Spreading out and Oekonux web site (was: Re: [ox-en] Oekonux 2.0?)
- From: Stefan Merten <smerten oekonux.de>
- Date: Tue, 14 Apr 2009 21:48:49 +0200
Dear Mathieu and all!
2 hours ago Stefan Merten wrote:
From: mathieu coombs.anu.edu.au
I am going to be provocative and use the language of advertising: there
are different audiences which could be targeted so that this "product"
(peer production, free software / economy, whatever) spreads and is
adopted.
No problem with me. So far I always thought: Just put Oekonux to the
web and interested people will find it. Though this certainly worked I
think it is about time to think about ways to improve this method.
However, in no instance I'd like to advertise Oekonux in any
aggressive way like we know (and hate) it from commercial
advertisement. I think we have a good and useful message and if this
message is accessible we don't need to be aggressive. Free Software
doesn't need it either ;-) . However, I agree that accessibility is
one of the key topics where improvements are needed.
It's really important to recognise that though our _reasons_ are
true and good, they will often be defeated by the _emotions_ mobilised by
mass culture. So we have to use "emotional" media as well.
Which implicitly answers the question of what audience to address. Do
we really want to address masses?
I'm not so sure about this and whether it makes sense at all. IMHO one
of the nice things of peer production is that it is *not* a political
project where masses need to be convinced by arguments / ideology.
Masses are convinced by the benefits of peer production anyway. And
who is interested in more is of course welcome. But do we need to bug
the masses?
I remember vaguely that we had discussions about this topic. Raoul?
A_Publication
The first is a book gathering the diversity of theories and examples. If,
as was suggested at the Conference it is an academic volume for libraries
(hardback) which is also distributed online freely, that is "ideologically
sound" in that it limits commercialisation, but may restrict diffusion a
little, by not reaching people in bookstores, or media people &
journalists who only look at paperbacks with fancy covers. That's fine,
but may not reach beyond those who are already interested, or aware. It is
however an important base to refer to.
The idea of an (English) book came up several times. In former times
we worried to not have enough material for this. Today this probably
has changed a bit.
As far as the format / audience is concerned I think a book just for
academia is wasted time. Also since we have a couple of contacts in
academia we could find ways to publish our message more in regular
scientific work.
I could imagine a book consisting of a couple of articles. Needs not
to be a big book if it covers the basics. For instance the article
http://www.oekonux.org/texts/GermFormTheory.html
could be a nice introduction into germ form theory. In the past there
were also a couple of suggestions for publishers so this should not be
a problem either.
B_Summary
There should be a short text which summarises the principles of peer
production in simple language, something that is fun, that shows how peer
production is a great way to live on an individual level (like it or not,
we live in an individualistic society: making people feel guilty or
appealing to their sense of justice does not necessarily win them over;
making them feel good and hopeful does).
I completely agree.
Something that fits on an A4 page
in medium-big letters.
This is *very* short. But I agree that it would be useful. Such a
format would probably mean to do something completely different than
the usual intros.
BTW: For a (German) friend I just browsed some of the older Oekonux
texts on the German site. There are a few pearls there which go in
this direction. However, they are much longer. May be we should take
the effort to translate a few...
C_Catchy slogans
Along with graphics / visuals? Same consideration as above.
Something like "Peer produce - and you will feel better!" ;-) . Any
serious ideas?
D_Art projects
There may be some artists out there who would be interested in
collaborating with a peer production perspective - but this may be
"preaching to the converted" (or the trendy) in this case.
In the past we had some contacts to artists but they usually did not
lead far. Nonetheless this is something which could be tried.
E_Comics
This was mentioned as a possibility. Some might suggest the situationist
approach of "reappropriating" existing mass comics and slapping some new
text in:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/didgebaba/sets/671958/show/
The problems with that approach are that it's been done a lot, and there's
always the risk of being shut down by the copyright police.
It is also a way to borrow signals from others. I don't think we need
this. Our message is strong enough by itself.
So I think we
would need to do them ourselves.
Yes.
If there is a great artist out there who
has the time and energy to draw proper comics, that would be wonderful. If
that does not happen we might have to stick to something simple. This
style for example:
http://seantevis.com/kansas/3000/running-for-office-xkcd-style/
It can be done on a computer I think, and is effective. To me, it looks
OK?...
There are these great comics from Creative Commons explaining the
whole idea. If we could have something which is at least in this
direction this really would be great!
Anyone here who is able to produce something like this? What could be
a nice stroyboard?
F_Purpose
The question this raises in turn is: what do these media refer to? Why are
we competing for people's attention? In other words, what will people find
when they look up the link to the source of these media? I have to be
honest now. I think that:
- -the Oekonux website is centered around the mailing list, which is often
dense;
- -the introduction is spread over many pages;
- -and from what I have seen, most if not all the texts are by Stefan.
So, in a sense, there is a kind of discrepancy between the Oekonux site,
which apart from the mailing list, is really quite personal,
The German site is somewhat less personal but you are right.
and the
conference which is quite collective, an "interlocking of networks" as
Michel said. That is not a problem, just an observation, and in any case
from talking to Stefan I believe he is happy for the project to grow in
ways he agrees with. I also understand that he has been doing this for a
long time and wants to "have a life".
As far as the web sites are regarded: I'm completely open here. I'd
like to keep most of the stuff on the websites and there are also a
few technical considerations (i.e. stuff for [pox]) but apart from
this I'm open for suggestions.
I'm also ready to help with / care about technical infrastructure and
to transform existing content to a different format (my absolute
favorite: reStructuredText ;-) ). Oekonux has an own dedicated server
hosting all the infrastructure so we have a lot of possibilities here.
BTW: Oekonux has currently four domains:
oekonux.org
oekonux.de
oekonux-conference.org
oekonux-konferenz.de
We have control over the third level domains so we have many freedoms
here.
So I would just make two suggestions:
1) On the front page, replace this text:
"In Project Oekonux different people with different opinions and different
methods study the economic and political forms of Free Software. An
important question is, whether the principles of the development of Free
Software may be the foundation of a new economy which may be the base for
a new society."
Instead, have a longer and more explicit text, for example emphasising the
main characteristics of peer production (open, free, cooperative, robust,
efficient, non-violent, fun, non-corporate, spreading like wildfire,
non-monetary, etc etc) and explain that Oekonux is a online hub for peer
production theory and practice.
Can you come up with a suggestion?
2) Have a clearer links page, in English, which features some links to the
sites of the people in the conference. Sections could include theory of
peer production, actual usable free software (Open Office etc), hardware
projects (Marcin, etc).
I think we do not need to advertise usable Free Software. There are
lots of people doing this already. The other suggestions are fine.
This would take some work, no doubt. This raises
the question: is the maintainer willing to open up the site a little?
Sure. See above.
And:
who would do it? I don't know.
Any volunteers?
Another idea could be to leverage Michel's work somehow. Though
Michel's project is far less strict theoretically than Oekonux there
are lots and lots of links some of which are useful for Oekonux, too.
May be this could be reused somehow?
Well, this is just to get the ball rolling. If anyone is interested, let's
talk. But where? I had a look at the Oekonux English discussion list and
it seems very theory-oriented. Do the people on that list want to discuss
coordination of comix also? It would be good to have some guidance /
opinion about this point.
As I said: I think as long as we are gathering ideas this list is the
right place. If we come to technical / organizational details we
should move to [pox] where are the people who are interested in these
things.
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 2009 00:11:26 [PHONE NUMBER REMOVED] (EST)
From: mathieu coombs.anu.edu.au
b) Regarding the website, I am thinking that a maximalist approach (rather
than the minimalist one suggested below)
...in this mail: above...
might be more effective. Apart
from what I said below, the look is a bit dated.
Only a bit? ;-)
Why not be inspired by
the P2P Foundation "Wikipedia" look / functionality? If a strong framework
is agreed on (a few rules, a menu: purpose, definitions, related
projects/resources, etc) then all that is needed is some authorised
volunteers who can fill up the sections. It would be different from P2P
Foundation because of its clear critical perspective. As for the existing
Oekonux wiki, it seems more an interactive work tool - maybe I am wrong. I
think this could be the most efficient maximalist strategy.
May be we should ask what we are trying to accomplish with the web
site. This should guide decisions on what tools / layout / ... we use.
Currently the Oekonux web sites host
* Mailing list archives and homes
* Texts including an introduction
* Some link pages (German and outdated, however)
* Some statistics (German site)
* Some bit digital glue / navigation
We agree that this needs improvement on the layout side. There are
also some suggestions for additional content. However, so far there is
little which escapes the rather static framework outlined above. Don't
get me wrong: I'm not saying this may not happen. I'm just trying to
check which effects need which efforts.
If we need more interactive elements then we have currently the Wiki
could be closer integrated somehow.
For instance we could set up a content management system for the site.
But then we need to have content to be managed...
Again: I'm open for suggestions and since I have good technical skills
I'm ready to help here with the technical side. But it must make
sense.
Gr?ü?ße
Stefan
_________________________________
Web-Site: http://www.oekonux.org/
Organization: http://www.oekonux.de/projekt/
Contact: projekt oekonux.de