diff --git a/2023-ipfs-thing-community-governance.md b/2023-ipfs-thing-community-governance.md deleted file mode 100644 index 1c0f5732..00000000 --- a/2023-ipfs-thing-community-governance.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,182 +0,0 @@ ---- -title: 'Recap: Community & Governance (þing 2023)' -description: 'Description' -author: Boris Mann and Robin Berjon -date: 2023-05-23 -permalink: '/2023-ipfs-community-governance/' -header_image: '/community-governance-recap.jpg' -tags: - - 'thing' - - 'þing' - - 'event' - - 'recap' - - 'track' - - 'community' - - 'governance' ---- - -Governance and community are two ideas that vibe like they wouldn't live in the same part of -town if their lives dependended on it. Community is warm, fun, and fuzzy if probably chaotic -and occasionally infuriating, whereas governance sounds a lot more like flossing, something -dry and painful that you pretend your project does to make the Serious People go away. But -much like the predictable transition from misunderstanding to mutual respect in a buddy -movie, these two were destined to form just the dynamic duo we need to take on insuperable -odds. Community is the for and by of governance, and, quite frankly, the exercize of -governance is messy, chaotic, and a crucible from which new, more resilient communities -emerge. - -The full-day Community & Governance track that brought us together at IPFS Þhing 2023 -(which you can [watch in its entirety](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuhRWgmPaHtTIFbOVO5YfXkoFg6wIGbBN)) had all of that energy and then some. -We spent the time bouncing back and forth between how to prevent capture by lumbering -megacorporations and how to gather friends for a nice community café, what's a data -protection officer and better ways to herd cats, ways of protecting people from some of the -worst content on the Internet while supporting censorship-resistance and how to support -commons and community ownership. It was a ride and a delightful one too. - -Perhaps the core issue that brought us together across the diverse presentations was that -we want to learn from the mistakes of the past and organize the community so that we can -bring about a better world. It's not the worst plan. - -## Memory in Uncertainty - -"*Is that an elaborate way of saying everything's fucked?*" That might not be your -typical audience question but then this wasn't your typical presentation either (or -your typical audience, for that matter). - -Cade Diehm is one of the brains behind [*The New Design Congress*](https://newdesigncongress.org/) (NDC), -a research organization that practices "*ethical red teaming*" to identify issues with -sociotechnical systems. [WebRecorder](https://webrecorder.net/) and [the Filecoin Foundation](https://fil.org/) hired NDC to take an -in-depth look at web archiving (on IPFS) to help identify problems. Cade came to IPFS -þing to udpate the community on his findings, which are captured in the -[Memory in Uncertainty: Web Preservation in the Polycrisis](https://members.newdesigncongress.org/memory-in-uncertainty-web-preservation-in-the-polycrisis/) report. - -"*The answer,*" Cade told us, "*is: 'kind of.'*" He gave a wide-ranging presentation -ranging over the dangers of decentralized technology, the complexity of archives, -the challenges presented by the potential weaponization of data, and much more. -It provided a powerful call to take the impact of our tech seriously and to keep in mind that -tech can only be ethical if it is governed by the people it impacts. Cade concluded -with a set of tools to help avoid bad outcomes, because "*not everything is screwed.*" - -@[youtube](TdiQGXSZmCk) - -## Community Organizing - -For all that remote work and online collaboration have improved, it's hard to have a -strong and durable sense of community without meeting people in the flesh now and then. -Thankfully, we have many gatherings to look forward to this year! - -[Vukasin Vukoje](https://twitter.com/wukoje) made a surprise -announcement of a new event series: Compute Camp. Details will be released more fully -soon, but the first edition of this series dedicated specifically to distributed -compute will take place later this year in Belgrade, Serbia. If you care more about -doing things to data and less about where it's stored, this might just be the place for -you. - -Yuni Graham and Niki Gokani walked us through the organization of IPFS Camp, which -will take place in November in Bangalore. We worked together to figure out what the -best structure and content for the event would be. They're looking for volunteers -to be part of the content planning work — please consider reaching out if you're -interted! - -@[youtube](U5u54jwOg6k) - -And if what you're looking for is a more local IPFS-focused event, why not run your -own? Yuni Graham and Nicole Schafer presented IPFS + Friends Café, a collection of local -community gatherings to help develop an IPFS community on the ground, around the -world. If you're iunterested, they might be able to sponsor such an event as well as -assist with logistics and finding some speakers. It would be wonderful to see more -local evangelism! - -@[youtube](FII_9VTgDy8) - -## Cat Herding - -A growing community is a blessing, but keeping up with everything that is happening -can become overwhelming. Several sessions provided us with both updates and tools to -stay on top of future updates. - -Henrique Dias (aka [@hacdias](https://twitter.com/hacdias)) walked us through [specs.ipfs.tech](https://specs.ipfs.tech/), -the hot new place to get IPFS specifications. Not all of the IFPS specs have been moved -there yet, but they're in the process of being ported over and everything new will be -on the specs site from the get-go. This site is intended to grow into the one-stop-shop -reference for IPFS implementations, ideally reaching the point at which one could produce -an IPFS implementation from scratch using those documents alone (along with the emerging -test suite, of course). - -@[youtube](vQVnjEIPuCE) - -At last year's þing in Iceland, the IPIP (IPFS Improvement Process) process was announced. -The indefatigable @lidel walked us through all of the IPIP work that has happened since, -and it's a lot! Initially announced as a lightning talk, this was more of a twenty minute -presentation at lightning speed. - -Keep in mind that this process is open to anyone in the community (and if you're reading -this that means *you*). There is an -[IPIP Pipeline GitHub project](https://github.com/orgs/ipfs/projects/19) that maintains an -up-to-date status of all IPIPs, and the IPIPs get discussed on the -[IPFS Implementers Working Group](https://lu.ma/ipfs-implementers). More generally, -the [IPFS Community Calendar](https://lu.ma/ipfs) keeps track of the various meetings and -events in which the evolution of the IPFS stack gets discussed. - -@[youtube](WcHlV6sQuDI) - -But then again, specs are only one corner of IPFS, and IPFS one corner of a bigger family -of technologies. Staying on top of everything that is happening in *\[gestures vaguely around]* -this space remains daunting. One novel tool that is already helping people get a clearer -sense of what's happening (and that you can use as well) is [Starmap](https://starmap.site/). -The core principle of Starmap is very simple: by structuring your GitHub issues according to -very simple conventions, you can create a nested tree of issues that spans any arbitrary set -of repositories and see all of those organized in a single Starmap. - -The idea is that people should be organizing and coordinating code whichever way they see -fit, but it should be possible to obtain an overview of the status of a progress across all -of its components nevertheless. One example is the -[Kubo/Boxo 2023Q2/Q3 items](https://starmap.site/roadmap/github.com/ipfs/kubo/issues/9817#list). - -Bastien Dehaynin from Fission provided us with a clear and exciting overview and demo of the -system. Several people in the room were already users, and there was definite interest in -getting a Starmap for specs. - -@[youtube](_HoLDQreF28) - -## Governance - -In order to keep IPFS and its broader ecosystem pushing in a direction that benefits -all people, to support impactful collective action and ownership, and to avoid it -being captured by larger players, we need to deploy matching governance capabilities. -Your friendly here authors, Boris Mann and Robin Berjon, ran a workshop on "What -Should We Governance?" with the goal of surfacing risks and pain points regarding -governance of the IPFS ecosystem. This produced a lot of very valuable input, yet -we feel like we have barely scratched the surface. - -@[youtube](svqlHO3K_RQ) - -Our dynamic duo then split their color-coordinated purple outfits, first with Boris -discussing the allocation of funding for code and other community work, and -suggesting that it would be great to use Starmap to find which parts of a project -are most in need of funding. - -@[youtube](PysiACKo1dI) - -And then Robin talked about the ongoing work in the -[Decent Data Compliance WG](https://github.com/DDC-WG) where parties from across the -decentralized world are working together to figure out how to manage -"[bad bits](https://badbits.dwebops.pub/)", how to protect operators from serving some -of the worst content on the Internet (or simply things they don't want to host), and how -to make sure that people's privacy rights are respected. There's a lot of work to be -done, but it's heartening to see that people are taking these issues seriously. - -@[youtube](bIlji91KEFQ) - -## Where Next? - -The day made it clear that there is strong interest in community and governance -in the IPFS universe, and you can expect to hear a lot more on this side of things. - -While different aspects of these concerns have places where people can gather to -discuss them (as seen in the links sprinkled above), overall coordination and -cooperation around governance in the decent(ralized) world remains limited. -We joked that we might need a "Working Group Working Group" to provide lightweight -support for all the community working groups that keep emerging and help them work -together. But the feedback was that it might not actually be such a joke of an idea. -Stay tuned!