2016 Watsonville Agenda

The following is the working agenda for the California Nonprofit Technology Festival in Watsonville on April 28 - 29, 2016.

• The agenda is designed with a combination of planned sessions and participant-driven discussions, and is very likely to evolve through the course of the event.

• There are no presentations or panels. The event will instead be focused instead on being fully interactive through collaborative sessions and focused dialogues.

• The goal is to enable peer learning, address participant needs and questions, and surface both the tacit and active knowledge of this group of practitioners. Bring your stories, your ideas, your questions, and your knowledge to share!

We'd love to hear what you are thinking. If there is a session or discussion you would like to facilitate, feel free to be in touch with us.

The CA Tech Fest is an immersive experience to expand and strengthen the network of leaders in rural and urban areas through out California who are passionate about social justice and technology.

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Afternoon: Travel Day

Out-of-town participants start to arrive

Thursday, April 28, 2016

9:00 AM – Welcome and Opening Circle

The event will start with introductions and welcomes, an overview of the agenda and guidelines, and announcements.

9:30 AM – Interactive Plenary

Participants will engage in an interactive and collaborative discussion.

Spectrogram statements read

Technology isn't usable by all age groups.

Social media is the most important part of the internet.

Watsonville needs more tech companies.

Net neutrality is essential.

It is ok to significantly alter a project to fit a grant.

Statements not read

Free tools are good for organizations.

The tech platforms we use should reflect our social change values.

Emails are dead, we should stop using it.

There should be radical restrictions on guns in the US / civilians cannot own guns.

Videos like Lemonade can create social impact.

All jobs should provide childcare for parents.

Co-ops are the best business models for economic justice.

Online activism is as impactful as on-the-ground activism.

Technology is replacing personal connection

Power and divides

Technology separates generations.

Voting is pointless

Technology = power

The digital divide will never be bridged

Security and privacy

Privacy is not a concern if I'm not engaging in malicious activities.

Some government surveillance is good.

Encryption is EXTRA important for people of color.

Our organizing communities NEED to learn encryption event though it's still SO HARD!

Cybersecurity doesn't matter unless you are doing something suspicious

Privacy rights are dead within the technological world

Funding and finance

The outcomes of recieving controversial funding are worth it

Organizations should share all salaries of staff to tackle the wage gap.

Most non-profits don't invest enough in technology.

Communities

Impoverished communities always benefit from increased access to information tech

Santa Cruz County should be like Silicon Valley

You have to be of the community to change the community.

Silicone Valley's community contributions are positive

Social media

Connections on social media are not real.

The DOWNSIDES of facebook - surveillance, data mining for corporate profit -- are bigger than the UPSIDES for activists or organizers

Facebook isn't worth it!

Social media is good for humanity

Using corproate controled social media is worth the larger social reach

The internet

The internet should be restricted based on content.

We are too dependant on the internet.

10:45 AM – Agenda Framing Discussions and Agenda Mosh-Pit

Working in small and large group formats, participants will discuss "big picture" issues relating to technology and social justice in California. From there, they will brainstorm specific topics to be revisited in subsequent working sessions as well as in post-event efforts. The goal of the session will be to generate a visualization of the state of the field, and enable participants to weigh on which topics are most promising for focus and further discussion during the remainder of the event.

12:00 PM – Lunch

Participants will be encouraged to sit with friends they have not yet met!

1:00 PM – Interactive Project Showcase Session: Farmers Market

Participants will present and share work they are doing in their various regions and fields.

2:15 PM – Collaborative Breakout Sessions

Participants will choose from 5-7 session topics, and will be welcome to suggest or request additional sessions.

• Constituent Relationship Management: like a swiss army knife. Can serve all sorts of purposes for your orga to organize the relationships you have with different people.
• Cooperatives: Collectives of business owners who own collective shares of a business. Equal shares in responsibility, income, etc. no heirarchy. Major takeaway was that employees/owners are not just there to make a democratic process but to promote the business. Not just a boss and employees where the boss is pushing things, you have 6 bosses trying to drum up work.
• Movie theater of social media: Push humor into social media as a tool to engage users and also make them laugh and want to come back. What we're working with isn't always funny, but important to have humor.
• Visualization: My aha moment was that you can use stick figures instead of words. Looking forward to integrating into presentations and research outputs to engage with a general audience.
• Security: Keepass is a FLOSS was to secure passwords. Only have to know one.
• Internships: They're not interns. Call them fellows. When we talk about social entreprenuers, we need a mutual understanding between the two projects. need to ask what they need to learn, as well as what our expectations are.

4:30 PM – Group Picture

happy and weird.

thanks, Dahn!

5:00 PM – Adjourn Day 1

Participants are welcome to stay after and ask additional questions.

5:30 PM – Post-Event Hang Out

Hang out location to be determined.

Friday, April 29, 2016

9:30 AM – Peer Skill-Sharing Sessions

Participants will have an opportunity to share or learn tactical technology and campaigning skills in small group format.

• New user tech training
• Disaster response spawned Media guide for extreme events and extreme event preparedness and response for small nonprofits

10:45 AM – Collaborative Breakout Sessions

Participants will choose from 5-7 working groups, and will be welcome to suggest or request additional sessions.

• How to get people to use the tools you have or about to use : Lisa : change management, helping your collegues work with new electornic tools. And cools things like communication charter where you set up how you want to interact with your comms and each other.
• Designing internship programs for mutual benefit : Nasma
• Web design : William
• Digital storytelling with youth : Max
• Working with rural communities : JC : Where people gather, how they communicate, being respectful when you're an outsider.
• Encryption focused on PGP and text messaging : Jack : Some very simple things that we should all be doing, and some more complicated things. Everyone should check out the Free Software Foundation because they have great tutorials.
• Technology for nonprofits of all sizes : Ken

1:30 PM – Collaborative Breakout Sessions

Participants will choose from 5-7 session topics, and will be welcome to suggest or request additional sessions.

• Video production with youth : Max : Working with youth, while not something I prefer to do seems to be in my future. Great tips about programs used and different models. Two programs Hit Films Three and Black Magic Resolve because I don't want to use the Adobe Suite (nor can I afford them). How folk can play with more string (it's digital!), how to share online.
• Building your online presence : David : How important messaging and integrity are by not jumping into certain topics. What medium is best for you (Facebook or Twitter or something else). Resources - a communication matrix is on the Aspiration website.
• CRM 2.0 : Lisa : How to decide different CRM pathways. What informtaion do we want to collect, how do we want to collect it, how will each experience be different? CiviCRM, SalesForce. Trailhead is a self-teaching website. Also CiviCRM and SalesForce consultants who can help us.
• Interactive maps and data visualization : Sergio : Dug through some tools from UCSC like ROI that allows you to look at specific parts of a town about how opportunity is less in one area of Santa Cruz than in another. Also looked at the youth tool to see what opportunity they have available to them. Makes data more tangible.
• Digital risk assessment : Ken : No gods, no masters, no report backs. Talked about big data, nonprofits asking about who they're trying to protect and what they're trying to protect. Creating a culture of promoting those conversations. Implications of protecting data, what happens when you don't protect it.
• Alternative careers in tech : Jack : Co-ops and careers with nonprofits. You don't have to have a degree to work with IT, especially social justice. Maybe don't go. Co-ops are a place where everyone puts in on work, and it feels good to work in that group. Good way of dealing with funders and frustration.

2:45 PM – Where From Here

The group will pause to take stock of the progress made to this point and to inventory action items, next steps, and other bridges to post-event collaborations.

Action items