What is the Pursuance Project?

• Pursuance exists to amplify the efforts of activists, journalists, and non-profits the world over

How?

• Short-term goal: create secure collaboration software that makes groups of people (especially activists) more effective

• Medium-term goal: create an ecosystem of opposition to institutionalized injustice

Amplify What, Exactly?

• The kinds of things Barrett was doing so effectively that he and others were targeted by the state for uncovering DOJ corruption and went to jail

Amplify What, Exactly? (2)

• 1. Global digital activism
  • E.g., Anonymous

Amplify What, Exactly? (3)

Amplify What, Exactly? (4)

• 2. Crowdsourced research and journalism
  • E.g., Project PM going through HB Gary Federal's hacked emails

Amplify What, Exactly? (5)

• 3. Non-profits
  • Coordinating and motivating volunteers
  • Volunteers should be treated more like employees
    • Empower them!
    • The Bernie Sanders campaign did this, and to impactful effect

"Teams"? No, Pursuances

“Your most valuable asset isn’t your employees,” I told the executive. “Your most valuable asset is the thousands of people who want to work for you for free, and you don’t let them.”

So what's it look like?

Pursuance Features

• End-to-end encrypted task management

  • Assign tasks to partner groups
  • Ability to assign tasks based on skill set
    • ...without having to personally know people with those skills

• Action broadcasts

• Gamification/reputation

Pursuance Features (2)

• Real-time chat

• File sharing

• Tor support (hidden service)

• An ecosystem of individuals and pursuances trying to change the world

Pursuance Features (3)

• Later: other types of semi-automation over time

  • "Reassign this task to an appropriate every 3 days till someone finishes it"

• Pursuance Library

• Browsable, searchable directory of public pursuances

Pursuance Features (4)

• Permissions system

  • Fine-grained sharing of tasks

• Gamification aspect: karma points

  • Motivation + systemic efficiency increases (assign based on skills)

• Reminders

  • "If @user hasn't worked on task #17 in 3 days, remind me to message them"
    • ...or send a message automatically? or have the system do it?

Tech Stack

• Frontend

  • React + Redux
  • Bootstrap
  • Soon: React Native-based mobile app, Electron-based desktop app

• Backend

  • Go
  • Postgres
  • PostgREST
    • Most epic tech you've never heard of

Likely Early Pursuances

• Erin Gallagher's work on unmasking Twitter bots via social network analysis
  • twitter.com/3r1ng
  • medium.com/@erin_gallagher

Likely Early Pursuances (3)

• FOIA Network

• Private Prison Project/Prison Reform Project

• Global Pirate Activism

Big Announcement + Broader Vision

• See https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/gyynwm/barrett-brown-what-is-to-be-done

"For the first time in history, any individual may now collaborate with any other individual." --Barrett Brown

• See also PursuanceProject.org

Big Picture

Pursuance provides the usability of Slack (but more securely), the task management features of Redmine (but better-designed), and the community-building of Reddit (but with recruitment by skill set), plus truly unique features like cross-group task assignment, Action Broadcasts (for actions many people should take), automated inactive task (re)assignment (by skill set), and more.

Team/Contributors/Heroes

• Barrett Brown (vision, insights, PR)

  • Founder of Pursuance

• Steve Phillips

  • Project Manager, Technical Lead of Pursuance

• Annalise Burkhart (trust system research, non-profit status, bank account)

  • Director of Operations at Pursuance

• Raymond Johansen (international recruitment of epic activists)

  • International Coordinator at Pursuance

Heroes (2)

• Marty Yee (core contributor; LeapChat, Pursuance UI/UX)

• Muhammad Shoman (core contributor, LeapChat, autocompleting all the things)

• Claire Peters (core contributor, policy/legal research, deployments)

• Valerie Mack (public listing of pursuances, deployments, pursuance switcher)

Call(s) to Action

• What we need

  • Developers! (React)
  • Designers! (UX/interfaces)
  • Both should see the pursuance channel on C4SF's Slack

• Join us!

  • https://PursuanceProject.org/

The Beginning is Near

• Questions? (Thanks!)

• Email: team@pursuanceproject.org

• Twitter: @PursuanceProj

• Reddit: reddit.com/r/PursuanceProject