LFI Course Materials 2020/Week one

Week 1: Introduction

• Real time lecture: March 9, 12 Pacific/2 Eastern on Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/9129428892

• Welcome everyone! We’re so thrilled to be starting Library Freedom Institute with such an excellent cohort! This week, we’ll be getting acquainted with the course, including curriculum, technology, goals, and each other.

Course overview

Course themes

• LFP mission and history
• Surveillance capitalism
• Harm reduction
• Power on the internet
• Privacy strategies and tools
• Individual vs collective action

Small groups (for final projects)

• Group 1: Frans Albarillo, Katie Anderson, Eliza Bettinger, Callan Bignoli (academic librarians part one)
• Group 2: Meredith Farkas, Ray Pun, Laura Savage, Mark Swartz, James Watson (academic librarians part two)
• Group 3: Jennifer Bruneau, Emily Mitchell, Alexandra Bernson, Marisa Reichert, Nancy Shah (public librarians east)
• Group 4: Stephanie Howell, Sam Helmick, Douglas King, Heather Boothby Meyer, Holly Mills, Ryan Tackabury (public librarians west/midwest)
• Group 5: Athanasia Fitos, Robin Fay, Mack Freeman (public librarians south)

Final projects

The final project will be a comprehensive privacy plan for a library. Every group will work together on components of the final project. This final project should choose from and expand on the following components:

• A library privacy policy and/or example vendor agreement
• A privacy class
• A privacy program that isn't a class
• A display about privacy
• A flyer or poster about a privacy concept
• A staff training
• Something focused on privacy work outside of the library walls, like a letter to a legislator
• Other ideas that the group wishes to add can be submitted when the group submits their roles, or can be added later

Outcomes for this cohort

• Learn to use privacy software that can be installed on both patron machines and public library workstations
• Teach your own train-the-trainer workshops to other librarians in your region.
• Approach members of your community regarding privacy concerns and teach privacy-related community workshops.
• Use your new role as a Privacy Advocate to influence policy and infrastructure.
• Encourage community engagement with privacy policy issues
• Work with your small group to develop a privacy plan that can be implemented in your library or others

Syllabus and weekly layout

• Undergo intensive training (4 months, 5 hours/week)
• Weekly commitments: lecture, discussion, readings, tasks, small group work.
• Tasks are things you’re expected to complete every week. There aren’t other assignments except for the final projects you’ll present with your small group. We’ll check in every few weeks about the status of those projects, and when that happens you can share drafts or just outlines or thoughts.
• Let Alison know if you need to be absent from one of the real-time lectures, or if you need to miss a whole week for any reason.
• Review code of conduct.

Class technology

• Discourse messageboard: libraryfreedom.chat (register an account)
• Zoom video/audio chat/recordings (Zoom meeting ID 912-942-8892)
• Riseup mailing list: [email protected]
• Wiki: libraryfreedom.wiki (register an account)

Please note that all class technology is publicly accessible! That means that the mailing list archives, messageboard, and wiki can all be viewed by anyone. I’ve set it up this way so that the materials we create can easily be shared, but also, I understand that sometimes we might want to talk amongst ourselves, so I’ve created a “private” category on the Discourse messageboard that’s only viewable to our group. You can use this category whenever you want to talk about something that you don’t want the whole world to see.

This week only!

Learning objectives

• Meet other cohort members
• Review themes and outcomes
• Learn about the history and mission of LFP
• Complete readings (you have through week 2 for this)

Readings

We won't be discussing these readings until week 2! But there are a lot, so you have two weeks to read them.

The Surveillant Assemblage, Kevin D. Haggerty and Richard V. Ericson

Review of Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness by Simone Browne

A Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace by John Perry Barlow (read before reading The Californian Ideology)

The Californian Ideology by Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron (read after reading A Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace)

You are Cyborg (profile of Donna Haraway)

Pandora's Vox: On Community in Cyberspace by humdog

None of Your Business (review of Shoshana Zuboff's The Age of Surveillance Capitalism

Sad by Design by Geert Lovink

Another Network is Possible by April Glaser

A Brief History of the Internet (from Internet Society)

Guest lecturer

No guest this week; Alison will lead the lecture

Discussion

Discussion this week will be about course logistics and such

Tasks

• Lecture, readings and discussion forum
• Create discourse and wiki accounts (let Alison know if you need training)
• Read through materials on libraryfreedom.wiki