Can I Come And Live In Your Co-Op

[ni...@nexbri.demon.co.uk]

I would like to do something that has never been done before. I would like
to join a housing co-op over the Internet, and go and live there, anywhere
in the world.

I, at the present live in Brighton. I feel that in the future a lot more
Housing Co-op's will use the net, not only for communication, but as a
basis for earning their living in the global village.

I have a number of skills I would like to share. I have considerable
experience of the Internet, HTML, Unix SysAdmin, NT SysAdmin, Web/database
integration and so forth.

I also run the Internet/HTML course at a local Community Centre, for local
unemployed people. I cooked a Vegan meal once a week here as well for the
local poor and unemployed.

As you can see, I have a lot to offer a Housing co-op. I feel this is an
idea of the future, but one who's time as come.

I dream of a time when people will be more free, more mobile, more
empowered and live and work together in Housing Co-Op's, connected by the
Internet.

It is quite possible to put new members forms on the Internet, and take
submissions. The first co-op to open its doors to the world will gain the
smartest, most energetic and skilled people from the world market.

This article will reside on dejanews for a long time. My email address
will be the same for a long time.

I would especially like to hear from scandinavian scandinavia and canadian
canada housing co-ops.

Yours Nick Macro
---
Utopia or Bust!
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[ni...@nexbri.demon.co.uk]

> << Its a bit like sci-fi here. >>
>
> It hasn't always been???? Patrick McGoohan was putting us on????

I suppose so. Post modernism implies that a utopian future has been
achieved, at least by some of us. Surveillance implies data capture,
which on one hand is frightening, on the other is just the completing
of the televisual feedback loop, giving us control.

> Luddite? Me? What gave it away, the sundial on my wrist?

Heehehe. I have a swatch pager on my wrist, hooked up to the net.

<farmhouse described>

Sounds nice.

Can you get a really good, fast internet connection into there? When I
move, I want to go somewhere with a fast internet connection and a
server, so that I can earn my keep straight away.

<location described>

Nice. The 'edge' around New York. Isn't it all sort of science park
meets countryside? lots of low campus style buildings all made of
glass, nestling amongst trees and landscaping, and research goes on?

Bit sterile, maybe for me. A bit post-humanists

> << I think the point I was moving towards is that what I want more of is
> *bandwidth*.>>

> Definition, please? I know the dictionary def., but it looks like you're
> using this as shorthand for something deeper. Please elaborate.

I mean a fast Internet connection, with so I can get lots of
information. With the existing technology, (broadcast) sound over the
net becomes a very real, viable technology which can challenge the
existing FM radio monopolies and enable everyone to become a
'transmitter', rather than the licensed few.

You know, bandwidth, feed, permanent digital phone lines connected to
workstations which are on the net all the time, and so can act as
servers to provide textural interaction, documents and adverts, sound
and pictures.

> <<If someone said to me 'you could join our co-op over the net'>>

> Sorry, been burned by professional transients who never
> intended to pay rent so they didn't.

I am not someone who just takes, but someone who works quite hard. As
well as knowing about the technical aspects ('the plumbing') of the
net, I also can cook. Until recently I cooked a Vegan meal every week
at a Community Centre for around 50 people.

Oh, and I run the Internet course there as well, so I am not a
parasite by any means. It is just that I am poor.
You might think that with these skills, I would be quite well off. I
suppose the reason for this is that I have been pursuing my own
interests.

I like freedome, to not be constrained to set my own goals and
learning needs. I don't think it is such a strange idea that I should
do what I want *all* the time.

I think it is fair to charge a deposit. Unfortunately I do not have
any money for deposit. I am caught in a poverty trap of living in
rented accomodation, which living in a co-op is a solution to. The
co-op's here charge a nominal deposit (share) of one pound.

So I go instantly from being one of the poorest (homeless) to one of
the richest (home owning). I like being part of a community, knowing
lots of people. I don't want to sit in a box (car or house) on my own
passively absorbing information. I like kids running around and the
sort of place where you have courses both 'dowsing and lay lines' and
the Internet and NT SysAdmin.
> Again, what's your definition of the ** terms? A telephone line and choice
> of three or four providers with internet access and a house with people who
> are tolerant of techie-ism even if they don't share the interest isn't
> sufficient?

I suppose so. It is because I am a professional, and not an end
user. To do the really fun things on the net, you need to be on it all
the time, so you can provide information to others, and offer
services, such as databases and email addresses.

A car mechanic will have better tools than a weekend hobbyiest. I want
the best Internet connection that I can get my hands on. I can see
some of the things I want to do with it, and have some ideas of how
things are progressing, but ultimately you have to 'get out there',
into the future, before everyone else does, and work out what's
happening.

At the moment, a lot of what is going on is social change, social
exceptance, and interface improvement. The functionality is there. It
is 'pretty bits', which make our interaction more pleasant, quicker
and rewarding, with computers, which is improving. Graphic design.

This is most crucial in music making, where fast timing is
everything. We are in a transition period from paper based
publications and electronic publications. The magazines and newspapers
will be the first to make the change, followed by radio, and much
later, tv.

It's not the technology is not there, but that companies are not
implementing the 'economies of scale', ie. putting fibre into
everyones house as a matter of course, fast enough for my taste.

> If you're looking for an intentional community/co-op to live in, may I ask
> why?

I think I explain this above. Community, working, playing, living,
techie-toys, Kids, pets, lovers, cooking, architecture,
involvement. You know, life, being human.

I want to live in an Urban co-op, which people of similar age (25),
similar interests (technology and evolution and music), so I can
exchange ideas, but also people of varying ages and interests, so we
achieve a synthesis.

I want to live in an Urban co-op because I like all the facilities
being accessable by public transport, and not being dependant on cars.

Ideally the co-op should be similar to the Danish model, of a group of
living units with shared facilities gathered around a common house
which might contain computer rooms, music rooms, creche, play rooms,
workshops.

If this has a proper net connection, then the admin of the co-op can
be done on the local network, and minutes of meetings, decisions,
newsletters, phone lists and so forth can be done using the co-op's
network/intranet.

The advantage with this is that documents public to the world and
public to co-op members or other co-ops will be published
'automatically'. There is no need to print it out, send it out, type
it in etc. unless you want to, because you will be word-processing
directly on the net itself, and you will just choose the accessablity
of this. Mailing lists, automatic responders, vacancies, newsgroups
and so forth can all be done.

Yours Nick Macro
---
Utopia or Bust

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