Notes from our community call yesterday, contributed by Alex, Noemi & co. Edit the wiki to correct or add things we missed!
Community members Gehan, Winnie, Noemi, Alberto, Steve…
Simon in Lancaster, North of England: “how can people provide for their wellbeing in a p2p way, that works along with a consensus community self governance?”
Doing cohousing and interested in technical ideas; experienced in governance and also how to deal with community care and self care within communities. Lives in a setup with 41 households, an ecological house. Member of a tech cooperative doing learning technology; technical standardization; experience in consensus governance. Cohousing is less intense than a commune: interested in governance and wellbeing side of that, various aspects of therapy.
At #OpenVillage: for a session what I would need is an conversation with other people, to talk it through. Winnie: The Reef is already being prototyped in Brussels, talk to @Nadia &co. There’s maybe already some questions that have turned up that you could shed some light on, Simon?
Alberto Rey: “[in Nepal] we tried to show which NGOs have been effective and provided clean water and link to policies where the government hasn’t been able to provide”
Based outside of Buffalo in NYC, artist, professor, flyfishing guide. Water and communities through arts projects. Worked in Kathmandu looking at the story of a river as one of the holiest bodies in Nepal. Pollution and importance. How do they come together. At OpenVillage hopes to forge links to build similar services to other groups. Making complicated issues more accessible. Bringing the stories and projects together and building a network of interest and potential clients for the same work - through exhibitions, publications, videos, documentaries.
At openvillage he’s interested to host a panel session on clean water, where invited experts speak and then open it to new people; problem is many are in Kathmandu and harder to get them to Brussels. Winnie: “there’s an active subscene in DIYbio working on water quality. diy analysis methods, open source hardware. Will look up contacts in Lausanne, Switzerland”
Bernard in Galway, Ireland: "arts is a big thing for the group, and culture is important for ecology building"
Designer nurse and community growing, a BA in business enterprise and community development, volunteers in a school garden. Outdoor classrooms. Making rural areas more part of the community. Coliving, co working and retreat, mixing mental health, art therapy, yoga/movement and ecology. Beginning to step into Open Source. In last weeks they did a project where they went to visit Cregg Castle (unused): framed as unMonastery, a co-living and coworking retreat over a short period, through the European Capital of Culture 2020 which Galway won. “My problem is I do too many things” 
At openvillage he doesn’t know what he is able to host, as he’s just out of running an event locally. Most relevant is unMonastery.
Steve (on-the-move) in the UK: “you can treat lots of people at a fairly low cost”
An acupuncture practitioner; holistic fitness and practices of working with the body, relaxation and breath work, Tai Chi, Hichibuku… and others. Started his own clinic initially around Dartmoor in SouthWest of England, but will have a new one up and running in the summer as he’s moving to Bridport. Also shows how it can be useful for people with mental health
At openvillage wants to do more than a presentation, a demo: actually treat someone and demonstrate how healthcare can work in its more traditional model - more attention to human care. Alex: “I’d love to see you run the space for people in the morning and then perhaps in th afternoon do a presentation about the process. That way you will have people in the room who have also experienced it”.
Also, walk the talk - make sure onsite there’s a little space built in for people to take care of themselves. Alex: I’d like to see if we could set up something like this: https://harrygiles.org/portfolio/chill-out-corner/
Winnie in Ghent, Belgium: “..because science education is so outdated”
Bio lab and bio space. Open to public. Developing Educational non-profit in the community to push science education to under resourced groups. Helping researchers and orgs to communicate better with each other and public. Generally interested in sustainable models for running a physical community space.
For OpenVillage he is curating and looking for people to introduce projects on citizen science and open science, starting with the OpenInsulin global team which he is coordinating in Europe.
Alex Levene in Bedford, UK: “we need to ensure that the communities that we work with are represented within any discussions around refugee care and support”
Creative producer, working in theatre. I write and perform poetry, as well as storytelling and playing games. EdgeRyders and OpenVillage ties in with my work with refugees. I’m a Regional Co-Ordinator for Help Refugees, UK’s largest Grassroots charity working with refugees in Europe and ME. My interest is in how communities and groups are approaching grassroots and how community led organisations are looking to deal with refugees and asylum seekers within communities around Europe.
For OpenVillage session(s) “for me useful things would be: connections with on-the-ground refugee organisations working in/around Brussels”
Shajara in California: “Will be in South Korea in October, but sure I may come to OpenVillage Fest”
An American-Egyptian, into educational partnerships on the edge and data analytics for evaluation. Helps run a mental health support programme for students, as he is enrolled himself at the online Minerva university in Buenos Aires, in a 4 years program where the first six months are in Argentina, then one gets to move in seven different countries, from US all the way to Europe and Asia.
Steps forward: make sure our upcoming Festival captures this richness of ideas and the great work people are doing.
Contribute to our Open Programming spreadsheet to make sure you’re part of the official program and you get the logistics in place, as well as being on track for travel support if you need it.
If you’re new to Edgeryders and not sure how to get started, just leave a comment below, or come to our next community call on Wednesday, at 18:00 PM CET HERE.