieran]

if you can't get GA approval to fund your event, maybe it's because the event isn't something people find compelling, or maybe it's because people don't know how much money we have. 

either way, this has nothing to do with how politically hypocritical it is to sell things if you're trying to build a movement that is focussed on economic justice, commons, and etc. We've survived just fine on donations so far, and we're not broke. There's no necessity to do what you're doing. Todd's been reimbursed for what he's spent (or what he's asked to be reimbursed for), and he will be again when he asks again. Sure, many of us spend (and continue to) money out of pocket because we believe in this movement. This is, at the end of the day, off topic, since if you're selling things to raise money to offset your own out of pocket expenses, you should just come to GA and get a funding proposal approved. If you don't want to, why should the image of our politics be compromised just because you want to sell some 'merch? 

None of this computes. 

K

---

From: Amy C. Buckler <amycb...@gmail.com>
To: occupy-chicago-recre...@googlegroups.com

Cc: secretaria...@googlegroups.com; Kelvin Ho <hoke...@gmail.com>; Todd Freeman <to...@cruxtech.net>; Ruben ? (Web / Drupal / Occupy Chicago) <an0nl...@gmail.com>; Andrew Smith <macf...@gmail.com>; Abel Mebratu <occup...@gmail.com>; X X <moccu...@yahoo.com>; oc_re...@googlegroups.com; "Tech te...@occupychi.org>" <te...@occupychi.org>; "educ...@occupychi.org educ...@occupychi.org>" <educ...@occupychi.org>; a7...@googlegroups.com; Secretariat <secre...@occupychi.org>; "ar...@occupychi.org ar...@occupychi.org>" <ar...@occupychi.org>; "conf...@occupychi.org OC" <conf...@occupychi.org>; oc_co...@googlegroups.com; "coordi...@occupychi.org coordi...@occupychi.org>" <coordi...@occupychi.org>; "direct...@occupychi.org direct...@occupychi.org>" <direct...@occupychi.org>; "dona...@occupychi.org Donations" <dona...@occupychi.org>; "le...@occupychi.org le...@occupychi.org>" <le...@occupychi.org>; "pr...@occupychi.org pr...@occupychi.org>" <pr...@occupychi.org>; "secu...@occupychi.org secu...@occupychi.org>" <secu...@occupychi.org>; "rese...@occupychi.org rese...@occupychi.org>" <rese...@occupychi.org>; "hou...@occupychi.org hou...@occupychi.org>" <hou...@occupychi.org>; "< outr...@occupychi.org>" <outr...@occupychi.org>; "socia...@occupychi.org Media" <socia...@occupychi.org>; cachec...@googlegroups.com; oc_v...@googlegroups.com; visua...@occupychi.org; oc_c...@googlegroups.com; oc_orgo...@googlegroups.com; occupy...@googlegroups.com; occu...@googlegroups.com; occup...@googlegroups.com; working-group-60637 <working-g...@googlegroups.com>; me...@occupychi.org; OccupyChicago LaborOutreach <union.taskfo...@gmail.com>; oc_s...@googlegroups.com; oc_dire...@googlegroups.com; oc_ou...@googlegroups.com; oc_soci...@googlegroups.com; Tom Rainey <absolu...@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2012 1:44 PM
Subject: [OC_Research] Re: [OC_Secretariat] Do we want a website? (URGENT)

[Ben Burton]

Kieran,

I'm not sure your vision of the "image of our politics" is the sole vision of Occupy Chicago.

Food for thought.

-Ben

[an non]

Kieran,

That's fine. I'm sure you aren't selling your own labor in exchange for money, right? How do you even eat, son?

You're blocking why? Not for any practical need but for your own ideological satisfaction? I'd challenge you to convince anyone that you're not blocking actual progress for your own selfish reasons.

Also, this line: "With all due respect, what would you know about how much money we have?" is pretty fucking sour to those of us who have an interest in transparency (and through our history of interactions, I know you are not among our ranks). It's absurd you would even bring that up.

I think it highlights the fact that we need someone besides you in charge of the money. We all have a right to know how much we have. Yes, I know you're one of the people who rushed to put your name on our money. As someone who is "so opposed to acquiring money", I wonder why more people haven't found your behavior curious.

[Zeeshan Aleem]

Kieran --

Selling things is not inherently capitalist (conceptually or historically), nor is it inherently contrary to an agenda for economic justice.

Cheers,

Z

[Evelyn]

With all due respect:

 

Tom, I reiterate that you may ask for donations to OC using any of the designs that I have produced.

 

On Mon, Apr 23, 2012 at 2:12 PM, an non <an0nl...@gmail.com> wrote:

--
Evelyn DeHais

[an non]

"

if you can't get GA approval to fund your event, maybe it's because the event isn't something people find compelling"

This is fucking hilarious, because that's exactly how capitalism works and if you were really such a strong advocate of moving away you'd realize that just because something doesn't sell to people doesn't mean it's not important!!!

There is no economic injustice in selling something if both parties agree the transaction is fair, dude! Are you so arrogant that you think you can make that distinction for other people? You really need to check yourself!

The rest of your post is similarly nonsense and I have way more productive things to do ...

[an non]

"if we let you keep talking." LOL. Unfortunately, you're the one doing all the talking here. More words doesn't mean you're right dude. More words is just your well known substitution for actually having a point.

Can you stop being such a fascist prick and let people do what's necessary while you sit in your ivory tower alone? Is it too much to ask to not control others to that extent?

The commons that are well-established (though only in your mind) sound pretty gross.

I guess I'll just keep all the education committee posts on my server until someone exercises their "right to know" by fucking asking what you posted about. Hey you're right, despotism sounds great! I don't know why I bothered arguing for capitalism at all, your way is much bettar!111

God you're being a tool...

On 04/23/2012 02:37 PM, Kieran wrote:

if we let you keep talking. 

[Michael Herbert]

"

There is no economic injustice in selling something if both parties agree the transaction is fair, dude!"

I think this ignores an important issue, being the power connected to capital.  What about the parties who have no access?  Are they outliers of economic justice?

It is a valid criticism of selling goods to raise money to say that If we embody a principle of economic justice, and are to offer something that is truly of value, it should be accessible to someone with no capital, otherwise, we are enforcing the idea of a monetarily determined hierarchy of human worth. 

Let's all take a deep breath, and take a walk outside.  It's nice out.

-Mike

---

From: Kieran <sketchy...@yahoo.com>
To: an non <an0nl...@gmail.com>
Cc: "oc_re...@googlegroups.com" <oc_re...@googlegroups.com>; "occupy-chicago-recre...@googlegroups.com" <occupy-chicago-recre...@googlegroups.com>; "secretaria...@googlegroups.com" <secretaria...@googlegroups.com>; Kelvin Ho <hoke...@gmail.com>; Todd Freeman <to...@cruxtech.net>; Andrew Smith <macf...@gmail.com>; Abel Mebratu <occup...@gmail.com>; X X <moccu...@yahoo.com>; "Tech te...@occupychi.org>" <te...@occupychi.org>; "educ...@occupychi.org educ...@occupychi.org>" <educ...@occupychi.org>; "a7...@googlegroups.com" <a7...@googlegroups.com>; Secretariat <secre...@occupychi.org>; "ar...@occupychi.org ar...@occupychi.org>" <ar...@occupychi.org>; "conf...@occupychi.org OC" <conf...@occupychi.org>; "oc_co...@googlegroups.com" <oc_co...@googlegroups.com>; "coordi...@occupychi.org coordi...@occupychi.org>" <coordi...@occupychi.org>; "direct...@occupychi.org direct...@occupychi.org>" <direct...@occupychi.org>; "dona...@occupychi.org Donations" <dona...@occupychi.org>; "le...@occupychi.org le...@occupychi.org>" <le...@occupychi.org>; "pr...@occupychi.org pr...@occupychi.org>" <pr...@occupychi.org>; "secu...@occupychi.org secu...@occupychi.org>" <secu...@occupychi.org>; "rese...@occupychi.org rese...@occupychi.org>" <rese...@occupychi.org>; "hou...@occupychi.org hou...@occupychi.org>" <hou...@occupychi.org>; "< outr...@occupychi.org>" <outr...@occupychi.org>; "socia...@occupychi.org Media" <socia...@occupychi.org>; "cachec...@googlegroups.com" <cachec...@googlegroups.com>; "oc_v...@googlegroups.com" <oc_v...@googlegroups.com>; "visua...@occupychi.org" <visua...@occupychi.org>; "oc_c...@googlegroups.com" <oc_c...@googlegroups.com>; "oc_orgo...@googlegroups.com" <oc_orgo...@googlegroups.com>; "occupy...@googlegroups.com" <occupy...@googlegroups.com>; "occu...@googlegroups.com" <occu...@googlegroups.com>; "occup...@googlegroups.com" <occup...@googlegroups.com>; working-group-60637 <working-g...@googlegroups.com>; "me...@occupychi.org" <me...@occupychi.org>; OccupyChicago LaborOutreach <union.taskfo...@gmail.com>; "oc_s...@googlegroups.com" <oc_s...@googlegroups.com>; "oc_dire...@googlegroups.com" <oc_dire...@googlegroups.com>; "oc_ou...@googlegroups.com" <oc_ou...@googlegroups.com>; "oc_soci...@googlegroups.com" <oc_soci...@googlegroups.com>; Tom Rainey <absolu...@gmail.com>
Sent: Mon, April 23, 2012 2:37:40 PM
Subject: [OC_Vision] Re: [OC_Research] Re: [OC_Secretariat] Do we want a website? (URGENT)

An non,

This will be my last email to you.

So you seem to think capitalism is about consensus-making decisions, as our GA is? You really might want to rethink this comparison. It's important, if you're part of a political movement insisting in democratic horizontal power relations, to arrive at a decision everyone approves of. You seem to assimilate the process of convincing our peers of the merits of an idea with capitalism, a system predicated on the structural exploitation of labor power and the historical dispossession of peasants and indigenous people globaly. I would ask for an explanation of your comparison, but I shudder to think of what kind logical depth we might arrive at if we let you keep talking. 

While you're dishing out lessons in political economy, you might want to advance beyond the principle of 'fairness' for a moment, since no one bothered to "ask" my if I wanted to work for a wage my entire life, even though liberal shitidiots continue to tell me this is "fair" until they're blue in the face. The effort to build the commons (which Zuccoti park and every other physical occupation was) always confronts the existing status quo as an illegality, since it propagates a social form beyond the rule of profit-making, fair as the latter may be in the eyes of some. It's a matter of whether one is willing to be consistent in ones actions with the thing one opposes. 

As for transparency in our finances, there is no issue of transparency. Anytime anyone has asked how much money we have, I contact 8th Day and find out. I said what I did to Amy because she was making presumptions about our finances without actually inquiring as to what they looked like, which is disingenuous. If you're curious, we have $11250 on our books right now. If you ever bothered to exercise your "right to know" this information by fucking asking, I'd tell you. 

As to the notion that I'm being ideological in my attempt to criticize the idea of us opening up a gift shop, I am. I find the idea politically repugnant. As to the suggestion that this is selfish, I disagree. Political views are not inherently personal. It would do you well to distinguish the two. 

-Kieran

---

From: an non <an0nl...@gmail.com>
To: Kieran <sketchy...@yahoo.com>
Cc: "oc_re...@googlegroups.com" <oc_re...@googlegroups.com>; "occupy-chicago-recre...@googlegroups.com" <occupy-chicago-recre...@googlegroups.com>; "secretaria...@googlegroups.com" <secretaria...@googlegroups.com>; Kelvin Ho <hoke...@gmail.com>; Todd Freeman <to...@cruxtech.net>; Andrew Smith <macf...@gmail.com>; Abel Mebratu <occup...@gmail.com>; X X <moccu...@yahoo.com>; "Tech te...@occupychi.org>" <te...@occupychi.org>; "educ...@occupychi.org educ...@occupychi.org>" <educ...@occupychi.org>; "a7...@googlegroups.com" <a7...@googlegroups.com>; Secretariat <secre...@occupychi.org>; "ar...@occupychi.org ar...@occupychi.org>" <ar...@occupychi.org>; "conf...@occupychi.org OC" <conf...@occupychi.org>; "oc_co...@googlegroups.com" <oc_co...@googlegroups.com>; "coordi...@occupychi.org coordi...@occupychi.org>" <coordi...@occupychi.org>; "direct...@occupychi.org direct...@occupychi.org>" <direct...@occupychi.org>; "dona...@occupychi.org Donations" <dona...@occupychi.org>; "le...@occupychi.org le...@occupychi.org>" <le...@occupychi.org>; "pr...@occupychi.org pr...@occupychi.org>" <pr...@occupychi.org>; "secu...@occupychi.org secu...@occupychi.org>" <secu...@occupychi.org>; "rese...@occupychi.org rese...@occupychi.org>" <rese...@occupychi.org>; "hou...@occupychi.org hou...@occupychi.org>" <hou...@occupychi.org>; "< outr...@occupychi.org>" <outr...@occupychi.org>; "socia...@occupychi.org Media" <socia...@occupychi.org>; "cachec...@googlegroups.com" <cachec...@googlegroups.com>; "oc_v...@googlegroups.com" <oc_v...@googlegroups.com>; "visua...@occupychi.org" <visua...@occupychi.org>; "oc_c...@googlegroups.com" <oc_c...@googlegroups.com>; "oc_orgo...@googlegroups.com" <oc_orgo...@googlegroups.com>; "occupy...@googlegroups.com" <occupy...@googlegroups.com>; "occu...@googlegroups.com" <occu...@googlegroups.com>; "occup...@googlegroups.com" <occup...@googlegroups.com>; working-group-60637 <working-g...@googlegroups.com>; "me...@occupychi.org" <me...@occupychi.org>; OccupyChicago LaborOutreach <union.taskfo...@gmail.com>; "oc_s...@googlegroups.com" <oc_s...@googlegroups.com>; "oc_dire...@googlegroups.com" <oc_dire...@googlegroups.com>; "oc_ou...@googlegroups.com" <oc_ou...@googlegroups.com>; "oc_soci...@googlegroups.com" <oc_soci...@googlegroups.com>; Tom Rainey <absolu...@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2012 2:19 PM
Subject: Re: [OC_Research] Re: [OC_Secretariat] Do we want a website? (URGENT)

[Kelvin Ho]

Can we please stop having these marathon discussions over google groups? It's unfair to those who use these lists as an organizing tool. Also, I don't think anyone would disagree that these discussions will only serve to drive more people away. There's nothing wrong with having these discussions of course, but start your own email chain with the interested people and talk there, don't flood other people's emails with it. Besides, if your goal is to convince someone it's much more effective to pick up the phone and call the people. Schedule a meeting for christ sake. But seriously, nothing good ever comes out of these longwinded discussions. Inevitably things get personal, conflict brews and people get angry at each other. More people hop in and before you know it, we lose another 5-10 people from the movement. We don't all have to agree about what we ought to do or how we ought to go about it in order to organize effectively together. Live and let live. Didn't we all sign on to diversity of tactics?

Bring the discussion to the forums, facebook, twitter, or personal emails, but please stop doing it over the google groups.

-Kelvin

On Mon, Apr 23, 2012 at 2:59 PM, X X <moccu...@yahoo.com> wrote:

"Let's all take a deep breath, and take a walk outside.  It's nice out."

Or go down and OCCUPY :) I here there is an action about to get real interesting on the south side any minute now.  With Love, Matt __________________________________________________________________________________ "You can blow out a candle but you can't blow out a fire, once the flames begin to catch the wind will blow it higher" ________________________________________________________________________________ "Your reputation as a putz certainly precedes you."David Krzesinski --- On Mon, 4/23/12, Michael Herbert <mher...@prodigy.net> wrote:

[sheryl ferraro]

"... if we let you keep talking."  

 

if WE ??????

 

 

uh, speak for yourself, please

Sheryl

 

 

On Mon, Apr 23, 2012 at 2:37 PM, Kieran <sketchy...@yahoo.com> wrote:

An non,

This will be my last email to you.

So you seem to think capitalism is about consensus-making decisions, as our GA is? You really might want to rethink this comparison. It's important, if you're part of a political movement insisting in democratic horizontal power relations, to arrive at a decision everyone approves of. You seem to assimilate the process of convincing our peers of the merits of an idea with capitalism, a system predicated on the structural exploitation of labor power and the historical dispossession of peasants and indigenous people globaly. I would ask for an explanation of your comparison, but I shudder to think of what kind logical depth we might arrive at if we let you keep talking. 

While you're dishing out lessons in political economy, you might want to advance beyond the principle of 'fairness' for a moment, since no one bothered to "ask" my if I wanted to work for a wage my entire life, even though liberal shitidiots continue to tell me this is "fair" until they're blue in the face. The effort to build the commons (which Zuccoti park and every other physical occupation was) always confronts the existing status quo as an illegality, since it propagates a social form beyond the rule of profit-making, fair as the latter may be in the eyes of some. It's a matter of whether one is willing to be consistent in ones actions with the thing one opposes. 

As for transparency in our finances, there is no issue of transparency. Anytime anyone has asked how much money we have, I contact 8th Day and find out. I said what I did to Amy because she was making presumptions about our finances without actually inquiring as to what they looked like, which is disingenuous. If you're curious, we have $11250 on our books right now. If you ever bothered to exercise your "right to know" this information by fucking asking, I'd tell you. 

As to the notion that I'm being ideological in my attempt to criticize the idea of us opening up a gift shop, I am. I find the idea politically repugnant. As to the suggestion that this is selfish, I disagree. Political views are not inherently personal. It would do you well to distinguish the two. 

-Kieran

---

From: an non <an0nl...@gmail.com>
To: Kieran <sketchy...@yahoo.com>
Cc: "oc_re...@googlegroups.com" <oc_re...@googlegroups.com>; "occupy-chicago-recre...@googlegroups.com" <occupy-chicago-recre...@googlegroups.com>; "secretaria...@googlegroups.com" <secretaria...@googlegroups.com>; Kelvin Ho <hoke...@gmail.com>; Todd Freeman <to...@cruxtech.net>; Andrew Smith <macf...@gmail.com>; Abel Mebratu <occup...@gmail.com>; X X <moccu...@yahoo.com>; "Tech te...@occupychi.org>" <te...@occupychi.org>; "educ...@occupychi.org educ...@occupychi.org>" <educ...@occupychi.org>; "a7...@googlegroups.com" <a7...@googlegroups.com>; Secretariat <secre...@occupychi.org>; "ar...@occupychi.org ar...@occupychi.org>" <ar...@occupychi.org>; "conf...@occupychi.org OC" <conf...@occupychi.org>; "oc_co...@googlegroups.com" <oc_co...@googlegroups.com>; "coordi...@occupychi.org coordi...@occupychi.org>" <coordi...@occupychi.org>; "direct...@occupychi.org direct...@occupychi.org>" <direct...@occupychi.org>; "dona...@occupychi.org Donations" <dona...@occupychi.org>; "le...@occupychi.org le...@occupychi.org>" <le...@occupychi.org>; "pr...@occupychi.org pr...@occupychi.org>" <pr...@occupychi.org>; "secu...@occupychi.org secu...@occupychi.org>" <secu...@occupychi.org>; "rese...@occupychi.org rese...@occupychi.org>" <rese...@occupychi.org>; "hou...@occupychi.org hou...@occupychi.org>" <hou...@occupychi.org>; "< outr...@occupychi.org>" <outr...@occupychi.org>; "socia...@occupychi.org Media" <socia...@occupychi.org>; "cachec...@googlegroups.com" <cachec...@googlegroups.com>; "oc_v...@googlegroups.com" <oc_v...@googlegroups.com>; "visua...@occupychi.org" <visua...@occupychi.org>; "oc_c...@googlegroups.com" <oc_c...@googlegroups.com>; "oc_orgo...@googlegroups.com" <oc_orgo...@googlegroups.com>; "occupy...@googlegroups.com" <occupy...@googlegroups.com>; "occu...@googlegroups.com" <occu...@googlegroups.com>; "occup...@googlegroups.com" <occup...@googlegroups.com>; working-group-60637 <working-g...@googlegroups.com>; "me...@occupychi.org" <me...@occupychi.org>; OccupyChicago LaborOutreach <union.taskfo...@gmail.com>; "oc_s...@googlegroups.com" <oc_s...@googlegroups.com>; "oc_dire...@googlegroups.com" <oc_dire...@googlegroups.com>; "oc_ou...@googlegroups.com" <oc_ou...@googlegroups.com>; "oc_soci...@googlegroups.com" <oc_soci...@googlegroups.com>; Tom Rainey <absolu...@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2012 2:19 PM

Subject: Re: [OC_Research] Re: [OC_Secretariat] Do we want a website? (URGENT)

[Spencer Thayer]

So just to throw this out there.

But I will host the sites for free. Unlimited bandwidth, storage and email. The only problem is that this is hosted in the US. If that is a concern I can talk to some people I know so we can host the database off shore. That might cost a few bucks but... I can cover that for you.

I would create a user account for Occupy Chicago connected to my server. You'll have 100% access to everything. Both the file system and the database. We could even commit the sites to GIT so that there is a distinct offsite backup. If you give me SSH access to the old site I can even move everything over. Perhaps the people with the responsibility of maintaining the site should have a Google Hangout meeting to discuss this proposal. 

Cordially in your face-
but still cordially,

Spencer "Thunderball" Thayer!

Email/GTalk/AIM: m...@spencerthayer.com
Txt me @ 13127256661

[an non]

Hey Spencer,

Thank you for the offer, that is really generous. Lenny's waiting to hear back from mayfirst, so depending on that, we may or may not (pun intended).

[Benjamin Burton]

Kieran,

For the record "transparency" isn't just the current tally. Transparency in political terms (as opposed to the opacity of glass) is the ability to recreate a decision in its entirety. So while the current tally is important, every deposit and withdrawal that got us to the current tally is what defines transparency. 

Taking that a step further of course would be understanding why every deposit and withdrawal happened. Deposits are usually easy, withdrawals are where things get tricky. But that's why we have minutes at GA, people tweeting and live streaming, etc. Ideally anyone would be able to coalesce publicly available data and recreate every monetary decision that had been made to this point and calculate the same tally as we have without even having to ask you. That's entirely possible even if only 1-2 people have access to the accounts for security purposes. 

And that's transparency.

-Ben

Sent from my iPhone