ACTION@EFF.ORG ACTIvism ONline Mailing List Charter 1.02 ============================================================== Forum charter for ACTION@eff.org, the ACTIvism ONline Mailing List An ACTION Document maintained by Stanton McCandlish Updated: Apr. 19, 1996 This document is intended to serve as an introduction to the ACTION mailing list. For more detailed information, see the ACTION Frequently Asked Questions list at: ftp.eff.org, /pub/Groups/ACTION/action.faq gopher.eff.org, 1/Groups/ACTION, action.faq http://www.eff.org/pub/Groups/ACTION/action.faq This charter is also archived in the above places, as action.charter ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS -------- Recent Changes Purpose & Background Rationale Objectives General Strategic Tactical Structure, Operation, Moderation Projects General Strategic Tactical Rules Administrivia Administration Archival Recent Changes -------------- 1.01 - fixed minor typos Purpose & Background -------------------- The ACTION (ACTIvism ONline) Internet mailing list exists to serve as a tightly focused, self-moderated forum and resource for online activists, both professional and volunteer. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) hosts this conference, though it is open to all, and is not any one organization's organ or property. The list hosts both news announcements and relevant discussion. However, ACTION is not intended as a debate area or general chat forum, being geared toward networking among activists, planning and strategy, sharing of experience and information, and coordination of efforts. ACTION is an extended outgrowth of the original eff-activists@eff.org list, an experimental list from which much was learned, and improved upon. Rationale --------- * Why does this forum exist? ACTION was created because of a need for activists using online media, be they independent volunteers or representatives of organizations, to come together and pool their resources. * Why a list for online activism in particular? Ensuring the democratic potential of the technologies of computer-mediated communication requires active participation in the political processes that shape our destinies. "Democracy is not a spectator sport." - Craig Wilson Telecommunications are a powerful tool, but a complex one, and mastery of the medium for the activist will require a meeting of minds, a lending of experience between peers. Additionally, the grassroots activist suffers several handicaps, and professional lobbyists typically have advantages that the concerned citizen or volunteer campaigner do not, including funding, visibility, experience, contacts, training, media attention, and social status within the policy/politics realm. For these reasons and more, it is sensible to consolidate online activism efforts when they can be consolidated, to earn for the cyberspace players their proper status in the "game". Objectives ---------- * General A.) General Objectives General Objectives are long-range general pursuits in the emerging data/ telecom picture. General objectives are the goals behind this ACTION forum. These include, but are not limited to: 1) to provide an open and comfortable collegial atmosphere to foster cooperation and advancement 2) to gather information otherwise difficult to locate, and pool it 3) to raise awareness of local issues with activists in other areas 4) to raise awareness of issues and of computer mediated communication in the public, in the media, in government, and in the commercial realm. 5) to improve resources for online activism 6) to share activism and networking experience 7) to work toward coalition-building and inter-organization cooperation 8) to extend and enrich civil liberties, offline and online 9) to work cooperatively on volunteer projects to improve activism, virtual community, and access to information. 10) to uphold programmatic goals [listed in the FAQ.] * Strategic Strategic Objectives will deal with critical macro-issues (e.g., privacy/ cryptography policy, access to govt. information, etc.), or behind the scenes "make or break" situations having widespread or long-term consequences (e.g., imminent passage of an ill-conceived "computer crime" law). * Tactical Tactical Objectives would be limited engagements in specific areas (e.g., ensuring that adequate provision exists for private sector participation in responding to a given municipality's Request for Comments or Proposals; contacting a specific legislator regaring an upcoming vote; countering a particular instance of bad press on a political issue or legal case). Objectives will be specified in a list regularly updated by a volunteer or team of volunteers. Objectives are to be defined by a consensus process, and should reflect the feeling of the majority of participants, rather than any one individual or organization. The General Objectives will also be listed in the ACTION FAQ, with programmatic goals. Structure & Operation --------------------- * How is the list run? ACTION is a simple mailing list, not digested, filtered, or hard-moderated. This list depends on self-moderation! This means moderating your own posts - staying on topic, taking long-winded debates to private mail or "talk" forums, and avoiding flaming - AND it also means helping, politely and in private mail when possible, to help moderate the forum. Conflict resolution and decisions about the direction of the list will be handled by vote, if and when necessary and appropriate. ACTION is not "owned" by EFF or any other single group or individual, but consists of the people participating in it and the content they provide. * What is & isn't appropriate to post to the list? As a rule of thumb, posts should be related to: 1) activism, in general, using online resources and networking (e.g. how to find govt. info online, how to conduct online campaigns, legislation in ASCII text, etc.) 2) activism, online or off, regarding online issues (e.g. warnings of impending legislation that will affect telecommunications, Requests for Comments on govt. email systems, news that PGP has been cracked >:-> and the like.) If unclear on this, please see the ACTION FAQ for examples of relevant and probably irrelevant topics. Projects -------- All participants in ACTION should get involved in projects. Projects are divided into 3 varieties, in the same categories as the Objectives. If you have any free time at all, help out if you can. If we don't do this, no one will. * General General projects consist of two types, those reflecting work to implement the General Objectives, and those relating to the list itself, such as the maintenance of the Objectives listings, the ACTION FAQ, congress contact lists, and other such resources, as well as vote counting and other list-operation-related tasks. * Strategic Strategic projects related to the Strategic Objectives or are otherwise strategic in nature: long-term plans and resources. * Tactical Tactical projects are of a more short term or specific nature. Organization- or individual-specific projects also fall in this category For examples of different project types, see the ACTION FAQ or project lists. Projects are to be kept track of on a list for each of the 3 types, showing a title and description for each project, and notes regarding needs, progress, expectations, problems, contact info for the volunteers working on it, deadlines and incept dates, etc. Any person or organization can add a project of any relevant sort at any time. Under most circumstances, a project should not need to be removed from the list. Rules ----- More like guidelines than rules. There is no Holy List Emperor to enforce such "rules", only the social pressure of the other list participants. 1) Stay on topic. 2) Try to abide by majority votes; express objections in orderly & calm fashion (discuss in private mail rather than on list). 3) Try to cooperate and be collegial at all times. 4) If you have taken on a project and cannot continue or complete it, let people know so someone else can. 5) Don't be annoying, and don't be too easily annoyed. 6) Keep personal disputes and matters private. 7) Don't forward non-announcements off the list w/o permission from the author 8) Do not quote for publication from non-announcements posted to the list without permission of the quoted person. Administrivia ------------- * Administration and Archival The list is provided, free, by EFF. Technical contact for ACTION: action-admin@eff.org (Stanton McCandlish & Dan Brown). In the case of severe problems (e.g. attempts to crash or crack EFF machines, mail bombing of list participants, etc.) list admins may make an administrative removal of the offender. This is not expected to ever be neccessary. Please note again that no one "owns" the list; like cyberspace itself, the list is a consensual process, not a "thing". * Archives Archival of list materials (projects, Objectives, FAQs, etc.) will be provided by EFF at: ftp.eff.org, /pub/Groups/ACTION/ gopher.eff.org, 1/Groups/ACTION http://www.eff.org/pub/Groups/ACTION/ Outpost BBS: +1 202 638 6119 (8N1; 300-14400bps V.32bis, V.42bis; 16800bps ZyXEL), file area: Activism--Misc This will be linked to /pub/EFF/Issues/Activism/ACTION/ (1/EFF/Issues/Activism/ACTION for gopher). Anyone is free to mirror or otherwise distribute the archived material. The list itself will not be digested or archived (not by EFF anyway). If someone does wish to archive the entire list traffic, this should be subject to a 75% supermajority vote, since important privacy and intellectual propery issues are raised. See the FAQ for more administrative info, including voting procedures, reposting, quoting for publication, gating, legal fine-print, etc. This charter and the associated FAQ are primarily based on the material of Stanton McCandlish, Shabbir Safdar, David Smith, Jeff Davis, and Lee Knoper, and more generally upon the work and experience of the networked activism community at large. -- Stanton McCandlish
mech@eff.org

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Online Activist