Milliongenerations:Meeting 29 May 09

Meeting on actions of milliongenerations.org

• Time: Friday 29 May 09 17:00 - 19:00 CET
• Location: Utrecht, Trechter and via skype conference call

Attendees:

• R, Ma, Mi, P (skype) <please add your own name, if you want, please don't add (i.e., publish) complete names of others>
• O&C&Olga can't join, sends regards

Minutes

• Perspectives and insights since last meeting
• Activities: what has been done? What was learned from it? Should it be continued? What else do we want to do?
  • Dutch version homepage, other languages?
  • The Club of Amsterdam
  • Video
  • Contacted Digital Pioneers. Apply for round 17 in the summer!
  • Started a project on Voordewereldvanmorgen.nl. Not much happening. Wait and see.
  • Twitter @MGenerations. New insights, share concepts. Later share changes on site, possibly automatic (separate account). Continue!
  • Opened an account on Mission Zero. Not much seems to be happening. Wait and see.
  • Concept to ask students (at schools) to interview people (e.g., senior citizens) with questions around milliongenerations to be developed. Intergenerational dialogue would add value. Exercise will bring about questions with what question to start, try a few things / leave it open to students. Could also include things like "how would you act if you lived for a million years" or "imagine receiving a call from someone living in a million generations" as well as the questions already posted on this site. Preference to stick to something that conveys the change of perspective in the assumption, but no dogma. Hope that robust interview questions will emerge.

• Content/Substance
  • Focus on the really long term! Develop core principles/values of milliongenerations further!
  • Competition is derived from striving together
  • Concepts for resilience (beyond control) and sustainability (within control). Often people don't seem prepared to do the mental work to understand concepts.
  • Hungry man and Fish
  • As an organization, let's not get much involved with actions on here and now. There are plenty of others who do that. Clarification of concepts is needed.

• Plans for milliongenerations in one year
  • Some student interviews on the site, learned from it
  • Environment to implement something in the direction of the million (clicks) for a million (generations) competition
  • Passing of the milliongenerations:foundation to the winners of the competition
  • Such an environment should preferably be available for other questions (open/copyleft!)
  • Better website, clearer, better structure, more inviting to contributions
  • Succeeded in obtaining financing (digital pioneers?) and attract volunteers to achieve the above

• Steps to formalizing the foundation
  • Changes to the charter
  • Try limit to 25 years if notary/tax authorities allows. Idea is that if the organization has not achieved an environment that produced meaningful concepts in this time, it is unlikely that it will succeed afterwards and it probably will be too late to implement such concepts. Limiting the lifespan of the organization is meant to underscore the urgency of the problem and avoid setting up an organization that exists or even grows just to keep itself alive.
  • Objective in 2.0 of the [[[Milliongenerations:Charter of the Foundation|charter]] is not bad, P suggested we could add something in the direction of "to do something people in the future will be thankful for".
• Actions, please complete by 30 June 2009
  • Ma: explore Interview project, and share it on this site. If you like it: go for it
  • Mi: contact friend teaching at similar school, maybe other students want to get involved
  • All: review core principles/values of milliongenerations
  • P: add definition to competition
  • Mi: start foundation formally, so subsidies can be applied for and donations can be received, so that the environment of the site can be improved
  • R: keep an eye on next round of Digital Pioneers.

Notes taken during the meeting / Discussions

• At the moment, MG needs to mature before it can enter in starting up bigger project. For the moment, all mini projects/initiatives and discussions are welcomed to explore the REAL MG. In a way we are doing explorative research at the moment. Small projects that help MG further. Is it likely the MG stays in this state for at least a year from now.
• An issue was discussed whether MG would benefit from defining boundaries or rules, not static, but as a start. Thinking this further when being at home, one could also frame this as USP's (unique selling points). The question is: what makes MG different and distinct compared to other initiatives? See Values and Vision for further details.
• MG would be helped greatly if the wiki is changed by a more appealing or inviting website that is more clear and neatly arranged. This was acknowledged by all those who joined the meeting. However, was able to set this up easily. Main advantage will be that others, not directly invited and drawn into the meetings can react to the concept of MG more easily.
• For the moment: MG is People having an intergenation dialogue about a rich concept.
• Forecasting, Foresight and Backcasting are scientific disciplines in the social sciences. The implied jump of MG makes these disciplines obsolete, but could however benefit from novel insights how to support it. Community based discussions on the internet is likely an immensely helpful tool.
• One of the basics of MG implies that it becomes owned by a community that is keen to develop the concept further and fill it in with content. The question for now is how to get it owned by a community with a critical mass to carry it further. Regular meetings with new people is definetely one way, but an online eyecatcher that makes people stumble into MG is needed as well.
• We can all try to describe MG with a tag cloud that shows it's uniqueness and distinctiveness from other initiatives.
• "Imagine a chat with a person that lives a million generations into the future." - This is most likely a valuable thought experiment to discover elements that will survive or are needed this far into the future. It could be a mini project to discover this thought experiment.

Next meeting

31 Jul 2009 17:00 CET / 8am PST (summer time)