Aitvo movement

As an IT specialist_ki donate time and effort to charity and why do they need it

On January 25, 2024, Doxa was recognized as an “unwanted organization”.

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After February 24, dozens of new volunteer movements appeared in the Russian -language segment of the Internet: caring people help refugees from Ukraine as quickly as possible to get into a safe and comfortable place, relocate from the mobilization of Russians abroad, warn about where the policeman with the agenda hung up, and launches many other useful initiatives. But all these initiatives would be much less effective if not for the IT specialist_ki, whose work is critical, but often remains in the shade. Doxa talked with those who help activists with technological solutions and create their own projects without earning a cent.

Author
Author
Lil

Participation of the initiative Bots AGainSt War

C. and L.

C.: Before the beginning of a full -scale war, I was involved in political activism, although quite episodically. And after February 24, I ran into the feeling that now, the war begins, and we can’t do anything with it. Then I thought that I have competencies in the field of development and I can offer my help to friends and acquaintances of friends who are involved in activist activities. After some time, our team of “bots against war” was formed. Now there are about five people in it.

L.: Before the invasion, I had experience participating in the near-Kholevat Reading groups. After the start of the invasion, I volunteer_a in one anti -war movement. They had a bot in a telegram, but it turned out to be not very convenient, and I just had a hobby - the creation of bots, including a little more complex than usual. And then I had an idea: it would be cool to make a lower engine, a service for those who need to make a bot or help with support. By the will of fate, we contacted C. and decided to stir up such a movement.

S.: For us approximately equal priorities, protest initiatives became emphasized (for example, coordinating some kind of anti-war activity in Russia, supporting activists) and initiatives that help Ukrainian refugees.

We learned to process the simplest requests almost instantly: if we have a ready -made template, then to minimally customize it and give it to activists, we have half an hour. There are bots designers, but the problem with many of them, especially free, is that they are very unsafe. There were stories that some data drained, or insert advertising, or both. In activist projects for which safety is critical, I do not want to use this. At some point, we noticed that we often add very similar functionality to the bots. For example, a wing for feedback in 70% of requests is a central feature, and in the remaining 30% - a side one, which is still needed. Then we made our bots designer.

The most inconspicuous help on our part now is to say: “Guys, you have such a request, and our designer already knows how - hold it. If there are problems, write for advice "

More complex tasks are most often solved within a week, but depending on the request, this can take several months. For some projects, such a long period of completion of the tasks is quite acceptable: in the first few months of the war, there was a feeling that everyone was on, and then gradually many [activist projects] began to go into sustainable work, because it became clear that both war and the regime in Russia were unlikely to cease to exist in the next week.

L.: In our team there are no strict rules. We try without the need not to put any deadlines for ourselves. If you want to somehow realize yourself in anti-war activity, you allocate a piece of free time and spend [on it]. [On average, my volunteering takes about 10 hours a week. But it is important that for these six months we have made a gang that not only solves some technical problems, but also supports each other.

S.: At first I was like a lone wolf in the fields of digital battles, but then, when it turned out to arrange some kind of collective enterprise, it became much easier for me. More resource began to appear to engage in [activism]. It happens that we phoned, discussed something, told how to do anyone-and somehow it is already pleasant in our souls. This is an important thing for me.

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Developer

Nikolai Mendyaev

I had some kind of bias for a long time Breeding, addiction, affecting the perception of some events. " Small nations Nikolai Mendyaev grew up in the Republic of Kalmykia. Why on average “small nations” are not very launched in some socio-political space? Yes, because they think that their voice does not mean anything. And I did not participate in activism until some point. And then my uncle sat down. His faces were pressed-and I realized that I had to do something with it. So I first got into the ADCOLLICKIL To date, the project is closed, its site does not work. - This is a startup, which is dedicated to legal cases, such as Uber for lawyers. From 2016 to 2019 he worked in the mediazon by the technical director. And in parallel as an activist participated in most more or less large rallies that took place in Moscow: for example, in support of Ildar Dadin and Alexei Navalny.

After the start of the war, I participated in Helping to Leave : I helped them connect the donates, made the first settings for automation of the bot through botmickers. Then I left for the most part to go about my business and sometimes helped the children from the mediazone. And recently we began to evacuate Kalmyks On the first day of Putin, the mobilization of the inhabitants of Kalmykia began to be taken to the military commissariats. Relatives of the called men reported numerous violations: they called on the front, including those who did not fit the age and state of health, and did not pre -send the summons to many. According to “important stories” and CIT, Kalmykia entered the top 10 regions with the maximum share of mobilized. . I raised the bot on the first day of mobilization to answer questions. My friends organized a transfer - that is, in fact, they themselves sent the first bus to the border and paid. Accordingly, I made a system that through a bot passes the children information about who needs a transfer. Then we organized a small set of operators who answered in the bot, created several chats to organize people who have already reached Kazakhstan. They made a chat for monitoring a state at the border and a couple of times a day, depending on the situation, they gave tips on how to get to Kazakhstan by the cheapest and fastest way from Elista. Well, they advised people in evacuation.

It was an absolutely spontaneous action: many people felt danger, and I just began to help them. This is not to say that someone came to me [with a request for help]: I launched a bot, relying on my experience with Helping to Leave, and then we were fired [with other activists who helped the Kalmyks run away from the war]. In general, if you have no experience of activism, this work is quite difficult.

Co -author_ki of the chamber map of Moscow, Experts in Radical Kitty Tech

Natasha Tyshkevich and Pilmyu

Natasha: I and Piluma were detained at rallies in the summer of 2019. Doxa wrote about us as about her detained editors - and so my work in Doxa and public activism began. This activity led to a criminal case, which was brought to me and other editors and redistoro_k in 2021. The arrest radicalized and activated me even more, and even under the ban on using the Internet, I continued to work in the magazine.

When I was under actual house arrest , my movements around the city - to the courts and interrogations, were controlled with the help of a police bracelet. The bracelet does not work very well, but in addition to it, your movements are monitored using cameras. As my inspector FSIN told me, they often see malfunctions [in the work of the bracelet], but then they usually check on the cameras whether the person really left home or not. Despite house arrest, I still found ways to go about my business, so I used to notice these cameras and hide from them.

Piliu: We were in Armenia when Hakaton from the Internet without borders passed. Roskomvobod participated in it, which announced a project about video surveillance cameras. Natasha and I took up computers, Natasha unloaded data on the cameras, and we quickly cried out an interactive card.

Natasha: The map, in my opinion, can help find routes on which you can go unnoticed. Also on the map are data on different types of cameras. For example, there are cameras with facial recognition technology, and they are located not only in the squares and near the metro, but also in the places where activists live. I checked: both me and my "colleagues" in the criminal case at the entrances had such cameras.

Piliu: the task that we kept in the mind is to find out where the cameras are in order to be able to get around them. But in fact, an interactive card can be used for other purposes, this is almost a research tool. A card is just a good format for such data.

Natasha: Initially, the idea of Roskomvoboda was to build routes, starting from where the cameras are located. It would be possible to develop our project in the direction of building safe routes, but I do not want to make an too convenient interface - because thanks to this, the other side will be able to find out who and where to go. In my opinion, the very publication of such a project, such a card should inspire people to make them something similar.

Developer, DOXA cyber -tire

Sasha

I would not call myself an activist with a capital letter. For a long time I was not deeply involved in political processes, but I always bothered that Roskomnadzor would block the resources that I use or that my relatives could not find out some information about the policy in the world. I studied how it works, I did VPN, but it was always for some closed circle of people, mainly for friends and relatives.

After the outbreak of war, I wanted to somehow participate in the anti-war movement. This is not to say that a particular event in the war greatly switched me-all this time I read the news and was in a state of shock. A few months after the outbreak of war, I emigrated, and after everything was tired in everyday life, I could exhale and realized that now I could spend my strength on something more useful. I felt that it was also important to me because I did not go to rallies at one time and regret it. And now my skills in the field of development and system administration came in handy: my friends work in the dox, and they have needs to communicate with readers or bypassing locks. For example, I made a system that allows the dox to make mirrors Copies of the site that are on another domain. When the main site is blocked, users can find all materials on its mirror. . When Roskomnadzor blocks them, a new mirror rises independently and all links begin to indicate it. Regarding some technologies, activists wrote to me that the doxes have done this coolly, and they would also like to make some kind of analogue in their projects. But it was someone in the dox that gave them my contact-I myself do not have such a loud name, I didn’t lead Twitter, I don’t talk about it.

Now I am a volunteer in the dox. I have another job, so for me there is no question of what to live on. I spend my free time on something for the soul. At the same time, as far as I know, in some media, including dox, there is also the opportunity to receive payment for their work.

I am engaged in volunteering every second evening, 15–25 hours a week I try to allocate for this. But it happens differently. It is important not to fade: if I get tired and leave the team, you will need to find in my place someone who can be trusted, and this is difficult. So it is important to soberly evaluate your strength.