Community Contributions by Social.coop: Nominations

2024: suggestions/nominations · dot votes · update · final community contributions

I would like to nominate RTM (Resist Tech Monopolies), a young organization local to Seattle that is aiming to work with community to address technological solutions that are built by humans for humans rather than for profit.

RTM is a recent member of coop-cloud (https://docs.coopcloud.tech/federation/membership/) they host discotech events where they talk to community members are the digital tools they use and what does it take for them to start using alternatives rooted in community and doesn't harvest their data.

RTM provides important analysis to grassroots movements in Seattle to better understand the role of technology in the fight for a more equal and egalitarian future.

RTM aims to follow the lead of Mayfirst with local focus to provide email and office services that they can trust and guarantees the ownership of their data (work in progress)

RTM's points of unity here: https://resisttechmonopolies.online/PointsOfUnity/

RTM's open collective: https://opencollective.com/rtm-seattle

Note: I use they to refer to RTM but in full disclosure I'm a member and a co-founder of the group

https://MayFirst.coop/

Quoted from their own initial page:
> a non-profit membership organization that engages in building movements by advancing the strategic use and collective control of technology for local struggles, global transformation, and emancipation without borders.

I am a member of MF and they do great work (including actions to leave companies, support research on tech impact, support organizations, etc.) and they are always understaffed and underpayed.

https://Sutty.coop.ar/ (disclaimer: I am a member too, as with MayFirst).
Quoted from the initial page:
> We are a Latin American, diverse and inclusive cooperative that develops technology in the service of human, LGBTTIQANB+ and environmental rights, from a perspective of technical appropriation, technological autonomy and digital care. We work collaboratively with organizations and collectives on communication and care in digital spaces.

Sutty build a CMS (http://sutty.nl) that connects with the Fediverse, allowing cross dialogue between the web and the Fediverse. Also, it creates static-file (or pre-generated) websites, so it is quite environmentally friendly and it is free to use for non-profit organizations.

As other similar organizations, always underpayed and overworked.

Another submission for a ridiculously small group (of 2) that is doing great Fedi work: Bonfire (https://bonfirenetworks.org/).
From their home page:

Bonfire is built by communities, for communities—rooted in autonomy, mutual care, and collective power. Co-create your tools, reclaim your data, and resist manipulation by shaping your own federated digital spaces.

[...]

Our vision

Bonfire is a commons–a place to gather, co-create, and build something lasting–beyond products to be sold or services that use, abuse, or extract from you.

Bonfire is for anyone seeking greater agency, care, and flexibility. For the communities erased by online platforms in their race to scale. It's for those who want more than an app—they want a network they can shape.

Built for the long haul. By people, for people.

Does this sound like the kind of network you want to be part of?

Let’s build it — slowly, autonomously, together.

As last year, I propose to donate to Mastodon GmbH .

I have a clarifying question as a result of seeing 2024 recipients. Could somebody clarify what we’re already allocating as just basic ongoing expenses (E.g. Loomio, Platform 6)? I don’t want to nominate something we’re already budgeting for.

You can see our income and expenses on opencollective

Thank you for the requested clarification @benji3. This was our budget submission: Budget 2025

Already allocated:

• Loomio subscription: 373.39 GBP

• May First membership: 250 GBP

• Platform 6 fiscal hosting fee: 600 GBP

• Meet.coop membership: 90 × 12 months: 1,080 GBP

Hi! We have a few nominations.

We would like to nominate the collective project Fodongo: A Free-Culture Comics Zine ( https://opencollective.com/fodongo & https://fodongo.ca [DISCLAIMER: One of our members organizes and publishes the project, and the zines are distributed through our website]). The project aims to support independent artists and to normalize the free sharing of Culture in the form of comics. Each month a few independent artists are hired to draw a three-page, black & white comic to be released under a Free-Culture license. The comics are released as a zine every month or so and sold for about 4 weeks digitally, and after this the zines are released on a pay-if-you-want basis. All revenue is redistributed among participating artists. More funds will mean that the zine can pay commissioned artists better per commission on the third year of the zine.

We also support nominations for Loomio, Matrix, Co-Op Cloud, Meet.Coop, MayFirst.Coop, the KDE project ( https://kde.org ) and Debian ( https://www.spi-inc.org/projects/debian/ ).

Thanks to all.