Attending were @Jirka_Kocian, @natalia_skoczylas, myself and two new members @Sandervdwaal and Goran Denic @zmuc .
For the benefit of the new members @Richard introduced the aims of POPREBEL and the role of Edgeryders in facilitating the online ethnography through their platform. @Jirka_Kocian explained how the platform works and that people add stories in their own languages.
Goran Denić: an artist and sculptor, trained in South Africa and now working in Serbia. He has already been in contact with @natalia_skoczylas and @noemi about the projects he carries out with the Zemun Small Arts Centre in Serbia, Montenegro and Albania, but currently also aiming at forming ties with partners in Greece, Bulgarian, Romania and Ukraine. Working with small theatre companies, playwrights and local people from all walks of life, he creates documentary plays about the lives of those who stayed in the villages (mainly the elderly and uneducated). The locals are the creators of the content of the plays, which express the problems they face and what makes their lives miserable. The plays develop out of open workshops as a new form of communication. The funding for the production costs comes from municipality. Plays will be recorded and put online. The locals participate because they are lonely. Their day-to-day communications are limited to the people they know and see every day. Putting together the plays enables them to meet new people, and interesting developments emerge out of these encounters. @Richard pointed out the similarities between the aims and process of writing the plays (offline) to the aims and processes of writing stories on the Edgeryders platform (online).
@Sandervdwaal: Based in Amsterdam, he is the Lead of the Future Internet Lab, which is interested in the intersections between humans, technology and society and works to give people ownership of data. He wants to learn about interconnections between communities and is interested in how Edgeryders/the Virtual Café relates to online communities.
@natalia_skoczylas explained that there is overlap between the Wellbeing in Europe and the Internet of Humans projects regarding the technological aspects of access to work, etc.
@Richard explained that new members could be involved by writing their own stories on the platform (some of which will receive financial rewards) or by acting as connectors, onboarding new members.
Goran agreed to write a story in the Serbian section and try to find other contributors.
@Jirka_Kocian mentioned that community managers provide full technological guidance to new contributors
@Sandervdwaal agreed to write a story for Internet of Humans.
