User:Riviera/Draft project proposal/v3

What do you want to make?

It’s a newsletter, keeping people up to date with goings-on. On one level, the project addresses the topic of how people aiming to setup servers ought to proceed. Hoping to set up a community infrastructure project? Then seriously consider what is offered by others and do so responsibly. In terms of content, the newsletter may include pieces of text, sounds, algorithms or git repositories. That is to say, it refers to various services running on the klankschool server which I set up in October 2024. It aims to offer coverage of what has taken place at Klankschool since the previous newsletter. On a different level, it’s a record of what’s going on at Klankschool.

By the time the end arrives I hope to:
1. Publish several newsletters
2. Handover everything relating to the server
3. Meet other reasonable requests brought forward by others based on this proposal. For example, saving passwords in a password manager database file.

The release date of the newsletter follows a lunar calendar. It will be published every Last Quarter Moon between December and June. It is circumspect in tone.

How do you plan to make it?

I plan to collaborate with Rosa on this project. The newsletter is thus an effort to document a time-limited collaboration. Rosa and I have discussed putting things on at Klankschool, such as a series of classes about combining live coding with disused hardware. The newsletter may include columns documenting the outcomes of these endeavours. In general, I want to prune the branches of the server over the span of six months, preferring to keep it simple, rather than complex and expansive. I aim to document this practice with a view to extricating myself from the responsibilities I have taken on in relation to the server. Openproject may facilitate with documenting contributions, project planning and keeping track of tasks. Ensuring the stability of the latter system is important to the extent that it is considered a key infrastructural component. Rosa and I agree to use markdown as a document format when writing the newsletter. Initially, I considered using a VPS to run a small mail server. It is likely content will be transcluded and turned into HTML using a static site generator.

Stories such as the following exemplify possible content in the newsletter:

I considered using a VPS to host a mail server to send the newsletter. I set up a mail server inside a container on a Mac Pro and then deployed it on a VPS. I activated the mail server. I tried to send one email and was placed on a domain blocklist immediately. I unblocked the domain and was subsequently, non-causally, fooled into signing up to an “email warm-up service”. It started spamming people at full pelt, something about voter suppression arrived in the inbox. It was a slew of politicised mostly AI generated messages relating to Big Tech and social media platforms. I received an abuse reaction from the hosting provider requesting I email them to assure them it would not happen again, otherwise they would need to shutdown my service. I voluntarily shut down the service. I am no longer attempting to run a mail server. Nor do I hope to demonstrate the value of an email server to Klankschool. If a mailing list is wanted, reach out to an organisation that can support with that.

What is your timetable?

The timetable itself is a living document which will be publicly available at openproject.klank.school for the duration of the project. Here is an overview:

November - December:
- Drum up enthusiasm about programme amongst community members.
- Advertise the Performances
- Organise a workshop

Month \ Type	Meet	Publish Newsletter	Topic
December	Sunday 8th	Sunday 22nd	Passwords
January	Tuesday 7th	Tuesday 21st	Terms of Service
February	Wednesday 5th	Thursday 20th	Privacy Policy
March	Thursday 6th	Saturday 22nd	Code of Conduct on Funkwhale
April	Saturday 5th	Monday 21st	Counter Cloud Theme: DNS Providers
May	Sunday 4th	Tuesday 20th	The Future of the calendar
June	Tuesday 3rd	Wednesday 18th	Handover

Why do you want to make it?

I would like to help create a community space through digital infrastructure. However, it makes limited sense for me to do this in the context of Klankschool as it stands at the moment. To that end, I would like to offer food for thought to others in similar positions attempting to setup their own infrastructure. I want to argue for a rethinking of how to maintain connections across contemporary border regimes.

Who can help you and how?

In alphabetical order:

Alex Olloman - Wants to organise events

decentral1se - Boosting Klankschool events on the Fediverse

knoflook - Sharing events on radar

log - Co-sysadmin

Manetta Berends - offering very useful references

Relation to previous practice

Concurrent servers
Besides maintaining the klankschool server, I am also running Nextcloud on a raspberry pi. The computer is temporarily connected to the XPUB HUB. The nextcloud instance is for personal and research use. It enables me to keep my files backed-up, contacts in order and calendar appointments synchronised with my phone. On the one hand, there is a parasitic relation between this infrastructure and HUB, thus it is temporary. The HUB infrastructure relates to this project by rippling through the layout of the local area network at my flat. For now, both the Klankschool server and the Pi are physically located at my flat. On the one hand, I need to return the Mac Pro “Trashbin” computer to the department in the near future. On the other hand, I need to stop leeching off the HUB. These necessities, end-goals, structure the narrative of the project.

Previous Collaboration with Rosa
In mid 2024, Rosa and I worked together on a performance titled Printer Jam. We gave the performance at Gulaschprogrammiernacht 22, in Karlsruhe, Germany. The video recording of the performance has been watched 245 times at the time of writing. Printer Jam brought live coding software and abandoned hardware together to breathe life back into disused printers. She and I have worked together effectively in the past and I am optimistic about this collaboration.

Relation to wider context

Terms of Service
Hosts make clear what constitutes permitted uses of the services. Abiding by these terms is significant in relation to a practice of general adherence which I am inclined towards.

Sever maintenance informed by feminism
Feminist servers, such as Systerserver and Anarchaserver, are operated by feminist collectives who prefer feminist modes of collaboration. Such servers often provide services for like minded groups or projects. Feminist servers are conceptually distinct from and contextually adjacent to the way in which the Klankschool server has been set up and maintained. I plan to write about extricating myself from having a key role in maintaining this server. To that end, I am keen to draw upon feminist methods, practice and research in the process of doing so. The newsletter addresses attempting single-handed attempts to maintain infrastructure. It does so through its collaborative mode of production, optimistic attitude, and reflexive planning.

References

Berends, M., Diakrousi, A. and Gryllaki, A. (2022) ‘Hosting With’, Debug, Linz, Varia [Online]. Available at https://varia.zone/archive/2023-03-Hosting-with-others/hosting-with-zine-booklet.pdf (Accessed 16 October 2024).

Berlant, L. (2016) ’The commons: Infrastructures for troubling times*’, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 393–419 [Online]. DOI: 10.1177/0263775816645989.

Engelhardt, L., Billie, P. and Reinthal, A. (2023) Self-Hosting Guide [Online]. Available at https://self-hosting.guide/dokuwiki/about_this_site (Accessed 16 October 2024).

Strete, A., Cochior C and Mugrefya e (Eds.) (2022) A Traversal Network Of Feminist Servers. Fractalia, Bucharest.