[delta-chat] Delta-XI: decentralization unchained (Kyiv, Ukraine, Oct 2018)

End this month there is going to be a gathering of DeltaTeam and friends, in Kyiv, Ukraine. So far some 15 people committed to travel to Kyiv for a week ... if you are interested to join don't hesitate to contact me or Xenia (e-mail or IRC, i put her in CC). We have a few shared flats and it's still surprisingly (?) cheap to travel to Kyiv ... Base metadata of the gathering ------------------------------- General Location: Podil Quarter in Kyiv, Ukraine Overall Timeframe: Sunday, Oct 28 --- Monday, Nov 5th Base camp: 150qm 2-story flat for hacking/discussion sessions and hanging out with people from different decentralization projects and angles. The terms and spirit of https://autocrypt.org/code_of_conduct.html applies for this weeklong event. Talk/Unconference: at IZone full Saturday with more public, mixed talks and sessions, carefully advertised within interested circles in Kyiv Side events: user-testing sessions with journalists/activists, saturday night halloween party and more ... What is "Decentralization Unchained" about? ------------------------------------------- Decentralization means more and often something different than what is happening in the online blockchain worlds. Instead of building "solutions" in a top-down approach, guided by stereotypes of an "ideal user in a vacuum", we try a format where especially western hackers meet users and their not-typically-western mixed environment. The delta.chat team is planning at least one user-testing half-day to try out some of their current developments with Ukrainian testers. But also casually meet with the local Ukrainian IT community, providers, hosters, developers, people working on mesh or fighting Internet censorship and surveillance in their country. During the base one-week event, people will work on their respective projects but also with one another, mostly driven by informal chat -- getting to know each other and what's happening. People are attending who work on secure messaging / email / networking / hosting / crypto and share a love of decentralization (p2p and/or federation), free software, resilient communications, thinking beyond tech, off-the-grid, mesh, activism, arts of not being governed, self-organizing with life, tech and beyond ... Why Kyiv? --------- Delta-XI happens in Kyiv, Ukraine, because decentralization is not just a technical idea but also about social and geographical de-centering. Ukraine is currently going through a challenging process of political transformation. Four years after the Revolution, how did people manage to maintain their infrastructures? How do they work with the internet and how do they try to defend Internet freedom? What are their needs in terms of secure communication and how can we help? One of the goals of this event is to actually meet with people who really need and will use our technologies: local journalists going to war zones in the East of Ukraine or to the annexed Crimea; activists facing the right-wing uprising in big cities like Kyiv or Lviv; and human rights defenders working everyday with war refugees or other at-risk groups.