Logistics

In general, we try to keep logistics to a minimum while at the same time not imposing the The Tyranny of Structurelessness.

Transportation

Everyone is responsible for their own transportation, although the specifics will vary from one event to the other.

Food

Bring your own food! We always try to have a kitchen and cook food collectively at our events, especially since it's a great opportunity to share recipes, share work and even learn how to cook (or do dishes, for that matter!).

Lodging

We generally try to find a single space big enough to fit everyone, and generally out of the city to allow us to disconnect from our usual "business of the day", while at the same time connect with nature.

Coordination

CⒶTS sis organised around anarchist principles: there are no organisers, only participants. We also have no sponsors (except maybe trying to make a collective fund to finance people that lack the money?) so you will also need to pay from your pocket for your travel, lodging and food costs.

Some will still have taken on some coordination roles to make sure we have a space and that we choose a date, so everyone is welcome to join in to help with that, of course!

"PowerPoint is symptomatic of a certain type of bureaucratic environment: one typified by interminable presentations with lots of fussy little bullet-points and flashy dissolves and soundtracks masked into the background, to try to convince the audience that the goon behind the computer has something significant to say. It's the tool of choice for pointy-headed idiots with expensive suits and skinny laptops who desperately want to look as if they're in command of the job, with all the facts at their fiddling fingertips, even if Rome is burning in the background. Nothing stands for content-free corporate bullshit quite like PowerPoint."

From "Jennifer Morgue" by Charles Strauss.

Format

brainstorm

  • it's a skillshare, but also a workspace
  • everybody has something to learn and to share
  • out in the woods so our minds are clear
  • with cool desirable communication interaction structures-principle-tools so we can happily work and live and get organised together
  • minimal organisation, DIY
  • safe space: no police, discrimnation or assholery tolerated
  • no "death by powerpoint" - no formal sessions will be enforced, and participation is the basic principle, not stardom on a 15-feet high stage
  • regional: we focus on the appalachian region (see below for invites)

working principles

Tech culture is often characterized by oppressive modes of knowledge dissemination. We seek to build a new culture of caring, inclusive and participatory knowledge sharing informed by the need to resist patriarchy, white-supremacy, capitalism, and heterosexism.

We reject status based on expertise. We reject status, period. We also recognize that, for any given topic, some of us have more to learn and some have more to teach. Our goal is to make the movement stronger by democratizing access to specialized knowledge.

Lets face it: despite our best intentions, this stuff gets really geeky really quickly and can be alienating to all but the most hardcore. Therefore, everyone will be required to say, "i don't know!" and "what do you mean?" at least five times a day (no exceptions).

topics

no pre-enforced topics, we share and talk, but some ideas from the last CATS:

  • "If you could change one thing about Geek culture, what would you change?" - 10 years ago, it was "end to knowledge hording, competition, and greater diversity" - did we evolve?
  • how to make and upload a debian package
  • ?keysigning party

  • It may be a bit Quebec-centered, but it would be great to talk about how we should interract with groups that share our opinions on free software, but use tactics such as lobbying to promote them, such as FACIL. I don't know if such collectives exists in the US. -- pollo

More information on the limited notes taken from the last CATS are in the archived RecentChanges.