[occupyaustin-it] occupyaustin-it Digest, Vol 2, Issue 66

Fri Nov 18 23:05:44 CST 2011

Hello,

This is Anton...

I was forwarded this email who thought I should be aware of
the misinformation campaign currently being waged by Boyd for personal
reasons unknown. There is too much inaccurate information to address
individually and so I will simply respond with some recent factual
information.

   - In the professional environment I've spent the last 15 years working
   in, IT and Web Design and Development have absolutely nothing to do with
   each other. WebTeam is about Design, Development, Marketing, Content
   Management, Print, Media and PR... these skill-sets have nothing to do with
   IT services on a professional level.

   - There are currently over 20+ people who have the ability to add
   content to the blog and website pages and we are encouraging each working
   group to find an individual to manage content for their group as well as
   pairing groups up with web volunteers.

   - We have recently added a Wiki to the website so that ANYONE can add
   content without requiring specific access, HTML or Admin Skills.

   - The WebTeam also does Marketing for working groups promoting rallys
   and marches... including dedicated pages, posters, flyers and graphics.

   - The WebTeam currently holds its meetings every Tuesday at 8:30pm
   following the GA at Austin Java, around the corner from City Hall.

   - The WebTeam has secured direct donations for hosting and is no longer
   in need of contributions for this service.

   - Anyone is welcome to work with the Web Team to contribute to the
   process.

At this time I see no reason for the WebTeam to merge with IT as the
services offered by each industry is almost completely unrelated and IT
seems spread thin as it is given Boyd and Greg both have made commitments
to assist with the website which they didn't follow through on. Due to a
recent issue in securing payment from the finance team for dedicated
hosting which was overwhelmingly approved by the GA, we have since secured
direct donations for this service and are no longer in need of GA money or
the web hosting services mentioned in Boyd's email. If there are any people
currently on the IT team with professional experience in the following
areas who are interested in contributing to the website... please contact
the web team at web at occupyaustin.org.

HTML
WordPress
Photoshop
Illustrator
Photography
Videography

Thanks you to all of you on the IT team for the services you are offering
to the occupation. Regarding Boyd's personal attack and mis-information...
at this time I'm not planning on going anywhere and neither is the website.
If my plans were to change then I would be sure there was someone to manage
the process prior to my leaving. I am also NOT the only person with
complete access to cPanel or WordPress. The website, as it is, will always
be up... so long as Occupy Austin continues to stand in solidarity with
#OWS on a national level. And I have already committed to turn it over
ownership of the domain and management of the website to a board of
directors within 3 months of an official "Occupy Austin" organization being
formed.

We all have bad days, question our wherewithal and sometimes say things we
don't mean. It's unfortunate there are trolls like Boyd in your group who
feel the need to exploit these moments of weakness when we should be
supporting each other in our efforts. I've heard Boyd refer to Occupy
Austin as a "Customer" on numerous occasions... this makes me very nervous
and I encourage all of you to question whether what you are currently
working on could be exploited for the personal gain of individuals like
Boyd who is obviously very concerned with further consolidating his power
and personal control.

You should also know that Greg and Boyd have both attempted to have Cesar
removed from the information stream and as a magnet, against his wishes and
on numerous occasions... Maybe you agree with this, I don't really care.
but the acts themselves have been very underhanded and have led to much
drama. I have emails I can send if you need proof. The point is... Boyd's
email about me is not the first power play initiated by IT magnets based on
mis-information and personal attacks. Maybe next time it's you?

Please keep up the good work and I encourage all of you to make certain the
work you are doing is for the cause and not the personal gain of a few
individuals.

Solidarity,

Anton
Web Team
OccupyAustin.org
We are the 99%

>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: [occupyaustin-it] occupyaustin-it Digest, Vol 2, Issue 66
> From: Boyd Carter <boydcarter at gmail.com>
> To: #OccupyAustin Information Technology & Communications Infrastructure
>      Team <occupyaustin-it at foojutsu.org>
> CC:
>
> A few points.  My perspective, No one else. I sincerely hope we can move
> forward on Saturday and that Anton will work with us to solve the problems.
>
> BUT...
>
> 1) Anton doesn't trust anyone who hasn't been down to city hall (his
> words), which is irrational.  There are many valid reasons one might not
> feel comfortable there. We have a safe, secure space for nerd work and he
> has yet to show up there, or engage the IT group for help aside from
> ranting, sometimes on livestream, that no one with the skills needed will
> help him.  This is a LIE.  He has done this, in public, after repeated
> attempts by the IT group (myself and Greg and others via phone, in person,
> attending HIS meetings.. anyway we could get ahold of him) to offer any and
> all help he needs.
>
> 2) Anton has thus far refused to participate in peer-reviewed management of
> the service as a whole, demonstrating a disdain for consensus driven work
> among a group of peers which is antithetical to the movement.
>
> 3) Anton is protecting "cpanel" level access because we are on a shared
> host with other, professional paid clients of his. We aren't asking for
> root. He is the sole admin for the namespace, file level admin, email
> addresses, email distribution lists, etc. This is a single point of
> failure, and an enormous problem.  This is NOT about whose name is on the
> registrar account or whose name is on the bill for the hosting.  I could
> give a flip.  Administration of the namespace and services, and
> administration of the registrar and accounts are two DIFFERENT issues.
> Don't get it twisted.
>
> 4) Anton has required payment for hosting services thus far on same shared
> host with other, for profit paying clients.  Who is paying for what here?
> Anton was content to let occupyaustin.org GO DARK (no web, no email, no
> nothing) yesterday due to lack of funds from OA after admitting that it
> wasn't about the money and that he had the funds to pay the bill!!!!
>
> 5) The funds Anton has requested (and will be a recurring bill, according
> to Anton yesterday) far exceed the unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth
> managed hosting we've been able to get DONATED for other projects.  Can
> Occupy Austin funds be better used? I think so.
>
> 6) Anton has a knack for calling out others commitment and motives in
> respect to physical presence and ideological backgrounds while consistently
> threatening to leave Occupy Austin and threatening to depart from the city
> of Austin entirely. At least 4 times by my count, officially, that I have
> witnessed.  Anton's commitment to Occupy Austin is demonstrably absent.
>
> I've tried to keep it factual, but these are the problems we have.  I hope
> we can work them out.
>
> Lastly, I will say this.  As CTO of occupyradio.fm and other related
> national/meta non-profit services, I will not have Anton on any team I work
> with or organize.  This is purely a reactive, firefighting exercise and a
> waste of time.
>
> Thanks,
> Boyd
>
> P.S. Greg asked that the issue be tabled while I was drafting this.  I
> agree, but I had this in the pipeline and I'm sending it.  I'm leaning on
> his diplomacy to help us work this out from here on, as we all should.  In
> a CONSENSUS DRIVEN PROCESS.  Enough about Anton.  The facts are known. Lets
> solve the problem.
>
>
>
> On Fri, Nov 18, 2011 at 2:27 PM, Joe Cooper <swelljoe at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > From: Alan Viosca <alanviosca at gmail.com>
> >>
> >>
> >> I'm starting to have a very large problem with the way Anton is claiming
> >> ownership of the domain name and creating personal demands. I also
> wonder
> >>
> >> if creating a board of directors (not to mention the "dictatorship" he
> >> holds over the domain) directly goes against the idea of horizontal
> >> leadership within OA. We've already seen this problem of ownership of
> >>
> >> donations with other people (if anyone was around for Joshua and his PA
> >> system), and it needs to be addressed. It might not be pretty, either.
> >>
> >
> > Maybe I'm missing something in this conversation...but, I'd like to point
> > out that a lot of people have access to the entirety of the website
> content
> > (myself included; I asked for access so I could upload GA minutes, and
> got
> > it the next day, including the ability to update all of the pages). It's
> my
> > understanding that several IT team members also have similar access. If
> > Anton is exerting control over content, I'm unaware of it.
> >
> > I see a lot of suspicious folks acting like everyone is out to get
> > everyone else. Damned near every working group is talking about their
> > suspicions of damned near every other working group. I don't think this
> > attitude is productive.
> >
> > A domain name must be owned by someone or some legal entity. I don't see
> > how any other specific person owning the domain is better than Anton
> owning
> > the domain name. What you're doing in asking Anton to hand over the
> domain
> > to "IT team" is to hand it over to some single person on the IT team. He
> > looks at that the same way you guys are looking at one guy holding the
> > domain name: with suspicion and hesitation. His position is a reasonable
> > one, given the demands people are making on him to hand over the domain
> to
> > someone...he wants to insure that if it goes to "the group" it actually
> > goes to an entity that legally answers to the group. Any individual on
> the
> > IT team does not meet that qualification. You're saying, "I don't trust
> an
> > individual to have control over the domain name. I demand that you hand
> the
> > domain name over to another individual."
> >
> > If there's an issue with the website not being up to date or complete,
> > somebody with access needs to start updating it; if the people who
> already
> > have access aren't willing to do that, then someone else needs to step up
> > and volunteer and actually do the work. There are currently 31 users with
> > access to the website content, including several Administrator level
> users
> > (some on the IT team; which means IT team members can grant access to the
> > website content).
> >
> > Those are issues that can be solved. Don't make this into another witch
> > hunt. I'm annoyed at the way folks handled the PA issue, too. I'm glad
> the
> > PA is gone, but I don't like that people made it into a power struggle.
> We
> > can have a conversation about this stuff without turning it into yet
> > another us against them fight. We are all "us", including Anton. We're
> > better than that.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > occupyaustin-it mailing list
> > occupyaustin-it at foojutsu.org
> > http://foojutsu.org/mailman/listinfo/occupyaustin-it
> >
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> occupyaustin-it mailing list
> occupyaustin-it at foojutsu.org
> http://foojutsu.org/mailman/listinfo/occupyaustin-it
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://foojutsu.org/pipermail/occupyaustin-it/attachments/20111118/fedd9b8b/attachment-0001.html>