[community] Building Community in Southern Europe

[Alison Macrina]

On 05/25/2018 11:44 AM, GMan999 wrote:
> 
> 
> Kevin Gallagher:
>> Hello everyone,
>>
>> Sorry I haven't been around for community meetings. These past few weeks
>> have been a bit busy.
>>
>> Soon I'm going to be heading over to Portugal, and I'll also spend some
>> time in Spain. I'll be there for the whole summer. I remember that after
>> one of our NYC meetings we discussed that the (known) Tor community in
>> southern Europe is quite small. While I'm there I'd like to try to build
>> it up and get the people there more involved (if that's fine with TPO).
>> So far I reached out and set up a meeting with one university student
>> who is interested in Internet freedom and privacy, but I'd rather not
>> put all of my eggs into one basket.
>>
>> Are there any tips about how I should go about trying to build up a
>> community while I'm there? Any places that typically work in community
>> building efforts (libraries, schools, etc.), especially for meeting
>> space? I'd love any tips on how I should approach this.
> Good stuff Kevin.
> 
> First I'd say it's tough to build something sustainable if you're only
> there for a short period of time.
> 
> Regardless of that, I think there are some things you could try,
> one-off, that could at least have a quick, if temporary, impact.
> 
> Don't shoot for the moon... just plan to get a (few) group(s) together.
> 
> I tend to think relay operators are the easiest, since they have some
> decent level of regular commitment, tend to feel isolated, and the TPO
> has barely scratched that universe in terms of physical contact.
> 
> And you have a great channel to reach them with @tor-relays and now the
> irc channel.

+1

You can also loop Colin (colin at torproject.org) into that conversation,
at the very least letting relay ops/potential relay ops know that he's a
resource for them. He's also helping organize a relay ops meetup at PETS
in Barcelona in July, so you could coordinate with him to invite some
people to that event.

> 
> I would look to organize an informal discussion, and try reaching out to
> the relay operators.  "Are you running a Tor node or are you interested
> in doing it?" broadcast far and wide could pull in a few people.
> 
> IMHO, doing anything broader, like a basic meeting or something for tb
> users, would be tougher, since you need space.

But even if you just have a little bit of space at your university you
could make this happen for like 5-10 people.

> 
> You might want to reach out to any hacker spaces where you'll be.. .and
> maybe do a basic intro to TB if you make decent contacts?

I have some great slides on teaching TB. If you want them I'll send them
to you as soon as I make some updates from our Uganda trainings.

> 
> My $0.02.
> 
> g
>