Milliongenerations:Meeting 31 Jul 09

Meeting on actions of milliongenerations.org

• Time: Friday 31 May 09 17:00 - 19:00 CET / 8 am PST

• Location: Utrecht, Veilinghavenkade 6, and via skype conference call

• Invited: those interested to help advance milliongenerations.org

Preparation

Please have a look at the following initiatives. What can milliongenerations learn from them?

• SpaceCollective.org (check out a few of their projects please)
• 6 billion others (inspiration for communication, way of sharing video messages)
• Stack Overflow (different focus, interesting concept)
• The Oil Drum (excellent content, "civil" discussion, different concept for contributions)
• The X-Prizes ("Revolution through Competition")

Thoughts on state of the project

(please add/modify)

• Focus on the really long term!
• For the moment: MG is People having an dialogue about a rich concept.
• milliongenerations needs to mature before it can enter in starting up bigger project. In a way we are doing explorative research at the moment. Small projects that help MG further and prepare the way. Is it likely the MG stays in this state for at least a year.
• see notes from previous meeting

Proposed Agenda

(please add/modify)

• Activities: what has been done? What do we want to do?
• Interview project
• Milliongenerations:Foundation was set up, now: how organize it?
• Develop core principles/values of milliongenerations further!
• Plans for milliongenerations in one year
  • Interviews on the site or youtube, learned from it
  • Better website, clearer, better structure, more inviting to contributions
    • what do we learn from others? E.g., The blogosphere, twitter, The Oil Drum, SpaceCollective.org, 6BillionOthers.org, Stack Overflow, X-Prizes
  • Environment to implement something in the direction of the million (clicks) for a million (generations) competition created in collaboration with an open source movement, such an environment should preferably be available for other questions (open/copyleft!)
  • Concepts for a competition and the passing of the milliongenerations:foundation to the winners of the competition
  • Succeeded in obtaining financing (digital pioneers?) and attract volunteers to achieve the above

• Actions
  • Digital Pioneers. Apply for round 17 in the summer! (call is still not out)
  • ? News from Voordewereldvanmorgen.nl?
  • Find & contact suitable open source programming projects that could be supported to create a suitable platform
  • ...
  • Next meeting (when e.g., 27 Aug or 28 Aug 17:00 - or later?, where, how?)

The following comments are my (paul t. horan's) follow up notes from this morning's (7.31.09) tele=gathering:

Hello fellow human life-forms,

Here are the books I mentioned at the end of our skype gathering earlier today = "Whuffie Factor" & "Future Scenarios"

Tara Hunt's less than 3 minute vid-clip explicating "whuffie" is worth checking out = http://www.thewhuffiefactor.com/2009/04/explaining-the-whuffie-factor-on-video/

David Holmgren's conclusion delivers a fairly quick read that I believe enriches some of the topics we covered earlier today = http://www.futurescenarios.org/content/view/37/45/

On "information" as a difference that makes a difference, see = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Bateson#Epigrams_coined_by_or_referred_to_by_Bateson

Bateson's "Steps to an Ecology of Mind" is another book worth reading.

Here's the article on the "netflix contest" I mentioned =

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/technology/internet/28netflix.html

Here's the Cluetrain Manifesto =

http://www.cluetrain.com/

And here's a solid bit on the origins of The Briarpatch Network" =

http://www.well.com/~mp/briars.html

Re: our English word "preposterous", kindly note "pre" meaning "before" and "post" meaning "after" referring to absurd arrangements of our priorities. If popular ignorance has already produced sufficiently preposterous societal circumstances, we may just help make more sense by intentionally and boldly and carefully and compassionately approaching current challenges from an apparently backwards perspective or at least from a sideways angle. Designing human activity systems today, especially the kinds of activity systems for which future generations are likely to feel genuine gratitude, are quite probably going to seem preposterous from traditional, conventional viewpoints.

Although I couldn't find a specific reference to Buckminster Fuller's theory of innovation, I did run across this = "The Art of Innovation: Polymaths and Universality of the Creative Process" by Robert Root-Bernstein from The international handbook on innovation By Larisa V. Shavinina http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=5UFLw_IMc_kC&oi=fnd&pg=PA267&dq=buckminster+fuller%27s+theory+of+innovation&ots=hpQmYjFyyq&sig=qzuj_Lcysq9Mi9YW0F192U8UbII#v=onepage&q=&f=false

And finally, here's a piece I've just posted to the YESSS site, which I finally got around to completing thanks to some of the inspired prompting that emerged throughout our "Million Generations" conversation this morning = http://www.yesss.info/content/node/27

Ciao for now,

paul