As we dig in to get The Commons and this supporting forum back into gear,
here is an example of the sort of more far reaching, head scratching thing
that I think we should be giving at least some of our thought to.



If any of you have comments, may I suggest that you address them both to us
here at the-commons@yahoogroups.com with copies to Andrius at ms@...



Full text of what follows is at
http://www.ms.lt/en/workingopenly/virtualflashmobs.html





Social Infrastructure for Virtual Flash Mobs

by Andrius Kulikauskas, ms@..., Minciu Sodas Laboratory,
<http://www.ms.lt> http//www.ms.lt,

In 1998, I founded Minciu Sodas, http://www.ms.lt, an open laboratory
serving and organizing independent thinkers. In order for independent
thinkers to find and support each other, we have innovated in open
economics, intellectual property law, and social organization.

In my workshop, I presented - in rambling fashion - our laboratory's
theoretical ideas and practical experience in organizing "virtual flash
mobs" and the economic value that we see in them. I spoke of the social
infrastructure that we have found crucial or helpful in organizing
ourselves.

Most importantly, I invited and involved others at the conference to work
together. I argued with many about the importance for social networking
that our venues be, by default, in the Public Domain, rather than
copyright, copyleft or Creative Commons. George Pleger of Creative Commons
was most encouraging that I present an alternative "decision chart" that
might address my needs and those of others. I share my ideas on this.
Thank you also to Franz Nahrada, George Dafermos and others for stimulation,
support and encouragement.


Support for each other's projects


My central question is: How might we organize ourselves to support each
other for our projects? At our lab, we have recently been guided by the
vision of a "virtual flash mob", which we might suddenly declare to bring us
together online to support one of our causes, perhaps by spreading news
about an upcoming event, seeding a wiki for a new project, developing a new
idea, appearing for an online chat, or looking for partners for a new
proposal. In a sense, what we are developing is a project management system
for openly working together - a vision that Bala Pillai of MindEcos, Joy
Tang of OneVillage.Biz and Franz Nahrada of ERDE have all described the need
for.


Assembling people


In practice, social networking is a long term investment, and depends on
involving a wide variety of people over a long time. In a conversation - as
short as five minutes, or as long as an hour - it is possible for a person
to learn enough to decide if they might be interested. I have found it very
effective to ask people to allow me to sign them up for one of our
discussion groups - in English, German, Lithuanian or some other language -
as a good way to keep in touch. I let them know that I keep the volume of
letters under control, so that they do not go over an average of five
letters a day. In the group, the subscribers are exposed to a few letters
each day about our topic, which is "caring about thinking" and supporting
independent thinkers. This is quite an open topic, and difficult to get a
feel for. Typically, after three months or more, they may feel inspired to
write, and I can respond and be supportive, knowing that I am investing my
energy in the people who are ready for that.

Therefore, my purpose in a first conversation is to know if we can and
should stay in touch. I simply need their email address and their
permission, based on their clear understanding of the volume of letters they
will receive, and their ability to unsubscribe. Often, I try to bring out
their personal interests, so that I can show how they might relate to
"caring about thinking", and they can decide if such a broader outlook might
be of interest to them.



Full text continues at
http://www.ms.lt/en/workingopenly/virtualflashmobs.html





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