[OSGeo-Discuss] How Do We Reboot a Spirit of Cooperation & Collaboration? A Little Help, Please!

[SERGIO ACOSTAYLARA]

Hello. Yes, these are difficult times for communication (when paradoxically we are hyper connected...). At OSGeo we try to keep the flame of collaboration and the defense of the commons alive. But it is not easy. It is a continuous struggle, and today it is even more difficult because those who promote individualism are very empowered. But we will not give up. Not even when defeated.


Sergio Acosta y Lara
Departamento de Cartografía Digital
Dirección Nacional de Topografía
Ministerio de Transporte y Obras Públicas
URUGUAY
(598)29157933 ints. 20329
http://geoportal.mtop.gub.uy/
________________________________
De: Discuss <discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> en nombre de Miles Fidelman via Discuss <discuss at lists.osgeo.org>
Enviado: domingo, 9 de febrero de 2025 14:36:17
Para: xbbn; NCDD-DISCUSSION at lists.ncdd.org; Internet Policy; internet-history at gtaylor.tnetconsulting.net; discuss at osgeo.org; mil-oss; Foundations List; Libre Planet, World
Asunto: [OSGeo-Discuss] How Do We Reboot a Spirit of Cooperation & Collaboration? A Little Help, Please!

Hi Folks,

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.  ... Yeats

It strikes me that we - We The People, Americans, Humanity - need an Attitude Adjustment.  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.  Herding cats is one thing, but one can only tilt at windmills for so long.

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.

Is there some way back to Life Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness, E Pluribus Unum, Truth Justice & the American Way?  Or forward to Prosperity & Long Life in Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combination, Being All that We Can Be, Being Excellent to Each Other & Partying  On?

----

At least some of us, here, were involved w/ FreeNets and the early days of Community Memory, bulletin boards, FidoNet, community networks - attempts to build an American Public Telecommunications Network of FreeNets, and an Association for Community Media for cable access channels.  All of that was lost when FaceBook & Social Media & NextDoor & local websites hosted by big ate the world.

My work at the Center for Civic Networking - and now with Civic.Net and ThisOldNeighborhood.Net - 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.

It seems like folks don't want 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, Habitat-for-Humanity 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.

----

I've been doing my damndest to recruit volunteers to organize local civic networks and community forums- to use platforms they already have to bring people together (the way WBUR in Boston has organized CitySpace as a venue for events & programs that bring people together.  Or the Whole Earth Catalog & the WELL, back in the day.  Or what MainVest tried to do as a crowdsourcing vehicle for main street businesses - until their bank failed).

I haven't been getting a lot of traction.  I've got a bunch of followers on LinkedIn, a bunch of (mostly non-paying) subscribers to my blogs - but practically nobody speaks up - 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.

---

It seems like the old line is true - you can lead folks to water, but you can't make them drink.

Whatever happened to the Spirit of America?  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 Earth Day?

Please... Speak up.  With serious suggestions & proposals.  Save the pontification for other threads.

Thanks,

Miles

--
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
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