wrythings

We have had much talk of Guilds among the Emerging Futures Network (EFN): OGuild or the Open Guild, the emerging Network Weavers Guild and Network, and more.

I invite you to take share in a Vision, articulating Guild in (r)elation to Networking and Commons Perspectives which are among core values of the EFN.

Imagine a Guild as a Service-Leadership Collective, grounded in the ethical pursuit of a craft, and standing in relation to a Network of Practice.

Imagine a Concentric Commons: each Guild a Commons, encircled by a Network of Practice also as Commons, encircled at the widest level again by the greatest Commons for All of Us.

There is something striking in the relation amongst these Concentric Commons:

What is Good for All of Us is Good for each Network, and for each Guild.
What is Good for each Network is also Good for each Guild.
What is Good for the Goose is Good for the Gander (got you there!)
What is not Good for each Guild cannot be Good for Network nor for All of Us.
What is not Good for each Network cannot be Good for All of Us.

This sets a high bar, indeed.

As Guild is related to craft and practice… i.e. activities we find useful in this world, we see that within the widest Circle, within the All of Us there are Many Guilds, and Many Networks. (Network offers a Filter and Map.)

I’m not ready to make a full statement of my vision of The World We Want and what we need to do to get there. But I do see certain elements of it that I’d like to share. I can share a fair number of them by directing others to a film: The Upward Spiral. In the World We Want we’d all understand the experience of Abard Ofgaia.

I thank my friends who, so focused on currencies and flows, offered me the gift of connecting to some memory of self in advancing this film and this subject. So many of the images reminded me of my time learning in retreat with nature upriver of Rochester NY at Letchworth State Park.

As dancing animals we must go upstream to the headwaters of our more dangerous flows, to where we may have influence and through mindful action undertake small changes that lead oppositions into harmonies.

As, always, there’s a lineage here… the giving conference of two years ago, of which I’ve been regaled with accounts… and last year, the first ONet member initiated open space conference in Oak Park… well, we’re doing it again this coming July. There’s some cutting edge stuff going on… imagine any number of folk pushing a multiplicity of edges and searching for a language with which to share and build on that pluralized extension of the envelope. We’re still thinking through some issues, and we don’t know what will happen, but just for a moment think on the questions put before the Open Space mailing lists: questions of co-location and co-convening of events. Imagine networks overlaid upon each other. Imagine multiple networks compacted into the same space… if they are as viscous as our instinct tells us… the strength of transforming ties will be the word coming out of this.

Find your way in through moreandmore.us.

After Laure Dillon’s account of Hawaiian gatherings at the recent O-Net member initiated Open Space I am in a mode that is highly receptive of the idea of lineage… as a moment of respectful tying in to a greater web. There are lineages of blood… and the river of the past that pours into us in this way branches at each generation back.

But the rivers of transmission of thought and culture keep pouring into us our whole lives from so many more sources when we are open. Let these rivers pass through you.

I’ve recently returned from the 14th Annual CTCNet Conference, and what follows may require a little presumption on my part, but equal part humility. But I’ll start with a little context.

On April 29 & 30th, 2005, at Open Space Austin a working group discussed social and economic justice and it’s standing as an issue for our movement and the leading national organizations in community ICT.

Collectively we made a commitment, which I’ll paraphrase here:

to proceed in thought and action from a perspective of social and economic justice, and to raise this as an explicit topic and aim for our movement(s).

In making this commitment we hoped to raise the issue in the context of the CTCNet Conference. Timing was not on our side. However, while there is always a sense of urgency when one raises the question of social justice, the committed recognize that these are questions that require an effort over the longest haul.

There are several questions before us…

Is social justice in fact an implicit aim in our movement, or is it explcit? Is it an aim of the movement? Do we constitute a movement? Is it advisable to be explicit about such aims at all times? Why or why not?

How do the leading organizations relate to the movement? What will next year’s CTCNet conference theme be? How can those of us who care about social justice issues best use our time between now and then so that we can share more than the truisms we know and affirm, and which of course bind us in a movement?

I am happy to see the discourse and discussion proceed anywhere, and also in multiple environments and listservs. I have established a community here on the DDN site so that we might have a common repository to pursue these matters.

I selected the DDN site because of its diverse member base, and because of the explicit naming of a divide, however, I am not solely concerned with the digital when I open the question of social justice. The DDN is an open space for us to form communities and to promote dialogue on issues we care about. This function is very important for our movement. (You can tell that I already have a strong opinion as to whether we constitute a movement!)

As community technologists not solely, or principally concerned with technology when raising these questions, we affirm that technology is ever-present and important as a means for accomplishing other aims, and that our efforts really are about those other aims.

The online space I’ve opened for this is here: http://www.digitaldivide.net/community/justice

There isnt much there. This discussion depends upon us all. Let’s begin. Let’s join others promoting social justice. Let’s network our movements: media reform, environmental justice, communication rights, digital literacy, access and equity. If I havent named your cause, you name it. Speak truth to power, speak with a generous heart. Speak in the context of a broad vision and follow that ambition.

I dedicate this post to the working group at OSA:

Ana Sisnett, Sue Beckwith, James Lau, Peter Miller, Michael Gurstein, Fred Johnson, and Jim Forrest

And also to those with whom I’ve made common cause in Chicago and Illinois, who have shared in a commitment to social and economic justice through local and regional organizing.

There are too many of you to name, only because I might leave someone out.

Regards,

Michael

Just wanted to report in from the 2005 Summit: The Strategic Use Of Information and Communication Technologies for Community being held in Vancouver.

The participants are primarily Canadian, but there is a significant contingent from Latin America, thanks to the Telecentres of the Americas Project (TAP).

AFCN Board, Advisors and Friends formed a sizable USA delegation.

As with most conferences, a great deal of the dynamic interaction takes place in the informal settings, between sessions, over meals, and at ad hoc meetings you put together. It certainly reinforces the rational for Open Space and LAP practices.

I think it gave an extra charge to our decision today to make conscious commitment to Open Space for the forthcoming Austin conference (or convergence, as I say).

One lesson learned, or reinforced has to do with the diversity of the “international” context. Frequently there is a presentation of a view of there being a US perspective or experience and an International one. However, the diversity of situations around the world belie that concept.

If there are groups in the US that grasp a problem from a global vantage, oftentimes their efforts to instigate an international effort or form an international organization is viewed with hesitation or meets with a bit of negativity.

As President of the AFCN (Association For Community Networking) I struggle to emphasize that though we are based in the USA, and the bulk of our members are in the States, we are open and welcoming to others.

I’m here in Vancouver on behalf of AFCN to demonstrate our commitment to our friends in Canada and throughout the hemisphere.

The culture and understanding of Civic Society in Canada appears stronger than in the USA. I’m concerned with identifying strategies to reclaim and advance the civic culture and discourse. Needless to say, the reception here has been tremendous, and it did seem to me that they were well pleased that we took the trouble to attend, and that it became evident that we are still confronting a great many of the same issues.

This is all aside from the fact that Vancouver is a beautiful setting, in the limited moments I’ve had outside of the conference space!