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Re: [ox] fields of practice



hi franz!

On Mon, Oct 06, 2003 at 06:08:48PM [PHONE NUMBER REMOVED], Franz Nahrada wrote:

I appreciate your zeal on getting the oekonux communities contribution to
the goals of the social forums. I have told Stefan Merten and the people
in the project list, that the reason why I personally insisted on even
discussing the alternative Vienna versus Hallein was that I expect you and
the people who gathered this summer could make a substantial contribution
to the oekonux conference.

i appreciate that you and others here understand the mutual benefits of a
contact between oekonux and the new social movements. unfortunatly stefan
merten has not understood it yet. he does not see that the social forum
could make a contribution. he talks about preaching to them. (a oneway
comunication) the concept behind it is the "we know it all" or "we are so
much ahead you could not even understand what we are talking about".. etc..
sad.


a) improving the tools of cooperation:

yes. i was thinking about giving them an "opentheory" site for the
preperation of texts..etc.. the problem is: most people there are not
technically inclined.. so in some cases it was hard enough to teach them how
to use email efficiently..

 i guess this is the main reason why the possibilties first had an impact in
the development of software: because the people who develop software have
the best skills to use of the net. (and where there was a lack of tools in
some earea they simply created them.. ) this is changing thought: on the one
hand easier and better tools on the other hand people are learning to use
them. the imporant question is how to give motivation to the people to learn
to use the tools. it is a chicken and egg type problem: as long as the tools
are not used the tools are not imporant for them and there is no motivation
to learn them...


b) improving the base of cooperation: How do we get people to participate
in free projects? I mean this is not a question of "motivating", as it
might sound, but rather "enabling" and "inspiring".

  where i think that the question of "motivating" is where the analogy
between the work of free software production and that of volunteer politics
is most interesting. the problem of enabling is a bit different. on the free
software side all they need is a computer, a linux CD and a net
connection and eventually someone who gives a brief introduction..
the net connection could do a lot for the political field as well, but
obviously it is not enough.... 

c) widening the fields of cooperation. As with local agriculture, we can
do with myriads of cultural fields. People can do music, film-making,
..

here is one of the point where a mutal exchange of idea would be really
useful: as it is hard to think of the "myriads of fields" beforehand.. this
can only come from the people who are working in/near these fields..

d) Improving the impact of cooperation -  by designing institutions,
processes, devices etc.that transfer informational wealth into physical
wealth (we do not have to limit these thoughts to the notorious fabber).
There is a large range from local learning groups that are inspired and
empowered by availability of knowledge and support to Computer controlled
tools and machinery in workshops and assembling halls. All these
creativity is increasingly resisting to be any longer blocked by the
capitalistic monopolisation of knowledge and information.

absolutly.. again here the knowlege of the people "outside" is essential..

but i see additional fields:

e) structuring organisations after the model of free software developer
groups. this is probably the field where there could be most intensive
exchange of ideas between social movements and oekonux. there is a strong
dislike for the classical hirarchical organisations and on the other hand
people worry of the lack of efficiency in some "basis-democratic"
processes.. etc.. then actually most working structures are, without knowing
it, structured after the software developer model anyway: the people who do
the work decide how things get implemented and everyone who wants do do it
differently is free to join and help. people should be made aware about this
principle and there is still a lot of theoretical work to be done on the
limits and usefulness of this...


In all these respects, we are not physically dependent on the meeting in
Hallein. We can create a meshwork of common thoughts via the tools of
communication that we have set up (list etc.) and they will automatically
fuel the desire to physically meet, maybe in the aftermath or in 2005.

  maybe. the problem is see: the conference there would have raised the
interest of a lot people three. "what are these people doing there?" without
that: they will think: "if they do not come here" why should we go to them?
if they do not think they belong here then probably this has not much to do
with what we are talking here.....

mond.


-- 
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   .                Franz Schaefer         GPG KeyID: CFA2F632
  ..             +43/699/172 01 007     Fingerprint: 57C2 C0CC
  ...             schaefer mond.at         6F0A 54C7 0D88 D37E 
    ...          http://www.mond.at/       C17C CB16 CFA2 F632

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Web-Site: http://www.oekonux.de/
Organisation: projekt oekonux.de



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