Falanster

Falanster

Фаланстэр
Founded	December 23, 2010
Type	Non-governmental organization
Legal status	Registered Youth NGO (civic organization)
Purpose	Helping to create a more autonomous and dynamic society through open and free digital technologies
Headquarters	Minsk, Belarus
Chairperson	Mikhail Volchak
Website	falanster.by

Falanster (Belarusian: Фаланстэр, Russian: Фаланстер) is a youth non-governmental organization founded at the end of 2010 in Minsk, appearing as a continuation of an initiative of the community Zabej.

Goals

The organization's goals are

1. Expand the use of free code and content, as well as open source software, among public organizations, official institutions, communities, and citizens.
2. Strengthen thematic and local communities with digital knowledge about managing their infrastructure.
3. Update the humanitarian and technical knowledge of public organizations, communities and citizens in order to activate society to be more involved in decision-making at all levels and the creation of laws.

According to the official website, the organization values innovativeness, autonomy, collectivism, openness, cooperativeness, inclusiveness, and social equality among its participants and partners.

The principal areas of activity

• preserving open and free knowledge,
• helping different communities establish internal communications using open source software,
• supporting legal tools that help protect knowledge from threats,
• organizing intellectual public events, interacting with different communities and groups,
• influencing the social, cultural, economic, and political life of the country.

The organization is a co-founder of Young Pirates of Europe.

Projects and clubs

The organization Falanster was founded on December 23, 2010. It was on this day that the organization's activity aimed at the young population of the Republic of Belarus started. Throughout this time, there were a number of educational clubs on the basis of Falanster, some of which no longer work.

Falanster projects are the embodiment of various activities of the organization in order to influence the social, cultural, economic, and political life of society. The projects of Falanster are based on the principles of open communities. All materials of the organization adhere to the copyleft approach and are published under the jurisdiction of the Creative Commons license BY-SA (3.0 or 4.0).

Falanster today

The youth of our country takes an active part in the organization's activities. The most actively developing projects are Doika, Digital lab, Geek-lauka, Hradka, Cyclist corner, Housewarming.

Falanster is an accredited EVS organization, founder of the Wiki user group community, co-founder of the Young Pirates of Europe Archived 2019-03-24 at the Wayback Machine, member of The Pirates Center of Belarus, a branch of Creative Commons, a member of the WebWeWant network, and actively conducts international activities.

2017–2018

Doika is a module receiving donations for non-profit organizations. Participants did research on the availability of such solutions and analogues, compiling documentation for development. There is a designed and tested module on the Falanster's website. In May 2018, Falanster participants won the hackathon aimed at improving its functionality. Development is ongoing.

Geek-lauka

Falanster opened an online store where you can buy t-shirts for geeks, badges, postcards, and order DIY masterclasses. On June 30, 2018, Falanster took part in the Our Day festival of the Assembly of NGOs of Belarus.

Falanster Speaking Club (season 4) is a new season of a spoken English club for everyone. During the club's existence, the participants discussed various compelling topics of general interest and learned about Falanster's activities.

Housewarming 2.0 – Falanster's project that shares its resources with individual activists and public and commercial initiatives as needed, on a sustainable basis, of course.

Map of public initiatives is an open-source map for creating greater visibility of social initiatives for society, researching target audiences, planning resource and team searches, and negotiating with partners.

Cyclist corner is a Falanster volunteer initiative created to repair bicycles, support the cycling community, and develop communication between cyclists.

Falanster also visits schools in Belarus, conducting orientation meetings to help students learn more about Wiki technologies.

2016

Wikification is an organization project aimed at strengthening the Belarusian Wikipedia community (writing articles about events in different cities and towns of the country, attracting volunteers, working in PR and media).

From time to time, Falanster holds so-called Wiki days, the purpose of which is the development and promotion of open knowledge, as well as adding articles and editing the Belarusian Wikipedia.

In addition, Falanster participated in the formation of the public project Garage 38, and held other events.

In 2016, the work on the creation of the Wiki-helper – brochures-instructions for beginner Wikipedia editors – was completed.

Moreover, the organization supported the international competition Wikimedia CEE Spring 2016.

Falanster made a great contribution to the development of the Belarusian language Wikipedia, visiting schools and helping all interested parties use and develop the resource.

Falanster's participation in the EVS movement

On October 19, 2016, Falanster was accredited by the European Voluntary Service of the Erasmus+ programme. This means that the organization has the right to accept volunteers from European countries and send Belarusian volunteers to work on various European projects.

The purpose of Falanster's participation in the EVS movement is to promote the strengthening of local non-profit organizations, the development of international volunteering, and experience exchange among young people as an example of non-formal education.

Falanster's Kitchen is a project that informs the Falanster community and its supporters on matters within the organization via short videos. Seventeen episodes came out in one year.

Digital lab is a project created to help public organizations and initiatives improve their digital infrastructure (create, repair, or improve websites, teach them how to use various web services). IT volunteers fulfill all digital requests of public organizations and initiatives voluntarily or pro bono. Work continues to this day.

2015

Mesh club is a club aimed at studying and developing Wi-Fi and mesh networks in Belarusian society. The participants study the construction of Wi-Fi networks, mesh technologies, and their practical application.

Ars nova. Digital art is a club aimed at studying open-source graphics programs. Participants learn how to work with open graphics editors such as GIMP and InkScape.

2014

Cyclist's helper

Presentation of the Cyclist's helper brochure in Minsk

In 2013, the Cyclist's helper was created within the Falanster's Femida club. Its main purpose was to draw public attention to the problems of cycling in Belarus. The brochure's presentation took place in Minsk.

Cyclist's helper is published under the jurisdiction of a free Creative Commons license and is available for download in two languages.

In 2014, a new version of the Cyclist's helper was created. Several dozen volunteers joined the project to help finish it. That year, Cyclist's helper was presented in a number of cities (Minsk, Gomel, Mogilev, Brest, Grodno, Vitebsk, Babruysk).

In 2014, Falanster started the campaign named "Change the rules!". Its essence lies in motivating citizens to electronic participation in society's joint affairs and solving common problems, such as those of the cycling community.

800x600 is a club dedicated to educating people on advanced computer skills. Participants learn to work with:

• open operating systems,
• open source software programs,
• games regardless of platform,
• interesting devices.

The e-Participation Tool is a developed platform for the joint creation of rules, laws, determining the position of people's communities, and the adoption of bills or other decisions by all stakeholders. A solution is available on Falanster's github for download and deployment.

Participation in the open data movement in 2014. Falanster joined the world's Open data movement day to exchange experience and discuss current events.

Wikification. Promotion of Wiki technologies and principles among Belarusian society, strengthening knowledge of the Belarusian language, and disseminating self-government principles.

Creative Commons branch

Poster for open CC affiliate in Belarus

In August 2014, the opening of a Creative Commons branch in Belarus took place. Falanster is basically the branch's infrastructure foundation. The branch is engaged in studying problems related to copyright, as well as the possibility of using Creative Commons, GNU GPL, etc., promoting the use of public licensing of works among authors, and conducting public lectures on the basics of copyright and the design of various works online.

Hradka. Falanster is a branch of Creative Commons in Belarus. Promotion of Creative Commons licenses among authors of works.

Internship in Falanster – Belarusian students have the opportunity to intern in humanitarian and technical directions, to write a term paper or thesis.

2013

Falanster's Femida is a club studying law. Administrative law, criminal law, copyright, and human rights are the main topics. During the club's existence, Cyclist's helper was created, aimed at attracting public attention to cycling in Belarus, including legislative peculiarities. A new version was published in 2014.

Linux club is a club aimed at studying the open Linux operating system and other open-source applications. Participants consider theoretical issues and learn how to deal with practical tasks that arise while working with Linux operating systems.

Knowledge base (now – Falanster's book crossing) is a library of historical, philosophical, political, and modern fictional and journalistic literature on the shelves of Falanster.

The Pirates Center of Belarus is a community of active people advocating for freedom of knowledge, copyright reform, confidentiality of personal information, and transparent management of society.

2012

Wild.de is an oratory club of the German language.

The Falanster's Speakers Club is a club aimed at developing public speaking skills in English and improving the level of speech. The club's main principles are

• student-led education, not teachers,
• role structure for active participation of each student,
• independent selection of the form and format of studying (speeches, debates, performances, etc.),
• teamwork and mutual assistance,
• success assessment based on self-developed criteria.

2011

Cyber Cinema-bunker is a club for modern digital technology lovers. Participants watch films about cyberpunk, dystopia, and computers, then discuss exciting topics and possible scenarios for the future vision of Belarus in the globalized digital world.

The first Drupal day in Minsk

Economics club, the essence of which was to study current trends in economics and find ways out of the economic crisis.

Drupal-club is a club aimed at studying the Drupal website creation system. Throughout the club's existence, its participants implemented several websites for non-profit projects, for example, the Pirates Center and e-database of cemeteries. In addition, Drupal-club holds Drupal rallies and celebrates Drupal Global Training Days Archived 2014-07-03 at the Wayback Machine.

Drupal-rally is an event aimed at developing the Drupal community in Belarus. In 2011, the first Drupal-rally was held, bringing together about 70 IT specialists. In 2012, Drupal-rally participants completed the translation of modules into the Belarusian language and created the website of the non-profit initiative Niekropali.by within a hackathon.

Geek Tournament 2.

The event included 29 teams from different cities of the country and local tournaments. Geek Tournament's purpose is to update and develop football among amateur teams.

External links

• Official website
• Official wiki page of creativecommons.com
• The project page on Falanster website

References

This article "Falanster" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Falanster. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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