DRAFT
taotech
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mission statement
Tending spaces where life happens so solidarity can emerge.
Taotech's mission is to host communities online and in physical spaces. Taotech will provide Internet hosting services to community groups, campaigns, and shared resources. Taotech will also acquire and operate shared physical spaces for community use. Taotech will be the legal entity responsible for operating both online and physical spaces.
summary of operations
- community owned infrastructure
- always work towards community ownership of common resources, from web servers to real estate.
- physical spaces for communities to meet, organize, and interact.
- online services and resources owned by community members.
- services for community groups:
- online:
- physical spaces:
- for community groups to meet and organize.
- for artists and musicians to present and perform.
- for hosting workshops, skillshares, and community education projects.
- for community food preparation.
services
online
Taotech will be the host organization for several online resources and projects. One potential software stack used and developed by organizations similar to Taotech is Co-op Cloud.
hosted organizing tools
Forgejo & ikiwiki
This website is based on ikiwiki and Forgejo at https://source.taote.ch/. This ikiwiki may be edited through the website or by pushing to its Git repository hosted in Forgejo.
Nextcloud
Nextcloud is a self-hosted alternative to services like Google Drive, Microsoft Office, and Zoom. It has groupware features including calendars, contacts, tasks and enables shared folders, video conferencing, and can also be extended with additional apps.
Nextcloud offers an automated installation method based on Docker that also configures optional features like Office, Talk, Whiteboard etc. but is limited to 100 users per instance.
fediverse alternatives to corporate social media
We want to build community spaces for everyone, not just activists.
We need to provide alternatives to the alt-right pipeline. This means supporting online spaces that appeal to interests beyond the political, but that are part of an ecosystem tended to by decent people.
Some ideas for future Fediverse servers that Taotech could host:
- Bonfire for communities like London Commons
- Mobilizon for events sharing and registration
- Pixelfed for sharing photos and short videos
- Mastodon for sharing short posts
- Funkwhale for music/podcasts/audio sharing community platform
- PeerTube for video publishing
physical
Our community in London, Ontario desperately needs more physical spaces that can be used by grassroots organizers for meetings and other activities.
We need something like EVAC again, or maybe a space like an old church?
commercial kitchen
With a commercial kitchen Taotech could host Food Not Bombs, community kitchen programs, cooking classes and provide refreshments for events in our space.
workshops and skillsharing
- tech literacy
- computer basics
- web and internet skills
- revision control systems
- community organizing skills
- consensus decision making
- radical inclusion
- leadership and transparent structures
- managing burnout and recovery
- general skills for sustaining co-ops and non-profits
- accounting
- design
- fundraising
- cooking classes
- IT skills required for sustaining Taotech
- Linux server administration
- Networking
- Web development
start-left culture
Taotech is about community ownership of shared resources, and will be organized in a way that benefits the communities it serves and other stakeholders including workers who provide labour, and user members of hosted online communities.
incorporation
Taotech will need to incorporate somewhere. In order to serve community members in London, Ontario it probably means that Taotech will be incorporated in Ontario.
Incorporation is required so that Taotech can operate as as a legal entity and limit liability of individual members. Incorporating as a not-for-profit organization in Ontario requires three people to form a board of directors.
organizational code
Taotech's bylaws, policies, and procedures will be developed and stored in on this Wiki website.
The contents of this Wiki are also available as a Git revision control repository hosted on the Wiki's companion Forgejo site: https://source.taote.ch/taotech/taotech or by clicking the "history" link at the top of every page on this website.
The goal is to make all of Taotech's policies freely available for other communities to use and adapt under a copyleft license, including the entire history of how they were developed.
honouring tao.ca and London Commons
tao communications, later OAT, has been on life support for a long time.
LondonCommons.net (later LondonCommons.ca) was a local online media grassroots organization in London, Ontario between 2005 and 2012:
What if we brought them back, or a spiritual successor? That's what Taotech aspires to be.
contact
Email: calebwill at taote.ch
All wikis are supposed to have a SandBox, so this one does too. This wiki is powered by ikiwiki.