the data indicates everyone is not okay

Feednet is a quarterly-ish news roundup on technology, community organizing, and learning how and what to learn. Read old versions here.

Notes on Feednet: it seems like, statistically speaking, everyone is not okay

Hi,

This week I did an informal survey of organizers on Instagram this week about the pandemic -- there was a lot going on (even if the sample wasn’t statistically significant*).

• 100% of the 15 people who responded said that their organization has made substantial changes to their long term strategy (makes sense!)

• About half of the people said those changes were primarily changes to their tactics, and training like how to use Zoom, building peer to peer texting programs, setting up better data entry systems, etc).

• The other half said changes were far more related to internal communication, decision making (both with staff and members),

• People had a lot of answers about how they answered the survey, but here’s one I thought was really meaningful (because it was honest) — ‘I’m most concerned that idk if what we were doing before was even working.’

• The part I found most interesting was that over 70% of respondents said these changes were “for the long term.” The conditions, and as a result, the tactics, organizers have had to use over the last few months are here to stay.

There are a lot of really terrible things about this new normal: fragmentation of the social networks, the digital divide, who gets left out when we use digital tools that require high speed Internet to operate, and the daily logistical nightmares of being an organizer (infinitely magnified by new technology we did not ask for). But there are also a lot of opportunities to reevaluate how we organize in a way that makes our movements bigger, stronger, and more resilient.

Over the next couple weeks I am posting a series about how ‘digital organizing’ can be part of those opportunities as the “new normal” becomes the norm.

On a completely different notes, someone asked me a very relevant question about all of the TV questions I’ve been posting here: “what even is meaning?” Duh.  Next week I’m writing up a little about what meaning is, reflect on it and I lives and in our organization, and (including some insight from a rabbi using D&D to help people find their spiritual path).

  stay safe,

• H   PS -- *I’m writing this parenthetical only so my girlfriend doesn’t email me about why it’s not statistically significant. Hi Ernestina.