things to do in networking while you can
by - 27.04.2004 17:24
In networking and in using electronically based cooperation, always consider what will happen if there might be trouble.
kowloon
walledcity
1. Always face the end
What will happen if there is conflict within the group? Who will have the power to control the platform? What happens if some person which has relevant skills you're using for your platform, gets struck by lightning or by capitalist seduction (the latter being the more likely possibility)? Will you be able to replace him or her? Are there others that could run the work he or she did? Or will you have to start completely again from the start?
One important aspect of this is:
Always own your domain name!
In the end, ownership of the domain name is the final question of ownership for the website or platform. You should take care that the domain name is in the collective ownership of your group or network.
2. Decide between different areas of your work
There are different areas of your work - with different consequences for electronic cooperation and for the choice between systems. It is not necessary that you do everything on the same system. Main areas of work are usually:
- an area where you are building some show-case for others to see you and your activities, to get informed and interested in your network. For this you want a website that has some looks and is easy in its functionality for users. Political control usually is enough for this area; you do not have to have direct technolocial control through many of you. The need for decentralization and for more people as editors, like in a CMS, is mainly due to the issue of efficiency (faster and better upload of information, no bottleneck-structure) than to the issue of democracy and equality.
- an area where you are doing your own working processes and cooperative work between yourself. Here it is not so necessary that your site has good looks. It is important that a broader circle of people, potentially everybody in your network, has the power not only to add content, but to actually edit contents and structures. Self-organization and democrativ control are important here, because somebody who structures your site also structures your work, decides what's more and what's less important, how a question is put and how not. This power should be widely distributed among you.
- an area in-between where you work and exchange with other acitivists and movements. Here it is important that the system allows different grades of privacy and openness so that people can decide collectively in their working processes about what is open to whom, what can be changed by anybody and what not, which debate is limited to certain participants, which area of comment is totally open, and so on.
3. Rely on existing systems mainly, and keep it low!
Meanwhile, there is no need for most of us to develop new systems for their networking needs. There are lots of systems that can be used, combined, adopted; you do not even have to rely on one single system for all you do. Using existing systems gives you more security that there will be always people among and around you who can work with the system. If you develop own systems, it may be a problem when the people who developed this are no longer at hand for you.
Keeping low is also important. The more powerful a system is, the more complicated it is usually. But do you really need all that stuff? It may be much more important that you chose systems that are easy to handle for yourself, that allow more of your network to actually work with the system. The more complicated and powerful your system is, the greater is the danger that you broaden the technological gap? between you.
4. Broaden the technological understanding within your network
An important part of your activity within the network should be to broaden the circle of people who can understand the technological basis of the network; to share and enlarge technological knowledge and skills within your group. It is better to work with technologies that allow more of you to actually participate, than to have solutions which enforce the technological gap structure - many knowing nothing and few knowing everything about the technological basis of your cooperation is not a good way in the long run.
What will happen if there is conflict within the group? Who will have the power to control the platform? What happens if some person which has relevant skills you're using for your platform, gets struck by lightning or by capitalist seduction (the latter being the more likely possibility)? Will you be able to replace him or her? Are there others that could run the work he or she did? Or will you have to start completely again from the start?
One important aspect of this is:
Always own your domain name!
In the end, ownership of the domain name is the final question of ownership for the website or platform. You should take care that the domain name is in the collective ownership of your group or network.
2. Decide between different areas of your work
There are different areas of your work - with different consequences for electronic cooperation and for the choice between systems. It is not necessary that you do everything on the same system. Main areas of work are usually:
- an area where you are building some show-case for others to see you and your activities, to get informed and interested in your network. For this you want a website that has some looks and is easy in its functionality for users. Political control usually is enough for this area; you do not have to have direct technolocial control through many of you. The need for decentralization and for more people as editors, like in a CMS, is mainly due to the issue of efficiency (faster and better upload of information, no bottleneck-structure) than to the issue of democracy and equality.
- an area where you are doing your own working processes and cooperative work between yourself. Here it is not so necessary that your site has good looks. It is important that a broader circle of people, potentially everybody in your network, has the power not only to add content, but to actually edit contents and structures. Self-organization and democrativ control are important here, because somebody who structures your site also structures your work, decides what's more and what's less important, how a question is put and how not. This power should be widely distributed among you.
- an area in-between where you work and exchange with other acitivists and movements. Here it is important that the system allows different grades of privacy and openness so that people can decide collectively in their working processes about what is open to whom, what can be changed by anybody and what not, which debate is limited to certain participants, which area of comment is totally open, and so on.
3. Rely on existing systems mainly, and keep it low!
Meanwhile, there is no need for most of us to develop new systems for their networking needs. There are lots of systems that can be used, combined, adopted; you do not even have to rely on one single system for all you do. Using existing systems gives you more security that there will be always people among and around you who can work with the system. If you develop own systems, it may be a problem when the people who developed this are no longer at hand for you.
Keeping low is also important. The more powerful a system is, the more complicated it is usually. But do you really need all that stuff? It may be much more important that you chose systems that are easy to handle for yourself, that allow more of your network to actually work with the system. The more complicated and powerful your system is, the greater is the danger that you broaden the technological gap? between you.
4. Broaden the technological understanding within your network
An important part of your activity within the network should be to broaden the circle of people who can understand the technological basis of the network; to share and enlarge technological knowledge and skills within your group. It is better to work with technologies that allow more of you to actually participate, than to have solutions which enforce the technological gap structure - many knowing nothing and few knowing everything about the technological basis of your cooperation is not a good way in the long run.
