Over the course of the class, we will develop technical skills for running a situated server practice (or other infrastructural component of your choice) and learn from each others' experiences.

Each participant is encouraged to apply the idea of "computing in place" to their own locale through a creative project which may range from a small poetic experiment, to archiving personal and familial stories, to collaborating with the neighborhood library, community garden, elderly home, or mutual aid coalition.

Participants will have access to draft their project pages on this website.

Lillyanne Pham setting up a local wifi portal for their Spring 2023 class project

---

Potential directions ~ ✿

• Creative misuse of existing tools (i.e. spreadsheets for managing community inventory)

• Maintaining existing infrastructure (i.e. re-organizing your collective’s files, improving accessibility)

• Researching an infrastructural issue that is relevant to your particular community (i.e. great firewall)

• Looking for or creating alternative tools or processes

• Experimenting with open-source/self-hosted tools (i.e. Yunohost, IPFS)

• Articulating a set of guidelines or ethos for your community’s approach to tech

• Exploring creative analog formats, down-grading or un-complicating existing processes

• Advocating for big organizations to divest from big tech (i.e. Counter-cloud Action Plan)

---

Things to consider for class project

We hope for this set of considerations to be helpful as you begin your community infrastructuring endeavors. Don’t worry about navigating all of this within the scope of the class project.

1. What is a community context you want to work from?

Choose a context with which you have an existing relationship or share common ground. 

You may be interested in engaging with your local neighborhood, migrant network, free store, mutual aid pod, roommates, sex worker advocates, elderly home, guerilla gardeners, repair shop, disabilities support group, workplace union, library, homeschooling parents, etc…

What makes it a “community”? How do you show up for each other? What makes you feel connected? What’s your shared language? → virtual care lab’s Terms That Serve Us.

Try the network diagramming exercise by Lai Yi to map your community:

1. Free-write the nodes in your network in list format. Who/what has a place in your network? Nodes could include: people, institutions, places, materials, communities, constraints. You don't have to be too precious about what is considered a node. 5-10 min

2. Draw by hand arrows between them to describe their relationship to one another <10 min

3. Draw the nodes and their dynamics in a way that makes sense spatially to you

4. Redraw to account for hierarchy, power, and what changes over time (as applicable)

---

2. What kind of infrastructure already exists?

Participate in group activities and meetings, ask questions, research, and observe…

• What is the history of this community?

• What is the community’s relationship to land and physical surroundings? What about access to material resources like food, water, and shelter?

• Does it have a legal or organizational structure?

• How are decisions made? Who holds power and who holds sway? (i.e. implicit power, embodied power, seniority, etc)

• How do folks stay updated with what’s going on? Who takes care of the planning and communication logistics?

• Is there a budget? What money flows in and out of this community, as well as in between folks? Are there certain class / caste / socioeconomic dynamics present in the group?

• What happens if there is a conflict?

Here are some additional resources that may be helpful as you learn about how your community is organized:

• A Feminist Organization’s Handbook by FCCW

• Toolkit for Cooperative, Collective, and Collaborative Cultural Work by Institute for Expanded Research and Press Press

---

3. What does your community really need?

Reference the participatory methodology for communication projects by Redes AC

• What goals, visions, or dreams does your community hold? What are the next steps?

• What seems like a challenge or pain point? Dig deeper - what is the need behind the need?

• Are there certain tools or processes that people are already familiar with or excited about? What are people hesitant about, or have had negative experiences with?

• What kinds of “solutions” have folks already tried?

You may want to facilitate a community listening / feedback / brainstorm session! Inviting active participation can help folks feel that they have a stake in what’s being developed and be more receptive to integrating possible solutions over time.

---

4. What do you want to work on?

Pick something that you feel passionate about, so that you’re more likely to go through with the project, gather support, and possibly be available for maintenance later on

Explore the existing class projects and case studies we’ve collected.

• What is your role in the community? Why do you want to help and what do you want to get out of it?

• Is there an ongoing effort in the group that you can contribute to, by offering your perspectives, skills, time, and resources?

• Are there like-minded folks in the group that you want to collaborate with?

• Who “holds the keys” to existing knowledge, materials, spaces that can benefit this work? Do they have the capacity to be a liaison / point of contact for the project?

• Who do you want feedback or permission from in order to get started?

---

5. Making it last

Keep in mind the ethos of appropriate technology .

• What is the leanest way to care for your community’s needs?

• Can it be done without digital technology or without money?

• Check in with yourself and your collaborators. What is your honest capacity to engage with this project at this moment? in the long run?

  • If you do have the capacity for long-term engagement,

    • What is necessary for maintenance? Is this made clear to other folks and are you being sufficiently compensated or otherwise recognized for your time and labor?

    • How may the project adapt over time? How can people provide feedback or say when something is not working?

  • If you do not,

    • Does the possibility of financial support or other resources make a difference? How can you secure this for your project or ask others for help?

    • Are there other folks who may be interested and able to carry the project forward? What kind of upskilling may be involved?

    • Can you facilitate a quick fix / hack in the meantime, or a speculative exercise to move the group toward possible ways forward?