Humanize the Earth!

ex-prisoners

This picture is from the Livingston Daily and features my aunt Cindy! Her house is being worked on by a crew from a program that works with people coming out of prison. Sounds like a cool program! www.livingstondaily.com - Livingston, MI:

The Work Crew, a program that began last year to give employment to ex-offenders just released from jail, is doing the construction and has done several other jobs throughout Livingston County.

BreathingIn invitation

Julie (Evans) Caldwell and I have been experimenting with different ways of connecting to do personal work in the 19 months since the Giving Conference. We started with open “Inviting Friends and Partners” calls, attempted to add more structure and committment with “Breathing In” calls and are now moving to a new phase, open-ended and open-invitation, with no on-going committment necessary, just the committment to be present during the call should you so desire. We have calls scheduled the 13th and 27th of March. All are welcome. Details at:
BreathingIn

RecentChangesCamp sparkle

For a while now I’ve been crossposting from here in to my omidyar.net personal news. Yesterday Anne Marie over there asked me for my favorite RecentChangesCamp sparkles and now I’m cross-posting that answer here, but better, because I’m linking up my answers here.

* RicHARD Makepeace
* Caricatures for everyone!
* GlassPlateGame
* WikiSong (alpha version)
* comedy by Barbara Sehr
* SustainableHumanSettlements session
* dinner conversation with JoshSkov and others about the LocalCommonsSurveyProject
* session on ConnectionBetweenPersonalAndSocialChange
* all the overheard conversations that I didn’t understand one word
* all the session titles that I didn’t understand one word
* people learning to use wiki for the first time, some even leaving the event with new wikis up and running
* session on the FutureOfRCC, that went so well I walked away long before it was over - we’re in good hands
* love in the room, totally felt (and this was a tech conference?)

If I think of more, I’ll add them. Thanks for the questions, Anne Marie!

more on circle of friends

TantraNova’s second Circle of Friends gathering was tonight and since I didn’t write the story of the 1st one yet, this post will be a two for one. Please see my previous posts for the story of how this happened. I opened the space for both these events and am happy to report what happened and my own internal process.

The first gathering had about 20 people (maybe a few less), coming together for the first time without a teacher/student kind of relationship at the fore. This is a free event, which is also quite different. Simone and I partnered on the facilitation. She opened with a meditation calling forth our intentions. I walked the circle and explained the open space process. She then remembered that she wanted to invite introductions so she did so. I looked at the clock and wondered if we were going to have time for any topic sessions at all. This was my practice for the evening, breathing into that wondering and being fully present to whatever was being said. I don’t think I let on at any point that time was short (we only had an hour and a half total), and eventually, everyone was introduced. We did manage 3 posted topics and one butterfly conversation, came back together for annoucements (bad idea because it took too long, decided later that asking people to put invitations on a table might work) and had a brief closing where everyone breathed together and then said one word about the current feeling. Lots of energy and good feelings.

Tonight’s energy was quite different. The first time was the first time and there was lots of excitement. This time we were on a different night of the week and there was very little “hype” coming in. I posted the one Law (The Law of Two Feet) and the Four Principles, this time, which I hadn’t the first time, so they were on the wall when everyone came in.

Whenever is starts is the right time.
Whoever comes is the right people.
Whatever happens is the only thing that could have.
When it’s over, it’s over.

There were 5 of us for introductions (name and one word about intention for the evening this time) and the opening meditation. I opened the space and talked a bit more thoroughly about open space this time. Three topics were announced fairly quickly and then 3 new people walked in. After a pause for a bit more explanation, it turned out there were no more topics. My work tonight was being okay with the suggestion that the group stay together as one because we were small. Of course this is not up to me, so it’s not my job to be okay or not to be okay. I would have prefered that we not stay together so I breathed through that and was fine with what the group wanted to do. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have.

About an hour in to the whole thing, a 9th person arrived. Shortly thereafter, someone suggested we give massages. Some else quickly wrote that on a topic card and 3 groups of 3 were self-organized with two givers and one receiver. Wow, did the energy shift quickly! This was really great because the group learned that physical practices also work in open space, in addition to “talking about.” I didn’t have to ring bells or say anything at all for the group to finish the massages just about on time and come back to the main circle for a quick breathe together, one word about where you are kind of closing, and that was that. Awesome!

license on this blog

I just noticed that the Creative Commons licence I’ve been operating under before today, the “by-nc license” is not the one I want. (This article has lots of reasons why not to use a non-commercial “nc” license.)

Maybe I should back up. Copyright is bad because it locks up content and doesn’t allow others to use it. In the digital age, this doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. So what I want is to retain ownership of my work while allowing others to use it, provided that they give away the result as well (the NC doesn’t allow them to make money, but I’m changing that to allow for commercial use, as long as they give it away).

So as of today, I’m switching all current and future works to by-sa once I figure out how to change the code at the bottom of each page here.

Wikis for the masses

Kris at Wiki That! writes:

YOU guys (Lion and the small army of dedicated fanatics who develop this incredible stuff) have been using this for years and get it - intuitively. You live, eat, and breathe it (e.g. RecentChangesCamp). My intent is to promote what you guys have done an incredible job of creating - simple, seamless, enjoyable collaboration - to an audience that really needs it.

The irony here is that RecentChangesCamp was about 50/50 tech and non-tech, judging by the topics . Yes, we likely had more than 50% technical people, but the non-techies (like myself) that were there weren’t just add-ons, they were essential. The full name of the conference was RecentChangesCamp: BuildingCommunitiesThatMatter.

Geri at the Good News Network has a new wiki now.
Julie and Laure at the Emerging Futures Foundation have a new wiki now.

Yes, everyone at the event is passionate, but not necessarily about tech or on-line stuff. So Kris, don’t underestimate your audience. Once they find a reason to use a wiki, they’ll do it. Not because it’s tech and cutting edge, but because it’s the best way to get the job done.

Streets and the Commons

Great post at OnTheCommons.org. An excerpt:

Sidewalks and streets are the frontlines of the commons. They are the place where we most often bump into one another—figuratively as well as literally. The social vitality of any community can be measured by how many people are out on the streets. It’s where old friends reconnect with a joyous hug, where love affairs begin with a mutual glance, where you can watch the parade of life pass by.

This is a photo from the front page of last Saturday’s Oregonion newspaper in Portland accompanying an article about RecentChangesCamp. Top right corner you’ll notice the Local Commons Survey Project, and if your eyes are really good, you’ll see my name in the top right corner of the posting. I was convening a dinner-time conversation Friday night about the Commons generally, and doing this survey in my neighborhood in Chicago, perhaps Marshall Square and perhaps the larger Little Village area. The idea is that the Market is well understood, that which is privately owned and can be traded. The Commons, however, that which we own in common, is not well understood. We don’t even really have language to talk about it. So doing this survey would be finding out what of the Commons exists here, and the report we’ll produce will go even further in that direction as neighbors, politicians and the press are exposed to some new ideas.

Wealth Bondage: Wiki Van and RecentChangesCamp

I never thought I’d live to see my picture at Wealth Bondage, yet here it is. More about RecentChangesCamp when I come back to earth.

it’s me :-)