Have you thought about translating, transscribing or proof reading for texts and other media? Also making audio versions of texts or translated audio tracks are digital tasks that often dont have enough people doing them.

No, I didn’t even know that was something people needed. I figured modern translation & transcription software was good enough to do most of these tasks. Where is it needed?

Do you have things that you believe you could do but currently dont because you dont have the confidence / skills you think you need for that?

Kind of, yeah. I am a competent programmer and generally have a good mind for technology. There are a few reasons I haven’t applied it to anything anarchist-y yet:

• I’m a game programmer, and have almost no experience working with any other kind of tech, software or otherwise. The fundamental skills & mindset are very transferable, but anything which is practically useful will require the effort of learning how to do new things.
• I could contribute to open source projects, but coding is a lot of work and I’m not sure what a minimal first step would be. The idea of having to get to know an entire code base just to fix a small bug or add a simple feature is daunting.
• I’m not actually sure how much I could really help people through code. Maybe a project like Meshtastic, decentralized communications? Software is a tool, and more than just a tool, it’s like a meta-tool, it’s multiple steps removed from physical reality, which makes it harder to gauge how much help I’m really providing. It is definitely something I am well suited for, and it’s something I like doing, but I don’t want to get lost in the sauce of making tools for the sake of making tools or making the efficiency more efficient without it being grounded somewhere. Unless people really want someone to put more effort towards open source game projects, then I guess I could do that lol, it just feels like a very indirect way of making the world a better place.

I live as a nomad, so I don’t really have a “local” for more than a few months at a time (at most). Without putting all my lifestyle details on the internet, it’s a large part of why I’m hoping to find ways to help people directly that are online. I have no fixed location, no local community, and usually not much means of local transport. I guess my “local community” is whatever parts of the Internet I frequent? Makes me wonder if there’s something out there for remote workers, I’ve sure seen some BS in the industries where I’ve worked.

To be frank, I do not want to make flyers or do admin tasks for a political organization I’m meeting for the first time. My goal is to help people directly. I will take your advice though,

Start small, start local, don’t burn yourself out, speak to people

The first anarchist I met suggested I write a list of all the resources & skills I can offer, and a list of all the people in my social circles (I feel like I should include online communities as well), and just start with mutual aid on a small direct scale like that. There was a term he had for doing this that I can’t remember :/

Good luck!

Thanks, I feel like I might need it.

Just looked on their website at the list of ways people can help, there’s more variety of tasks & skills on there than I was expecting. I don’t know how to modify or repair bikes, or craft a solar oven, but if someone was willing to teach me I’d be excited to learn.

Carpooling with people I don’t know scares me a little, but I have friends of various ideological alignments in the different places I’ve stayed who might be interested in doing a little field trip with me. I’ll try to keep it in mind.

Also, thanks for reminding me that foodnotbombs exists. That is definitely a group which helps people directly.

I am actually usually in rural areas, so that option is not going to be available to me very often. I appreciate the suggestion though, never heard the term “infoshop” before.