Magick of Glitter & Tales of Building Community
Who: Sandra Ordonez, IFF Team
Date: Friday, April 10
Time: 11:00am EST / 3:00pm UTC+0 (other times below)
Where: we will send out link to technology after you RSVP
What: Glitter is very much like a community, made up of unique pieces all that have their unique shapes and colors, and when combine emit a radiance and beauty so strong that it can soften even the hardest of hearts. The same can be said about the Internet Freedom community. How did a community so diverse and located in all parts of the world come together and build solidarity despite having to overcome challenges of distance, timezones, low bandwidth, lack of resources and more.
Join this fun session and learn how you too can create a healthy, safe and vibrant communities and teams using only virtual tools and strategies, while listening to the tales of the Internet Freedom community and the magical power of glitter.
Fun Fact: Did you know that from 40,000 BC to 200 BC, ancient Egyptians, produced "glitter-like substances from crushed beetles"[15] as well as finely ground green malachite crystal.
Bio: Sandy is the co-founder and director of the IFF based at Article19. She is an experienced community engagement specialist, a proud NYC Latina , and a recipient of Fundación Carolina’s Hispanic Leadership Award. She is also a long-time diversity and inclusion advocate, with extensive experience incubating and creating FLOSS and Internet Freedom community tools.
Slidedeck available here (google slides): https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1tN6GF7K-zhqLHoX40MCJNbeehSLqUQVfUFboRouvqYY/edit#slide=id.g72e40e5bcb_0_752
Community Tendencies
- Always in flux. Breathing like a living organism.
- Made up of different colors (or sub groups)
- Its diversity makes it multi-dimensional and magical
- Can grow and change shape or direction, but never veers too far from what it is.
- Organized Chaos: You can never really define it 100% but can identify patterns.
- Each dot (or individual) has its own pattern and is also always in flux
- Each individual, like each dot matters. Each group, like each color group, contributes to the overall effect or community.
- The more you know about each the more you know about each individual and subgroup the more you know about the entire landscape or community.
In the beginning...
- Many different nodes and groups that didn’t know each other.
- Folks distributed in all parts of the world
- Lack of trust and paranoia reinforced.
- No sense of community.
- In fact, a toxic culture in the small community that existed.
- Unchecked social power structures
- No diversity.
- Very competitive culture
Start Small, One Human at a Time
- Each human is a reflective of the whole.
- Identify one or two community members of each subgroup and really get to know them. Cultivate your human bridges and ambassadors that share your mission.
- Find and go to new communities. Don’t expect them to go to you. Tap your trusted sources for references
- Use old school but true and tried methods of connecting:
- Virtual coffees via phone
- Engage in old school letter conversations
- Build Trust & Listen, Listen, Listen, Listen.
- Act in service to others. Understanding you will have to do alot of the unpleasurable work.
Communication Channels and Community Bridges
- Who is your core group of people? Who are your subgroups? How do they consume data and interact online? What is their technological capacity?
- KISS Principle and build slowly but sustainable.
- Test with small group of people, observe, and fail often.
- Connect people in your subgroups to create sense of unity/belonging. Then begin connecting subgroups with each other via needs and wants. Use your human bridges!!
- Technology preferences come in all shapes and sizes. Offer a variety of solutions depending on each subgroup.
- Collaboration is much stronger when needs/goals align. How are you helping advance the needs of each group, and how are you collaborating with them in a way that makes sense.
