Yes. Developing working practices that bridge them is tricky
But I genuinely believe that if we can crack it, everyone stands to benefit. One aspect is solid documentation and as much documentation around design and operations of the “physical” projects as possible. As a lot of the crucial knowledge emerges in discussions where we are thinking about how to do something, we try to push for a “working out loud” culture where we communicate in writing on this open platform.
What you refer to as “marketing” (I prefer outreach and community building to that term and all it involves) also depends on bridging online and offline effectively with working practices and content. Bridging the different fields of knowledge, discipline, cultures etc better equips us all to do these things well, and helps us develop the intellectual frameworks we need in parallel with the physical ones. If we can get a tradition going of people posting well-researched and well written posts from 1st hand perspective with deeper reflections around what we are doing and what we learn along the way. Like Alberto’s post from the visit to the Benedictine monastery in Mursia. Or this post by @lasindias. I am trying at my end with posts like this one (which also draw in new people and perspectives into the conversation).
If we can deeply embed this kind of working practices into the the DNA of the unMonastery and all initiatives that come of out interactions between people we bring together through our work everyone stands to benefit. Right now and for some time the drumbeat that has been connecting these different threads is coordinated by Edgeryders @Ola. I don’t see it happening elsewhere because coordination work is hard and incentives are aligned against anyone wanting to do it. It’s important that people are aware of and careful to acknowledge the value of this work if we are not to undermine an important and in many ways invisible feature of the infrastructure. One way is to understand and accept the need to make visible the association between Edgeryders efforts around coordination and community building, with the outcomes of our shared efforts. This also matters because no one would give a lone individual or small group of people without a “reliable” organisation to back them access to many different kinds of resources. But if we are smart about how we use our collective online communication we can create that credibility much much faster than any one of us could alone.