Social networking for activists - PHP programmers needed!
Jon | 25.10.2008 22:56 | Technology
A social networking website specifically for anti-corporate activists is looking for volunteer PHP5/MySQL programmers willing to donate time and effort to the project. A prototype has been built, and the ideas pages this has generated has proved the need for several technical collaborators! A detailed document is available that discusses the background and presents some screenshots, and a discussion forum is now live.
This social networking system presently revolves around campaign groups, who register on the system, and can then advertise their events and actions. Each group is also able to link to the companies that they campaign against. Company profiles shall be editable by any user, since many companies will have several campaigns interested in their conduct. A searchable and location-aware events browser is intended to offer a simple way for activists to find out what things are happening in their area.
There are two basic purposes to this system. Firstly, it is hoped it will help campaign groups discover imaginative collaborations for their protest organising (such as environmentalists and anti-war campaigners working together on oil/energy issues). Secondly, company data - bolstered by large-scale datasets such as Companies House XML Gateway - can be subjected to network analysis, thus unravelling the often complex and hidden relationships between various firms. For example, we would be able to answer questions like: which corporations profiting from war are the subject of the greatest number of British protest campaigns? It could be used to target second-line providers, with questions such as: which bank is most heavily financing the destruction of the environment?
A prototype codebase exists for this system, as does a fairly comprehensive introduction document with background information and screenshots:
http://activistlab.org.uk/projects/grassroots
A discussion forum has been set up to discuss this project (and other social software projects, if you like):
http://chatter.activistlab.org.uk/
The project (presently code-named "Grassroots") is seeking skilled, progressive, volunteer PHP developers interested in a novel social networking approach to anti-corporate activism. The project is based in the UK but international respondents are welcome. Sadly, no pecuniary rewards are on offer, but nevertheless you'll be able to bask in the satisfaction of having a damn good go at making the world a better place. More information on the requirement for programmers is here:
http://chatter.activistlab.org.uk/read.php?3,6
If you want to get in touch via email rather than on the discussion forums, use the email address on the project home page:
http://activistlab.org.uk/
If you've any questions, or if you would like to volunteer, get in touch!
There are two basic purposes to this system. Firstly, it is hoped it will help campaign groups discover imaginative collaborations for their protest organising (such as environmentalists and anti-war campaigners working together on oil/energy issues). Secondly, company data - bolstered by large-scale datasets such as Companies House XML Gateway - can be subjected to network analysis, thus unravelling the often complex and hidden relationships between various firms. For example, we would be able to answer questions like: which corporations profiting from war are the subject of the greatest number of British protest campaigns? It could be used to target second-line providers, with questions such as: which bank is most heavily financing the destruction of the environment?
A prototype codebase exists for this system, as does a fairly comprehensive introduction document with background information and screenshots:
![](/img/extlink.gif)
A discussion forum has been set up to discuss this project (and other social software projects, if you like):
![](/img/extlink.gif)
The project (presently code-named "Grassroots") is seeking skilled, progressive, volunteer PHP developers interested in a novel social networking approach to anti-corporate activism. The project is based in the UK but international respondents are welcome. Sadly, no pecuniary rewards are on offer, but nevertheless you'll be able to bask in the satisfaction of having a damn good go at making the world a better place. More information on the requirement for programmers is here:
![](/img/extlink.gif)
If you want to get in touch via email rather than on the discussion forums, use the email address on the project home page:
![](/img/extlink.gif)
If you've any questions, or if you would like to volunteer, get in touch!
Jon
Homepage:
http://activistlab.org.uk/
Comments
Hide the following 8 comments
Crabgrass
25.10.2008 23:15
Are there significant differences between the 2 projects?
CH
Re: Crabgrass
25.10.2008 23:49
It's not related to or working with Crabgrass, although Crabgrass techs would be welcome to join the discussion. I'll probably get in touch with them in any case :o).
In my introduction document (
I've not logged onto Crabgrass for a while but it seems that much of it is accessible only when the user is logged in - thus I have understood it as a tool to organise groups as disconnected entities, rather than a network of groups who potentially could interact with each other (I apologise in advance to them if I have got that wrong!). Crabgrass offers CMS functionality such as wikis and galleries, which I am not intending to offer. In my project, much of the data is available openly (e.g.
Jon
Homepage:
http://activistlab.org.uk/
vulnerable to animal rights style repression?
26.10.2008 13:08
The long term strategy needs to be to move to truly anonymous networks. For now, Tor (
ar
Re: vulnerable to animal rights style repression?
26.10.2008 14:29
Jon
Homepage:
http://activistlab.org.uk/
ta
26.10.2008 18:02
As for the anonymity thing, perhaps hosting the service as a Tor hidden service would be an option. But I agree that its not so much the holding of this data but being the "wrong" sort of person holding the data. (e.g. Keynote are safe from prosecution)
CH
security
27.10.2008 09:58
you should try to make https the default.
Double check for MYSQL poisoning attacks.
see also
data for you-
php-
Nicola
Re: security
27.10.2008 15:01
Can you explain what you mean by "hiding the DNS info"? I haven't come across this phrase before and I didn't hide anything deliberately :o). I presume the domain that you mean is not "hidden" is chatter.*?
Thanks for the links -- I will have a read. I encountered Crocodyl whilst I was researching this project - the quality of their research is very good indeed. As a result I intend to offer an optional "Crocodyl research" link on Grassroots pages in the future. In fact the existence of high quality resources like this is the reason why I think coding a corporate research editor for Grassroots will not add any extra value.
Jon
Homepage:
http://activistlab.org.uk/
SSL forum now available
28.10.2008 23:18
New secure forum link is here:
Jon
Homepage:
http://activistlab.org.uk