Software Design and the Structure of Political Organizations

​Subtitle: Leninsm & Anarchism vs. the CRM

​Slides: https://link.excalidraw.com/l/1ihIuNnJ5Mi/6Hnm49DoVz5

​The event is upstairs - ring the doorbell to get in.

​Join us for a discussion on the relationship between the structure of political organizations and the software it uses to accomplish its goals.

​We will discuss a few different dimensions of organizational structures on the left and how their ability to carry out their chosen organizational form is shaped by the software they use.

​We will also discuss the way the introduction of software changes the experience of participation in politics, how those experiences transform participants and create and prevent the creation of new leaders.

​There will be a presentation and discussion lead by Ben Packer, a software engineer working in organizing technology on the US electoral and social movement left since 2017. He has worked for the Justice Democrats PAC, the Bernie 2020 campaign, and a number of software vendors that sell to campaigns, labor unions, and social movement organizations. In his capacity as a a co-founder and product lead at a technology cooperative, he conducted numerous user interviews with different movement organizations and organizing projects.

​The paper Bottom-Up Organizing with Tools from On High: Understanding the Data Practices of Labor Organizers by Vera Khovanskaya provides strong complimentary analysis with a focus on labor unions in the United States. I also recommend Paolo Gerbaudo's The Digital Party.