or, Demystify the Server!
Draft copy!
Yetu Infotech Collective is well established and one of its focus areas is community networks (CNs). These usually use WiFi to provide internet access and sometimes, locally-hosted services like video-sharing, messaging, offline Wikipedia, etc. There is a growing movement of CNs in South Africa and not only the "developing world" but also where people are marginalised even in the "developed world". The national School of Community Networks is well established and in many respects, offers more support than Yetu has capacity to do.
Another capacity-building organisation is ISOC, via its local chapter Internet South Africa. For example it offers an online course in network design and construction, but this requires some degree of technical literacy before starting, as well as reliable, consistent internet access.
However, the communities which stand to benefit most from their own networks, like most people under capitalism, experience ICTs not only intermittently, but from the position of consumer. This hampers their capacity not only to make full use of CNs, but also to participate in running them. End-user devices, especially smartphones, are highly customised to be opaque in their workings, presenting a highly abstracted user experience.
Even when a netizen gains software skills which empower them, in the capitalist marketplace there is still a level of abstraction which assumes that they have no need to understand deeper levels of operation, like how systems are structured. For example, one can learn to use WordPress to create websites, but lack understanding of how it’s based in a web-server and a database or two.
Worldwide, one defensive reaction to the consumerisation of ICTs mentioned above is the creation of tilde servers, named after the ~ symbol. Most of them have skilled system administrators, and powerful hardware. However, most also go out of their way to welcome newbies and give them space to learn. Most rely on donations of cash and labour.
Members of tilde server communities generally access them individually from wherever they themselves are – because they are privileged to have pervasive internet. But in a disadvantaged community, internet access itself is the first stumbling block. The consistently available sources of access also happen to be communal, namely schools and public libraries. So, these hold possibilities for outreach/training at the same time as offering access.
Institutional shared computers are often locked down such that command-line tools are not available to ordinary users, who can also not install any new software such as code editors. For example, some public libraries provide Android tablets for group activities. However, web-based command-line solutions are available. The user goes to an address in a browser, from where they can log into a shell in the online server.
To pioneer a model of a youth social club centred on a tilde server, that can become self-replicating, and which aims to foster a generation of youth in CNs'“catchment areas” who are not only able to make full use of whatever facilities are on offer, but to run them if needed.
Yetu isn’t currently in a position to offer either skilled sys-ads or access to its main server (this proposal is all about building capacity). But it has acquired some capable little Raspberry Pi 5s and one of them could do the job. And accessible guides exist for starting a server community.
The “killer app” for many beginners is creating a web page (hence the fame of the greeting “Hello World”). Tilde servers typically give each user a folder called public_html where they place files they want to be accessible via the web. Publishing to the web without depending on a giant corporation is a milestone for anyone.
However, besides web content the other activities available are myriad, and all will contribute not only to members’ capacity as netizens, but also their employability within the commercial sector. Primarily though, the club should be fun!
If using a facility like a library or school, buy-in from staff is of course a pre-requisite; in the medium to longer term, the club members and one or two staff should be able to keep the club running without external input. Many schools and some libraries already have coding classes, which generally focus on producing potential corporate employees; facilities lacking such classes would obviously be more suitable, so as not to compete for access to workstations.
A dedicated domain (preferably using the “.club” suffix) would be needed; the server itself could be located anywhere with reliable power and connectivity.
Dunoon Public Library is located next to a high school and a municipal "Recreation Hub" in a densely populated low-income area, and is one of Cape Town's newest libraries, having a grand building, fibre internet and so on. However, it has few organised activities for the public, in particular the youth who make constant use of the space. In addition to the 10 or so computer workstations, it has a set of tablets which are reserved for supervised activities, for example in the boardroom (which is otherwise under-used). The staff are willing to accommodate an experimental tilde club for youth.
↩︎Bazoza = they will come (an ironic reference to the naive slogan “Build it & they’ll come”).