Putin’s brutal aggression in Ukraine has put cyberwar back in headlines. Recently, Carey Parker, host of the Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons podcast, reached out to us at Tech Learning Collective to talk through some of the issues the war in Ukraine has once again raised for laypeople who may be newly concerned about the reliance we’ve developed as a society on digital infrastructures. So, late last month, we sat down with him for another conversation about what anyone and, arguably, everyone could be doing not only to keep themselves safer online, but also prepared in the event of an escalation of hostilities in a cyber theater, rapid shifts in political climates, or even just natural disasters that affect telecommunication abilities.
Technology, taught collectively.
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Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons: Luck Favors the Prepared
The Enragés: Next Time the Pendulum Swings, Part 2
Earlier this month, we republished part 1 of our interview with The Enragés, where we discussed our blog post, Imagining an Optimistic Cyber-Future. In this post, you’ll find the conclusion of our conversation along with a (somewhat rushed) transcript of the same. Here, we touch on ways in which capitalism has constrained people’s telecommunication abilities, we describe some of our inspiration from earlier political thinkers, and we even answer a couple of listener questions.
Testimonials
“facilitates direct community participation [in] providing for the community and neighborhood's own needs.”
Read what
had to say about
Tech Learning Collective
on
December 5, 2019:
In collaboration with artists, hacklabs, makerspaces, independent bookstores, and local businesses, Tech Learning Collective further facilitates direct community participation in the construction and operation of autonomous digital infrastructure services focused on providing for the community and neighborhood’s own needs. […Through] partnerships with […] community organizations, Tech Learning Collective students can build on their classroom or workshop trainings by getting involved in real-life projects that require skills such as network and site reliability engineering, development operations, and computer security.
[…]
We are excited to support their work as they expand their mission around New York City.
“gay and good[,] Tech Learning Collective is rad”
If you’re looking for something gay and good to take your mind off the [Covid-19] quarantine blues, Tech Learning Collective is rad. It’s a fun way to pick up some skills for hacking the planet without having to interact with tech-industry bootcamp recruitment bullshit.
“helped demystify how computers are set up”
As a Data Scientist coming from statistics instead of computer science, Tech Learning Collective’s NET101 course and their Clearing Away the Clouds: How Computer Networks, Servers, and the Internet Work workshop helped demystify how computers are set up and talk to one another. The concepts were broken down into easy to digest bite sized pieces allowing the unfamiliar language to become new and accessible vocabulary, which upon reflection seemed to be the biggest hurdle in my understanding. Thanks so much!
“their students reclaim power over the work they do and are able to truly flourish”
Read what
had to say about
Tech Learning Collective
on
December 31, 2021:
We can see a glimpse of what’s possible in Tech Learning Collective[. …] By going back to their digital roots, students become more aware of their immediate environment. Numerous possibilities open up when these students realize they aren’t limited to the proprietary products of Big Tech; instead, they can build what they need on their own, thanks to free and open source software.
The school also advocates for cross-pollination. Their workshops are interdisciplinary, melding technical topics with the humanities, in subjects including history and philosophy. This allows for a more holistic development for the students. For instance, like they do with all their other courses, they teach cybersecurity through an explicitly political approach. They prioritize teaching security because of their audience, as many participants are also activists. They also cultivate critical thinking by encouraging their students to scrutinize technology from an ethical standpoint. […] Thanks to their programs’ technological and political immersion, their students reclaim power over the work they do and are able to truly flourish.