Acter
Activism Organizing on Matrix
Benjamin Kampmann
@ben:acter.global
2023-09-22, Matrix Summit 2023 Berlin
It'se me, Ben
Co-Founder & Tech-Lead Acter.global
formerly
Rust & Decentralisation since 2015
prev. Core Dev @ Parity on Substrate
Co-Host RustFest 2016 & 2017, OpenTechSchool
political Organizer with DiB2017, XR Magdeburg, ...
more about me on gnunicorn.org
Rust Developer @ New Vector/Element
Lead-Dev for matrix-rust-sdk
and also ...
wtf organizing?
peer-to-peer
eye-to-eye-level
no bosses
no project manager(s)
happens in a social context
takes place "after work"
people coming together to work towards a specific aim or goal
civil society
grassroots activism
WhatsApp!
or Telegram, if you are lucky...
an Excel Sheet
a Trello
an Asana
a Wekan Board
a Github/Jira Project
We need more structures! Let's set up a ...
the mobile-first casual organizing App built on Matrix
Acter
show me!
where we are at
Chat
Calendar
Updates
feed of the latest news - like Instagram, TikTok Feed
your shared pin wall / fridge of important to quickly look up
important events and who has RSVP'ed
Pins
end-2-encrypted Chat like in WhatsApp, Telegram or Signal
Chat
Calendar
Updates
Pins
for all your communities in just one App
how's that different?
quick'n'easy browsing the news feed to stay up to date
casual
fresh, clean & modern UI/UX, No-Management PM-Tools
clean
subspaces, structured objects, likes & comments
more signal, less noise
always-on full privacy for all communication & tools*
end-2-end encrypted
for all your casual organizing needs
non-business suite
* Not yet enabled by default
try yourself!
Beta now on AppStore for iOS and Google PlayStore for Android!
your registration token: MatrixSummit23
Desktop -> Nightly releases:
Mobile via App Stores:
give us feedback!
tell us at #foyer:acter.global
#tech:acter.global
Thanks!
Questions?
We are hiring => acter.global
appendix
Tech Stack
Frontend / App
Dart, Native Apps for mobile & desktop (by Google)
Google Design Framework with plenty of mobile Widgets
Core
low-level systems-language compiled native and as WASM
reusing as many common widgets & elements as possible. Theming through build-in tooling
Backend
synapse
brings
✅ decentralisation / federation
✅ extensible protocol
✅ end-2-end encryption
✅ public standard
also
✅ over 1 MAU
✅ used by UK, FR & DE Giovernments
✅ plenty of Integrations (slack, IRC, E-Mail, Twitter, etc..)
Matrix specialisation
Custom Events
- UI/UX-first approach
- Activitystream-style Event (and JMP/ rfc8984)
e.g. Todo; MarkAsDone, MarkAsArchived, Reorder, etc - Abstracted through state-machine to high-level "interactive" object
- requires full history of room
Custom Subspace
to differentiate to existing "classic" chat rooms, and know which ones to sync back fully
Intend to spec
... once we feel the events are "mature enough"
until then you can find all nicely specified at:
acterglobal/a3/ ->native/core/src/events
business
Acter (association)
- Non-profit, 501c-equivialent status
- Membership based, democratically organized Danish Association
- Remote-first Team Denmark, Portugal, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Pakistan, China
- "startup" driven work-approach
Multi-tier usage pattern
Regular User
Free App from the AppStore; create as many private groups as they like; Be part of as many groups as they like
1.
Super User
Pay per public group; paid groups with integrations and extra apps
2.
Partner organizations
Manager their own server for their user base and connected grassroots; licensed version of the App; extra services
3.
Same login and App for all different groups, interconnectivity through matrix
license
Main work is the building the App
We are not hosting company
Makes licensing complicated
we have bills to pay, too..
eventually Free Software under the
"Acter Source License"
Public & free
- all code public on Github
- anyone can use the availalbe App
- free personal, educational and internal usage for up to 100ppl (as long as it is not public)
- else need a special license
eventually AGPL 3.0
All code automatically becomes licensed under AGPL 3.0 in 2 years from date of publication.