Living and Working as an unMonk - Wiki

Workspaces unMonastery
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9

Collaborative Economy innovator, welcome!

Hey @alexwhitcroft, just a little off-topic note here: nice to meet somebody else who’s creating a collaborative economy platform :slight_smile: I just read through the &Share PDF and like both the proposed interface and the insurance concept – didn’t see insurance for any other lending platform so far, and it could well be what boosts mass adoption eventually. Just how AirBnB’s host guarantee is (from my experience of renting via AirBnB) valued a lot by at least some of the hosts. Met somebody who even would stay with AirBnB for that reason, even though competitors have more more reasonable fees …

As for our collaborative project, we just soft-launched the platform: pre-register site still up, live site here, project hosting here on Edgeryders. I’m surely interested in your opinion (as a graphics guy, you’ll probably have issues with our graphics … umh well, right, I know we gotta improve there :slight_smile:

10

Fellow collab econ guy

@matthias,

Always interested to meet other working in a similar space.

Do you know this project: http://myrecyclestuff.com/ ? Similar to yours in the sense that it is a matching process.  Their USP is that they match up a whole chain of people with each other so you don’t have to wait for one person who wants that same thing as you. Worth a look.

Yes, insurance is an important aspect I feel. It is about reducing risk. But also about normalising sharing. People should be able to do it as easily as they buy stuff from Amazon… quick, painless, safe.

1 Like
11

Ecomodo

Hi Matthias

Another example of a p2p platform - money involved - where insurance is implied: http://www.ecomodo.com/pages/info_FAQdetail.aspx?faq=lenders#10

Annemarie

12

Agreed Next Steps.

Okay just to update here on what’s been agreed.

Plan A

  • We've sent out this wiki to those we know have expressed interest or think are a good fit in Matera 
  • Thursday is the cut off 
  • Friday we review everything and make decisions 
  • Everyone currently a part of the project has also been asked to fill out the questions. 

Plan B

  • If we still have positions available we make direct invites to individuals we believe will benefit from the experience and benefit the project in equal measure. 
  • This will happen on a more informal basis and decisions about who will join the project will be made internally
  • All individuals will be asked to agree to a set of principles, with clearly defined expectations. 

Roles: in the next days we will clearly define roles, associated stipends and responsibilities.

1 Like
13

A new unMonasterian then!

Looks like you got yourself in, @alexwhitcroft. Congratulations to you, and to the unMonastery for having you!

14

Open Culture Festival supported by Viral Acaemy

Name
David Bovill
 
Preferred dates
June - September
 
Languages spoke
English, Spanish, French, German
 
Why I want to be part of unMon
I really want to extend my residency here in order to build on the work and relationships created. It takes time to forge these relationships, and the September Open Culture Festival will be much easier to organise with a continued presence here in Matera.
 
What I want to do at unMon
I want to create a vibrant sustainable annual festival of open culture here in Matera, working with the groups and individuals we have met here in Matera supported by the wider EdgeRyders community.This festival would be the first of it's kind, but build on a lot of work that has already been done here in Matera and elsewhere. We would launch the www.openculture.cc domain, and provide this as a template for similar festivals that could happen in other cities, and other countries.
 
A festival is a festival is a festival. This one would be different. It would concentrate on sustainability. It would not be an expensive event requiring lots of funding, only to die as soon as the funding dries up. And it would be all about the follow up activities it promotes and celebrates. Here in Matera I would further develop the Viral Academy project to support the educational aspects of Open Culture. This would include how to use, translate, code, and maintain an open source server - with open and free Viral Academy lessons leading to effective stewardship of this digital asset for the local community. The festival would therefore promote engagement in a year round programme of education and training opportunities, leading to a celebration of the growth of thee community owned digital assets, and providing an international platform for local people to showcase there work.
 
This project would work with existing local partners, is designed to synergise with the work of other applicants. These elements would include:
  1. Transnational Food Festival (working with Francesco Morano at the University here - http://www.visualanthropology.net/ and -  http://www.cucinalucana.it/) (with @k)
  2. Open Dojo - with the Kung Fu School of Matera (with @hazard)
  3. unMonastery Radio - and a distributed unconference on open culture (with @aden)
  4. Open Art School (with @lauren)

On the ground, the work that this residency would enable me to do, would be to work with local people to create a sustainable digital asset for Open Culture. We would run training courses at several venues around the city (the University, the kung Fu School, the Liceo Artistico, Mediatec, and Guerilla Office venues around the city. This would be an urban autonomous university on open culture! I’ve researched the venues, and with the exception of the Mediatec which we should know about soon, we have permission to run courses at all these venues. Working with the guys at Guerilla Office and some of the cafés and hotel lobbies we have found here with good wifi, we’d add to the map free spaces for urban learning.

These courses would extend the work of the Open Tech School, and in particular we would work on the following concrete applications to be presented at the Open Culture Festival in October. These would include:

  1. An open source server running a variety of services supporting open culture
  2. A development server for students to learn and contribute to these services
  3. Loomio and Share Tribe platforms for open democracy, local resource sharing, and a community market place
  4. Open Street Map, and open data assets integrated into the above platforms (particularly WordPress).
  5. An open source cross platform mobile application, built and created by local people, and celebrating the open culture event.

I would run these courses on the ground, based on the work already done, and support them with online training via the Viral Academy. My role would be to co-ordinate the festival, and work in close co-operation with existing and new projects that would like to take part in the event. I would also teach daily courses here and online, and seek to engage EdgeRyders and other remote communities in a co-learning process.

 
My Skills and experience
Skills:
  • Agile Project Management
  • Festivals and Event Management
  • Mobile App Development
  • Teaching
  • Coding for installations, servers, and mobile
  • Science, biochemistry, medicine
  • Art and installations
  • Philosophy, writing, pitching, presenting
  • Democracy, liquid, and gladiatorial
 
Previous Experience:
  • a wide and diverse range of failures
  • a student multimedia note taking system for Medical Students (1988)
  • 15 CD_ROMS for commercial publishers
  • a bunch of trashy advertising based websites and projects for a range of top-10 agencies in London
  • interactive theatre, dance, music, and video installations including several arts council commissions
  • one of the founders of Liquid Democracy, and developed Liquid Law and a range of democratic projects in art and real community projects
  • developed and project managed the technical and Creative Commons licensing structure of a Vienna based community TV channel (OKTO)
  • architex anonymous - early experiment (2004) working with Architecture and Design students using p2p teaching, mediawiki, wordpress and concept + geolocated mapping in Istanbul.
  • open secret - 3 month residency working with Quintessenz based on the first ever hacking of the NSA
  • FlowerBank and the Book of Money - early experiments with crypto currencies
  • www.festivalofmint.org
Current projects:
  • www.viral.academy
 
References:
 
@leashless
 
 
What attracts me to collective living and working
 
I love and respect tolerance, openness, and the respect for privacy within a sharing community. I care about creativity, and the diversity of opinions and skill sets. Consensus has it's place, and I reject the tyranny of structurelessness. I believe in leadership, and in following the lead of others. I prefer give-and-take to the lowest common denominator. I've always lived with people, and spend my whole life creating, sharing, and being part of groups. I've come to love the community here in Matera, and would love to stay here longer and work not on my own isolated art project, but in the spirit of true pragmatic cooperation towards the common good. Forgive the cheese. It's all good.
15

Name: Harry Bovill

Contact:

Email: Harry.bovill@gmail.com

Google Hangouts: Harry.bovill@gmail.com

M: 07795195168

The projects name is BeltUP and is a portable mobile Dojo Studio capable of onsite podcasting.

My proposal is to use BeltUp as a bridge between the general community of Matera and the UnMonastery group. As well as fostering the disciplined behavior required for the internal functioning of the group and providing a way of releasing tension.

A brief description of what you will do at UnMonastery:

BeltUp It is designed around community engagement and communications outreach that will support and help develop existing UnMonastery projects. The Mobile Dojo Studio will be run by two Martial Artists from London (Harry Bovill and Jonathan Hatzimazorous)  and collaborate with local Martial Artists of Matera (Felice Fulco and Rosario)  to showcase the performance of martial arts skills in a number of public locations on a weekly basis.  The performers will engage the public directly in conversation around innovation, community development, fundraising and  Matera’s bid for Capital of Culture 2019. Advances in mobile technology, live streaming and low cost high quality microphones enable us to film and live stream hd multiple camera action footage on location this will provide documentation of the project as well as  public reaction. These recordings will be analysed and ultimately used to develop programs and partnerships for ensuring the continuity of UnMonastery in Matera while further develop their own local social innovation projects by encouraging people to form self-organised peer groups working together. BeltUp will work alongside Viral Academy to ensure the access to the skill sets needed to carry out a sustainable project can be learned.

Preferred dates of stay: Anytime between the beginning of June - July 20th or August 3rd - September.

Languages you speak: English, Greek

An overview of your skillset and experience in realising successful projects.

I am a Gracie Barra Blue Belt under Eduardo Cariello

Apart of an on going project with the KungFU school of Matera.

  • Agile Management
  • Project Management 
  • Teaching Martial Arts/Fitness/Healthy living
  • Science, Biology
  • Communication and Engagment
  • PermaCultureCollective - I have engaged in community outreach for Viral Academy
  • Art and Design

A brief description of why you want to be a part of unMonastery.

What attracts you collective living and working.

16

T (technical point)

IMO by using plain nested comment thread for managing all this information we make rather poor choice! (or we just don’t give ourselves any choice?)

Once again I suggest experimenting with Loomio to get better overview of all the involved opinions: https://www.loomio.org/d/p1w0UZzs/new-residencies

17

the original wiki does state

“Send an email to matera@unmonastery.org with UnMonk as subject”  with the answers to the questions.

So it was not the intention for people to post here.

We will add those posted here to the others.

M

1 Like
18

K

Preferred dates of stay: August-September

Languages you speak: Russian, English, French, Swedish.

Since March I had an opportunity to establish good connection with locals helping with Italian as well as contacts.

A brief description of why you want to be a part of unMonastery.

I wanted to come to the unMonastery since the idea came about at LOTE1 in June 2012. I’m interested in the unMonastery-in-a-Box and replicability of the project. Specially since working with Lars Novang, and looking at possibilities to get support from local authorities in Skane for the potential Swedish prototype.

The reason for me to be interested in this particular iteration of unMonastery is spending 3 month in Matera, which, I think, is a minimum to start getting a very basic understanding of the dynamics of the place and to put together a collaborative project.

A brief description of what you will do at unMonastery.

I will coordinate an transnational cooking event and document social connections established during the event.

This project is part of as Open Culture Festival in September. I will be working in collaboration with existing projects related to food, such as Franceso Marano’s visual ethnography project which is focusing on local recipes.

While there is a number of projects in Matera related to the local cuisine, I would like to focus on bringing in migrant communities in Matera, as it is an integral part of urban culture.

Based on what I learned for the past couple of month from migrants currently living in Matera, food festival is engaging and comprehensible for wider community local migrant communities and natives, so it also provides a platform for ethnography and network analysis.

I would like to focus on international community in Matera starting with people I have met since March. City of Matera will benefit from emphasising positive sides of it’s cultural diversity.

The ethnographic aspect of this project can also built on network analysis done by Gaia and has has overlaps with Christiano’s Siri project.

I am planning to use ethnographic research element of this project to write a paper for Migration and Ethhic Relations course Malmo University I’m currently attending.

An overview of your skillset and experience in realising successful projects.

“Don’t ask me where I’m from ask me where I’m heading” project working with people with transnational background in Malmo.

Organising workshops with Social Scientists Without Borders (SSWB) in Malmo University.

Photo exhibitions at Sexodrome, Paris.

More importantly, I was also a part of unsuccessful projects for a number of times.

What attracts you collective living and working.

Teamwork and possibility to increase capacity of parallel projects by clustering them. I’m also interested in different ways of organising collective living and co-working and avoiding common problems associated with it.

 
19

Transparency

Yes @elf-pavlik I totally agree. Using https://www.loomio.org/d/p1w0UZzs/new-residencies would and should be the way to go. I remember well the original discussion at unMonastery about this topic. Your suggestion, which was supported by the whole group, was that given there was short term space at the unMonastery, and a pressing need for Italian speakers and other forms of project help, we should look for people to fill these places based on reputation and the need of the project. This reputation based do-ocracy is at the pragmatic core of EdgeRyders.

As @mariabyck was the only person objecting to this approach - because of her passion for democratic inclusion (particularly for the local people living and working in Matera), it was suggested that she take a lead on this issue - which she has valiantly done! It’s a lot of work, and she should be praised for putting the time and effort into to do this.

However…

I’m making this post to introduce a topic I feel is central to both democracy, and effective community engagement. This is not the way to do things! This is a half hearted and superficial way to attempt democratic community engagement.

It is half hearted because it is neither democratic, nor makes effective use of personal knowledge and real word-of-mouth engagement of people on the ground. Also, and importantly, it is not transparent. As was brought up in the original meeting, but so far not addressed (at least publicly), the hard question is not - let’s make a widely publicised “call”, nor “post your project proposals on a web site so everyone can read it”. The real democratic question is who decides. Is it a small group, all the present residents of the unMonastery? Or perhaps the whole EdgeRyders community? Do we include people in Matera? These are the real issues.

True democratic transparency would be to use something like Loomio, and / or hold local group meetings to get peoples opinions locally who don’t use these platforms. True effective community engagement would have been to trust people on the ground and actively go out and seek people with the required skills. Doing a bit of both gives us the worst of both worlds - a long process, beds empty, projects with unmet needs and no real democratic decision making ever taking place. I feel strongly that both strategies are good, if they are done fully and properly in a transparent way, but this is not the way to do it. It’s a pigs dinner and we can and should do better than this!

1 Like
20

Exceptionally Useful.

Given that this is a process that has been in motion for a month now, happening in full open view, with all minutes and points being added to this thread, it’s exceptionally useful @fortyfoxes that you now step in at the last moment and declare the entire process a sham and insist that a different approach be taken - diplomatic as ever.

Need it be reminded that “who does the work calls the shots”?

I agree with some sentiments and that this isn’t a true democratic process - but everyone involved has done their best to make this work given the restrictions and precarity of the situation and what is being offered.

21

how to participate in projects

I would like to make a quick note that our way at the unMon to get involved in projects is the following:

  1. Someone decides to do it,

  2. and proposes it to the unMon group, so people who feel they have something to contribute, or strong views on it, can participate.

  3. The small collaborative group puts a proposal together, present it to the rest of the unMons where we discuss it. If people cannot reach a consensus, the ones having trouble with the original proposal join the group to come up with a new proposal. This continues until we agree.

  4. Project is led by people who worked on it all along.

As @fortyfoxes points out above, it was @mariabyck only who felt strongly enough to put a counter proposal together to the original idea of asking people personally. She has been working on this for a month at least, sharing all her thoughts along the way. There has been plenty of time for anyone to step up and point out problems. Nobody did, and that includes @fortyfoxes. Since it is the final day for accepting calls, it is too late to change anything.

In a do-ocracy, criticism without participation only counts as complaining. And that is against the rules at the unMon.

22

So who decides?

Sticking to the subject - who decides on these applications? Is @elf-pavlik’s suggestion a bad one? Can you guys be transparent about your process here?

Also in the matter of etiquette - please note it is valid to make points about real issues of content, especially when they are important. The topics of transparency and democracy are important enough to speak without the fear of speaking out. If you have any thoughts on the subject matter of the post - please comment with respect, but as strongly and clearly as possible. Trying to stop a well considered argument which has general implications for EdgeRyders process, by stating it is “too late to change anything”, or by “ad hominem” attacks, is a bad precedent for open collaboration. You guys need to be talk about these processes on this platform - it’s a good important topic, we can all learn from.

23

Re: UnMonestary Radio and Distributed UnConferences

@aden a couple of thoughts… first you should take you mobile phone and other details off the site :slight_smile: On the project description, maybe it would be stronger if you described the way in which internet radio can be used by people here in Matera - how individuals with a simple mbile phone can be part of the programme and record their own conversations, and how this would work in practice?

Another aspect that I think is strong is how an open Creatively Commons archive of such conversations and debates, can both be democratic, and be used in an unConference style to capture distributed conversations? You’ve made good contact with communities here from your own cultural perspective and experience as a journalist and this does not come across strongly in your project description?

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Creative Commons - how to make it UnCommon ?/

Copyrights issue might come about if UnMonastery Radio uses mainstream media content without permission. However, the audio broadcast by users from either "Phone", computer or private studios of the locals may use it under not for profit creative commons licence stored on public online server. And programs and shows developed from the feeds may attribute the original producer of the content that can be used by the listeners to edit and modify. This process will hopefully promote locals to build, market or collaborate interests and ideas with more control. 
 
The project testing  of the UnMonestary Radio can be used by the locals to browse through live or recorded interactions, adwords, events, weather, or other important updates by uploading streams from 3g connections. which can afterwards be taken by community broadcasters, like Radio stations in Matera or UnMonestary Radio itself.
 
The radio shows can be developed in remote areas and can organize collaboratively radio programs using source fabric airtime or shoutcast servers in the beginning. These activities will hopefully try to make cultural and social development events around Matera more engaging by sharing info of do's and dont's of the gatherings, and establishes communication channels between the organizers and their participants in a more open way.  
 
Also I updated my post also on how to proceed in terms of setting up the radio streams across Matera. 
25

Re: Transnational Food Event

@K - some quick thoughts… there is along history of food-art events. How about the more grounded aspects of this project? I think you should mention Christo’s (from Bulgaria but living here precariously in Matera) project he discussed - and is keen on bringing to the unMonastery. Also the aspects of the project which people can do at home, or in the outlying villages and how this relates to Ramona Bavassano and the cultural programme she is organising here with placing artists in outlying villages and organising food related events?

Last suggestion would be to describe the relationship between food, open culture and Creative Commons. Food is a fantastic example of open culture - there is no copyright on recipes (in the USA), yet this does not hinder a rich and creative industry of restaurants and cultural exchange?

26

@fortyfoxes Reason for me to propose this project, is that most people I spoke to about it in Matera can related to it and can join. Participation doesn’t require having a venue, nor catering business. Speaking of Open Culture, Creative Commons Film Festival in Matera also gets positive feedback.

And keeping in mind the theme of the next LOTE.

27

@katalin Time is great, as

@Katalin Time is great, as long as there is space.

I have been appointed an official house heretic, but was suggested not to step up and point out the problems right then temporarily for several reasons. I agreed. In some situations, it is more appropriate to first point out problems in private, and leaving to the person you have pointed them out to, to decide whether to make these problems public. Dissent in a box. We can talk about it, if you like. But here is the story of discussion about democratic decision making @Mariabyck work on selection of new unMonks starts:

First discussion about democratic decision making happened when Christiano left the unMonastery, and unMonks unanimously agreed that the best person unMonastery can welcome is Juliana, based on her reputation: projects she is involved in, knowledge of local community and language skills. Maria objected claiming that a selection based on good reputation is not democratic and needs an open call. However, the objection appeared contradictory, as Maria then mentioned that one of the reasons to object this candidature is the lack of personal relationship with Juliana.

@Ben, whom put work in the first selection round, and aware of the difficulties associated with this, said that regarding limited capacity, we can’t afford a full blown open call, and in a tradition of do-ocracy proposed to Maria to work on it the way she wanted. There is a dilemma here in terms of do-ocracy. When one person wants to do something which might not be regarded as particularly useful, but put a lot of effort o it, calls the shots. Do-ocracy requires discussion, not just a passive agreement to go along just for the sake of avoiding confrontation. Do-ocracy also wouldn’t work in a group where questioning, doubt, and dissent are temporarily discouraged.

It was and is still unclear to me whether designing the call also implies the selection process will also be her responsibility. Though, social contract usually benefits from reputation, charisma or both. @Ben we like benign dictatorships as well as true democratic processes.

I like Elf suggestion to use Loomio, there is no reason for not tryig it out. But, of course, the question then is who will be voting: Edgeryders community+ people of Matera? Is there age limit? Should you have a permanent address in Matera? Are unMonasterians themselves allowed to vote? I won’t go into long discussion about flaws of conventional democracy right now, but I’m sure we all have something to say on this subject, and when time allows I would be delighted to continue.

I think this conversation is extremely interesting and beneficial to the unMonastery-in-a-Box, and it is a right moment, context and place for it to happen.

Multiple font sizes are unintentional.

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"…he question then is who

“…the question then is who will be voting: Edgeryders community+ people of Matera? Is there age limit? Should you have a permanent address in Matera? Are unMonasterians themselves allowed to vote?”

for now we may need to go with what Loomio offers as for today, in long run we may need to do feature request (even better put effort into a pull request) and add way to visualize opinions within different circles, for example: current unMonastery:Matera residents, involved ER community members, local community in Matera (which might happen in Italian), general worldwide population… this way everyone could openly express opinion but also everyone could filter it by certain contexts!