Camille Acey – Rewriting the Docs!: Field notes from the radical IT department (Introductory)
Years of being one of the “technical people” in activist circles resulted in my being continually called on to help community groups and fellow organizers understand and more correctly wield technology in service of their mission. Using my blogpost “Three Tips for Providing Tech Help to Non-Profits and Other Such Organizations” as a point of departure, I will share my experience and derived best practices.
From “basics”, like how to use documents and spreadsheets, to working with databases and understanding security, I have given assistance to a great many groups and the most important part is always the documentation that I leave behind. I can rarely ever just point people to the official software or open source project documentation, I almost always have to rewrite the docs for them in simple language that references their specific use case.
I wish to help people involved in community and activist groups make better technical choices so that they feels more in control of the technologies they use.I sharing my experiences, I also wish to engage in a deeper dialogue with the open source developer and technical documentation communities about how we can make tech more accessible, easier to re-use, and empowering.
John Coghlan – Why and How to Plan an Awesome Meetup (Introductory)
Meetups are typically the first place community members meet each other offline. They create opportunities for first-time speakers to hone their skills. They are mostly free and can happen anywhere. Meetups can and should be awesome.
From how you structure your agenda to how you greet guests to post-meetup follow up, a few points of emphasis can make a huge impact on your community. I will share what I learned from planning hundreds of events so you can focus your efforts on actions that will make a difference. If you want to organize inclusive community events that people love to attend, this talk is for you.