I resend with a correction:
I would certainly benefit if Pamela linked our Mornflake project and
took some of OUR resources (people, money, projects) for her current
work such as her and John Dada's business Dadamac or for the Nigerian
Ago-Are ecovillage.
Andrius
----------------------

Janet, Graham, Wendi, Tom, Benoit, Sasha and all,

I'm very encouraged by your letters at Janet Feldman's working group
Holistic Helping. Thank you!

Janet, I appreciate your concern throughout this year about our culture
and subcultures and how we might best work together. I know that you
are very caring at home and I am glad that you engage us so thoughtfully
in the time that you do have.

Thanks to Leon Benjamin and our work for Mornflake cereal
http://www.mornflake.com I and Minciu Sodas participants have had the
opportunity in our paid work to engage UK online communities of our
choice. This is generally and naturally awkward - much like being a
teenager - but the rewards are great for us and I think for Mornflake
and other such funders as well. It is the clash of cultures that
happens as we reach out to others and organize ourselves to do so which
helps us all to sort out what's truly important for each of us and
what's not. And then we also build our understanding as to what might be
universally important, and what is personally important.

Janet, I agree that we should get people's permission before signing
them up for an online venue. I didn't sign up you or Wendi or anybody
else to Global Swadeshi. Nor am I able to. I did check the member
list, though, and Janet, you are not on it, nor is Graham or Wendi. I
wrote a post about the problems and I hope Vinay Gupta responds:
http://www.globalswadeshi.net/forum/topics/global-swadeshi-website

Janet, Yes, it's important to note the importance of your working group
Holistic Helping
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/holistichelping/
for our many productive conversations there including most recently with
Graham Knight about DIY solar as well as solar energy concentrators as
Franz Nahrada mentioned. Too often, I take you for granted as well as
the few others who I can take for granted including Franz or Ricardo.
I'm glad when you speak up and I can know what you find most helpful and
relevant.

Janet, Yes! I'm very glad that Fred Kayiwa might be your online
assistant, and Dennis Kimambo as well. I sent Fred 200 USD for our
Mornflake work not so long ago and I think he would agree to do more
work for me for what I have sent so far. (Although Fred is focused now
on his youth football team's travel to Norway.) Similarly, I sent 250
GBP to Dennis Kimambo and he was not able to do much work because of
poor Internet access. Please let us know what tasks they might help
with. Sasha can help train them, too, please keep him in the loop. I
will provide resources for your online assistants, and also for Franz,
Edward, a bit of help for Markus, and other active leaders, please let
me know!

Graham, that's a wonderful contribution that you offer a prize of $100
in photovoltaic parts for the first location which demonstrates all of
the steps in a viable solar panel business:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/mendenyo/message/2719
This is a great example of sharing resources. As I wrote, I also have
money that I can add from our Mornflake project
for just such projects if we can involve a UK online community. Vinay
Gupta in London, UK founded Global Swadeshi
http://www.globalswadeshi.net which would be great. I can fund solar
panels for people to try out all over the world. However, it's not
clear if Vinay or others there are interested. Without their interest,
I have to find another UK online community that would like to get
involved in such a project. Or I can certainly keep the money for
myself, which is what I will do unless we work together and find such a
community. If it works, then we'll have a great example of us sharing
resources, including Graham, Janet, Vinay, Mornflake, Global Swadeshi,
Holistic Helping and many more.

I'm greatly encouraged by Graham's offer because he's acknowledging the
challenges in his own dream, inviting our help to overcome them and
sharing resources. I wish that more of us were creative in this way.
For example, Pamela McLean is in the UK and introduced me to Vinay Gupta
in London in March, 2009. I would certainly benefit if Pamela linked
our Mornflake project and took some of our resources (people, money,
projects) for her current work such as her and John Dada's business
Dadamac or for the Nigerian Ago-Are ecovillage. Likewise, if Vinay
Gupta or Marcin Jakubowski encouraged our work with Graham Knight's
Do-It-Yourself Solar panels as relevant, in whatever way, for Factor E
Farm or Leashless ideals. I observe a real poverty in our creativity
in finding ways to acknowledge each other's projects and work together.
That poverty is more distressing than any material poverty that I know of.

Janet, my focus with our Mornflake projects has been on finding UK
online communities we might engage. I have come to Holistic Helping and
other groups to invite people and resources for such paid work. That
energy needs to take place in the UK online communities or I can't
justify sharing my resources. I do need groups such as Holistic Helping
which might host my work so that I and others might build momentum for
such projects. (This is why I've set up so many groups at Minciu
Sodas.) It's fair that the groups such as Holistic Helping benefit as
well, and also be included and encourage conversations in tandem, as you
suggest.

Janet, yes, I posted your letter at Global Swadeshi as part of a long
thread which Sasha started at my request on May 13, 2009.
http://www.globalswadeshi.net/forum/topics/mornflake-project I included
a link back to your original letter "A reply by Janet Feldman at
Holistic Helping" http://ms.lt/W4369 which shows my effort to link our
groups (which is the whole point of our Mornflake projects). If Vinay
or others had replied to any part of your letter, then I may likely have
shared that back with you at Holistic Helping, using my best judgement.
Until then, I didn't want to make extra effort to report to you, and
such a requirement would be counter to our work in the Public Domain,
the point of which is that we encourage people to use their best
judgement and we don't burden them otherwise. The more we learn about
each other's preference (and your letter helps!), the more our judgement
improves, too.

Janet, you write: "From a process point of view, we cannot build a
culture based on openness, sharing, and development of independent
thinkers who are also "leaders", if one person alone can determine
where, when, and how we work together. Consultation, cooperation, and
joint decision-making are important for a feeling of inclusion, an
important underpinning to the development of a "culture"."

Janet, if any part of my letters has jarred you, please let me know
which and I may understand your response better.

Can a single person create a culture? In my life, my answer is yes. I
have exhaustively cared for all aspects of my life and ever care for my
life's culture, especially, for my thinking within which I live. I take
credit for my life's culture and, although my parents are great, I
pretty much created my inner life on my own, the decisions that define
who I am and what I do. "I am my own parent" as I told them. (Which is
also why I note and absorb the good examples of others, including my
parents, Jesus and our participants around the world.) My personal
culture is evident in Minciu Sodas and it is tangible for many people.
I hope that it might be the same culture (Worknets) as that of other
such self-cultured people and even that all people be self-cultured people.

I provided resources for Wendi's work and I'm bringing resources to
support possibly more such work. Those new resources are at my complete
discretion on behalf of Mornflake. As a single person I decide where,
when and how to apply them because I'm responsible for that. Graham and
Wendi and you and others have resources and likewise decide. I try to
give everybody a chance to be included: Do you want to help? or Do you
want help? But I don't mind not including those who don't help or don't
want help. If Vinay or Marcin or Pamela or Graham or Wendi or you or
others want (or choose or can) or not to work together with me, I hope
to focus on those who do. In the Mornflake project, this outreach is
very difficult, mostly because it's so unusual. I'm trying to include
as many people and leverage as many projects as possible, but
ultimately, I decide myself what to do with the Mornflake resources
which include some of my own energy that I am thereby able to devote at
Holistic Helping and encourage Wendi, Graham, Sasha, you and others.

Janet, I'm writing from my own perspective, as an individual and also an
organizer. You clearly want an inclusive culture at Holistic Helping.
In that regard, sometimes I may be an "insider" and sometimes an
"outsider". In either case, but especially as an outsider, I think that
in our overall culture it's important that you speak as the leader of
your group - it's your group and this makes sense or not for you. Then
it's a matter of two people (you and I) understanding each other. Then
I can try to acommodate you, which is important to me. I won't try to
accomodate a "group mind", though, and I don't want to be part of one.
Instead, I want to understand better and develop further my own personal
culture and learn what it shares or not with other people's.

Janet, thank you for your encouragement that we work publicly, as much
as possible, so that our principles and deeds and observations are
transparent and we learn from each other and others might include
themselves.

Janet, thank you especially for your letters and your thinking. Thank
you also to Samwel and Benoit. I enjoyed such conversation with Pamela
and Franz but wish that all could see as when we write. My hope is that
we have such exchanges with Marcin and Vinay and others. How can we be
leaders and reveal a shared culture without such exchanges?

Andrius

Andrius Kulikauskas
Minciu Sodas
http://www.ms.lt
ms@...
+370 699 30003
Vilnius, Lithuania

Janet Feldman wrote:
> Dear Andrius, Wendi and Graham, Fred, and All,
>
> The ideas for this project are interesting, and I hope it does come to
> fruition!
>
> I am concerned about some of the way this project is evolving, in
> particular the implications for the development of our culture--as
> well as our sub-cultures--and want to share those concerns:
>
> 1) I have been signed up to Global Swadeshi without my knowledge, so
> that when I went there the other day to register, I was told I
> couldn't use my email address, because it was already in use! I do not
> know the current password, as I did not create it myself. I have
> taken steps to reset it so that I can participate. To this moment I
> have not received an email related to resetting my password, however,
> and I have sent two requests over the past 24 hours.
>
> I will be delighted to be a member of this exciting network! However,
> I would like to have been directly invited to participate (by Andrius,
> in this case), and then to sign up there myself. This is an essential
> element both of self-determination and of control of one's own life
> and information. It should surely be established among us as an
> important principle. How have I been signed up, and by whom?
>
> 2) I see a letter of mine posted there, in which I give support to a
> joint project we might do, and also some ideas about a way to proceed
> and some outcomes that might develop (a manual, for example). I wrote
> that in the context of Holistic Helping and our other forums, not for
> an entirely different setting.
>
> While it's fine that it was posted at Global Swadeshi, I would like to
> have known it was there, first of all, and secondly, that the original
> context of the conversation be understood to apply to my own forum and
> members, as well as those in other MS forums.
>
> I want this conversation and work to happen at HH in tandem with
> conversations and work at Global Swadeshi, and at our other forums. It
> would be great--in addition to a number of us participating at Global
> Swadeshi--if Global Swadeshi members would sign up for HH and our
> other forums, so that we might all participate in a DIY Solar project
> together. I realize there is cross-over already, with Vinay and others.
>
> I want to ensure that this project does not shift away from our forums
> (though it's fine to work in tandem with others!): it is important
> that we receive full information of what is happening abt the project,
> participate in linked and interwoven discussions, and are generally
> included in a central way in any activities.
>
> Especially given the fact that I am a full-time caregiver, and also
> have other organizations to run, it would be wonderful if--speaking of
> HH specifically--there are others who can carry a good deal of this
> conversation there, and work on behalf of Holistic Helping (and our
> other related forums). And to engage with a larger group of others (at
> Global Swadeshi and elsewhere) for optimum results for this project.
>
> That also applies to other members in such situations: how can each
> of us be engaged here, yet at the same time address our other
> responsibilities? And how can an overall "culture" be created and
> developed, while "sub-cultures" are also supported and built?
>
> 3) Since discussions about DIY have been taking place at HH, albeit
> with not as much public posting as would have been conducive to mutual
> learning, I would appreciate being included in postings, thoughts, and
> plans about this project (I mean myself by name, as well as postings
> to the HH forum).
>
> >From a process point of view, we cannot build a culture based on
> openness, sharing, and development of independent thinkers who are
> also "leaders", if one person alone can determine where, when, and how
> we work together. Consultation, cooperation, and joint decision-making
> are important for a feeling of inclusion, an important underpinning to
> the development of a "culture".
>
> 4) If some of our members have problems accessing a relatively
> "simple" venue like a Yahoogroups, how much more will be the
> challenges of accessing a website and needing to post in threads? And
> how can more cross-over of information and participation be developed
> between our forums and Worknets? I see so much helpful information at
> Worknets that is not making its way into our forums, for example.
>
> 5) Despite the stated goal of "public" sharing and visibility, there
> are some members who do not engage here publicly in an ongoing way,
> yet they benefit by association with us. Generally people are told
> that if they want us to be engaged and caring, they have to be more
> visible. But this is not applied to everyone in the same way.
>
> If members are not working publicly in some fashion, however
> rudimentary, they are not contributing to the development of our
> "culture". This does not mean that they are not valuable or important,
> as everyone is as an individual. But it does mean that, as a larger
> whole, we are not benefitting from what they can give and share.
>
> There can and should be a place for "private" conversations,
> friendships, and individual activities both within and outside of our
> working groups, and of course people have times of greater or lesser
> ability to be involved here. But in order for there to be a feeling
> and fact of "culture" among us, there does also need to be a sense of
> "fairness" fostered--both perceived and real--and of standards evenly
> applied. "Winning by sharing" should become our motto!
>
> On a personal note:
>
> 6) I would appreciate it if Fred Kayiwa--who Andrius had suggested
> this past spring could be my assistant--might now become that
> assistant. I don't know what money arrangement can be made: Fred
> mistakenly thought that I was going to pay him to do so (which he and
> I discovered in a recent conversation), but I did not offer to do
> that, as I do not have the funds.
>
> Since Fred has been mentioned both in Ricardo's recent letter about
> eBay trading, and in the context of DIY Solar, he would be a "perfect"
> bridge person, both as regards communicating to Holistic Helping and
> the other MS forums--including his own--and at Global Swadeshi about
> these projects, and in terms of helping to build a greater sense of
> inclusion and integration in our mutual work, laying some of the
> foundation for construction of a "culture", in feeling and in fact.
>
> I would also like to work with Dennis, who is a longtime friend,
> someone who came to this setting from ActALIVE (my arts coalition).
>
> Thanks and blessings to all, Janet
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrius Kulikauskas" <ms@...>
> To: <globalvillages@yahoogroups.com>; "help group"
> <holistichelping@yahoogroups.com>; <voiceful@yahoogroups.com>;
> <socialagriculture@yahoogroups.com>; <mendenyo@yahoogroups.com>
> Cc: "graham" <diysolar@...>
> Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2009 5:14 PM
> Subject: [holistichelping] DIY Solar Project with Wendi, Global
> Swadeshi, Mornflake
>
>
>
>> Hi Graham,
>>
>> Thank you for chatting with us today. I've personally invited you to
>> join Vinay Gupta's Global Swadeshi http://www.globalswadeshi.net and
>> please let me know if you still have trouble joining. I encourage
>> others to join there, too.
>>
>> Sasha is active there. Sasha, please, make a list at
>> http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?GlobalSwadeshi of Global Swadeshi
>> participants and their endeavors and their websites and any countries
>> where they are especially active or interested. I also ask anybody who
>> would like a bit of paid work to train with Sasha and help to make this
>> list.
>>
>> As you know, we're helping UK online communities on behalf of Mornflake
>> cereal http://www.mornflake.com and their online video competition
>> http://www.mornflakecompetition.com (less than two weeks left).
>>
>> My plan is to send $100 to $200 to Graham Knight from the money Minciu
>> Sodas is earning from Mornflake. Graham will send DIY Solar mobile
>> phone recharging kits to:
>> * Wendi Loshe Bernadette in Cameroon
>> * Fred Kayiwa in Uganda
>> * William Wambura in Tanzania
>> * Dennis Kimambo in Kenya
>> * Samwel Kongere in Kenya
>> and also to people who we learn of through Global Swadeshi, who might be
>> in Afghanistan, Palestine, India and other places around the world.
>>
>> Each person will tell us in advance how much they think they can sell
>> the kit for, and how many they can sell in one month. They will report
>> to us about the people they sell to, preferably, with their permission,
>> giving their name and location and a bit about them and how they use
>> their phone. They will report how much they actually sold each kit for
>> and any expenses they had. They will check in one month to see are the
>> people satisfied. They will keep all of the money they make from
>> selling the DIY Solar kits.
>>
>> We will work on this project at the Global Swadeshi website
>> http://www.globalswadeshi.net as well as Minciu Sodas working groups and
>> Worknets wiki. The purpose of this project is to work together with
>> others at Global Swadeshi and get to know them and their projects. We
>> will also learn about the opportunities, challenges and abilities of
>> different entrepreneurs in different parts of the world. This will be a
>> lot achieved for a small amount of money.
>>
>> Wendi, Fred, William, Dennis, Samwel, would you like to participate?
>> Who else?
>>
>> Graham, Does this make sense? What do you think?
>>
>> Andrius
>>
>> Andrius Kulikauskas
>> Minciu Sodas
>> http://www.ms.lt
>> ms@...
>> +370 699 30003
>> Vilnius, Lithuania
>>