Lettera aperta ai Materani da parte degli Edgeryders

Un invito a vivere al limite | An invitation to Live On The Edge   [ L O T E ]

Carissimi  cittadini di Matera,

siamo Edgeryders, un gruppo informale di qualche centinaio di persone che vengono da tutta Europa. Ci accomuna l’idea che possiamo contribuire a risolvere problemi molto grandi (come il riscaldamento globale o la crescente precarizzazione) anche se non siamo leaders politici, capitani di industria o accademici famosi, ma semplici cittadini come voi. È molto ambizioso, ma noi lavoriamo duro e abbiamo voglia di imparare.

Dal 29 ottobre al 3 novembre saremo vostri ospiti. Il nostro lavoro comune si svolge quasi sempre su Internet, ma un paio di volta all’anno ci incontriamo fisicamente in eventi che chiamiamo Living On The Edge (parte conferenza, parte festa, parte lavoro concreto). Dopo Strasburgo e Bruxelles nel 2012, il terzo Living On the Edge si terrà nella vostra città.

Arrivare a Matera da posti come Bergen, Lisbona o Cluj-Napoca non è semplicissimo, né particolarmente economico (e noi non abbiamo grandi sponsors, e la maggior parte di noi non è benestante). Però veniamo volentieri, perché un progetto nato da Edgeryders, unMonastery, ha messo radici a Matera. Negli ultimi mesi alcuni di noi hanno avuto l’occasione di venire nella vostra città in connessione con questo, e tutti sono rimasti entusiasti della bellezza dei luoghi e dalla vostra gentilezza e ospitalità. Abbiamo deciso che vale il viaggio – e poi tutti vogliono vedere l’unMonastery!

La lezione più importante che stiamo imparando dal gruppo di unMonastery (che la sta imparando da voi) è quanto è importante una comunità locale coesa e amichevole per la riuscita di un progetto. A Strasburgo e a Bruxelles non abbiamo quasi avuto rapporti con le persone del luogo: a Matera, invece, vorremmo invitarvi a condividere con noi Living On The Edge. Siamo sicuri che possiamo imparare molto gli uni dagli altri, e magari collaborare anche per il futuro. Ci saranno barriere linguistiche, culturali, tutto quello che volete, ma noi stessi siamo tutt’altro che un gruppo omogeneo (veniamo da oltre 30 paesi diversi!). Siamo sicuri che riusciremo a capirci.

Ci sono molte cose che possiamo fare insieme. Per fare qualche esempio, potete collaborare con noi a costruire Living On The Edge; ci sono moltissime attività in cui potreste aiutarci a rendere l’evento più bello. Potete proporvi per raccontare una cosa che vi sta a cuore, o fare foto, o tradurre un po’ di cose per fare in modo che nessuno si senta escluso. Se avete un po’ di spazio, potete ospitare uno o una di noi per la durata della conferenza – per alcuni di noi un posto dove stare può fare la differenza tra venire e non venire. Oppure potete semplicemente venirci a trovare al Palazzo del Casale, nel cuore del Sasso Barisano, per conoscerci e stare un po’ insieme. Pensiamo anche di organizzare una festa di Halloween, e ovviamente siete invitati.

Se vi interessa fare queste cose, o semplicemente volete capire meglio, scrivete a Ilaria o Noemi, in italiano o in inglese, come preferite. Saremo contentissimi di conoscervi. Grazie ancora per l’occasione che avremo presto di visitare la vostra città.

Andrea, Andrei, Alberto, Auli, Bembo, Ben, Bridget, Dorotea {several names}.

Discuss in the community call?

@ilariadauria, I have made a revision of this with substantial changes. I’d like to briefly discuss with you how we are going to finalize it (Italian version first? English version first? do we circulate it through the mt2019 community?). Can we do it in the next community call?

Is this a final version (above the post)?

Yes!

It still needs to be translated in English :slight_smile:

Posted the English Version

Hi K and Ilaria,

Posted a rough translation: /t/making-lote3/360/open-letter-from-edgeryders-to-materani

It’s a wiki, so Ilaria you can edit it further, it can also go under your authorship.

Sunday?

Excellent, your revision is really added value :slight_smile: I would love to… but I’m not going to be able to hook myself on the Hangout until Sunday. Would that be an option? If Nadia and/or Noemi are there too, it could be the opportunity to share some insight also on the trip to Amsterdam and what came out of it.

Concerning the dispatching of the LOTE, I would NOT mingle MT2019 and ER - for the moment. For several reasons, but generally speaking I think both communities would benefit if things are kept seperately for a bit. But I guess thinking things out together is the best way to handle this.

Friday.

Sorry, we have committed to not moving community calls around. We have to do this in writing.

Ok, essentially my problem is this: simplifying, the open letter is written by a bunch of Euro hackers to a bunch of Italians. So, would it not be better for it to be originally written in English (so that Ben, Noemi, Bembo, Matthias and others can help improve it? Only later would it be translated into Italian.

There are also language consequences. If it’s community to community communication, the language of advertising should be avoided like the plague. I feel this is a tricky message to write well.

Finished!

@ilariadauria and @noemi, I think this is good enough. Please have a look. Once you are satisfied, the things to do are:

  1. Publish it on the blog (as Ilaria) and on the MT2019 community site (as Noemi, with Ilaria and myself to pick it up and drive the conversation).
  2. Push it out on social media, hopefully with the help of both the LOTE and the MT2019 web teams.
  3. Repeat in September, after Italian holidays.

Ok?

Ok!

Yay! Very nice…

Just a detail “potete collaborare con noi” (instead of coi). For the email, either you can put dauria@matera-basilicata2019.it (for me), or if we want to keep things separate from mt2019 then maybe and edgeryder email (dunno if that’s possible… it’s just that I don’t want my personal email to be packed with daily emails, as hopefully it will happen :slight_smile:

Question: when you say to post it on the blog, which one do you mean?

Answers…

You can also have an @edgeryders.eu email. Normally they are aliases and you choose where they redirect to. You could redirect to the matera-basilicata one. But don’t count on a ton of emails… I guess this will need to be driven.

I mean the Edgeryders blog. Do you think it should go on the MT2019 blog, too?

Maybe later

For the moment I would keep the post on the ER blog. Again, I would keep things separate - wouldn’t want to cause another sterile debate on the fact that MT2019 exploits skills, promotes volunteering unable to create job opportunities :slight_smile: MT2019 and its network will be important in promote the event once we get to close to D-day, but for matchmaking and collaboration I think that personal contacts and social media are more than enough. I find that the appeal of the LOTE is in its autonomy. I would keep it that way in the perception of people… a DIY event from A to Z. In a place where everybodey is looking for institutional support or public money!

I was thinking: are we sure that the Palazzotto del Casale is going to be big enough?

Post the letter Monday?

I have signed up on MT2019, and I’ll post it on Monday under “Condividi un PROGETTO per vincere? If there’s another campaign this would fit under please let me know.

Looking forward to this! 

Good job!

Yes, that’s the one! So from Monday on we’ll be pushing this out on the Social media… I’ll tell the webteam to be ready!

I will post it this monring on the ER blog: the way to do it is simply creating a post in the LOTE3 section?

Yes

you can also assign the post to the “Blog” , in addition to it being assigned to Making Lote3. :slight_smile: see you Monday, I’m off now!

In English?

Should we not have an English version on the blog? We three speak Italian, but I think it is important that the whole community understands what’s going on here.

So I would do the following:

  1. leave the Italian wiki as is – or maybe "freeze it" if there is a way, blocking further edits.
  2. translate the text back into English, and do a post in English on the Edgeryders blog (upload a nice image for featuring the post). Publish it, however, not before but immediately after Noemi has posted on MT2019.
  3. start the post with a short text, something like this: "We wrote this letter to show respect and gratitude to the inhabitants of Matera, and to invite them to get involved into the next LOTE. We translated it into Italian and posted it into the city's community website (link to Noemi's post). If you could create an account on that website too and say hi, or even simply retweet it/reshare it, that would be hugely appreciated."

BTW, this could be something for the social media team to do as a warmup exercise. How would the Matera people react if, say, 8-10 edgeryders were to show up on their community website saying “Hi, thanks for having us, the city and the venue look fantastic”? My instinct says they would react well. What do you ladies think?

They would be thrilled :slight_smile:

Can’t wait to have ERs pop up on the community mt2019 website!!!

Welcome, welcome, welcome…

Simply go to http://community.matera-basilicata2019.it/

  • top-right of the home page: ACCEDI | RESISTRATI (click on "registrati")
  • ssername, email address, password, confirm password + question to test if you are a human visitor (I'll write to the webmaster right now and tell him to put the questions in English!)
  • you will recieve an email to validate the registration
  • log on and create your profile (picture and brief description) 
  • once Noemi will post the mission (this Monday), you will be able to comment on it!

You will find some fellow ERs in the community already!

2 Likes

I doubt many people are reading your comment :slight_smile:

This is more of a job for the social media team to coordinate… failing that, you should write it in the English post rather than as a comment to an obscure Italian wiki. :slight_smile:

Italian to English

If I have time to help, I’d be interested in helping improve translations from Italian to English. See http://www.quaker.org/melodia/sigsil.html for instance…

Simon

Yes please!

[Simon Grant] I’ll take you up on that right away. Could you please start by this very text? Just go here, scroll down to the “Create a post” blue button on the right, but click it on the little arrow on the right hand side. A pop-up menu will come out: select “Start a wiki” and start typing. You don’t have to do it all, of course: it’s a wiki, others will help. Thanks!

sorry have had no time

Sorry I have not found the time recently, but if there is anything simple that I can look at and help revise in a few minutes, fine! Just that I have not had the mental space to start a wiki etc.