| Subject: Fwd: Tunisia |
| From: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> |
| Date: 1/18/11, 19:47 |
| To: Clark Robinson <robinsonchicago@gmail.com> |
IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat, and it is one of the oldest communication methods on the 'net. As such it's an appropriate venue for our talks, and to some extent, an appropriate example of a successful distributed information system (it was IRC networks that reported through media blackouts during the 1991 Soviet coup attempt and the first Gulf war). Basically, it's a network of chatrooms all across the world. You connect using a special IRC client, just like you used to have to have an email client to use email. You connect to a public IRC server (in our case, irc.freenode.net), which hosts thousands of "rooms" and users jumping around between them. Once you're connected to freenode, you join our room, which is called #projectpm (all IRC rooms start with a #).
Here are some specific instructions for those of you who are new to IRC, on either a PC or a Mac:
1) Download and install the Firefox (http://getfirefox.com) web browser if you haven't already.
2) In firefox, navigate to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/16/ and install the Chatzilla plugin. Chatzilla gives you IRC within the browser. Firefox will prompt you to restart the browser.
3) Once the browser comes back, navigate to i . Note the irc:// at the beginning of the URL! This is what tells firefox that you are connecting to an IRC server, instead of a website. A new window will appear. It takes a few seconds to connect, and it will give you a lot of text while it does so. Once it gets to
End of /MOTD command.
Congratulations, you're connected to an IRC server!
4) Now join our chatroom, by typing
/join #projectpm
into the bar at the bottom of this new window, and hitting enter. Note the "/" at the beginning: this is what identifies it as a command for yourIRC client instead of just a regular message. Your screen will display:
[INFO]Channel view for #projectpm opened.
And that's it! You're now in chat. Type hello and hit enter. :)
If you're brave, you can try this yourself with some more full featured clients. Really what you need to know is that you want to connect to Freenode (irc.freenode.net or chat.freenode.net), and join the channel #projectpm. For PC: I would recommend Xchat or mIRC. For Mac: I recommend Colloquy, hands down.
I've been reading your series on Tunisia ok dkos and tweeting it to my followers, many of whom assisted during the Iranian protests and helped with online Haiti relief efforts. I certainly hope your solicitations for involvement will garner some help in needed areas for this effort.
I'd like to see if I can contribute somehow. Could you please send me the IRC tutorial? Provided I can work through the instructions, I'd like to participate in the meeting tomorrow.
Is there anyone I should follow on twitter or friend on FB?
I'm @SLSiri on twitter - not a huge following but have had a stable 430+ for over a year now and I'm on 21 lists.
Siri Vita on Facebook and Siri Vita in Second Life where I can post to the Amnesty International, Peace Train, Social Justice and various other progressive groups to get info in front of a few thousand more people. I did all the Iran updates inworld for various groups and spoke at various events. I could do something similar for Tunisia in an effort to at least keep people informed beyond what they may be hearing in the media.
I am an advocate of non-violent resistance. A good model of what can be accomplished is Gene Sharp's From Dictatorship to Democracy. You may very well be familiar with it but if not, here is a link to the PDF.
http://www.aeinstein.org/organizations/org/FDTD.pdf
I look forward to finding out if there is some way I can contribute to this effort.
Thanks!
Siri