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