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<p class="MsoNormal">Hi Folks,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Turning and turning in the widening
gyre </i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>The best lack all conviction, while the
worst </i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Are full of passionate intensity.</i> ...
Yeats</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It strikes me that we - We The People,
Americans, Humanity -
need an Attitude Adjustment.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>We
need to
relearn how to think & work together for mutual support &
benefit. My best efforts have been to little effect. I'd welcome
some suggestions, some support, some participation.<span
style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Herding cats is one thing,
but one can only
tilt at windmills for so long.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We've networked ourselves together. 6 Billion
of us
have the power to be anywhere & everywhere, all at once. To
think
& work together on a global scale. To think globally focus
our resources
to act locally. So what do we do? We share cat pictures, watch
porn, flood the world with spam, and troll each other with
political
polemics. We've become the Borg, we're living in the Matrix, and
3-D
Printing Westworld around us. Our planet is dying, our
infrastructure is
crumbling, monsters rise from the id of our collective
consciousness, and we
hand the nuclear codes to a "Reality" TV star, with a penchant for
firing people & stirring up WWE style mayhem.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Is there some way back to <i>Life Liberty &
the
Pursuit of Happiness, E Pluribus Unum, Truth</i> <i>Justice
& the American
Way? </i>Or forward to <i>Prosperity & Long Life</i> in <i>Infinite
Diversity in</i> <i>Infinite Combination, Being All that We Can
Be, Being
Excellent to Each Other & Partying </i> <i>On? </i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">----</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">At least some of us, here, were involved w/
FreeNets and the
early days of <i>Community Memory,</i> bulletin boards, FidoNet,
community networks - attempts to build an <i>American Public
Telecommunications Network</i> of FreeNets, and an <i>Association
for
Community Media</i> for cable access channels. All of that was
lost
when FaceBook & Social Media & NextDoor & local
websites hosted by
big ate the world.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">My work at the <i>Center for Civic Networking -</i> and
now with <i>Civic.Net</i> and <i>ThisOldNeighborhood.Net </i>-
is an attempt to recreate a network of public spaces on the
Internet - an
Internet or Syndicate of Neighborhood Networks & Civic Forums
- but there
are not a lot of Neighborhood Networks or Civic Forums to
integrate.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It seems like folks don't <i>want</i> to talk
with
each other anymore. The polarizers, and propagandists, and market
segmentationists have done their work all too well. People don't
come to
town meeting or condo meetings. Everyone wants to be a rockstar
and a
solopreneur, rather than part of a team, or a community. Folks
flock to
the latest personality or fad, a virtual event with a politician
or media
personality - but actually sit down to think and work together, to
mutual
benefit - not so much. Folks will march for this cause or that,
work for
politicians, buy snake-oil. Some will go to Cons and LARPs, and
build a
city in the dessert at Burning Man; some will show up for
Hackathons,
Service Days, <i>Habitat-for-Humanity</i> Builds, rush off to map
crises or jump into fires, but collaborate - think & plan
& work
together for mutual support & benefit - not so much. We're oh
so much
better at shouting slogans at each other - than at looking for
ways we can work
together to mutual benefit.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">---- </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I've been doing my damndest to recruit
volunteers to
organize local <i>civic networks</i> and <i>community forums</i>-
to use platforms they already have to bring people together (the
way WBUR in
Boston has organized <i>CitySpace</i> as a venue for events &
programs that bring people together. Or the Whole Earth Catalog
& the
WELL, back in the day. Or what <i>MainVest </i>tried to do as a
crowdsourcing vehicle for main street businesses - until their
bank failed).</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I haven't been getting a lot of traction. I've
got a
bunch of followers on <i>LinkedIn, </i>a bunch of (mostly
non-paying)
subscribers to my blogs - but practically <i>nobody speaks up </i>-
either to talk about what they're doing and seeking collaboration
for, or even
to ask folks to join with them to work on local pressing common
problems.
And all the media types who HAVE large audiences, are moving to
Substack,
spouting the same-old same-old, and inviting people to attend
their lectures,
webinars, have coffee with them, send them money - but offering
nothing to help
people work with each other. All talk, no action.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">---</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It seems like the old line is true - you can
lead folks to
water, but you can't make them drink.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Whatever happened to the <i>Spirit of America?</i>
What will it take to wake people up? To motivate people to
respond to a
clear & present danger the way they did following the first <i>Earth
Day? </i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Please... Speak up. With serious suggestions
&
proposals. Save the pontification for other threads.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Thanks,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Miles</p>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is. .... Yogi Berra
Theory is when you know everything but nothing works.
Practice is when everything works but no one knows why.
In our lab, theory and practice are combined:
nothing works and no one knows why. ... unknown</pre>
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