Andrius,
I am working on some webpages which I will post on Friday to a website
and then I will give you the link. I will spend most of today doing the
final webwork for the send off of ?beta test? of our site tomorrow for
review by this group. It will probably still be rough, but the idea is
to get feedback from all of you to make the development of the Social
Enterprise Platform a collaborative process. I feel that it is very
important to develop a more collaborative way of doing things
particularly given the nature of the task, which is the design of highly
integrated, human scale sustainable systems.
We seem to understand the problem increasingly with great clarity. It is
safe to say that everyone in this group believes that ICT has the
potential to transform the human condition and along with that promote
the development of sustainable human habitats. We at oneVillage have a
particularly keen eye on the impact this will have on underserved
communities. With the internet and the potential of new low cost
wireless connectivity solutions, a great door of opportunity has swung
right open for much of the world that until now has been marginalized
due to political and geographical factors that have significant economic
and social implications on their societies and their attempts to provide
a descent quality of life for their people.
The opportunity of ICT to dramatically shift the fortunes of underserved
communities is a major theme of the oneVillage Foundation. However, it
is not something that should be considered in isolation of the many
other factors that need to be considered in any authentic approach to
sustainable development. We are not simply talking about virtual/ICT
tools but the integration of those tools into a sustainable and socially
just built environment centered around communities rather than large
mega scale urban projects?holistic ICT. I want to drive home this point:
the development of the tools themselves will require a great networking
effort an effort that will involve many groups. To make ICT technology
work we have to improve the quality of the user experience as well as
their effectiveness but we ourselves need a more effective set of tools
to create this Holistic ICT platform.
We are developing this Holistic ICT platform to promote and integrate
the kind of tools you are developing with all the other components
creating sustainable communities and maximizing the replication of these
systems throughout the world. The reason for this is probably clear to
most of you: the ecological as well as the socioeconomic window for
change is short and growing shorter. There is an understandable sense of
urgency among us, but we must however remain patient and not be overcome
with anxiety despite the great challenges we face collectively as a
species. We need to ask ourselves honestly?what are the blockages?what
is holding us back and keeping us from our full potential as innovators
and designers of a new sustainable and socially just global system of
doing things?
When I was running this morning it came to me. What is needed as part of
this Green Community Network is a TECHNOLOGY portal to enable one stop
shopping and help towards developing the right ICT solutions for each
particular group user. Possibly there are already sites like this in
existence. Yet obviously there is still much work to be done in this
area. We need to condense our knowledge and focus on open source
solutions that are not simply limited to those who know how to program.
Open source is on the verge of dominating the server market but is still
lagging in the retail markets. It is hardly a mystery as to why this is.
Open source software particularly operating systems have not been
designed for the end-users. I have this radical notion that not only
should technology be empowering, but it should be fun!
One of the things we talked about when Joy and I were meeting with some
people who are involved with the Global Women?s Leadership Center,
project here in San Jose is some of the problems with existing ICT and
the Grand Canyon like divide between designers and users. We see this in
every aspect of modern design and the overall dismal level of
interactivity between professional and laypeople. To sum up the
conventional thinking technologists are too much in love with their
designs and their jargon to really create easily accessible
user-friendly interfaces that empower the user instead of imprisoning
him/her. Computers as they are designed today are a source of much grief
and they only add to our sense of being overwhelmed by too much data. If
ICT is to be a real solution not just for developing countries, but for
the world, this must change. Are we up to this challenge?
It is interesting to note that one of the most important movements
towards sustainability involves the redesign of the ICT sector.
Sustainability is not just about solar panels and sustainable
agriculture it is about how we design the systems that we rely on. Are
they efficient in the use of our resources, time and energy? An
efficient and highly integrated set of computer programs can make a
great contribution to sustainable development by themselves by reducing
the amount of time wasted on the computer and the amount energy used by
the computer to do tasks. I would say most modern systems in our world
today are highly productive in stand-alone form, but as integrated
systems, they are abysmal failures. The notion of productivity because
it focuses on individual technologies and not integrated systems is an
inaccurate measure of the technologies themselves and their
effectiveness as tools that we can use towards achieving progress in the
quality of our lives. In fact conventional economic measures, in fact
mask the fact that much the technology and the consumer products being
developed are actually moving us in reverse in terms of both personal
and collective issues relating to human development, quality of life and
a sense of personal empowerment.
Jeff
Jeff Buderer
oneVillage Foundation
Sustainable Design/Project Development
www.onevillagefoundation.org <http://www.onevillagefoundation.org>
www.onevillage.biz <http://www.onevillage.biz>
Cell 417.830.1029
Yahoo IM: jefbuder
http://www.ryze.com/go/Jefbuder
-----Original Message-----
From: Joy Tang [joy onevillage.biz]
Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 12:49 AM
To: minciu_sodas_en yahoogroups.com; Colin Morley;
ki-work yahoogroups.com; ondemand-network yahoogroups.com
Cc: Christopher.Cooke 5deep.co.uk; nick bethechange.org.uk; 'Josef
Davies-Coates'
Subject: RE: [minciu_sodas_en] Ecademy? BeTheChange.Org.UK, WTF2,
Oekonux (World Bank and Unity Center in rural Kenya)
Andrius,
Thanks for keeping the momentum going with clear and open communication.
I'd like to add that OVF-Kenya has submitted the proposal to the World
Bank's 'entrepreneurial incubator' program for consideration and the 'unity
center,' hub for oneVillage Initiative is being constructed with little
funding that's been gathered to start the construction of the site. It
could be used strategically to coordinate our efforts deployed for the rural
sustainable development in that region.
Since you are going to approach the World Bank, I thought this could be used
as the demo site for the ICT solutions as the enablers for sustainable
economic development. When you are ready, we will be able to approach WB's
ICT development division for discussion.
Joy Tang
oneVillage Initiative - Holistic ICT Development for Eco Living
http://onevillagefoundation.org/ovf/initiative.html
Yahoo IM: joyayo
[PHONE NUMBER REMOVED]
http://www.ryze.com/go/joytang
-----Original Message-----
From: Andrius Kulikauskas [ms ms.lt]
Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 1:07 PM
To: Colin Morley; minciu_sodas_EN yahoogroups.com;
ki-work yahoogroups.com; ondemand-network yahoogroups.com
Cc: Christopher.Cooke 5deep.co.uk; nick bethechange.org.uk; 'Josef
Davies-Coates'
Subject: [minciu_sodas_en] Ecademy? BeTheChange.Org.UK, WTF2, Oekonux
I'm preparing for the Oekonux conference May 20-23
http://www.primarilypublicdomain.org/992.html
we will come to Vienna, Austria with a carload of Lithuanians. I'm
preparing for my workshop on "infrastructure for virtual flash mobs".
I'd like to do some of that in practice by simply encouraging connection
with two other events in the same spirit. One is BeTheChange.Org.UK
that will take place May 19-21 in London, so perhaps there can be some
online flow of ideas between our two events.
Already, I want to thank BeTheChange organizers Colin Morley,
Christopher Cooke and Nick Hart-Williams for arranging free entry for
Josef Davies-Coates to http://www.BeTheChange.Org.UK And I look forward
to our events carrying momentum over to WTF2 http://wtfcon.org also in
London.
How can we get the word out? I'm CC'ing London artist Natalie
d'Arbeloff http://www.nataliedarbeloff.com/blaugustine.html perhaps she
can help.
Also, perhaps some of our bloggers at Ecademy could offer some thoughts
and links in support. Lets find steps that we can take as we
work-in-parallel at these events.
I've set up WOW and I look forward to using that to flesh out and merge
our activity to "work openly" at these events and elsewhere. In
particular, I'll be creating a questionnaire which I hope we might
translate into German, Arabic and other languages. It will include
questions about contact info, web presence, interests, capabilities,
availability for work, etc. that might help us work openly. I want to
do this at Oekonux, and afterwards apply this for ERDE and for One
Village, and present this all back in Lithuania at a WorldBank showcase
where we're participating.
Life is quite hectic for all of our organizers. Thank you to us all for
working-in-parallel!
Peace,
Andrius Kulikauskas
http://www.primarilypublicdomain.org/3.html