"What kind of power can do-ocracies build and hold?" Building Laterally Series Reflections

Visions of Mutual Power

I was really inspired by this discussion recently hosted by Code for Science and Society. The description from their event page is:

Many open source public interest projects identify as do-ocracies - where contribution and participation guides a project’s trajectory. For many, this structure holds a liberatory potential where seemingly low barriers to entry promise a future of diverse contributors working collaboratively to build open solutions. This panel asks: what kinds of power can do-ocracies build and hold? Panelists offer examples from other movements that have mobilized the structure of mutual aid towards radical solutions to questions of community health, safety and inclusion, and sustainable work.

I found the entire talk to be hugely relevant to our Network and the kind of work we do:


We’re not creating a movement where the privileged solve problems because they have the capacity to, but rather one where the privileged develop equity infrastructure that allows those most marginalized to contribute to the solution. And that equity infrastructure includes skill building and resource distribution, and not just like low barrier opportunities to participate. - Njera Keith


I trust there’s been a lot of unlearning that’s happened. I’m continually trying to unlearn, but I just want to put it right in the middle that wanting to contribute from your skills, may be the exact wrong first step. Versus just showing up and meeting people, as people. And then maybe it becomes a nice discovery that, folks have different skills to contribute. But then contribute that not in a gatekeeping way, contribute that in a way that. there’s youth around you, there’s learning, things are going…" - Liz Barry

Curious how this resonated for others and if it also sparked some thoughts & ideas.

On 2022-02-23T18:30:00Z2022-02-23T20:00:00Z, they are hosting the next event in their series “The Coloniality of Digital Infrastructure

We know that infrastructure is the stuff our lives run on - the roads and bridges of contemporary life. But digital infrastructure, like its material forebears, enables domination at the same time that it offers speed, efficacy, development. How does the building and maintenance of digital infrastructure further imperial domination, neocolonialism, and other forms of extractivism? Is it possible to build or maintain digital infrastructure outside of colonial histories and neoimperial realities? Join a conversation with those building digital infrastructure around the world that explores sovereignty, development, and the futures of digital infrastructure.

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Thank you @elb I am registered!

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