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
“extraordinarily knowledgeable[,] quality instruction”
I have been to several of TLC’s workshops, on networks,
git
, Signal, and virtual machines, as well as their Hackers Next Door conference and a Mr. Robot-themed happy hour event. I also loved their online Foundations courses. I have found the instructors to be extraordinarily knowledgeable on an extremely wide variety of topics. They are fluent in this stuff, plain and simple, and quite good at explaining dense, complicated topics. As someone who is new to the “behind-the-scenes” of today’s technologies, I feel that I have benefited greatly from their events. After each workshop, I have numerous takeaways that help me continue to learn on my own time, but I keep coming back to their live workshops because of the quality of the instruction. I cannot overemphasize how highly I recommend Tech Learning Collective.
“inspired me to check out my packets while surfing the web on Tor”
Jackie and I attended a workshop about Tor by the Tech Learning Collective this weekend, and it inspired me to check out my packets while surfing the web on Tor.
“considered, and thorough […] from multiple nuanced perspectives”
The Tor workshop [I attended] was very slow, considered, and thorough, providing hours of spacious learning and the space to fully comprehend and learn. Although I did write down notes, I doubt I’ll need to refer to them, because of the pacing and thoroughness of understanding each step.
Rather than cramming too much information to retain, the tutor respectfully provided the core information repetitively, from multiple nuanced perspectives. That way, it’s gone in, I have done the learning while in the workshop, as opposed to needing to reread notes after the fact, and try to make sense of the information.
It was inclusive and respectful, and even the platform kinda helps with that, which gives you a screen of an avatar, and the option to collaborate either with your mic for voices, or by typing in the chat box.
Thanks again, TLC! I feel empowered to do this now!
“facilitates direct community participation [in] providing for the community and neighborhood's own needs.”
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.
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We are excited to support their work as they expand their mission around New York City.