Lugon's contributions to the Bloggers' Parliament

Group Blog

After what's happened in Madrid, still trying to react, and here's the new Bloggers' Parliament Group Blog.

We'll see how it goes or what we can make of it.

Thanks, Deb!

Moving forward

Does it look like the Bloggers' Parliament has come to a halt? Not in our minds, it seems.

I don't know about the others, but I've been struggling to find a way forward for this "apparently good" idea.

I've come, once again, to this conclusion: new ideas are not as important as new thinking.

Yeah, sure, we want the ideas. We want to find or come up with solutions for hunger, conflicts, sustainability, and all those hard-pressing problems.

If we had a thousand new ideas, big and small, we'd be better off.

But, guess what?, the World will probably continue rotating for quite a while. If there's still a number of us on its curved surface, things are going to keep on changing: the number of people, the kind and intensity of conflicts, the amount and type of waste to take care of, the technology bringing more promises and more trouble, more information, more decisions ...

We need new thinking.

We need thinking that is constructive, cooperative, and creative:

- We need to learn how to move forward in crisis (and non-crisis) situations. That's the "constructive" part.

- We need to remember or find ways to make the best of the minds of any group of people. That's the "cooperative" part.

- We need to be able to come up with new ideas, ideas that were not in our minds before, and not just when inspiration strikes, but also when we want to or need to. That's the "creative" part.

So I really think the process is more important than the new ideas themselves.

Of course, focusing on the will to find new ideas may be a good way to feel the need for new thinking.

So please join the Bloggers' Parliament if you want to. Join us in thinking about 4 specific topics or more. Join us in the process of finding some aims for our thinking, gathering some information, doing some creative thinking, and exploring and working with those ideas until we find something that may be of value.

New thinking, like free software, is perhaps more a process than it is a product.

Those of you who may have read Edward de Bono's books may recognize a few of his ideas here. So be it. :-)

What we really need at BP?

> Although having a central blog is good and having a common wiki
> still seems smart to me, Natalie's original idea of having solutions
> posted on each of our own blogs is key to making the BP go.

When I think about what's "wrong" (ie, "currently not working all that well") with the current implementation of the BP idea, I feel that it may boil down to one thing: we don't have an easy way to see each other's posts. (Now I believe that aggregators need that we have compatible blogs: all RSS, all XML, or whatever. But I'm not sure if that's the case.) Let's call this "VISIBILITY OF IDEAS". Mutual visibility. What the others are thinking about. Otherwise, we are disconnected members of a noisy blogosphere.

After our conversations, I also feel it would be good to be able to SELF-ORGANIZE AROUND TOPICS: maybe I like what I read in your blog and we "go" to "someplace" to have a creative thinking session (it could even be a yahoo list), or we ask each other questions and give each other answers - as long as "solutions" stick out and get blogged, that's fine: focused chat leading to ideas that can be explored and offered to voters. This second point depends on the first "visibility" one, and adds the "working spaces" item. In "parliamentary" idiom, we may need, or at least want, some kind of "comitee rooms". I feel I'm more creative when I interact with others. Also, I need information when I'm not an expert in certain things. I don't know how to formalize workgroups with blogs: I would like to have a "place" with the title "HUNGER" (for example) where I would simply put "parli.blogalia.com", thus "subscribing" to that topic.

My intimate summary is this: creative ideas, solutions in any stage of exploration, are the important visible tip of a larger iceberg of intention and focus and creative work. We need all that, I guess.

I'll post this in my blog because I feel this calls for software powers which I personally don't have at all. Or maybe it's just plain good old blogs used in creative ways?

BP needs collective blog-site

Natalie asks:

>Does anyone have experience of other blogging servers that would be:
>1. free,
>2. reliable,
>3. quick and easy to use,
>4. not plastered with advertising,
>5. allow or provide a Comments facility,
>6. allow uploading of images.
>(When presenting solutions, this is an important factor as we may want to use cartoons, diagrams, photos, whatever)

I would add

7. easy or at least possible way to download our stuff for backups and moving to some other place

We're asking for too much, aren't we?

The idea is to use such a site for some 15 "parlamentarians". Later there will be other groups etc.

BP thinking

I'm posting this here to ask for help! How can we aggregate BP's blogs? How can we receive email when others post new ideas or requests for help?

Dear fellow BPers:

I woke up daydreaming along these lines (which look suspiciously like a famous book by Richard Bach):

"Feathers slightly out of place, the self-assembled gang of seagulls looked down. So many boats with fish around them, but where to start? So much energy, but how could they work together? It looked as if each could only control their own altitude, their own direction and their own speed ..."

So here's my thinking about the Bloggers' Parliament:

We have two problems:
- what to focus on: ideas for the many, ideas for the few
- how to work "together": not tight, but open and viral

We have two distinctive features:
- we are bloggers: we write, we comment, we link
- we are thinkers: reactive thinkers, proactive thinkers

What can we do?

1.- We can use some blogging technology to "tie our blogs together" somehow.

Maybe we can use an aggregator so that "it" does the job of putting links to all recent BP stories on one page, in order to make it easy to follow our fellows' work. We follow what's going on. Others do the same. I don't know how that technology works. I've heard there's a python script that can produce that one page which then has to be uploaded. There may be simpler ways to do that - maybe using some already available service. Google "blogs aggregator", perhaps. Or ask friends.
An example here. Trouble is, it looks like blogs need to use "RSS" (whatever that is) in order to be "aggregable". Hand-made ones (such as Natalie's) wouldn't be "aggregable". Maybe Natalie (or others) would want to use another site for their BP-ideas?

There's a way to "subscribe" to each others' blogs by email. Every time a new story is posted, a message is sent to people who want to follow your blog. I don't know how that works specifically. It could be too much, and I wish I could get a summarized message every week. I don't know if this needs "RSS" or whatever.

2.- We can use stories to communicate among us. Maybe one of us has a pet project and can *invite* ideas: maybe Josef can write "next week, I'd like to see some specific ideas to push green electricity forward". The general idea is good but it could use some help in becoming practical. So any of us can "lead" and the rest can "follow" or "ignore". But we need to "be easily aware of each other" first.

3.- We can use "comments" as a way to work together. "Stories" in our blogs are good, but sometimes "comments" are even better! Perhaps a "story" can ask for ideas, or it can ask for exploration of an idea, or can ask for even better ideas. I suggest let's not neglect comments. If any of you post a comment at http://parli.blogalia.com (which is having infrastructure problems, sorry) then I'll link to your blog specifically, saying "thanks".

To add up:
- Thinking can be seen as having 3 phases: set up a problem area, gather or create ideas, explore those ideas to improve on them or make them more practical. Each step is valuable. We can all help each other and follow each other.
- We need to receive news from each other's work.

Maybe we're almost there and eager to do some real work?

BP thinking

I\'m posting this here to ask for help! How can we aggregate BP\'s blogs? How can we receive email when others post new ideas or requests for help?

Dear fellow BPers:

I woke up daydreaming along these lines (which look suspiciously like a famous book by Richard Bach):

\"Feathers slightly out of place, the self-assembled gang of seagulls looked down. So many boats with fish around them, but where to start? So much energy, but how could they work together? It looked as if each could only control their own altitude, their own direction and their own speed ...\"

So here\'s my thinking about the Bloggers\' Parliament:

We have (at least) two problems:
- what to focus on: ideas for the many, ideas for the few
- how to work \"together\": not tight, but open and viral

We have (at least) two distinctive features:
- we are bloggers: we write, we comment, we link
- we are thinkers: reactive thinkers, proactive thinkers

What can we do?

1.- We can use some blogging technology to \"tie our blogs together\" somehow.

Maybe we can use an aggregator so that \"it\" does the job of putting links to all recent BP stories on one page, in order to make it easy to follow our fellows\' work. We follow what\'s going on. Others do the same. I don\'t know how that technology works. I\'ve heard there\'s a python script that can produce that one page which then has to be uploaded. There may be simpler ways to do that - maybe using some already available service. Google \"blogs aggregator\", perhaps. Or ask friends.
An example here. Trouble is, it looks like blogs need to use \"RSS\" (whatever that is) in order to be \"aggregable\". Hand-made ones (such as Natalie\'s) wouldn\'t be \"aggregable\". Maybe Natalie (or others) would want to use another site for their BP-ideas? Apparently, my host uses RDF, not RSS. I too need help.

There\'s a way to \"subscribe\" to each others\' blogs by email. Every time a new story is posted, a message is sent to people who want to follow your blog. I don\'t know how that works specifically. It could be too much, and I wish I could get a summarized message every week. I don\'t know if this needs \"RSS\" or whatever.

2.- We can use \"stories\" to communicate among us. Maybe one of us has a pet project and can invite ideas: maybe Josef can write \"next week, I\'d like to see some specific ideas to push green electricity forward\". The general idea of \"green electricity\" is good but it could use some help in becoming practical for more and more people. So any of us can \"lead\" and the rest can \"follow\" or \"ignore\".

But we need to \"be easily aware of each other\" first.

3.- We can use \"comments\" as a way to work together. \"Stories\" in our blogs are good, but sometimes \"comments\" are even better! Perhaps a \"story\" can ask for ideas, or it can ask for exploration of an idea, or can ask for even better ideas. I suggest let\'s not neglect comments. If any of you post a comment at http://parli.blogalia.com (which is having infrastructure problems, sorry) then I\'ll link to your blog specifically, saying \"thanks\".

To add up:
- Thinking can be seen as having 3 phases: set up a problem area, gather or create ideas, explore those ideas to improve on them or make them more practical. Each step is valuable. We can all help each other and follow each other.
- We need to receive news from each other\'s work.

Maybe we\'re almost there and eager to do some real work?

I'm posting this here to ask for help! How can we aggregate BP's blogs? How can we receive email when others post new ideas or requests for help?

Dear fellow BPers:

I woke up daydreaming along these lines (which look suspiciously like a famous book by Richard Bach):

"Feathers slightly out of place, the self-assembled gang of seagulls looked down. So many boats with fish around them, but where to start? So much energy, but how could they work together? It looked as if each could only control their own altitude, their own direction and their own speed ..."

So here's my thinking about the Bloggers' Parliament:

We have (at least) two problems:
- what to focus on: ideas for the many, ideas for the few
- how to work "together": not tight, but open and viral

We have (at least) two distinctive features:
- we are bloggers: we write, we comment, we link
- we are thinkers: reactive thinkers, proactive thinkers

What can we do?

1.- We can use some blogging technology to "tie our blogs together" somehow.

Maybe we can use an aggregator so that "it" does the job of putting links to all recent BP stories on one page, in order to make it easy to follow our fellows' work. We follow what's going on. Others do the same. I don't know how that technology works. I've heard there's a python script that can produce that one page which then has to be uploaded. There may be simpler ways to do that - maybe using some already available service. Google "blogs aggregator", perhaps. Or ask friends.
An example here. Trouble is, it looks like blogs need to use "RSS" (whatever that is) in order to be "aggregable". Hand-made ones (such as Natalie's) wouldn't be "aggregable". Maybe Natalie (or others) would want to use another site for their BP-ideas? Apparently, my host uses RDF, not RSS. I too need help.

There's a way to "subscribe" to each others' blogs by email. Every time a new story is posted, a message is sent to people who want to follow your blog. I don't know how that works specifically. It could be too much, and I wish I could get a summarized message every week. I don't know if this needs "RSS" or whatever.

2.- We can use "stories" to communicate among us. Maybe one of us has a pet project and can invite ideas: maybe Josef can write "next week, I'd like to see some specific ideas to push green electricity forward". The general idea of "green electricity" is good but it could use some help in becoming practical for more and more people. So any of us can "lead" and the rest can "follow" or "ignore".

But we need to "be easily aware of each other" first.

3.- We can use "comments" as a way to work together. "Stories" in our blogs are good, but sometimes "comments" are even better! Perhaps a "story" can ask for ideas, or it can ask for exploration of an idea, or can ask for even better ideas. I suggest let's not neglect comments. If any of you post a comment at http://parli.blogalia.com (which is having infrastructure problems, sorry) then I'll link to your blog specifically, saying "thanks".

To add up:
- Thinking can be seen as having 3 phases: set up a problem area, gather or create ideas, explore those ideas to improve on them or make them more practical. Each step is valuable. We can all help each other and follow each other.
- We need to receive news from each other's work.

Maybe we're almost there and eager to do some real work?

New Problems and Solutions

This is not a solution. It's a new problem, or two new problems, or maybe just a reframing of some "older" ones.

Facts: I've wantched Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" and read his page. It's "election time" and life goes on regardless. Michael Moore calls Bush a "deserter" and a few other things.

Problem 1: Democracy is adversarial. In order to win you must crush the other. It's ugly to say the least, and it's said to work. But it doesn't give me any reassurance about an important point: would the new candidates, specially those who excel at critisizing, be better at the actual job?

Problem 2: Many US of A citizens are scared, and that makes them do (and support, and vote) foolish things. Maybe we should find ways to diminish their fear. Make them psychologically stronger - not tougher. It's easy to be tough and to complain, but there's at least one third way.

Some solutions I'd like to see a "cascade of uplift" (a la Tom Munnecke). I'd like to see people doing enough of whatever it takes to realise there's no need for many of the fears that are thrust on us. (Some fears are reasonable. Others aren't.) There may be a need for specific "counter-information" about specific sources of FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt): the truth about crime, weapons of mass destruction, etc. Maybe it's a matter of spreading some tranquilizers from airplanes.

Fear is a serious issue. And so is adversarial thinking.

Bloggers' Parliament: a Good Idea Waiting to Be Developed

I'm sorry this is a long posting.

Facts: Increasingly, a number of people from many different places are writing weblogs. These are personal webpages where they can write (and publish) short or long notes about whatever they like, perhaps with links to other internet places, perhaps with comments with their readers, perhaps with a list of "stable links" that are outside the notes.

Natalie's idea: Let's create a Bloggers' Parliament, where individuals may join freely as long as they respect each other and as long as there are "no strings attached" (just personal stuff, nothing commercial, politically affiliated, etc). Let's each of us collect or produce specific ideas ("solutions") to specific problems or situations. Let's collectively collect our solutions to create "packages". Let's spread the word about such packages in order to collect "votes" and then push the best solutions to wider or specific audiences, perhaps for real world action.

Potential benefits: (1) The BP and other similar initiatives may act as a "diffuse think tank", providing ideas so that other parts of "societies" may take them and make them work. The BP would be like those small computer programs they like to write for operating systems like Unix: each program does just one thing and it does it well, and it can "pipe" its output to other specialized programs. So the BP would give its output to real-world parliaments, political parties, activists, individuals, etc. (2) The "each person may make a difference" and "constructive design thinking is important" memes can be given a push, even among people who read BP stuff but are busy with other things and so don't contribute anything themselves.

Problems so far: After running the BP for a few months, current members have come up with several weak points, limitations and difficulties. These points have been known to appear in other similar initiatives. (In Spanish, you may want to look at Espiral, which attempts to publicly build "values" and perhaps an internet based political party.) (1) It's not simple to contribute in the proper format, have all the links, etc. (2) There's no common "focus" (which members would be free not to follow). (3) It's not simple to read others' ideas. (4) There's no easy interaction between members. (5) Now or in time, there may be too much work for the "central" blog. There may be other problems and this recollection may be distorted or plain wrong. "Raw" thoughts here.

Factors we need to consider for the solutions to such problems: (1) Members are all busy with other things, they have widely varied degrees of computer skills, they use different computer tools, and not all of them speak English. All of these factors are bound to become more of a problem/oportunity if the BP grows. (2) This is not a job so it should be simple to contribute, and fun. (3) The main aim is to write down our ideas (or link to others' ideas), look at other member's ideas, collect "packages" and "vote" on them. The whole process should be simple and self-sustainable.

Some directions to explore (there must be others!): Now with the hard part! :-)

* We might have a closed list for members. This might solve the interaction issue, so people might help each other to set up their blogs, provide focus, look for data sources, create comitees, etc. The list would be closed so that ideas should still be published in members' blogs. The list would possibly need a secretary etc, or maybe not. It would probably need some crystal clear, simple rules. It might be best if people didn't need the list to work independently yet fruitfully. This may need further thinking. It would be better if the list were free (no pay) and without advertising.

* We might use some kind of "blog aggregation" software or server. I'm no expert on this but quite a few people in Blogalia are, so I'm posting this there to ask for help. :-) This would provide an "current activity at a glimpse". Bad ideas would be show-cased too, but that's not bad, as "current activity" is not the same as "solution packages". It may not be easy to aggregate blogs from different blog-softwares, or it may require additional effort on members, which is inconvenient.

* Could we have a common blog-site? This would be against "personal simplicity" as members would have to keep a second blog (or more), independence and varied looks. But some people keep more than one blog anyway, and one can always link to oneself's other blogs, so it might not be a problem. What would be a problem would be to find a good blog-site: free, with enough features, enough visibility and independence (perhaps it's not a good idea to have BP blogs mingled with other kinds of content) ...

Ideas for Education in India

Problem 14: Education.

Ideas: Here, and more specifically here they write down many ideas that could be used to improve education in India.

Could these ideas not be used for other countries as well?

Facts: What's the "evidence" to support that these things work? Could not that evidence be gathered somewhere? Or is it already?

Caution: What can be done by individuals? This is an area of great concern, as I don't see transatlantic ships changing direction too easily.

Further exploration: Could these ideas be tested in a "village by village" or "school by school" basis? Could a "bootstrapping process", much like they do with women education in India and Africa, be put into effect?