aktivisda-canva-like/docs

Aktivisda

?> Ce site Internet est également disponible 🇫🇷 en français

What is Aktivisda?

In a nutshell, Aktivisda is a static and free website to simplify the creation of visuals (posters, social networks) by all the activists of an organisation in the colours of that organisation.

And in more detail, Aktivisda is:

• « a Website » : the tool is accessible via a browser (e.g. Firefox) and does not require any downloads;
• « static »: this means, in particular, that the site requires very few server-side resources. All image modifications are made on the user's computer, there is no database and no user account;
• « and free » : Aktivisda is free software, which could also be called a digital commons. The software can be analysed, installed, redistributed and studied by anyone. It is licensed under AGPLv3, which prohibits its use in proprietary software. The source code, documentation, tests and everything else needed to run Aktivisda is available in this Framagit project;
• « to simplify » : the aim is to have an interface that's accessible and easy to use, rather than having a ton of advanced features;
• « the creation of visuals (posters, social networks) » : Aktivisda is perfect for creating visuals with little text, for example visuals to announce events, meetings or demonstrations. These visuals can be printed or published on social networks;
• « by all the activists» : Aktivisda is designed to be used by anyone, and particularly not by 'professional' graphic designers. These people already have proprietary software (or opensource software such as Inkscape) to create visuals. Graphic designers are invited to create visuals outside Aktivisda and then make them available to everyone on Aktivisda;
• « of an organisation » : Aktivisda is a decentralised tool, with each organisation having its own instance of the website with only its own graphic charter. This means that the website can be fully customised and a version adapted to its own use. As it stands, Aktivisda is not intended for the creation of quick visuals outside an associative framework. Aktivisda is perfectly suited to large decentralised organisations with strong graphic charters, where many activists are active and can take initiatives. This is particularly true of federations, movements, trade unions, etc. (see examples of use);
• « colours of that organisation » : by proposing the organisation's complete graphic charter, and only this one, this ensures that all the visuals produced by Aktivisda will have a certain consistency and will immediately make it possible to associate a visual with an organisation;

Aktivisda, a digital common

Aktivisda is a digital commons project that belongs to everyone. It's not just a tool, but a set of building blocks, practices and experiments that can be taken up, modified and changed... You can freely take pieces of Aktivisda for your own projects (as long as these projects are themselves licensed under AGPLv3).

In particular, Aktivisda's technical core for creating visuals, exporting them and compressing them can be reused in other projects (see in particular the refigure project): see the aktivisda-library documentation.

Aktivisda is open to contributions of all kinds: suggestions for improvements, help with development, spreading the word about the tool, writing documentation, translating the site or documentation, helping with accessibility, funding features... Any contribution, from a few hours to several weeks is welcome 🙌: a digital community is built by its users. To help out, don't hesitate to send an email to [email protected].

Another choice over Canva

Aktivisda meets some of the same needs as the proprietary software Canva but does not aim to be a real alternative to it.

Where Canva offers a wide range of functions and a large gallery of graphic elements, Aktivisda concentrates on the functions and graphic elements that are essential to an organisation.

The specific needs of each organisation can be developed within Aktivisda in a way that is totally unthinkable with Canva.

Our approach: simplicity and restraint

Since 2019, Aktivisda has been a volunteer project mainly developed by Marc-AntoineA alongside other projects and a salaried activity. As a result, the time available for this project is highly constrained. This has led to a number of choices being made in order to go straight to the point, keep the need for maintenance and the cost of the technical infrastructure to a minimum, simplify the creation of new instances and simplify their management by non-developers.

👉 Thanks to all these choices, Aktivisda is a simple tool to deploy in your own organisation, with no additional infrastructure costs (it's probably less cumbersome than the organisation's website), virtually no maintenance time and can be managed on a daily basis without any technical knowledge thanks to the integrated software backtivisda.