TPL Jan Workshop Planning Pad
=============================

## 3 NOVEMBER 2020

- yurko, ben, dante, fiona, marzie, rob, ushnish

## Agenda

1. TOmesh past workshop experiences
2. establish what the goal is of this series
3. metric and measurements - diversity goals, numbers, etc.
4. TPL expectations - duration, content
5. tomesh expectations
6. who is the audience?
7. what platform(s)/format shall we use for workshops?
8. internal communications (regular meeting time, tools, etc.) - how we are doing, to change

## Notes

- f: working with planning department, reviewing feedback forms from earlier virtual batch
- 1000 forms came back
- probably will do virtuals forever

### TOmesh past workshop experiences

#### Fort York workshop

- Feed back - To technical, Not Technical enough
- Description was too general
- Fort york Module Topics
- What is mesh?
- Setting up your first node
- Building nodes (hardware)
- Planning a network
- Measuring networks
- Living on a decentralized network
- https://github.com/tomeshnet/p2p-internet-workshop/

- Example : web design descriptions (online now)
- Intro
- Intro to CSS
- Java**SCRIPT**
- "Wow this sounds to complicated i'll just attend the first 2"
- data from sessions, maybe open data on website
- who was the audience
- fort york branch, young professionals
- promoted thru tomesh website, but mainly TPL system
- April 10, 2018 https://tomesh.net/peer-to-peer-internet/
- rpi. zero-experience needed. 20 ppl reg, about 4-10 show up
- who is the audience? (this time)
- virtual, all over the world
#### Intro to P2P Workshop (North York Central Library)

- Presented in July 2019
- Debrief:
- https://github.com/tomeshnet/tomesh.101/blob/master/presentations/20190727_north_york_central_library/output/notes.md
- made it look "hacker"-centric:
https://1drv.ms/b/s!AqEQzcpsME0ag9Ig9kYWPpoubH4XdA?e=RSc1AJ
- all adults, all interested in tech
- everyone knew what bittorrent is
- 20 ppl

### establish what the goal is of this series

- f:
- inform ppl what tomeshnet doing (part 1)
- lead in to advanced... (part 2)

#### goals for library

- solution for narrowing the digital divide
- access to connectivity and digital fluency
- digital literacy?
- engage patrons of the library and citizens of TO in new activities
- develop interest in other library activities e.g. makerspace
- incorporate this into cities for digital rights objectives
- complement other technology programs
- find overlaps with milosh's vision and try to involve TPL in our design
- the _why_, not the _how_

---------

#### goals for tomesh

##### short term

- raise awareness of community networks
- show attendees what they could look like
- show ppl what this mesh network could look like ideally, this is how internet is delivered to your home
- get ppl interested enough to become volunteers, etc.
- develop basic tech skills as building a block for contribution
- understand model of building a "smart city" that consist of informed residents
- defining the digital divide

##### long term

- solution for bridging the digital divide
- credibility to access more building owners
- build local tech talent and infrastructure, enable employment opportunities that serve the local communities and economies
- digital control, driving change toward tech decisions that reflect personal values
- plant a seed and build capacity at TPL
- u: ambassador?
- y: is anything useful for staff?
- y: provide tools to know what's going on
- educate staff, another line of way to impact community
- training

### Propose a title for your workshop deck

Yurko:
- Make your own internet - The Toronto Community Network
- Reimagining the last mile
BEN:
- Building our common digital future
- Connecting to the Toronto Community Network
Fiona:
- Becoming connected to the Internet.
- Diving into the inner workings of the Internet.
Ushnish:
- Community networks as an altenative to existing solutions.
- Who owns the internet and why does it matter
Marzie:
1. Community network; what it is and what's not?
2. Toronto Community can bridge the digital divide
Rob:
- What type of networks are there?
- What's the mesh?
- how are networks connected?
- How the mesh network can help people to communicate in times of need
- emergencies
- censorship
- civil matters
- signal jamming
Dante:
1. "who controls the internet?"
2. "how do we take ownership of our networks?"

## 10 NOVEMBER 2020

- yurko, ben, dante, fiona, marzie, rob, ushnish

## Agenda

- Where are we on the list of discussion items from last week?
1. tomesh past workshop experiences
2. establish what the goal is of this series
3. metric and measurements - diversity goals, numbers, etc. <-- we are here
4. TPL expectations - duration, content
5. tomesh expectations
6. who is the audience?
7. what platform(s)/format shall we use for workshops?
8. internal communications (regular meeting time, tools, etc.) - how we are doing, to change
9. Budget for marketing - need to kow what materials we need to print etc.
- Wrap up "propose a title" activity (10 min)
- Talk about 6-9 (30 min)
- Draft timeline and assign teams (15 min)

## Notes

### Workshop title explanations

Ben:
- Talk about common platforms at large to look at for examples to follow
- Nitty gritty about how to actually build a network with nodes and hardware

Fiona:
- Meetup style in-branch
- Complex workshop, take control of what you've got and do something with it

Ushnish:
- Talk about ISPs mostly when discussing alternatives to existing "internet"- focus on infrastructure
- Fiona: "gateway to ..."
- Community networks as a gateway to bridging the digital divide

Marzie:
- First one presents an educational experience
- Fiona: "digital divide"
- Community's gateway to bridge the digital divide

Rob:
- First off, an information session- how can mesh networks be put together, talk about big picture topology/architecture stuff
- The second session would be a bit more advanced and talk about (social) ramifications of using mesh infrastructure and alternative software
- Yurko: bell is now installing "mesh networks" to expand wifi in large homes (at a monthly cost)
- Marzie: Community's gateway to bridge the digital divide???

Dante:
- Big picture, how the internet works today
- Who owns, who we lease from
- Challenges in each one
- Two workshops being:
- **There are the problem with what exists**
- **These are the alternatives (prior to let's join TCN)**
- Marzie: +1 I agree with dante's idea but we need to make sure we craft clear descriptive intros for the events and use our keywords
- The first workshop would be aimed at people who are coming in with near-zero knowledge of how "the internet" works.
- We need to keep in mind that this model will not aim to be overly technical with either of the two sessions.

### 6. who is the audience?

- Marzie: how do screen our registration?
- Fiona: the event description goes through the "what you will learn". There is no test for people to assess how well the program matches their interest.
- Marzie: what platforms we use for registeration
- Ushnish: send survey at registration point
- Fiona: eventbrite for registration, discuss with colleagues about surveying participants
- Toronto Mesh?
- Ushnish: want more Toronto ppl, by marketing
- Ben: BIAs?
- Can we market through local professional organizations?
- Ages?
- Vulnerable Sector checks for everyone
- Online app then pick up at police station (for York Region) -> $65
- Backlog up to 6 weeks
- 18+
- Ben: want 8+ years and family friendly for future hands-on stuff
- Tech Reset Canada, FreeGeek, Our Networks, Digital Justice Lab, BIAs
- Marzie can draft tweets and tag orgs and promote in TO's civictech community once we have the titles and messaging
- Cisco academy, other local tech companies
- 1.5h sessions

### 7. what platform(s)/format shall we use for workshops?

- Fiona: Webex, Jitsi, Crowdcast
- Microsoft Teams is being used for other purposes
- Own Jitsi for a while
- Fiona: can use BBB, present it to IT, etc.
- If we opt for BBB it can be run by tomesh (doesn't have to be managed by TPL)
- Crowdcast
- 6 participants max on screen, lecture style, no audio (text only from participants)
- Recording is automatic
- Hard to replicate in-person experience given the audio/video limitations
- Wait on content to decide BBB vs. Crowdcast
- Call-in number if asked
- Ben: let's put BBB on the mesh

### 8. internal communications (regular meeting time, tools, etc.) - how we are doing, to change

- Switch to biweekly calls?
- Let's set aside Nov 24th, Dec 8th, and then Dec 15th
- All join `/join #p2p-internet-workshop:tomesh.net`

### 9. Budget for marketing - need to kow what materials we need to print etc.

- it'd be good to note any marketing expense
- Fiona: can send electronic files, Fiona can put physical flyers out
- Ushnish: advertise in NOW magazine and other local media that provide free online listings
- Fiona needs: Title, short description, long description, a link, one graphic for eventbrite and other places, keyword/hashtag, org info, human information
- Fiona: Collaboration agreement form, bc this is a partnership, we will do a more lengthy (what we want from each other)
- Ben: want to use TPL logo and wording
- Fiona: start agreement, go back and forth, send to [e-mail]

### Draft timeline and assign teams

Milestone: Nov 24

- Fiona: draft partner agreement with TCN
- Ben: budget for background checks
- Yurko: email Fiona to seek IT approval for BBB
- All: join chat room (to organize work)
- All: make skeleton of 1.5h presentations (e.g. two google decks):
- **These are the problems with what exists**
- **These are the alternatives (prior to let's join TCN)**

## 24 NOVEMBER 2020

- yurko, ben, dante, fiona, rob, marzie

### Notes

- contract 10 min https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nGusYsaiI9JDDtIyPGERLWSlXGq1n20IMNuQv_bb3Qg/edit#
- ben to send legal info about tomesh over to Fiona
- the scope of this is the two TPL workshops tomesh is doing
- dante's "p2p stuff" should be separate
- right now, TPL has a db that lists the program, and it's under tomesh
- it is not covered under this agreement
- tomesh has two programs
- this two workshop series, by this agreement
- the p2p workshop is a separate program
- role assignments
- Yurko: meeting facilitation
- Ben: lead course design
- Rob: project operations
- Marzie: marketing and comm
- go thru the two decks
- discussed decks, next 2 wk plan added to github issue

### Skeletons

- Part 1: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1fuKfLTGlcZvyM1YWl6DypM1bj_LuZe53hevZw7oOwnY/edit
- Part 2: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/18id_21mgyLRq7x6Q_07liI5tF_gSZmG-4qhX_uIBigE/edit

## 8 December 2020

### Review Workshop Part 1
- You don't need to click the Like button for online services to start collecting data
- Tracing data: Facebook vs Email - a good starting point for federation
- Every person that touches your email can see your email.
- Add a dictionary at some point to define LAN/3G/Etc.
- Add a picture of the modem that outlines all the different components (Elon might have one)
- More pictures

### Contract
- General contract not the right way to go ( we are not a legal entity )
- Presenter agreament form instead
- VSC or Adults Only (recommended)
- Logo and using "we partnered with TPL"
- Letter of support for each item we want the support from
- https://docs.tomesh.net/operations/legal.html
- communication material about the workshop itself, digital or print
- Plaforms
- Webex (not recommended)
- Crowd Cast
- Jitsi
- Titles
- "What is the Internet?"
- "How To Reclaim The Internet"

### Todo
- Ben add photo to slide 1
- Homework: Fill in as much issues and challenges that the current model presents:
- http://clickclickclick.click
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Facebook
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Google

## 12 JANUARY 2021

- Advertising deadline this Thursday

- Black out dates: Feb 15, April 2, April 5, May 24th, July 1st, Aug 2nd, Sept 6th, Oct 11th, Dec 24th, Dec 27th and Dec 31st.
- Only weekdays
- Programs
- Program 1: What is the Internet
- Program 2: How to Reclaim the Internet
- Description:
>Participants will learn about the technical architecture and power dynamics of what we call the Internet, explore issues around long-standing digital inequities and practices of data exploitation by Internet companies. From this basis we will explore alternative practices and invite each other to imagine and co-create community networks in our Toronto neighbourhoods. This program assumes no technical background from the audience.
- Outline:
>“What is the Internet?” is a presentation that begins with familiar digital experiences, where we will trace how our data ows through software services and hardware infrastructures of the Internet. Then we will discuss power structures that exist and explore issues of data privacy and digital justice, and together navigate the tensions that exist when we use dominant digital platforms. “How To Reclaim The Internet” follows the same format and describes alternative network practices, drawing from the global community network movement, and featuring the positive social impact on local neighbourhoods. The session invites participants to explore technology as a practice rather than consumption, as an emancipatory approach to build digital equity, here in the neighbourhoods of Toronto.
- Expectation:
>Participants will learn about how the Internet works and what are the consequences as we become reliant on digital spaces mediated by a handful of Internet companies, and how communities are building alternative networks that serve our neighbours and support local economies.

## 2 FEB 2021

Presentation notes:
- Allow for multiple presenters, and set up some protocol:
- Send "S" to request screen
- Add a note to all slides so people know they can request "presenter" mode

Additional reviews/dry run scheduling:
- Sort out part 2: Feb 9, Feb 23?
- Dry run for part 1: Feb 16?

March 2nd: What is the Internet?
March 16: How to Reclaim the Internet?

## 9 FEB 2021

- Renamed Part 1: From "What is the Internet?" to "Who owns the Internet?"
- Dante and Ben to send revised contract to Rob ASAP

- Fiona has sent over the logos for marketing and communications
- Attached to [the github issue](https://github.com/tomeshnet/toronto-community-network/issues/97) for verification by Marzie

- Rob to discuss dry run details with Fiona

- Dry Run Scheduled: 7pm on the February 24th

- Let's talk about poll questions for the next session

- Next Session: Feb 16

## 16 FEB 2021

-