ITSquad/Pirates Selection

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Pirates Selection Toicon-icon-avocado-build.svg
Workgroup ITSquad
Start date Fri 16 January 2015
Contact contact [at] pirateparty dot be
Status Abandoned

Description

As ITSquad we want to provide people with tools and services that are in line with the values of the Pirateparty. On this page you can find information on how to find tools and alternatives, together with a selection of tools that are already known or used within the Pirateparty. For ideas, you can also check our Brainstorming page.

Finding tools

When finding tools it's important to have an idea of the needs that need to be met. Sometimes you will try out a tool and only then discover that there are more requirements than what you first assumed. Finding a good tool is therefore often an iterative process. Besides being functional, we also want the tool to be in line with the values of the Pirateparty. This is not always possible, so it is important to have an idea of what we consider more important in a tool. This can be different from case to case, but the following list can be used as a guideline. The items more at the top should generally be considered more important than the items lower in the list.

  1. Is the tool usable for the use case?
  2. Is it privacy respecting?
  3. Is it FLOSS?
  4. Is the development community driven?

Ideally a tool should fit all of the criteria given in the list above, but this is not always possible. So what if, for example, a community driven and privacy respecting floss tool exists that is almost usable except for one or a couple of missing features? As pirates we believe in cooperation, so even if a tool that fits all requirements doesn't exist at this time, we should work with the community to see if we can make it so that such a tool may be possible to have in the future. As is true for anyone, our time and skill are limited, but at the very least we can see if there are relevant issue trackers where we can put feature requests. Even better is if we can contribute code and add the missing features ourselves, but what we can do should always be viewed on a case to case basis. In general the following flowchart could be used as a guideline

Flowchart for providing tools.jpg
Media:Flowchart_for_providing_tools.odg

Tools currently used

This is a non-exhaustive list of tools we already use.

Yunohost

Yunohost is an operating system to make self hosting easy. The most needed system administration tasks can be done through a webinterface. People can manage domains, users, and install and update applications. As ITSquad we can provide crews and other groups with a server running Yunohost. This gives crews the possibility to run their own infrastructure without the needing an experienced sysadmin in the crew. When there are questions or problems, the ITSquad can provide support.

Parley

Some tools are needed outside of crews or other groups that already have a yunohost server. Think for instance about work that's being done for the ppbe as a whole or people who want to start a crew, but are still starting. For this purpose Parley was started. It provides some basic tools that do not require a login and are open to everyone. It's been placed under a politically neutral domain so that it's easier to use for non-Pirateparty related things as well.

Mastodon

Online social networking has become an important part of our daily lives. The typical platforms that are used are often abuse your privacy and often leads to the need of many accounts to access different services. The fediverse is a network that tries to bring an alternative network to combat these problems. Mastodon is an example of a microblog software that connects to the fediverse. We host our own server at https://mastodon.pirateparty.be. More information can be found on our Mastodon page.

Loomio

Loomio is an online collaborating tool that we use for online discussion and decision making. We do not host our own Loomio, but we do have our own group on https://www.loomio.org/g/w9m0yGeJ/pirates-be-permanent-assembly

Matrix

Matrix is a chat protocol. It's FLOSS and decentralised. We do not host our own server, but people can create an account on the server of their choice and people or crews can even host their own server if they want. A list of the available groups that the Belgian Pirateparty has can be found at https://riot.im/app/#/group/+ppbe-everywhere:matrix.org

Extra

Feedback

  • contact [at] pirateparty dot be