Despite the title of this post, I do not try to divide - I try to raise awareness as to enable choice, and avoid dissapointments and deceipt.
I personally sense that there is a risk for me in letting others identify as a potential “Edgeryder”.
I realize I may not have an interest in people identifying me as an “Edgeryder”,
as it in itself does not mean anything clear.
There is and may not be any real shared approach or value system from the people that may currently, or in the future, end up ,
as apparently they do, represent Edgeryders as a movement, without any consent from others, instead of for example letting each represent themselves, or simply not talking in the name of others, and hence not taking the benefits of being a “representant”.
What we can do, is define Edgeryders as a platform - a forum. And thats it, nothing more.
Other interactions may be called differently, or may use other combinations of words, to contextualize them. But letting others represent us, in a tributary hiearchical way, is already in itself based on an ideological approach which may not correspond to that of a number of people who may currently be seen as being registered members on the forum. Letting some people decide to represent others, or give themselves importance by letting others believe they represent others, the power to develop business models or social contracts enclosing members into such conditions, in a way that may eventually lead them to make a profit for themselves through the captation of crowdsourced work, is in itself also an ideological approach that , although applied defacto, in reality may not at all correspond to the views and preferences of a great number of people they may say they represent.
Some of the people I knew well before Edgeryders, and interacted with well before Edgeryders forum existed, as far as I know, do not abide by such principles / ideology. And neither do I. And yet they may end up participating to enclosures without even realizing it because of a number of reasons, of which imho a perception of potential loss of opportunity if not participating, or some kind of sense of wanting to belong to some community in support of what is sold as a potential for positive change and empowerment , even if in actuality, instead of being productive, they may be creating more harm to what they really believe in.
Perceptions given may in itself not be something that exists, but is something that is being sold as such to participants - while to potential clients , other elements may be sold, such as for example data about how young - and less young - people interact and think, with the risk of both political recuperation and increased control.
We need to understand how things are defacto, and if they do not correspond to our ideology, we should fight it through raising awareness about it, and demand all of us to transfer our attention to systemic solutions that can be more in adequation with the solutions we wish to develop. I believe there is the potential to redirect the attention canalized via this forum into more distributed , non centralized, and more commons oriented approaches.
Some people who created profiles on this Edgeryders forum are working on such solutions - at the level of architectural design, at the level of distributed information and communication systems ( in support of alternative forms of governance and resource allocation ), at the level of open sourced furniture, etc - we support the commons.
What I expect, is that if there are enclosures created, that they are not created “in the name of Edgeryders”, and that they would be clearly defined. Such enclosures could decide for themselves how they function, but the commons should not need to be dependent on them, although their role could be to contribute to various forms of commons. Hence, the commons , through distributed approaches , and various sources of support, can then further empower other people in having access to synergies , information, empowerment, without requiring to abide by any tributary hierarchy, or any artificial scarcity or hoarding.