AUT: fwd: TAO needs your support

["Ian Mayes" <ianmayes@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Here you go comrades, do your part to support anarchy on the Net!

- Ian

______________________________________________________________________


==============
Subject: tao: update on tao.ca
Date:  Thu, 15 Oct 1998 22:34:39 -0400 (EDT)
From:  TAO Communications <tao-org@xxxxxx>
To:  announce@xxxxxx

Greetings!

tao.ca is back!  After more than five days down, the TAO server is
back up and running.  We are happy to say that all data was recovered,
and
we are able to continue providing international communication facilities
for radical social change. However if we are to continue providing free
or
pay-what-you-can services, we need your help and support, explicitly, we
need financial support. We cannot continue this work on a non-existent
budget. We've had to spend money on hardware, and we need to provide
monetary support to our labourers.


During our recent absence from the (computer) networks, we were able to
spend contemplative time assessing why we are here, and what it is we
seek
to do. While many of us expressed the desire to 'leave' the Internet,
and
continue working in our local communities, we were overwhelmed with the
responsibility and outright demand to provide co-operative low-cost
access
and presence within these networks.

So in response to your many emails, phone calls, warm and cold wishes,
we are again operating within these computer networks, providing the
access and support desired to further facilitate our various struggles,
campaigns, interests, and efforts. Our main server is now a 686 266mhz
cpu, with 8gb in drive space, 64mb sdram, running a linux 2.0.34 kernel,
and the debian operating system.

As for the reason why we went down, well, we'll be honest and say we're
not too sure. To quote one of the rescue team volunteers (who just
happens
to be a senior network analyst with a large net provider): "i've
never seen a linux boxed this hosed", which is to say we were in rough
shape. It's also worth pointing out that one of our comradely neighbours
to the south burn.ucsd.edu has also been down, apprantly the result of a
nasty hack. So we're not about to speculate, or become paranoid, rather
we'll just keep doing what we do, learning as we go along, how to remain
accessible, and provide space for those who need it.

Of course there are a lot of people out there who need access to the
kind
of facilities we provide. Our growth, while managed, is slightly
overwhelming, and this precludes any exodus from either geocities or
hotmail, two corporate servers, that are increasingly selling the
behaviour of their users to any marketing firm willing to pay. We are
currently hosting over 200 email lists, with over 300 linux shell
accounts (that include email, web, and other network services, including
access to encryption and code compilers. The number of visitors coming
to
the site every day is increasing, not to mention the amount of people
joining our various email lists.

As a result, we are feeling *overwhelmed* by the sheer amount of
questions, concerns, and technical support which is required not just by
our members, but a random slice of the public who genuinely come to us
for
help, insight, and support. This is not to say that we want all of you
to
stop coming to us for support, but rather that you understand the
situation we find ourselves in.

Until now, TAO has relied completely upon a network of volunteer
labourers, each enthused with the joy that comes from helping good
people
continue the good work that they do. However in the course of the past
week, this assistance was taxed beyond reasonable limits.   We want to
give a very large shout-out of thanks to Jamie and Robin, Will and Jake,
and Josh and Jesse for coming through in our time of need.   We would
not
have returned without their diligent help through many wee hours of the
morning.

Thankyou!

This emergency has taught us several things....

1) We need a contingency plan.   Should TAO go down again, we need to be
able to mirror some of the most crucial information on other servers.
Do
you have or know of one which could help us set up this mirror network?
We also need to set up a web page on another server which would advise
of
our system status to keep folks up to date during downtime.
We've formed a working group to address the need for a distributed
computer network. If you are intersted in joining or participating,
please
subscribe to the email list matrix@xxxxxx by sending an email to
matrix-request@xxxxxx with the request to: subscribe
Please also email any suggestions you may have, or insights on where we
may find support on this idea to the matrix@xxxxxx address.

2) We need a staff person in Toronto.  Someone with the technical skills
to maintain a very crazy busy linux server, and who is available in the
immediate area to go in any time of the night or day in the event of a
crash.

3) We need an office.   For several months now, the local TAO collective
has been considering what options we can find for a cheap office space
in
downtown Toronto.  Someplace where we can get 24-hr access, and where we
can also create a nodal point for activist communication... a
photocopier,
fax machine, and regular phone line would be invaluable assets to our
work
right now.   Many folks, including several members of our organizing
collective do not even have their own computer, but rely on public
libraries for access.  Setting up a few older terminals as an access
point
would greatly facilitate our ability to co-operate.

4) We need other ways to get in touch with you.  If you are a member
with
an alternate e-mail, and you would like to be contacted when were down,
then please subscribe that email address to our email list
announce@xxxxxx

which will be mirrored on other servers in the case of unexpected
network absence.

  Essentially, most of this is going to require more money than we have
right now.  We just spent CAN$2,020 on the new server, and we hope to
get
the old one back up and going in order to better divide the work between
the two.  So, we are again putting out a call to you, our members, and
general supporters to help us strengthen this network.  Even very small
donations are welcome and most appreciated.  As we get better organized,
we will also be able to call upon the large number of folks who have
offered to volunteer in some way.  In this fashion, we can divide up the
technical maintenance work better, not to mention further develop our
social and political work. During the past few months, we have come up
with a draft articulation of a participatory economic structure for our
current labour, and developed several roles which we would like to be
able to fill before, during, and after we set up an office.  At any
rate,
immediate financial assistance is greatly needed, and administrative,
technical, or general help (got any ideas?) is also more than welcome!

        TAO Communications - tao-org@xxxxxx

        P.O. Box 108 Station P Toronto Ont M5S 2S8 Canada


we'd also like you to know that we are working on web based email
access.
you can check it out at http://mail.tao.ca
although we're working on a newer version that runs on imap and has
folder, addressbook, and other necessary features.

we've also started working on our help site:
http://help.tao.ca
please send us ideas and suggestions on how to improve it

here are some of our general tao addresses:
tao-org@xxxxxx - general info and organizational queries
admin@xxxxxx - help with any technical or internet (computer) problems
lists@xxxxxx - help or concerns with any email lists
(see also http://major.tao.ca/ and major@xxxxxx)
dnsadmin@xxxxxx - help with any domain name services
relayadmin@xxxxxx - help with any mail relay, or general mail troubles
(pop mail especially)
security@xxxxxx - help with security, privacy, and encryption issues,
including PGP
events@xxxxxx - http://events.tao.ca - events listing
trans@xxxxxx - language facilitation, and translation

please note the following web page which details how we organize
ourselves:
http://www.tao.ca/sky/org.html
this page has info on the following lists:
tao-org@xxxxxx - general tao organizing
tao-www@xxxxxx - tao web co-ordination/facilitation
tao-work@xxxxxx - tao work co-ordination/facilitation

we're also planning to put up a page which details the work we are
currently doing, and where help is
needed, as well as the participator economics structure we are
developing.
http://www.tao.ca/sky/work.html

and finally, here is a sample of some of the networks and projects that
we
provide space for on this server:
www.ainfos.ca - a-infos (anarchist) news nework
damn.tao.ca - direct action media network
san.tao.ca - student activist network
freedom.tao.ca - freedom press
g-7.a-zone.org - g-7 records
zapnet.rootmedia.org - zapatista!
messmedia.rootmedia.org - cmm
ise.rootmedia.org - ise
www.foodnotbombs.ca - electric kitchen
csl.tao.ca - centro social libertario
www.alternativebooks.ca
www.labournet.ca
democracy-street.tao.ca

and again, this is only a random selection.

the tao.ca server itself is for the most part located in toronto canada,
and there is a tao toronto collective that is responsible for it. tao
collectives are in formation throughout canada (from montreal to
vancouver) and individual tao members live and are active from finland
to
australia. it is through this membership, as well as via other
supportive
networks, that we hope ensure that accessible and empowering space is
available within and throughout the networks.

again, thanks for your patience and support
      the workers @ TAO

ps.  for a little background, please check out this submission from TAO
to
the new NETTIME book, ZPK5 or see the web site at http://www.tao.ca/sky.

TAO Communications, begun in late 1995, grew out of the immediatist
network in Toronto -- activists and hackers with common purpose.  As the
internet corporatized, TAO became more etheREAL and established a
labyrinthian and paradoxical web interface.  For example, the Water
Project is a research area surveying rising corporate oligarchies and
monopolies around the world.  As TAO has grown, telecommunications in
Canada have been deregulated by neo-Liberal design, leading to the
consolidation of smaller and local internet service providers and BBS
systems into the profitable flat shiny surface of the net. Down below
the
waters surface, pebbles of linux users were, by slow accretion, creating
a
new foundation of open source software.  The bits of code and ideas for
street theatre became the flow that the TAO-Toronto node grew upon.
Politicization of form and content went into overdrive as activists
increasingly came under surveillance and attack.  The http fronts began
taking up less space than the inter-activIST communication... the main
linux server is now host to 200 lists and the co-operatively run
collective offers shell access, which includes e-mail with PGP, on a
pay-what-you-can basis, helping folks who need it most to get messages
out.

The donated hardware is transported about the city in a bike trailer
when
need be.  Software is adapted out of the niches of hacktime
re-appropriated from corporate employers and envisioned by the needs of
hundreds of free-roaming organizers.  Often to its detriment, the server
and its administration, along with its research, publishing and
political
organization, is accomplished with next to no money.  As per the login
screen, the whole project runs on love and electrons... and
dumpster-dives
all the rest. TAO workers are Wobblies, socialists, anarchists,
taoists, atheists, theologians, freaks, clowns, scholars,
artists, and community organizers. ("Industrial" Workers of the World,
IU
560).  The union drive was about defending public spaces, and
reinforcing
the idea that labour is entitled to all that it creates.  The expanding
membership is in the process of articulating a ten point program, taking
inspiration from the Black Panthers, Zapatistas, and all struggles
around
the world for human dignity, respect, and freedom.

The main work continues to be in support of radical activist projects --
re-inforced communications for anti-poverty groups, and network news by
and for direct action groups, labour and student resistance movements.
At
work and play since the Ontario-wide teacher's strike, solidarity and
popular education led to TAO disrupting classrooms (by invitation or
agitation) and then continual re-shaping of operating processes.
Projects
on the coming waves include a completely open source web-based e-mail
server with easily available encryption, and a benefit CD with
potentially, a TAO distribution of linux alongside music and spoken
word.  There is also a distinct and active disdain for the millenialism
being pumped through the networks amongst the workers at TAO
Communications, which may translate into some interesting moments in the
coming year or so.  You can keep in touch by visiting http://www.tao.ca/
But of course, none of this really matters, since the Tao K'o Tao Fei
Ch'ang Tao (the tao that is the tao is not the tao).

...

        TAO Communications - tao-org@xxxxxx

        P.O. Box 108 Station P Toronto Ont M5S 2S8 Canada


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