Kevin Gallagher:
Hello everyone,
Sorry I haven't been around for community meetings. These past few weeks have been a bit busy.
Soon I'm going to be heading over to Portugal, and I'll also spend some time in Spain. I'll be there for the whole summer. I remember that after one of our NYC meetings we discussed that the (known) Tor community in southern Europe is quite small. While I'm there I'd like to try to build it up and get the people there more involved (if that's fine with TPO). So far I reached out and set up a meeting with one university student who is interested in Internet freedom and privacy, but I'd rather not put all of my eggs into one basket.
Are there any tips about how I should go about trying to build up a community while I'm there? Any places that typically work in community building efforts (libraries, schools, etc.), especially for meeting space? I'd love any tips on how I should approach this.
Good stuff Kevin.
First I'd say it's tough to build something sustainable if you're only there for a short period of time.
Regardless of that, I think there are some things you could try, one-off, that could at least have a quick, if temporary, impact.
Don't shoot for the moon... just plan to get a (few) group(s) together.
I tend to think relay operators are the easiest, since they have some decent level of regular commitment, tend to feel isolated, and the TPO has barely scratched that universe in terms of physical contact.
And you have a great channel to reach them with @tor-relays and now the irc channel.
I would look to organize an informal discussion, and try reaching out to the relay operators. "Are you running a Tor node or are you interested in doing it?" broadcast far and wide could pull in a few people.
IMHO, doing anything broader, like a basic meeting or something for tb users, would be tougher, since you need space.
You might want to reach out to any hacker spaces where you'll be.. .and maybe do a basic intro to TB if you make decent contacts?
My $0.02.
g