Mark, I copy your nextnet conversation here as well, it seems to me you have thought through an 'integral' or integrated p2p infrastructural strategy? as you say, "a global information technology requirements specification, in very broad outline, for a paradigm shift tool-set." is that available somewhere in a more formal article, for eventual publication? what is the underlying logic holding all those different points/aspects together? Michel Mark Roest <[email protected]> Jul 31 12:20PM -0700 ^<?ui=2&view=bsp&ver=ohhl4rw8mbn4#13182cf62cd0ab56_digest_top> Hello Jurai, Rasmus and Michel, There are some other dimensions that the discussion is not really reflecting yet. The 20-planet scenario has a major fork in its path. This fork can be played out differently in different places, and the aggregate impacts of the choices can, in turn, have ecosystem, eco-region, biome, and global scale system-disrupting or system-restoring impacts. Nature plays the last hand -- we don't. Our functional purpose here, on Gaia, is to be stewards of all our relations (the rest of life), to live on the surpluses, and to create and share collective and universal consciousness. Most traditional, indigenous, relatively intact cultures would also say something roughly equivalent to, it is to maintain continuity with the contributions of the ancestors, and co-create the future with them and with the Great Spirit / Life Force. The nature of the fork is whether we coalesce around our higher selves (think of what infants and close friends and pets inspire in us) or our lower inheritance from chimpanzees (taking over adjacent territories -- killing the males to take the females and the choice food). What I have written below is a global information technology requirements specification, in very broad outline, for a paradigm shift tool-set. Left-wing or populist organizing is fundamentally about bringing people together and educating them so they cannot be exploited or oppressed by sociopathic, racist greed-heads. If we combine this with a few other fundamental pieces, we have a chance to save the world: 1. Education in how to come from and express compassion and altruism effectively (curriculum by Stanford School of Medicine's CCARE program, in collaboration with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and other Tibetan Buddhist scholars). The curriculum has now spread to 2000 schools in the U.S.. Similarly, a program called the Causes of Happiness. This needs to be 'mashed' with education (#6 below) and peacemaking, as well as community, political and economic organizing, as it changes perspective in these areas. 2. Uncensored information about corporations and governments run by greed, and individuals and political groups driven by hostility (Project Censored, now collaborating with over 40 universities, and other efforts) 3. Scientific understanding of habitat loss, ecosystems, carbon and water cycles, the soil food web, Permaculture solutions (why do they work? where?), etc. 4. A way of organizing information so we can see the part that is potentially useful to us in the eco-regions and cultures we live and work in. It is a combination taxonomy and / or tag system that covers eco-regions and cultures, problem types, solution integration options, universals (the basics of life support, human biology and instinctual, emotional, and spiritual nature), threats, conditions and opportunities, and much else, in a Geographic Information / Digital Earth Imaging System, to which everyone has read and write access at the content level, with the content having an audit trail and peer review -- as well as expert review. 5. An extension of the economic input-output analysis beyond dollars in and dollars out at each transformation. It needs to also carry and report physical types and units of inputs, hours and intensities of different kinds of labor, waste and byproducts, quality standards (e.g. organic, non-gmo, fair trade), and who controls processes and transactions. It also needs to be mashed with the Geographic Information / Digital Earth Imaging System. 6. A digital education system, translated and localized for all cultures, that fully empowers people to reach their potential individually and collectively. SugarLabs, which provided the user interface for the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) XO computer, has one of many efforts in this direction. It should be built around #1, #3, #4, #5, #7 & #8 in terms of content access, and organizing skills should be taught, and their use encouraged. For reference, check out the ethnic studies program that the racist Arizona legislature and governor banned financial support for this year. There are others. 7. A health and well-being process that is place-based, culture-supportive, unified and fully diverse, which is supported by a Health Care Knowledgebase mashed with the VistA EHR (Electronic Health Record) health information management system <WorldVistA.org>. It needs to fully empower all the indigenous healers (often 1 per 100 people in rural Africa, where western trained doctors may be 1 per 100,000 to 1 per million). 8. A taxonomy and database of appropriate, sustainable technologies, integrated with the information systems supporting the other topics and organizing initiatives. It should be the information support system for ubiquitous technology incubators which are devoted to fine-grained distribution of the power to produce in harmony with nature, from its surplus. The incubators should work with communities to develop cooperatives where possible, and small businesses that work in progressively larger networks as a fall-back position. The incubators should also be integrated with the Unified Field Bank system <http://unifiedfieldbank.com/mission.html
, providing a 'lens'-like system through which community assets can be used to generate the capital needed to transform the economy, at the scales needed for each different technology and food production system.
In each of these major topic areas, we need to do an Agile-style evolution of tools and content, in a large, open process that includes ample, 'hosted' and facilitated opportunity for cross-fertilization among topics and technologies. Charrettes (see National Charrette Institute, Portland, Oregon) need to be an integral part of the processes. There is more, but this is enough for today. Regards, Mark Roest www.DesignEarth.net <http://www.designearth.net/> -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens