[ox-en] Website (was: Politics and Oekonux)
- From: Stefan Meretz <stefan meretz.de>
- Date: Mon, 11 May 2009 22:55:01 +0200
Hi Mathieu and all,
I started a new thread (for those using threaded views in their mail
clients), leaving your post regarding a new ox website below.
I am interested in having a better ox website.
Before starting with the question of purpose I like to ask what the main
goal of an oekonux website is and who is to be addressed. If goal and
target group is clear, then purpose or functions of a website can be
better discussed IMHO.
I am sure, that goal and target group are far from being evident.
Goal, is it to
- inform about peer production?
- foster debates around pp?
- collect theories of pp?
- campaining for more members?
- influence politics?
- evaluate new developments?
- doing research on questions around pp?
- develop an "oekonux theory"?
Target Group, is it
- general audience?
- activists of free/open peer projects?
- theorists of peer production?
- people being interested in emancipatory movements?
- politicians?
- other movements?
These are only ideas hopefully provoking your ideas. I don't know, if
this can work in a mailinglist discussion.
If the questions about goal and target group are more or less clear,
then it is easier to look at the following aspects like purpose,
functions, content, technical tools, design, access etc.
StefanMn already wrote down some technical aspects:
http://en.wiki.oekonux.org/Oekonux/Project/WebSite/Requirements
And below we have Mathieu's ideas about content and purpose.
Ciao,
Stefan
On 2009-05-11 15:55, Mathieu O'Neil wrote:
What purpose should the website have?
- Should it be an archive of texts (like now)? In my view there
should of course be an archival section, but as Franz argued a while
back it should not be a comprehensive archive, this already exists
(P2P…).
- Should it be a site for spirited discussion between highly involved
people about the merits of this or that aspect of P2P economics (or
whatever you want to call it)? No, this is the function of the
mailing list.
I think the website should have these main functions:
(a) it should articulate clearly how peer production is a germ form
for a society without exchange - short texts, slogans, etc
(b) it should have some longer theories to back up (a): this already
exists
(c) it should provide concrete examples of how peer production is
working now (free software and hardware)
(d) it should provide concrete examples of how peer production might
be applied to other sectors. This is a key point. What can be done to
extend peer production?
(e) finally, it should offer some means of dialogue between the ox
community and others
Concretely:
(a) These definitions should be written collaboratively by whoever
wants to lend a hand and then submitted to the list within a
reasonable time frame so that the process does not drag on forever
(b) at this stage it is not cost-effective to redo everything so I am
thinking we can have links to the old website for particularly
interesting texts
(c) pretty obvious, no need to dwell on it – a page of links would do
(d) I think there needs to be a focused effort by the community to
come up with short, sharp summaries of how peer production can start
being applied right now to new areas. For example, there has been a
discussion on p2p and ox lists about education. But without going
into details about how this would work in a future where everything
is free, how could peer production be used _right now_ in the
education sector?
(e) interactivity will help to attract people. What I an suggesting
is that people with a strong interest in peer production (basically
anyone on the lists, though obviously people like Christian and
Michel for example (who have big websites) or Smari or whomever would
agree to debate all comers on an open wiki. This could be restricted
to certain days (once or twice a week) during a month. We would
"advertise" this widely over the net – Oekonux monthly / ? /quarterly
dialogues or whatever. We could publish a summary after each one.
I am happy to help coordinate within reason but (a) (d) and (e) rely
on community input. If no-one speaks up, I will let it slide – its
not like I don’t have enough to do already…
--
Start here: www.meretz.de
_________________________________
Web-Site: http://www.oekonux.org/
Organization: http://www.oekonux.de/projekt/
Contact: projekt oekonux.de