I wrote an email to the EJA:
Hello,
my name is momo and I started in the circus scene in 2009. I have organized some conventions and travelled a lot for circus events through Europe.
The circus scene is my happy place. I really enjoy this place and would love to have more people experiencing circus by trying it out themselves. Not consuming but creating and training.
EJCs are the heart of the circus scene in my opinion. They are a parallel universe for 9 days for the attending people. I helped setting up 3 EJCs over the years (2012, 2013, 2016) and it was a pleasure to see how people seek solutions for challenges they encounter on the way.
After telling a bit about myself I would like to bring up my point.
Every EJC has a website https://ejc2026.org as an example. The website is controlled by the organisation team of the corresponding EJC. Every EJC must provide news about their event on that website. That should be the primary source of information. Not any silos of proprietary companies. You can mirror that information on such services, but it should be on the website of the convention at first and be accessible. The accessability is also mandatory in the EU [0] since last year.
I have talked with organizers of the Papendal EJC 2 years before the EJC taking place that information should not be on instagram first. To follow information about the event you needed an instagram account. They did the opposite and mirrored instagram via embedding in the EJC website. This does not help.
The EJA and the EJCs must use their own websites to provide information and not force people to use proprietary platforms.
This year the announcement for the ticket shop opening was on instagram and not on the website. I was on a circus convention and was able to buy a ticket from the second batch because people from that event where being informed via instagram.
This is no communication strategy. This is no sovereignity. This is not a way of creating a community. This makes me furious for the past years.
I know from own experience that organizing even a smaller convention for 500-700 people takes a lot of work. But in every EJC there should be tech-savy people that can put information concerning the event on their website.
Sorry for that harsh criticism. But the situation is just unbearable. I am happy to have a discussion about the topic.
Greetings,
momo.
[0] https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/web-accessibility
Up until now I did not receive even a message that the EJA received my complaint. :(
I got an answer from the president of the EJA. They are open for discussion. I would love to talk to them before the EJC or have an in person meeting at the EJC.
Would you like to join the discussion? I would love to exchange opinions on how ho make the status quo better for everyone in the future. I would very interested in hearing your opinions and learn from your knowledge.
I suspect my views will be the same as yours, but I’ll try to get around to writing something.
I'm pragmatic, and I understand that event organisers want to get their message out to as many people as possible. It makes sense for them to post on the corporate social media sites. I am not asking or telling them not to do that. But I am asking them to understand that those sites these days are increasingly closed data silos, requiring web surfers to have an account with them to even view posts there. This effectively shuts out a large number of people from reading posts there: anyone who - for whatever reason* - doesn't want to have an account with [FB/IG/TikTok/Twitter/whoever].
Event organisers should always ensure that they put their information on an open web source. Typically their own web page. If they make it the default behaviour to post on their own website FIRST, they can *then* make a post on any/all social media sites saying, for example...
"Hey folks, we have news! Check out our site for the latest pre-registration prices for CoNvenTioN. Don't miss out! [web page URL]"
If organisers of smaller events might say "oh, we don't have anyone to build a website for us", then okay - but you can get a wordpress site for free at https://wordpress.com/ . A basic website with text and images is perfect to get your message across to *everyone*.
(If you do have a Wordpress site, either on wordpress.com or self-hosted, then you should seriously consider installing the ActivityPub plugin. It automatically pushes every post/page out to the fediverse for you. (Mastodon/Pixelfed/Lemmy/PeerTube, etc) And if you're not familiar with what the fediverse is, it's social media that's free from Big Tech billionaires, ads and algorithms. Please check out Elena's excellent short video which gives a great overview of what it is, and why you should join. https://tlmb.net/blog/whats-the-fediverse/ )
Thanks for keeping the web free and open to everyone.
*[These corporate sites stole your data, sold it to Cambridge Analytica, who enabled Brexit and Trump. They kowtow to fascists. They convinced you never to leave their sites, and locked you in because they've trapped your friends and family too. They're using your data to train AI, without your permission. Including all your photos. Reason enough? The fediverse doesn't do any of this. You can leave, and you will never regret it. Come join the open social web!]
These are shared views. Would you be interested in a joined conversation (either video call or EJC) with the EJA and me? Anybody else interested in expressing their views?
seconded.
{ no one needs those sites that come and go, get bought by new possessor, accumulate to that big meta-amazon-fb-musk-dsukerbeurps-apple-windows-cookies-vendors-nsa-...-whatnotall ... and they force you, the lemming, to always click "OK" to their 50 pages long ToU }
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