Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFrom the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
International
Santa Cruz Indymedia
Global Justice & Anti-Capitalism
Media Activism & Independent Media
Presenting we.riseup.net
For the last eight years, we have been developing a web application called "Crabgrass," running at https://we.riseup.net. In a nutshell, Crabgrass is a simple way for groups to edit shared wiki pages. Crabgrass, however, has a few features that make it unique in the world of collaborative web applications. In particular, Crabgrass is designed to allow people to privately collaborate within a group and with other groups.
Presenting we.riseup.net
-----------------------------------------------------------
For the last eight years, we have been developing a web application called "Crabgrass," running at https://we.riseup.net. For many people, this site has been quite useful, with tens of thousands of active users. However, we have never announced this service publicly, until now. We finally feel that the code is mature enough that we want to climb every mountain top and scream at the top of our collective lungs "Crabgrass is here!" Or maybe we should just tell all our Riseup users about it in a newsletter? Yeah, probably that last one.
What is Crabgrass?
-----------------------------------------------------------
In a nutshell, Crabgrass is a simple way for groups to edit shared wiki pages. Crabgrass, however, has a few features that make it unique in the world of collaborative web applications. In particular, Crabgrass is designed to allow people to privately collaborate within a group and with other groups. Uniquely, Crabgrass allows for powerful searches, including full text searching, across the entire universe of things you have access to.
At Riseup, we believe that all technology encodes systems of power. In the long run, the only way for us to use technology for good is to create or deploy technology that reflects the way we want to connect with each other, and not the way that the surveillance economy wants us to. Crabgrass was designed by and for people practicing bottom-up, democratic organizing.
Crabgrass has been our collective's communication tool for internal organizing for the last eight years. We use it for everything: we have many internal committees set up, we document all our minutes and research, we upload files and images, we use it for group discussions for big issues we need to mull over, and we use polls and voting in order to find consensus and make decisions. There is no way our distracted brains would be able to keep track of everything otherwise. Riseup would not exist without it!
Why Pigeon thinks you all should use Crabgrass
-----------------------------------------------------------
The collective member who primarily writes these newsletters, Feral Rock Pigeon, has this to say about Crabgrass: "I am the least technical of all the Riseup members, and I find myself constantly muddling through this technological world. I am required to use the Google stuff (drive, docs, etc.) for some non-Riseup work, and I am always lost navigating through the fog. Ugh. In contrast, I started using Crabgrass a long time ago, never got any training in it, and have always been able to track and see everything I needed in logical way."
There you have it! We did not pay her anything for this endorsement!
Help us improve crabgrass
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lots of people are using https://we.riseup.net to organize in their collectives and movements. That’s exactly what it is meant for--self organization of social movements. Crabgrass is driven by people who care about it becoming a better tool for themselves, their groups and everyone.
Maybe you’ve chopped vegetables or washed teargas from peoples eyes at a protest. Maybe you've helped setup a barricade or tidied up the space it was meant to protect. Let’s apply the same spirit of self-directed mutual help to the improvement of this collective space. If you have 15 minutes please join us in building the platform we all want in order to build the world we want.
See https://github.com/riseuplabs/crabgrass-core
And a big shout out to aliaksandrb who for the past couple months arose from the ether to send daily bug and feature patches that have already gone live. AMAZING. If you are a developer, it's a great time to get involved.
Some warnings
-----------------------------------------------------------
We recognize that Crabgrass has some bugs, and we are actively working to fix those. We are excited about this new release, but recognize that it is not perfect, and we will continue to iron out problems, as well as adding new functionality. We know that many people want calendaring functionality, and etherpad/ethercalc integration.
Also, please realize that putting something in Crabgrass does not inherently mean it is secure. If somebody with access to a page makes it public, then that page is public to any human or robot on the internet. So, as with any communication tool, it is important that you talk about your security protocols, and have some understanding of how the tool works. Understand who has access to a page, and that those with certain access can share the information (inadvertently or not) with others, by directly sharing the page, inviting others to the group, or having their account compromised.
Crabgrass does not feature end-to-end encryption: like with email, the Riseup collective has access to all the information on Crabgrass. There is currently no good way to support client-side encryption for a web application in a manner that prevents the provider from gaining access to the data. Nevertheless, we do plan to support some limited forms of client-side encryption in the future.
Keep it alive!
-----------------------------------------------------------
We have devoted thousands of hours to developing Crabgrass and maintaining the service. If you use it, please help us cover the costs of keeping it going. As always, please donate at https://riseup.net/donate
-----------------------------------------------------------
For the last eight years, we have been developing a web application called "Crabgrass," running at https://we.riseup.net. For many people, this site has been quite useful, with tens of thousands of active users. However, we have never announced this service publicly, until now. We finally feel that the code is mature enough that we want to climb every mountain top and scream at the top of our collective lungs "Crabgrass is here!" Or maybe we should just tell all our Riseup users about it in a newsletter? Yeah, probably that last one.
What is Crabgrass?
-----------------------------------------------------------
In a nutshell, Crabgrass is a simple way for groups to edit shared wiki pages. Crabgrass, however, has a few features that make it unique in the world of collaborative web applications. In particular, Crabgrass is designed to allow people to privately collaborate within a group and with other groups. Uniquely, Crabgrass allows for powerful searches, including full text searching, across the entire universe of things you have access to.
At Riseup, we believe that all technology encodes systems of power. In the long run, the only way for us to use technology for good is to create or deploy technology that reflects the way we want to connect with each other, and not the way that the surveillance economy wants us to. Crabgrass was designed by and for people practicing bottom-up, democratic organizing.
Crabgrass has been our collective's communication tool for internal organizing for the last eight years. We use it for everything: we have many internal committees set up, we document all our minutes and research, we upload files and images, we use it for group discussions for big issues we need to mull over, and we use polls and voting in order to find consensus and make decisions. There is no way our distracted brains would be able to keep track of everything otherwise. Riseup would not exist without it!
Why Pigeon thinks you all should use Crabgrass
-----------------------------------------------------------
The collective member who primarily writes these newsletters, Feral Rock Pigeon, has this to say about Crabgrass: "I am the least technical of all the Riseup members, and I find myself constantly muddling through this technological world. I am required to use the Google stuff (drive, docs, etc.) for some non-Riseup work, and I am always lost navigating through the fog. Ugh. In contrast, I started using Crabgrass a long time ago, never got any training in it, and have always been able to track and see everything I needed in logical way."
There you have it! We did not pay her anything for this endorsement!
Help us improve crabgrass
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lots of people are using https://we.riseup.net to organize in their collectives and movements. That’s exactly what it is meant for--self organization of social movements. Crabgrass is driven by people who care about it becoming a better tool for themselves, their groups and everyone.
Maybe you’ve chopped vegetables or washed teargas from peoples eyes at a protest. Maybe you've helped setup a barricade or tidied up the space it was meant to protect. Let’s apply the same spirit of self-directed mutual help to the improvement of this collective space. If you have 15 minutes please join us in building the platform we all want in order to build the world we want.
See https://github.com/riseuplabs/crabgrass-core
And a big shout out to aliaksandrb who for the past couple months arose from the ether to send daily bug and feature patches that have already gone live. AMAZING. If you are a developer, it's a great time to get involved.
Some warnings
-----------------------------------------------------------
We recognize that Crabgrass has some bugs, and we are actively working to fix those. We are excited about this new release, but recognize that it is not perfect, and we will continue to iron out problems, as well as adding new functionality. We know that many people want calendaring functionality, and etherpad/ethercalc integration.
Also, please realize that putting something in Crabgrass does not inherently mean it is secure. If somebody with access to a page makes it public, then that page is public to any human or robot on the internet. So, as with any communication tool, it is important that you talk about your security protocols, and have some understanding of how the tool works. Understand who has access to a page, and that those with certain access can share the information (inadvertently or not) with others, by directly sharing the page, inviting others to the group, or having their account compromised.
Crabgrass does not feature end-to-end encryption: like with email, the Riseup collective has access to all the information on Crabgrass. There is currently no good way to support client-side encryption for a web application in a manner that prevents the provider from gaining access to the data. Nevertheless, we do plan to support some limited forms of client-side encryption in the future.
Keep it alive!
-----------------------------------------------------------
We have devoted thousands of hours to developing Crabgrass and maintaining the service. If you use it, please help us cover the costs of keeping it going. As always, please donate at https://riseup.net/donate
Add Your Comments
Comments
(Hide Comments)
Introducing share.riseup.net!
--------------------------------------
We would love for you to check out https://share.riseup.net. You know that thing where you want to share something with your comrades and you send it as an email attachment and then it’s way too big and everyone says, "why did you do that?" Or worse, you send out an email with a giant attachment and it won’t even send, or you receive a giant attachment and it throws you over quota? https://share.riseup.net helps solves those problems. Now you can use share.riseup.net to temporarily share those large files.
https://share.riseup.net is a easy to use client-encrypted “pastebin” and “imagebin”, and it’s hosted by your friendly neighborhood tech collective. When you share a file, it is encrypted before leaving your computer, so we don’t ever have a copy of what you are sharing.
This kind of client-side encryption, where the program comes from the server, is easy to bypass if the provider decides to add a back door. We don't have a back door, but it is difficult to verify this. In other words, encryption in the browser is useful for the service provider, Riseup in this case, because we are not storing secrets on behalf of users, but it does not guarantee your confidentiality. For real security, you need to use an encryption application that is not web-based.
https://share.riseup.net is still in testing, so please don’t rely on it to store your only copy of an important file. Also your files will not stay forever, we haven't worked this out exactly, but don't expect them to be there for more than a week!
Introducing pad.riseup.net!
--------------------------------------
Collaborative text editors are a kind of magic: I have seen a roomful of people produce perfect meeting notes in real time, with footnotes; I have seen a difficult to write document come together in a matter of minutes; I have seen people on opposite sides of the planet work together as if in the same room.
At Riseup, we use a collaborative text editor for *everything*. It is how we breathe. If you have not yet tried the magic, check out https://pad.riseup.net. We have been running this service for five years, we just never announced it because it can sometimes be unreliable under heavy traffic.
https://pad.riseup.net is different than most web-based collaborative text editors: connections are only available via HTTPS, we allow access via Tor onion service, we do not log your IP address, and pads are automatically deleted after 30 days of no activity (so be sure to save the document offline once it's finished!).
Riseup Under Construction
--------------------------------------
In the past few months we have been busy with some long needed software upgrades. As we've upgraded there have been some bugs and at times things broke. Also while we were frantically fixing things, we haven't had as much time to answer help tickets. Things are getting more stable now, thanks for your patience!
Introducing riseup.net/donate
--------------------------------------
Did you see all the new tools for organizing above? Wow, they cost a lot of time and money to maintain!
There is also this looming and freaky fact that we have burned through our savings and are not sure how we are going to make it through this year. We got through a most excellent fund raising drive not too long ago, and we know that so many of you gave money to support us, but if there's anyone out there who is thinking of donating and can, now is absolutely the crucial time to do it. We promise to put every penny to great use supporting radicals and radical tech.
https://riseup.net/donate
--------------------------------------
We would love for you to check out https://share.riseup.net. You know that thing where you want to share something with your comrades and you send it as an email attachment and then it’s way too big and everyone says, "why did you do that?" Or worse, you send out an email with a giant attachment and it won’t even send, or you receive a giant attachment and it throws you over quota? https://share.riseup.net helps solves those problems. Now you can use share.riseup.net to temporarily share those large files.
https://share.riseup.net is a easy to use client-encrypted “pastebin” and “imagebin”, and it’s hosted by your friendly neighborhood tech collective. When you share a file, it is encrypted before leaving your computer, so we don’t ever have a copy of what you are sharing.
This kind of client-side encryption, where the program comes from the server, is easy to bypass if the provider decides to add a back door. We don't have a back door, but it is difficult to verify this. In other words, encryption in the browser is useful for the service provider, Riseup in this case, because we are not storing secrets on behalf of users, but it does not guarantee your confidentiality. For real security, you need to use an encryption application that is not web-based.
https://share.riseup.net is still in testing, so please don’t rely on it to store your only copy of an important file. Also your files will not stay forever, we haven't worked this out exactly, but don't expect them to be there for more than a week!
Introducing pad.riseup.net!
--------------------------------------
Collaborative text editors are a kind of magic: I have seen a roomful of people produce perfect meeting notes in real time, with footnotes; I have seen a difficult to write document come together in a matter of minutes; I have seen people on opposite sides of the planet work together as if in the same room.
At Riseup, we use a collaborative text editor for *everything*. It is how we breathe. If you have not yet tried the magic, check out https://pad.riseup.net. We have been running this service for five years, we just never announced it because it can sometimes be unreliable under heavy traffic.
https://pad.riseup.net is different than most web-based collaborative text editors: connections are only available via HTTPS, we allow access via Tor onion service, we do not log your IP address, and pads are automatically deleted after 30 days of no activity (so be sure to save the document offline once it's finished!).
Riseup Under Construction
--------------------------------------
In the past few months we have been busy with some long needed software upgrades. As we've upgraded there have been some bugs and at times things broke. Also while we were frantically fixing things, we haven't had as much time to answer help tickets. Things are getting more stable now, thanks for your patience!
Introducing riseup.net/donate
--------------------------------------
Did you see all the new tools for organizing above? Wow, they cost a lot of time and money to maintain!
There is also this looming and freaky fact that we have burned through our savings and are not sure how we are going to make it through this year. We got through a most excellent fund raising drive not too long ago, and we know that so many of you gave money to support us, but if there's anyone out there who is thinking of donating and can, now is absolutely the crucial time to do it. We promise to put every penny to great use supporting radicals and radical tech.
https://riseup.net/donate
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Donate
$230.00 donated
in the past month
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network