Disaster cycle

Rather than thinking of online attacks, actions, etc as having value based on if we agree or disagree with any given side, let's look at it as a disaster cycle. In the same way which this assumes issues of infrastructure, process, and forethought associated with the harms which turn a "natural event" into a "natural disaster," so too can we here explore the mechanisms. The disaster cycle consists of four components: preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation. Preparedness includes risk analysis (what could go wrong, to what, by what means) and associated steps based on available resources and capacity in order to brace one's self and community of an oncoming harm. Response is comprised of the actions to deal with the immediate issues associated with the extreme event as it happens, or soon after, and is subsequently easier based on steps taken during the preparedness stage. Recovery is focused on reestablishing or even bettering what life was like before the extreme event. Finally, mitigation is both throughout and outside this cycle, and is focused on the designand implementation of the systems themselves -- how can more people be helped faster in any part of the cycle? How can we prevent people from falling through gaps? This is the section of the cycle that focuses on the different between a "natural event" and a "natural disaster," and aims towards the prior. We've also added in being the extreme event, as this is an important aspect of these self-imposed futures.

Interested in knowing more?

Here's a short form overview of the reasoning behind each component in disaster response.

Preparedness

Checklist for making safe space : project started at [[2015 February New York City]] and continued at 2015 April Nairobi

Guide for Supporting Activism : project started at [[2015 February New York City]] Anti-Harassment Policies, such as those from the Ada Initiative

How to Critique Me : project started at 2015 February New York City

Obligation to Know : In heavy use by FLOSS communities, and now transferred into geek feminism, this details a need to have a rudimentary understanding of a topic before engaging with those better versed in it.

In addition to documenting and sharing information geek culture has a

complementary norm obliging others to educate themselves on rudimentary topics. Online feminists, especially geek feminists, are similarly beset by naive or disruptive questions and demonstrate and further their geekiness through the deployment of the obligation to know. However, in this community the obligation reflects the increased likelihood of disruptive, or ‘derailing’, questions and a more complex and gendered relationship with stature, as seen in the notions of impostor syndrome, the Unicorn Law, and mansplaining.

[https://medium.com/@colbay/inflammatory-articles-about-a-divisive-tech-culture-critic-were-written-and-broadcast-this-past-64edce46f0c1 Security Lockdown: A Lay Person's Guide to Baseline Privacy] : This episode led me to ruminate on how dehumanizing the Internet can be, how deeply socialized gender is, and how elusive privacy has become. This write-up also includes a fantastic list of online safety resources.