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Thank you very much to all for the detailed comments. I appreciate you keeping advice simple enough for someone like me, who decades ago counted as a "power use

Thank you very much to all for the detailed comments. I appreciate you keeping advice simple enough for someone like me, who decades ago counted as a "power user" of PCs, but who has no particular technical training or computer-related work experience. I will have to digest some of this advice for women (they are mostly women in the local group) who are barely comfortable using Facebook. And I'll pass on other tips to the women and men who have actual technical backgrounds and will be implementing the different online projects of the local group. Advice that especially fits our situation is having an appropriate level of security for an intentionally PUBLIC organization whose members will be identifiable by multiple in-person activities in public places over the next few years. We are not afraid to be known as people who support the cause that we support. We are resolutely sticking to peaceful, legal means to reach our goals. Many group members are VERY wary of new group members--plenty of them are wary of me--so we will have to build mutual trust as we build mutual communication and public-facing communication. I like mz's advice to remind members that anything they say in an online group--even in our internal online groups for members only--might show up in mass media or in propaganda spread by opponents, so I try to model careful speaking and writing. I'll link here to a document about the bad-case scenario of living under an actual dictatorship with a secret police force that kills political opponents. That's something I've actually done (in Taiwan, in the 1980s). The good news is that nonviolent popular movements can even overthrow dictators and establish democratic republics with full protection of civil liberties. That takes mental toughness, but it can be done. I've seen it done. You may be inspired by the document linked here and the other documents (in numerous languages) posted at the same website. http://www.aeinstein.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/FDTD.pdf http://www.aeinstein.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/FDTD.pdf

Mz 10y ago
Since you have a lot of women, I will suggest that you explicitly instruct them to be careful about talking about other people in their lives in identifiable terms. Men tend to invest their identity in their work. Women tend to invest their identity in their relationships. Telling anecdotes about "My sister/boss/mother/daughter/son/husband" is potentially putting those people at risk. Encourage them to use vaguer terminology such as 'someone I know'; 'a relative'; 'an acquaintance'; 'a friend of a friend.' Women are incredibly prone to talking about other people in terms that they don't think is problematic and in terms that they think is anonymous enough for the internet, but really is not ("my sister" instead of "sister's name" -- but it is possible to identify your sister). This is a habit they need to break if they value the welfare of these other people. Edit: Since this is getting down votes, I will add that if you think they won't listen to a man saying this, I will be happy to blog about it and you can give them the link. Perhaps it will be more palatable coming from a woman.
- tokenadult 10y ago
  Maybe some of the onlookers don't know that you have long identified yourself as a woman here. As I recall, we (you and I) eventually figured out that we first "met" on an online community before Hacker News was founded.
  - Mz 10y ago
    Oh, no doubt. The offer to do a blogpost still stands. I can include the pertinent info in a piece I have been planning for some time about information security online for women. Best.
  - Mz 10y ago
    As promised: http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/2017/01/infosec-1-information-security-for.html http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/2017/01/infosec-1-in... You are free to use it, or not, to help your group get oriented.
bigiain 10y ago
Consider this: https://www.amazon.com/Smart-Girls-Guide-Privacy-Rest-ebook/dp/B00JBV3C6S https://www.amazon.com/Smart-Girls-Guide-Privacy-Rest-ebook/... I've given a bunch of friends (women and men) that.

Mz 10y ago

Since you have a lot of women, I will suggest that you explicitly instruct them to be careful about talking about other people in their lives in identifiable terms. Men tend to invest their identity in their work. Women tend to invest their identity in their relationships. Telling anecdotes about "My sister/boss/mother/daughter/son/husband" is potentially putting those people at risk. Encourage them to use vaguer terminology such as 'someone I know'; 'a relative'; 'an acquaintance'; 'a friend of a friend.' Women are incredibly prone to talking about other people in terms that they don't think is problematic and in terms that they think is anonymous enough for the internet, but really is not ("my sister" instead of "sister's name" -- but it is possible to identify your sister). This is a habit they need to break if they value the welfare of these other people. Edit: Since this is getting down votes, I will add that if you think they won't listen to a man saying this, I will be happy to blog about it and you can give them the link. Perhaps it will be more palatable coming from a woman.

tokenadult 10y ago
Maybe some of the onlookers don't know that you have long identified yourself as a woman here. As I recall, we (you and I) eventually figured out that we first "met" on an online community before Hacker News was founded.
- Mz 10y ago
  Oh, no doubt. The offer to do a blogpost still stands. I can include the pertinent info in a piece I have been planning for some time about information security online for women. Best.
- Mz 10y ago
  As promised: http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/2017/01/infosec-1-information-security-for.html http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/2017/01/infosec-1-in... You are free to use it, or not, to help your group get oriented.

bigiain 10y ago

Consider this: https://www.amazon.com/Smart-Girls-Guide-Privacy-Rest-ebook/dp/B00JBV3C6S https://www.amazon.com/Smart-Girls-Guide-Privacy-Rest-ebook/... I've given a bunch of friends (women and men) that.