Melançon Enterprises • a multidivision multinational since 1980

Hi Megan, hi Anjali,

> letting it go into a free for all will hinder the ability to really
> search for what you're looking for and to keep the information readable
> and accessible.

Which is why the main technical innovation I see for the project is democratically moderated communication - a process where discussions can be filtered for relevance without appointed moderators.

People Who Give a Damn, purpose restated:
http://mlncn.com/node/744

Everyone's Voices Nobody's Noise proposal:
http://agaricdesign.com/blog/benjamin-melançon/everyones-voices-nobodys-noise-help-choose-what-your-community-and-world-needs-know
ShortURL: http://agaricdesign.com/node/1750

Obviously I think horizontal mass communication will be revolutionary, but it is still just one tool in the toolbox AND not the easiest to explain NOR the most immediately relevant to uniting visions. Instead, for me, it's one of the key reasons our network can be different, can make the claim that by joining VisionsUnite you are plugging your efforts into a movement that will always be about more than the agenda of one person or elite group, yet will also be manageable and effective. So in retrospect I guess I sort of set up that question to make sure /this/ vision is in your minds for how VisionsUnite can be uniquely useful as it scales, as more people join it.

Again, though, my problem has been putting this democratically moderated mass horizontal communication concept first when it really should be last.

First we want people to list their interests– tagging themselves with already existing [keywords, groups, efforts ... some umbrella for all of this called "visions" ?]

Second we want people to be able to describe their specific visions?

Third ... ?

Certainly the ability to suggest relevant resources and related projects in a non-distracting way will also be key.

Along this track we make it possible for people to find and connect to others with complimentary visions one to one, and make it easier to find potential resources.

Profiles and visions are protected from commenting functionality, which is likely to distract and take away from the purposes of connecting?

At what juncture should people be able to form groups (if at all)? What are the communication tools beyond one-on-one communication? And even for one-on-one contacts, what filtering will have to be in place?

Do we have a radical bias in favor of public contact or default to the more usual private message?

Where do we put the collective spaces, and what functionality do they have?

Hey, I still think I have the ultimate answer with juried intra-group and cross-group communication, but now that I recognize my approach of making that the first feature as backward, I'm a bit lost. ;-)

Maybe this e-mail should be another Google doc... but the goals and tasks herein need to be broken out a bit more I think.

ben

Megan Kittisopikul wrote:
> I completely agree that we have to find a way to make this fluid in the
> aspect that no one owns this website to the point that it operates
> itself and defines collaboration from multiple aspects. However,
> letting it go into a free for all will hinder the ability to really
> search for what you're looking for and to keep the information readable
> and accessible. As I told Anjali, I think the profiled information
> should be there, as well as contact information for different people to
> contact one another...but to the point that it begins a complete forum
> discussion might detract from the original purpose.
>
> I do like the idea of having different resources available, whether it's
> chat rooms or frequent links that connect to our vision that are
> applicable across a variety of fields or suggesting ways to collaborate
> outside of the norm...
>
> Thanks for your work, Ben.
>
> Megan
>
> On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 7:00 AM, Benjamin Melancon wrote:
>
> I added Megan's action steps to the Google doc.
>
> Also, I added a section called "Collaborate" under the main section
> where we define vision. It gets at a key element and distinction of
> this effort from other sites-- that everything built in VisionsUnite
> is held in common. In addition to making individual connections,
> directory-style, I'm expecting we want to provide tools for forming
> groups to pursue visions.
>
> If you do form a group, you don't just acquire followers or fans or
> supporters who receive your communications– instead, the network can
> always talk back to you and to each other. I think this is
> important but at the same time I think my highlighting this feature
> has been a mistake. I'd like to know what you think of it, and what
> you think should be said about it!
>
> http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=ddfvhkb5_51g75zvshm&hl=en
>
>
> (And of COURSE I walk on water-- it's been ten below freezing for a
> week now!)
>
> Megan Kittisopikul wrote:
>
> Yay for progress!
> Two cheers for great people in the world doing fantastic things!
> Three hoorays for the fact that Ben knows /all/ of them (and
> they also think he walks water).
>
> Great start to the action plan...
> Here's some to add:
> 1) Finalize vision.
> 2) Determine functionality needed.
> 3) By knowing functionality, understand people and resources
> necessary to create /and/ sustain a project.
> 4) Create timeline for the project (when do we want committee
> named by through launch date).
> 3) Name appropriate people and resources and begin contacting them.
> 4) Find ways to virtually meet, brainstorm, knock out kinks, and
> how to do this /effectively/, /timely/, and /sustainably/.
> 5) Understand financial implications of project and find funding.
> 6) Create website.
> 7) Begin publicity plan.
> 8) Launch.
>
> Something like that with a lot of substeps. Add in the fact
> that the only time we will all have will probably be after 1am.
> That's a successful project.
> AMAZING.
>
> Megan
> On Sat, Jan 3, 2009 at 8:23 AM, Benjamin Melancon wrote
[ .... ]
>
> So action steps are to
>
> 1. define the functionality needed for the site,
> 2. find people to work on it, and
> 3. find funding to pay them :-)
>
> Which goes back to what you've already started--
>
> *what do we want people to do when they find / are invited to
> VisionsUnite.org ?*
>
> I've started a public project for VisionsUnite at Agaric's
> project
> management site and listed the domains acquired thus far there:
>
> http://myagaric.com/node/245
>
> ben
>
> (general note: all e-mails i send can be shared with anyone you
> think it would be useful to)
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: how is it I keep finding your trails
> whenever I find
> something amazing on the net?
> Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 22:43:50 -0500
> From: Mitchell Tannnenbaum
> To: Benjamin Melancon
>
>
> :-))
>
> On Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 1:16 PM, Benjamin Melancon wrote:
>
> because we have interests in the same amazing things? :-)
>
>
> More than you know... so far.
>
>
>
>
> Did you get there via
>
> http://www.lullabot.com/articles/drupal-community-philosophies ?
>
>
> Nope. I'm starting a new political party for student govt at
> UF. The
> current party, that is trying to return SG to the students,
> focuses on a
> meritocracy, but it has its own problems with corruption, so
> I'm trying
> to find a new terminology to define our movement. I started
> with Techno-Progressivism
> , but
> there's a lot
> more to it than that. It's more of a movement, not a
> political party,
> and I'm trying to unite all the separate agendas under one
> banner or set
> of ideologies.
>
>
>
>
> I hadn't seen that Angie updated her post.. that's awesome.
>
> So an update to avoid duplication of effort, since we tend
> to run in
> the same lines, some shots in the dark
>
> - I have a stalled module for Community Managed Taxonomy
> that i
> need to get done, someday
>
>
> I love the idea, but I have a better one to top it. A
> distributed web
> content management framework
> .
> It relies on a turn-key VPS solution
> , a self managed LAMP
> distribution , and an
> installation profile that includes the necessary publication
> and cross
> syndication mechanisms
> . The
> naming convention is good, but the description pages are a
> little off.
> The distro is almost done, the vps solution is waiting on
> vps_api
> module, and I'm moving a little slower than I'd like on the
> install
> profiles.
>
>
>
> - I have a 501c3 nonprofit organization to build
> communication
> tools to connect all People Who Give a Damn about various
> things to
> one another, to help people have the most possible power
> over our
> own lives on the principle that organization equals power.
> And now
> I've met people with the same vision that could make this
> possible
>
>
> I'm doing something like this for Gainesville, FL with a UF
> Cultural
> Council
> >. We could probably come up with
> a good example of bootstrapping these ideals in a community.
>
>
>
> - an unfinished economics thesis that argues that greater
> equality
> of wealth is better for economic growth, even taking this
> narrow and
> outdated definition as the goal
>
>
> I wrote a paper with similar sentiments a few weeks ago.
> Read the
> introduction paragraph, at least:
> http://www.mitchelltannenbaum.com/documents/wealth and see my
> revolution .
>
>
>
>
> Mitchell Tannnenbaum wrote:
>
> http://www.communitywiki.org/en/DoOcracy
>
>
> Mitch