I am interested in developing interconnected media facilitating a trans and meta overview ,
and if possible , also a dynamic relative overview ,
within and between ” intentional networks “.
Towards such an aim ,
I believe , at first , in using existing technologies , and then progressively build collected materials and position them towards each other , collectively , eventually implementing new applications and solutions to do so.
Let me explain my approach.
In the last 5 years , I have been hitch hiking all over europe , developing different perspectives , interacting and living with people from various backgrounds , while staying in touch with these people , and also with other emerging intentional networks , through the internet , using email , wiki s , mailing lists , social bookmarks , …
I quickly realized the need for two approaches , beyond convergence and exchanges in online environments , connecting online interaction with real world spaces and interaction :
on one hand , the need to facilitate the emergence of interconnected networks of individuals that apparently may be called
” boundary spanners “
( expressed in some old brainstormings such as ” Open World ” : http://oikoumene.coforum.net/OpenWorld
and on the other hand , convergence spaces , which may also be living spaces , where such boundary spanners can converge , live , and develop their projects , while feeling at home , or having the opportunity to have several places where they feel at home.
Also , during my travels , the decisions concerning my moves depended on the options that would come to me along communication channels in the networks of people I met , and on information from the networks of individuals to which I connected to online ,
opening up several options to me , from which I would constantly re-actualize my alignment of options ( several options making it possible to attract me rather in one part of europe at a certain time of the year , rather then another , according to the capacity to open up new opportunities , meet people , converge resources , and the efforts invested )
I would also use email to facilitate efforts of ” stigmergy ” with my networks of friends throughout europe ,
and optimize the opportunity and connection making through my hitch hiking low budget moves , by connecting with people along the way according to common interests , or complementary interests , I would feel.
Other important factors in my travels being the potential for having inconditional opportunities for reality sharing – feeling more often that I had more such chances in certain places in eastern europe then in western europe , as western europe , especially in its big cities , seemed to have its social organization based on much more conditional reality sharing.
After an estimated 300 000 km hitch hiking , I feel it is time to find opportunities to increase the resource base , and find ways to converge more effectively , using some of my experience , and try to implement the understanding and broader view of interconnected / inter related pieces of ” puzzle ” I would see , and the potential for new synergetic , or eventually , emergent relation making processes.
I am now back in Brussels , my home town , and a major center of decision making in europe and in the world , itself being positioned in between other major decision making centers in europe , such as London , Paris , Amsterdam , the Ruhr Gebiet and Koln …
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I woud like to start very simply. I am happy to see that there are projects such as ” The Hub ” that are emerging , new hubs opening up accross major cities accross europe and the world , inspired on the Hub London s success.
I am somewhat sceptical of its business model , yet like to promote the development of such transdisciplinary convergence spaces.
( I still feel such model might still too much be aimed at maximizing income , even though some hubs might choose to be not for profit – I am also concerned about ownership and control of communication channels related to these convergence spaces , … etc … but thats another debate. )
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Together with some friends , such as Synnove , we also discussed the development of ” Convergence shared living spaces “.
These might also combine with other more temporary convergence/living intentional network spaces , such as ” collectives ” of a few days , or a few months , such as the Couchsurfing or BeWlecome Collectives , or the 24 hour or 24 weeks projects the espians develop : http://wiki.espians.com/24_weeks
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In some of these projects , video , wiki s , and mailing lists are being used to facilitate collaboration between individuals from all over the world with convergence points such as collectives.
I would be interested in developing platforms , together with all other emerging technologies ,
that facilitate such collaboration ,
first at a local scale , such as at the scale of brussels ,
visiting different actors potentially sharing common or complementary projects and intentions ,
understanidng their needs and offers ,
and trying to position them by facilitating some ( audio-visual ) recordings , that would include meta tags ,
and facilitate the mapping of each of them towards each other.
I would also be interested , after using existing tools and mashing them together ,
while also using real world spaces , which can in effect also become ubiquitous as to interact with each other through the online communication channels and also through physical space , facilitating ” stigmergy ”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigmergy
Ideally , grant makers , social entrepreneurs , researchers , people in the field , decision makers of all kinds , etc
can more eaisly allocate their efforts and resources , and collaborate with each other ,
not having to follow specific power structures of organizations , but directly working around common intentions ,
and optimizing the use of resources , facilitating also the understanding of mutual synnergies and the different inter relations ,
understanding priorities and how each element may further lead to new opportunities.
This would be complemented with data bases , and their immersive visualization – tools that still need to be developed , some of which I may briefly be detailing on
http://oikoumene.coforum.net/wikka.php?wakka=abstractobjectdimensions
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Another very important aspect I see to such emergence ,
is the inconditonality , towards common intentions.
Everyone does wat one can , and empowers each other , eventually leading to ones own empowerment through mutual emergence.
new forms of finance can emerge , including new forms of measurment , facilitated by the new holoptic capacity of such a intentional network.
By holopticism , I mean the capacity for everyone to see the bigger picture , and to evaluate as to better potion ones own actions and potential decisions in accordance to others , facilitating self regulation , in a non hierarchic way.
Everyone could be creative , and people having access to any kind of resource may decide to invest and donate to people working on various aspects of the broader intention ,
or on new understandings of opportunties that may rise into new initiatives and solution development.
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For example , I might go and see various individuals , schools , universities, non governmental organizations , governmental political bodies , private companies , etc
and by documenting and inter relating each others needs and situations , make it easier for each of them to see potentials for synnergies , and new opportunties to create / solutions to develop together.
by doing so , some of them might see the ” value creation ” I can bring , and through a transparent donations platform ,
allow them to donate to me , while seing what my own living needs might be.
I can show , like in a video game , what my daily survival needs are , and how much of them might have been filled up within the next week or two , and if they want to support me , they may see for example that in one week time I do not have enough money to fulfill my estimated eating expenses , and they can decide to donate one or two euros – which then appears transparently on the online system.
more details about such a solution on
http://oikoumene.coforum.net/MagicHat
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So to start with , I would simply need to go and visit local actors , and help positioning them , by fiding out about a series of question that could facilitate such positioning , and eventuallymake some short audiovisual recording , which can then be meta tagged and inter related with all other potential recordings and pieces of information.
This can facilitate local meetings in the real world ,
and if it really creates value , it can be a first step for me to receive donations and survive ,
while not being told what to do , whitout having to work for anyone , and without needing to set up any specific legal structure of my own ( I hope – we will see )
I also look forward to further use and include tools , such as potentially the ones developed by Joe Edelman :
http://citizenlogistics.com/