Coalition of the Willing and OSN Ambitions
Michael Maranda
I am very glad of the response since yesterday, starting with Lonnie who gave a wonderful update of where he is at and what he's been up to. I'd like to encourage everyone to do the same - it need not have been something you did explicitly under OSN name and auspices. Also and relatedly worthwhile -- affirming where we each are in our projects stated from a synoptic perspective, relating our projects to other projects out there in the world (making our world visible to each other) and allowing possibility of recognition of mutual relevance.
Addressing Joshua's comment regarding the film's lack of pointing people in the right direction for next steps - I concur and suggest that that is our opportunity here. We should focus our OSN think tank on crafting a good response and set of alternatives and action items.
One path Joshua points out, in line with the film -- build/identify/select three fab sites and agree to develop our content there and not elsewhere.
I think there is a better way forward.
I take the 3 functional sites/capacities to be a simplification, making the point comprehensible to a general audience with something concrete... "three 'go to' sites - the de facto hub" - but or indeed it appears this was the view of the author.
I prefer to approach this with a layer of abstraction --- focusing on the functions (and endorsing the necessity of the global reach).
Briefly, Imagine a layer of data/content flowing between trusted repositories, and imagine a layer of destination sites where people access the functionalities proposed by the film - these destination sites being a window into this content and the social networks (I'd say purposive networks). This is only possible if we evolve our separate endeavors in the direction of interoperability and establish open standards for trusted content exchange.
This raises plenty of questions, certainly.
Some of the questions are technical and not everyone has the specific skills to enact them, but the vision is more important at this point, and appreciating the purpose or intent of something like this is where I am focused right now.
I'm willing to assemble a list of questions/concerns/objections raised by folks here - so please do fire away. Let's consider that an exercise.
I've plenty more to say - but I'll get off my soap box as I consider effective ways to ask further questions of the group here and how best to put responses into a useful form.
Respectfully,
Michael Maranda
Ben de Vries
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Ben de Vries
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I find it rather easy to portray a businessman. Being bland, rather cruel and incompetent comes naturally to me.
- John Cleese
Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake: One of her characters asks, "As a species we're doomed by hope, then?" By hope? Well, yes. Hope drives us to invent new fixes for old messes, which in turn create ever more dangerous messes. Hope elects the politician with the biggest empty promise; and as any stockbroker or lottery seller knows, most of us will take a slim hope over prudent and predictable frugality. Hope, like greed, fuels the engine of capitalism.
Mark Roest
Could you also assemble a list, or better yet a mind-map, of the inspirations, suggestions and methodologies that people put forward? That way people are inspired, and can see what needs to be complemented, and choose their focus accordingly.
It may be easier to do this on a place where everyone can add contributions.
By way of encouragement, Joy Tang, founder of oneVillage Foundation, has been asking for a site and team to develop the knowledgebase we need for empowering the people of Africa and the rest of the developing world to realize their potential and build sustainable economies, and your call to action sounds like a good place to begin.
Regards,
Mark
Michael Maranda
Short answer, yes. I will try.
(hello Joy, welcome to the conversation - have you seen the Coalition of the Willing video?)
I am planning to set up a wagn to flesh things out. It will be open, and when it is up, I will certainly invite people/inform folks here. For those who don't know, wagn is a type of wiki.
I work best with sketch pads and wikis :)
also, Mark --- I will think a bit more before replying to your other note on this thread. I appreciate you widening the discourse, as well as providing specific suggestions per ecosystems as appropriate frame. I have some push back on aspects of that, but will save that for later.
MM
paul horan
'... one of the reasons peace and love didn't gain enough traction during the sixties is because participants didn't take economics seriously enough ...'
That's a paraphrase from my recollection of a contention proffered by Rollo May during his presentation entitled "Affirming Life in a Nuclear Age" which I enjoyed attending almost 1/4 century ago at what's now known as Kennesaw St. U. (at least I think that's what he called it and where we met : )
FWIW, I'd be delighted to converse with any of y'all out there who also appreciate the kinds of wisdom that good ol' Rollo and his philosophical home boys & girls found most interesting ...
In the meantime and in response to viewing, listening to and aiming to grok "Coalition Of The Willing", let's kindly consider that by us taking economics more seriously, peace and love just might gain at least a bit more traction.
Since taking any subject "more seriously" can result in taking ourselves too seriously, let's first implement a precautionary safeguard by choosing celebration as one of our organizing principles.
Michael, trusting you're still passionate about nurturing best practices in gift economics, let's also kindly consider welcoming some more good public conversation with respect for such organizing principles. Looking forward to synching up some more via this possible wagn set up you're planning.
With a critical view on one crucial part of this video's contents, plumbing the infinite depths of human individuality is a living kind of resourcefulness that's way beyond what any marketing scam could ever hope to capture. I believe this video could gain a positive boost from a bit more explicit appreciation for the fact that lots of folks still enjoy the benefits of the kinds of individual liberation memes that were circulating throughout the sixties, seventies and beyond, that these benefits remain alive and well to this day and should serve as part of our collective reality check as we learn what steps to take in opening up, swarming up, teaming up, thriving up and generally evolving more consciously and compassionately.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if more of us start discovering that some of the best parts of individual human liberation are required for the best kinds of human collaboration to become fully actualized. The relationship between being an individual and being a part of humanity's community ain't a dichotomy, it's a kind of harmony we've got the chance to evolve towards, employ as a robust resource in the process and learn to celebrate more while we're at it!
Also, I'd love to team up with any one interested in enabling Students (aka today's youth : ) to gain a more robust appreciation for learning about the elegant structures and efficient functions of actual ecosystems (aka human life support systems : ) Where do y'all reckon such love & interest would best fit? In "a green knowledge trust" @ 08:50? ... or in "an open innovation center" @ 09:30? ... or in "a catalyst system" @ 10:50? ... or in some harmonious integration of all three? This enquiring mind wants to know ...
Ciao for now,
paul
Mark Roest
You reminded me of taking a break from making posters in the basement of the San Jose State U. student union, which we had commandeered in the fight against the Vietnam War, going outside in a patio, and realizing, "We don't even have a credit union! Most of these people are living on summer jobs, their parents or student loans! How can we change everything we want to change?"
Re your ending question,
1. Ed Cherlin is coordinating a global process to create empowering new curricula to be presented in Sugar (OLPC gui) but can be in other contexts as well.
2. www.col.org has a bibliographic library of about a million recently googleized links with about half focused on education and the other half on sustainability
3. there are several serious collections of sustainability literature
4. May I suggest that we propose to bring the new $250 digital microscope (prototyped, not in mfg yet) developed for identifying blood-borne parasites in villages into the classroom, which is near the school garden, in primary school (think 6-year-olds) and maybe kindergarten, and having children still in their language-acquisition mode bringing soil samples from the garden and viewing them and learning the names AND ROLES of the micro-organisms that make minerals assimilable by plants, eat their secreted sugars as payment, and create external immune systems that prevent aggressors from even detecting the plant roots in the first place! By the time they are in third grade they will be giving graduate students a run for their money, they will most likely have picked up a sense of the glory and sacredness of Life, and they will have the knowledge to be able to make almost anything grow in abundance (thus it will be very hard to drive them to existential fear, as this society's right wing has done to millions). Let's do this in every village and neighborhood on the planet! (About a million villages and a few million neighborhoods?) Throw in quality exposure to BioIntensive Gardening and Permaculture as systems, and the soil that's made will start sucking CO2 (sequestering carbon) on a global scale.
Regards,
Mark Roest
Mark Roest
Mark
paul horan
Hi Mark,
Thanks for your response including the "Commonwealth of Learning" and the "Soil Foodweb" links, your reference to permaculture and especially your image of 3rd Graders giving Grad Students a run for their money.
I'll need more time to delve further into the depths of your message before responding in kind.
Let's please stay in touch and explore this kinda stuff some more ...
Sincerely,
paul
Mark Roest
Last night I went to an introductory meeting of a nine-month environmental leadership program called Be The Change, sponsored by an energy audit and retrofit industry leader in Palo Alto, CA. It was a pretty high-powered group, and I had an idea of doing the initial work that this group is calling for as the project that pulls it all together. My fall-back idea if that is not practical is to do a series of Compendium mind-maps of how I see things fitting together to create sustainable economies.
I would still do the mind-maps in Plan A, but you guys would participate / critique, and we might be creating the prototype knowledgebase, or some other linked activity that could become part of the required project.
The program and its participants draw on the SF Bay Area's environmental movement, especially its leaders and pioneers. So the linkage of the projects could give them high visibility to the local movement, and because of its global leadership role, rapid diffusion globally. I would also work to persuade Wiser Earth <www.wiserearth.org> to publicize it to its listing of over 130,000 NGOs working for environmental and social justice.
How does that sound to you?
Regards,
Mark
Michael Maranda
I'd love to hear more about what that group is aiming to do, and to see what synergies we can build.
I owe a bunch of you replies - and I want to keep momentum up, but a bug is going through our household right now, and I'm not quite functioning.
MM
Mark Roest
They have a good website at http://www.acterra.org/programs/bethechange/index.html.
Get well soon!
Regards,
Mark
paul horan
Michael, take good care of your bold clear Self & kick that bug's butt!
Mark, combining your image of '3rd Graders giving Grad Students a run for their money' with this Bay Area "environmental leadership program" Be The Change, I'm wondering ...
Is it too far outside our box to consider a simple public service = like helping a youngster with her or his homework = being a purposeful activity capable of including enormous quantities of human good will and intelligence, both locally and globally, the likes of which can put this emergent coalition of the willing to work in totally cool, unique and innovative ways?
For any homework related to current events, critical thinking skills, global climate-energy-economic crises, serious games, multi-language e-books, ecosystems studies, public service through civil society, etc., there's certainly no shortage of learning opportunities and resources. Let's keep aiming to harmonize and I'm sure next best steps will become much more clearly evident.
Can you envision enabling young Students from various parts of our globe teaming up with one another to achieve greater academic excellence during this upcoming school year? I can and I'd love to actualize such a vision in collaboration with y'all!
I'm envisioning "FUN Homework" as a means of engaging Students creatively so they can reduce the enormous pressure to succeed by experiencing academic excellence for themselves, their Teachers, their Parents, and their Earth ...
Recognizing this idea of "FUN Homework" is too often almost an oxymoron since actual fun is so much the opposite of what many people popularly associate with the activity of homework, it just might be crazy enough to work quite effectively; especially since conventional approaches leave so much to be desired.
Enjoy delightful weekends, Dudes = heavy on the light!
paul
Mark Roest
I am on the Board of Ed Cherlin's Earth Treasury. Ed is the one coordinating the curricula for empowering children. He also has an idea of children collaborating internationally and setting up businesses that help their villages.
What if children were doing outsourcing work for farmers, identifying the micro-organisms in their soil samples, and as they got more knowledgeable, using Ben de Vries' research and garden design methodology, in conjunction with permaculture and biointensive gardening, to recommend the best ways to grow food in each garden, and doing their own demonstration gardens?
David Alan Foster, also on Ed's Board, founded DesignFluence, of which Group 490 (design for the other 90%) is a project. He was also the editor and publisher of Invent Magazine. He is looking for projects for industrial designers willing to give pro bono time.
Joy has an incredible international network of people committed to maximizing human potential and creating sustainable economies from the village up -- and dealing with HIV-AIDS and its impacts on communities, especially children who wind up orphaned. That network is where the knowledgebase she requested would go.
etc., etc., etc.
Regards,
Mark
Ben de Vries
I am hemorrhaging money to do this, so I am sure you know what it will take for a commit to another mission (documenting, vidi research methodology etc.).
If anyone has any information on the whereabouts of John Depetro aka Lance Deboyle in Spokane, or know of someone I might discuss operating from their location with to carry out my mission here (I have $$$), please get in touch ASAP.
paul horan
Dancing on canoes ...
Evolution's bottleneck ...
FUN shooting rapids ...
Thanks Y'all,
This here conversation's sparked my own effort to walk the talk a bit more consciously & engagedly ...
Earlier today via 2 separate skype conversations, I volunteered to help Students have FUN with their homework; 1 conversation w/ my nephew in High School + 1 conversation w/ a fellow in Canada who's aiming to network multiple Students from various schools around our globe.
The information and enthusiasm y'all have recently shared has prompted me to put up or shut up and I so appreciate your encouragement.
Anyhow, let's please stay in touch because there's no freakin' way I'll be able to follow thru on my guarantee of helping my nephew and any other Students have FUN with their homework unless I effectively team up with good folks like yourselves.
Trusting you'll let me know if you want an update on my progress,
paul
P. S. = Ben, I hope you've made some progress in getting in touch w/ your friend who's dealing w/ cancer. I'm in the midst of providing some emotional support for my li'l sister & her husband who's undergoing major cancer-related surgery in about 7 hours from now. Hang in there, CareGiver!
P. P. S. = Mark, I've made quick & dirty visits to some of the links you've included and also relayed them along to this fellow in Canada mentioned earlier whose name is George Koshy and who was recently introduced to me by Sara Laimon. I last saw Sara at last year's Bioneers powwow and we first met at L. A.'s Environmental Charter High School's Earth Day celebration several months before that. Also, I'm so glad you've introduced us to Joy Tang = I love her efforts to implement some of the honorable Professor Doug Englebart's insights as well as her explicit acknowledgment of this need to heal before our species' nervous breakdown breaks down much further. I also love Ed Cherlin's appreciation for the honoroble Professor Alan Kay's innovative work. W/ respect for the good Be The Change folks, I trust they're tapping into some of the work that another honorable Professor, Fritjof Capra has been delivering for the past generation+ in terms of Ecoliteracy. FWIW, your own P. S. link to soilfoodweb (which I still need to explore further because I'm totally impressed w/ the honorable Professor Elaine Ingham's understanding : ) stimulated me to remember these two related books:
http://planetvermont.com/pvq/v8n2/book-review.html
http://www.chelseagreen.com/bookstore/item/waronbugs