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 22 Jun 2010 @ 00:27, by ming. Networking
It is probably a good idea to do an inventory once in a while of one's projects and interests. Particularly when one is interested in connecting with others working on similar things.
It would also be nice if one's public presentation actually matched what one is doing or what one is aiming at doing. Once in a while I notice with some chagrin that I've left behind a number of websites and profiles and bits and pieces that mostly are either completely outdated or entirely misleading. Most of them covered with cobwebs. Some of them were cool in the 1990s, but are a bit of an embarrassment today. Then again, I've also left behind stuff that was ahead of it's time, that if it had been taken a slight bit further, or the timing had been slightly different, or the right people had come together, or I hadn't made some crucial mistake, would have been something really big that everybody would know about today.
I'm focusing on collaborative Internet stuff here. Software. Patterns. I could probably make other inventories for other areas of my interests. But there's a bunch of stuff that goes together here, which relates to how people connect and work together, how information and people get organized, how society might work better, how humanity might operate at a higher level. It is really all one subject, which can be addressed from many different angles. Creativity. Synchronicity. Conversations. Synergy. Emergence. Collective Intelligence. New Civilization. And how we might use computer and communication technology for doing it orders of magnitudes better. Which at a local level might make us personally more effective and which might get small group activities off the ground faster. And at a bigger level, it might just save humanity from going extinct within the next century or two.
Here are a few bullet points of stuff I previously have worked on:
OrgSpace
OrgSpace has been my code word for creating a better way for individuals or small groups to organizing any kind of data related to what they do. The basic idea is that there are as many dimensions to data as there needs to be, everything is linked in several directions, any item can exist in several places, because it has several dimensions, folders and categories are the same thing, just seen differently. Somewhat similar to the idea in Ted Nelson's ZigZag project. Which never really happened, because, well, it is a hard thing to create something super simple and universal. I went through a couple of early prototypes of that kind of OrgSpace, without getting very close to what I had in mind.
Eventually I settled for a more pragmatic OrgSpace, a collection of modules that could be reconfigured for various collaborative purposes. Wikis, blogs, calendars, project management, contact database, event planning, ad hoc databases, forums, chat rooms, picture galleries, e-commerce, and more. All of which I programmed from scratch. Each user could add one or more of any of these modules, and create workgroups and networks of people, and decide who to share which pieces with. And they could embed them in public websites. A pretty clever system, but way, way too ambitious. Oh, it is 95% done and parts of it are still used by clients or friends or by myself. But there's just no way I, one single programmer, could keep all these modules current and keep up with an evolving world. But I tried for a while before giving up, more than 5 years ago. If you look at orgspace.com you'll see... basically nothing. It is an example of one of those misleading websites I really should do something better with.
New Civilization Network
I should probably have put that first, as it happened first, and some of the software I developed there ended up being used in OrgSpace. NCN wasn't particularly about software, but about creating a self-organizing network of teams that would work on building a better world. It grew out of a Whole Systems discussion group I ran in a mailing list in 1994-95. The initial vision of the infrastructure was developed with Max Sandor. The idea was to inspire the creation of a network of online communities, existing on many independently operated servers. Protocols would be developed to allow interactivity and portability between these different sites. Essentially one should be able to join any group, hosted on any server, and that group might have it's own particularities and features, but at the same time one should be able to interact with and be found by people on any of the other servers in the network. You'll notice that we're talking about a universal login and about data portability and interoperability, stuff that doesn't even really exist today, so it was maybe a bit ahead of its time. It could still have happened, if anybody else had chosen to join the effort. There was one server, run initially by Max, and later by me, but there was never more than that one. So, the imagined network became just one online community on one website. Granted, it was one of the very first social networks, which isn't half bad. I developed a lot of facilities for the site in 1995-96, like friend lists, workgroups, forums, chat rooms, and a couple of years later blogs. The blogging system I created was quite possibly the best thing around at the time, but I didn't quite realize it, as I wasn't myself happy with it yet.
NCN is quite a long story and a a lot of learning took place there. Some patterns worked, some patterns didn't. As a global movement, it looked quite promising in 1995-96. Eventually it didn't take off as envisioned. For various reasons, most of them most likely my fault. It is surely not easy to launch a global self-organizing movement that aims at creating a new civilization. Anyway, if you go to newciv.org you'll see the website, pretty much like it looked in 1995. It is still active, people are still joining, there are hundreds of blogs, people use the member area, etc. But at least the public site is way overdue for a redesign and relaunch. I'm working on that.
HoloWorld
My own vision of how a New Civilization should work can be found at holoworld.org. Again it is something that I haven't really touched for 10 years or more. I still stand by it, even though it needs to be extended and updated and developed.
Essentially it is imagining a world that entirely would work on the kinds of principles that are touched upon in Open Space conferences, in Open Source software, in P2P anything. It is a bottom up grassroots self-organization kind of thing.
It is an anarchy where real community is possible. If you're free to do what you feel is right, you'll of course get together with others who want to do similar things as you, and there's a certain market economy of ideas and resources that naturally takes place. If nobody tells you what to do, and there's nobody who'll automatically do things for you, self-organizing community is what takes place. That's how people get together to develop open source software together, or how Wikipedia gets updated. Imagine if everything in the world worked like that. Well, it would only be possible if certain safeguards would be in place, primarily to avoid that a very few anti-social people would monopolize all the resources for themselves.
There are other things I intend to work on, but I don't have much to show for them yet:
Tools for Creativity
I'd be happy just spending my time making better tools. Software tools, for enhancing the creative process, for assisting various kinds of group activities. I'm interested in patterns. Generative patterns. Certain patterns make certain kinds of things happen. Yet, a lot of software doesn't really help you much in doing what you're trying to do. You can have a meeting within a piece of conferencing software, but the whole thing is not at all patterned to help do do what you have in mind. E.g. if you have a meeting specifically to arrive at a common decision, the software should be organized so as to help you make that decision. Duh. Most software isn't structured remotely like that. These projects would probably go on my cr8.com domain. Cr8 means Create, in case that isn't obvious.
Synchronicity
Synchronicities are subjectively meaningful coincidences. Something happens that clicks in a surprising way. I believe that's related to being in the flow and to collective intelligence. Imagine that you can increase the number of synchronicities in your life. Things just sort of surprisingly fit. Stuff appears out of the blue that happens to be exactly what you need, even if you didn't know it before. It is a state of mind, but it might very well also be something that can be amplified and enhanced.
Genes have receptors. Certain things will connect. You can increase the amount of connections by bringing in more stuff that might connect, by increasing the opportunities for connections. Similarly, the increasing interactions that the Internet has brought us can, if properly structured, increase synchronicity, increase the number of things that will connect, surprisingly.
There are other things I do than these. Some are more pragmatic, ways of making a living, or minor interests. Like, I've gotten back into webcam websites recently. And, generally speaking, I'm interested in the structure of success, how one can set one's mind to do something, and then actually do it. Which includes how one deals with one's own thoughts and emotions, and what the characteristics are of viable activities. All of which are other stories. More >
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 30 Oct 2008 @ 21:50, by Unknown. Networking
Welcome to the New Civilization network, a meeting place for people of good will who are working on building a world that works for all of us. A world of increased quality of life, freedom, fun and inspiration for all.
We hope that you enjoy your stay here. More >
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21 Feb 2008 @ 21:16, by ming. Networking
It is odd that nobody has made an open, public, platform free social network yet. Social networks *should* be independent of any particular central website, but it hasn't happened yet. They're all isolated, proprietary islands. Or, even if they're built on open source software, there's no way of exchanging much between them.
My main contribution to the field of social networks was and is the New Civilization Network. Which still exists, and I'm posting this message from my blog within it, but which is a bit dated in terms of it's software. But it has had profiles and buddy lists and blogs and forums and picture galleries for more than a decade. At the beginning, it was the intention to create a platform for social networks that would span many servers, run by different people, so that one could plug into it from many places, each having a different flavor, but accessing the aggregated resources of all of them. "The Sprawl" was the code name for this plan. Didn't actually materialize, so today NCN is just another isolated island in cyberspace.
Facebook, Ryze, Orkut, LinkedIn and all the others are also separate islands. Several of them have interfaces so that programmers can add modules to them, or access a limited amount of information from them. But nothing at all that allows you to move seamlessly between them.
People who make virtual worlds are working on standards that would allow you to go from one to the other. There's no terribly good reason you shouldn't be able to teleport from Second Life to World of Warcraft. To create something like that would require that one defines a minimum of characteristics that a virtual character would have everywhere, so that each world could implement a way of supporting them.
Social networks could do the same. If there was a shared way of representing a person/profile, what they do, and who they know, it should be something transferrable. But it is probably harder than the virtual reality scenario. Because a big part of it is the relation one has with other people. Or, we could say, with other profiles. And how do they exist, separately from a particular network site and its software?
That probably ties in with identity. How does one know that the ffunch on Facebook is the same as ffunch in Orkut? Not without some shared standard of identity, one that everybody would support.
But, assuming that the problem of a universal identity system was worked out, what would be interesting would be if somebody made the pieces of a platform-free social network.
The web is based on some standards for presenting content, and linking it together. It doesn't matter what server anything is on, it is just part of the address. So, I can link to your stuff from my webpage, hosted on any which web server, and I can even include some of your stuff on your server in my page on my server.
That is of course how a social network should work too. I don't just have friends who use the same brand of shoes as me, or who drive the same brand of car. I have friends wherever they happen to be, and whatever they do. The web way of doing it is of course that I can link to them, and make a list of them, no matter where they are, what ISP they're using, etc.
I can call your Nokia phone from my iPhone. Doesn't matter at all, as long as I have your number. That's kind of the point of network structures, that one can link freely between nodes. That's kind of the definition of a network. So, what we call Social Networks are kind of fake networks. One can list web links as before, but one can only link to people who are wearing the same shoes, who are subscribed to the same website.
So, all it takes is that somebody comes up with a way of expressing profiles and lists of contacts in a standardized format that can be put on any website. Some kind of XML thing that has most of the things you'd find in a profile on Facebook. Your interests, where have you worked, the lists of movies you like, and links to other profiles.
There is, of course, FOAF, which is indeed an open format for expressing a list of contacts. And, really, it is what the Semantic Web is supposed to do. And the World Wide Web could transform into the Giant Global Graph, connecting everybody with everybody else, no matter what server their stuff is on.
"Social Graph" is a word that expresses what Social Networks should have been, but aren't: the actual network of connections between people.
I don't know what's so hard about it, since it hasn't yet happened. Other than it maybe is more complicated than it seems. Whenever I try to look at the work of standards groups that are working on pieces of that puzzle, I walk away confused. I'm not sure if that's because it really is terribly complicated, and I'm a little slow and/or impatient, or because they're making it more complicated than it is.
Sometimes a major advance in Internet standards comes from somebody who didn't bother dealing with committees taking years to work through all the complexities. Dave Winer invented RSS and XML-RPC and other good things, basically just by deciding what would be useful to himself. RSS is very simple, and can't really be called anything other than a huge success. Somebody might come along and do the same thing with the standards needed for social graphs.
Anyway, in a week and a half I'm going to BlogTalk and Webcamp in Cork, Ireland, which will focus on these kinds of things, I'm sure, with smart people who've been much more involved in possible solutions than I have. So, hopefully I'll get a little wiser on where things are going. More >
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1 Jan 2008 @ 22:17, by neva. Networking
Establishing referral network for therapists
I'm looking for personal recommendations for all types of healing facilitators and therapist, by state and by country.
If you know a particularly superior therapist, and are willing to share why you feel this therapist is so good at what they do, I'm looking for your recommendation for my blog at [link]
I want to be able to list therapists that people believe in, because of the personal results they themselves have experienced.
If you are a therapist, you may not recommend yourself. The recommendation can only come from one of your clients who is willing to share their story and their experience of your support in their lives.
I'm looking forward to hearing from anyone who might like to commend someone who has been instrumental in their healing process. Help spread the word about healers that are good at their job!
Here is a really good example of what I'm looking for:
client feedback on colonics therapist
Thanks, Neva
Post your stories at [link]
All comments are monitored before being added so as soon as I read the story and get back to you to confirm what you have submitted, I'll add your therapist to the list.
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 24 Jun 2007 @ 23:17, by mre. Networking
The prototype Global Assembly Dialog is set to begin in late July 2007 using a web rating technology to vote on messages written by the participants. Please join us. Your part will be to write a message and to read and rate messages written by others. The highest rated messages will be distributed back to everyone by email. The goal is to go global with massive numbers so that the "elected" messages truly represent the entire human race.
The Dialog is sponsored by the Unity-and-Diversity World Council. See udcworld.org/global. Co-sponsors wanted. Contact UDC's Rev Leland Stewart at udcworld1ATyahoo.com or Roger Eaton at rogereatonATearthlink.net.
At this point we have about 4000 email addresses, which will likely equate to between 400 and 800 active members. Once we hit critical mass, estimated at 10,000 active members, we should be able to zoom to planetary size in three or four years. Please join us as we build a world that works for everyone.
We are betting that democracy on a global scale is the solution to the ever more obvious shortcomings of the nation-state system. We love our nations, but we have to rise up to the global level to solve global problems. Unifying mankind, if we do it right, will mark the beginning of a golden age – and it is in our reach.
We have two plans to bring the online GA Dialog down to earth so it will have its effect. First, as we recruit groups and networks for the Dialog, we will be asking them to add a mention of Dialog results to their local agendas and to provide representatives to an annual in-person Global Assembly meeting. The annual Global Assembly meeting is expected to evolve into a global institution that sits permanently, something like the U.N. General Assembly, but organized bottom up from groups and networks rather than top-down from the nations. Second, we have high hopes for a Nonviolent Service Arm (NVSA) of the Dialog as described below. More >
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 17 Jun 2007 @ 20:09, by ming. Networking
I've seen this movie before but this sequel is different & better because it's a blockbuster and everybody's doing it Roland Tanglao, paraphrasing Tim Bray. We're talking about Facebook.
I didn't pay attention to Facebook before just recently. I'm a member of too many online social networks where I have a list of "friends", and nothing else is going on. And at first glance Facebook sounded like just another one, and one I'd be even less interested in than the others. Its positioning seemed to be about finding people you went to college with and that kind of thing, which sounded boring.
I had indeed signed up quite a while ago, and I was getting friend confirmation requests. But the problem is that the options they give you all seemed irrelevant. Normally I've met people online, maybe through blogs, maybe we were in the same network or group or something, or maybe we met at a conference. But none of those are among the choices, so I had to settle for "Met Randomly", even though it wasn't very random. So that just confirmed that it wasn't for me, and I never logged in. Until it became apparent that a lot of people I know think it is a great thing, and I actually logged in and looked around.
And, indeed, there are some things they do that lift it to a whole other level, and it isn't very much at all like Ryze, LinkedIn, Orkut, Xing or Viadeo. The first thing is that you get a feed of what changes about any of your friends. The second is that there's a whole lot of things to do, so there's a lot to see in that feed. And, thirdly, they have what they call applications. It means they've made an API that allows third parties to add modules to their hearts content, to add new functionality, which is nicely integrated with the rest of the site.
Those extra modules make me do some things I otherwise wouldn't bother doing, like rating books I've read recently, because the fact that it is shared with my friends list makes it somewhat more meaningful. None of it is particularly important stuff, but it hooks into the same principles that makes twitter or jaiku interesting. It gives me a continuous ambient awareness of what's going on within one's sphere of friends. There's a swarm kind of thing going on, where I'll catch if a bunch of others suddenly get interesting in a particular subject or a particular application or a particular group. And it does that for me with fairly minimal investment of time, as all I do is to update a few profile type of settings here and there, and I watch one stream of small updates from others I know.
So, this does point at something that's new and interesting, a new type of social interaction, and a trend for the future. But, like the other social networking sites, Facebook is an island. You don't really plug into it unless you're a member. And what if there are several places like that, and I'll had to choose. It is only going to be more permanently useful if there are open standards, and it doesn't matter which particular system I plug into. I'm interested in sharing information with my friends, but I could care less about keeping track of a list of separate websites one can network at. They would have to become more invisible. More >
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 24 Jun 2006 @ 00:22, by mre. Networking
Dear Friends, Our topic is "Organizing a Unity-and-Diversity Global Assembly from the Bottom Up." That means the real thing, a powerhouse Global Assembly to put the world on a better path. Can we possibly succeed? In preparing this talk, I was reminded of Shel Silverstein's cartoon of two raggedy men chained hand and foot, hanging from a wall. One turns to the other and says, “Now, here's my plan.” That's me to you - I have a plan. My aim today is to convince you that those two guys did get down off that wall. More >
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5 Nov 2005 @ 09:02, by shreepal. Networking
Updated 24 Oct 2010
I propose that a call be given through NCN web links to all those individuals, groups and organizations who are engaged in their own way to change our present world to bring a New Civilization to hold as early as possible an Earth Summit of the Leaders of New Civilization. The agenda of this Earth Summit should be to draw and adopt a Charter of Action For New Civilization Global Movement.
Here I am setting out a draft working Charter for consideration, amendment, if necessary, and adoption by such Summit.
EARTH CHARTER OF NEW CIVILIZATION
NEW CIVILIZATION, which may be able to resolve the irreconcilable differences of faiths, cultures, politics etc. plaguing our civilization – Old Civilization - may dawn on our planet only if collective consciousness of mankind at the present juncture of her evolutionary march is READY TO ACCEPT its (New Civilization’s) values as mankind’s own need and FEEL as if there is something hollow without them.
What are the values of New Civilization of which mankind may feel as if there is something hollow without them and therefore may become ready to accept them?
To delineate them a draft Earth Charter of New Civilization has been put in place by an international gathering of well meaning activists / intellectuals. This document is aimed at provoking our collective consciousness to open up and take a stand on the burning issues of our civilization. Most of these issues relate with the very SURVIVAL of mankind and with shaping her DESTINY on Earth. One and all are invited to take a clear stand – for or against – on these issues and become part of the process of CONSCIOUS evolution of human race at the present CROSSROADS of her destiny.
Earth Charter of New Civilization contains a definite number of BASIC PREMISES. An overview of these propositions is given here. The basic propositions of Charter are:
Charter is founded on EIGHT FAITHS (that relate to HEART) and THREE CONVICTIONS (that relate to MIND) of global citizens. Charter seeks to DENY the respect and dominant place to the Present Civilization and to GIVE the same to New Civilization, which Civilization seeks to accomplish FIVE OBJECTIVES of human beings.
The faith propositions are:
1. Planet Earth is our COMMON HOME.
2. We have inherited it only in TRUST for use in decent manner and not for spoiling it by our improper acts.
3. Earth is not only for OUR use but also for the use of all other life-species dwelling on it.
4. This trust casts an obligation on us to PASS ON this planet not in inferior health but, if possible in better health to SUCCEEDING GENERATIONS of human beings and to all other life-species that would overtake it from us.
5. All life-species are miracle, blooming flowers in Universe’s barren desert and sacrosanct in their right to exist. We human beings have evolved our MIND to an extent where we are able enough to realize that all these non-human life-species have equal right to co-exist with us. Unless these life-species pose a danger to our safe dwelling on Earth, they deserve protection and preservation at our hands.
6. All man-made disputes of any nature can be resolved by man. And man has evolved his MIND to that evolutionary stage where he can realize that it is in his own interest that these disputes are resolved in PEACE and AMITY.
7. All life is evolving on Earth. Human being is a product of this evolution. Evolution has not stopped with the advent of human being. The process is extremely slow – barely perceptible in thousands of years – yet the process is on. We human beings must accept that we human beings are not the FINAL PRODUCT of this process and our MIND is not the ultimate TOOL of exploring reality around it and in universe.
8. But we human beings have evolved us SIGNIFICANTLY and have MIND that is capable to explore the unknown universe, in both directions of scale – micro and macro. We can harness to our use the secrets of nature and her forces. This, our, capability enables us today, if we are wise enough and choose this wisdom, to CONSCIOUSLY shape our DESTINY. This capability makes it possible for us to shape the destiny of EARTH also. Human beings can make an impact even on the destiny of UNIVERSE.
The conviction propositions are:
1. Human beings are capable to destroy themselves. This capability is now PRESENT and they need only the DECISION to destroy. Any serious man-made dispute may act as a TRIGGER to take this decision.
2. Sustainable human-unity, if we achieve at the global scale, is the only EEFECTIVE and WORKABLE guarantee against the danger of self-annihilation posed by divided human beings.
3. This unity can only be established if we human beings realize that our INTERESTS are common, that the PURPOSE OF LIFE on Earth is common and that the DESTINY of human race is common.
Charter seeks to accomplish these objectives, which are in common interest of all human beings:
Firstly, COLLECTIVE SURVIVAL:
1. New Civilization seeks to accomplish survival not only of all ethnic divisions and subdivisions of human race living in different countries of the world but also of ALL life-species dwelling on Earth.
2. It seeks to secure this objective by ensuring that peoples of Earth stand on the side of PEACE and not war for any cause whatsoever.
3. It also seeks to accomplish this objective by ensuring that peoples establish on our planet GOOD ORDER and not anarchy under any ideology.
4. It further seeks to secure this objective by compelling all organized groups of human beings on Earth, whether organized under the banner of nation-states or of any other common human feelings, to DISARM themselves completely of the WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION.
5. New Civilization seeks to accomplish this objective of collective survival not only by persuading peoples in the world to observe self-restraints in their inter se relations but also by paying RESPECT TO NATURE and its ways through its conservation.
Secondly, FREEDOM:
1. New Civilization seeks to accomplish freedom of individual from any kind of oppression, whether it is of political kind or of the kind of economic, culture or social.
2. It seeks to accomplish this freedom of individual from oppression within the human organization of nation-states and also international relations of such nation-states.
3. New Civilization seeks to secure this state of freedom for individuals by ensuring that the human rights of individual are protected in the organized society of human beings.
4. It also seeks to secure this freedom of individuals by ensuring that the interests of organized society are guarded against criminals and anarchy.
Thirdly, COMMON PROSPERITY:
1. New Civilization seeks to accomplish prosperity not only of one set of human beings (as against another set of those who remain poor) but of ALL.
2. It seeks to secure prosperity for all people by utilizing the TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS made by human beings. These advancements make it possible for human beings to REDUCE THE WORK HOURS for all those who are engaged in creating wealth. New Civilization does not permit utilization of these advancements to make a set of human beings WORK-LESS and to allow another set to ACCUMULATE wealth. Instead, it seeks to utilize these advancements to make available LEASURE-HOURS to all those who are engaged in wealth production.
3. It also seeks to secure this objective by utilizing SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT of natural resources of Earth so that waste of these precious resources is avoided, there is no unsustainable exploitation of these resources and, on that account, no ecological imbalance is created by man.
4. New Civilization seeks to utilize these measures in order to bring efficiency in production and distribution of man-made wealth.
Fourthly, GLOBAL UNITY:
1. New Civilization aims at accomplishing UNITY among different subdivisions of mankind on Earth by promoting mutual RESPECT FOR DIVERSITY among them.
2. It also aims to secure this unity by promoting UNDERSTANDING with one another. (Refer to the contribution that may be made in this respect by the concept of RELATIVITY and FRAMES OF REFERENCE).
3. New Civilization also seeks to secure this unity by admitting that there exists DIVERSITY among different subdivisions of mankind and promoting HARMONY amid this diversity.
And fifthly and finally, ENLIGHTNMENT:
1. New Civilization seeks to accomplish enlightenment of human beings by encouraging them to imbibe the KNOWLEDGE OF SCIENCE.
2. It seeks to encourage them to imbibe the knowledge of MATERIAL SCIENCE. It encourages them to learn and know what modern Physics and other branches of science have revealed to us, like our place in the Universal Time, Unity of Fundamental Forces of nature, Mirror- Images of OUR matter, Life and its Codes, convergence of all branches of science, etc. etc.
3. New Civilization also seeks to encourage them to imbibe the knowledge of PSYCHIC SCIENCE. It encourages them to learn and know what psychic sciences are revealing to us, like Near Death Perception, Extra-sensory Perception, Life after Death, Planes of Consciousness, etc. etc.
4. New Civilization also seeks to bring enlightenment among human beings by encouraging them to always remain READY TO LEARN and OPEN TO CHANGE of one’s intellectual convictions.
NOW these objectives are sought to be realized in an effective manner by this ACTION PLAN:
1. These objectives are sought to be accomplished by a concerted but voluntary community action of willing individuals at local and global level.
2. Towards this end, the trans-position of allegiance of such willing individuals is sought away from their native nation-states and to NEW CIVILIZATION ZONES.
3. These New Civilization Zones are envisioned as small units of organized humanity, which are scattered across the globe, connected through information technology with one another and act collectively in unison.
4. Instead of owing allegiance to their native nation-states, these small units of collective humanity in New Civilization Zones would be bound by a common vision and feeling of belonging to one another for a cause greater than nationality .
5. To bring desirable change around them locally and in the world at large, these small human-groupings would act in global unison through their concerted actions.
6. In dealing with the now-dominating institutions of nation-states, these New Civilization Zones would act in consonance with the dictates of their common vision and feelings.
7. In their dealing with the now-dominant players on the issues of local and global ramifications, New Civilization Zones solely depend for their victory over them on the strength of their collective co-operative or non-cooperative actions.
8. New Civilization Zones would act as per the specific issues and stands by either extending their non-violent, collective and co-operating global helping hand to these now-dominant national and international players or by resisting them with their non-violent, non-cooperating global boycott.
I. What is a New Civilization Zone?
1. NCZ is a goal-oriented community. This goal is the conscious evolution of human beings. The tool of this conscious evolution is knowledge – this knowledge is in the form of science and technology. This tool – knowledge - helps the human evolution at their collective and individual livings. At the collective living, it is done by subordinating the desire-dominated man-made institutions to the dispassionate discipline of knowledge. There, it helps in planning efficient self-governance in every sphere of human activity. Such planning of self-governance ensures the saving of human-energy from wasteful social conflicts. This saved social energy, when ploughed back to the common benefits of society, provides people leisure-hours, high standard of life and peaceful life. These three things enable human beings to be free from daily struggle of life, be inquisitive to look into things around them and in their search for truth to turn towards spirit. This collective turning towards spirit helps the evolution gain acceleration. In this way, the community is helped by knowledge in providing more freedom to its members, enabling them to become more efficient in the matter of their democratic self-governance and thereby making them collectively available a cultural ambience that is conducive to turn towards spirit. At the individual living, a person is helped by knowledge – or science – in understanding brain, mind, paranormal phenomena etc. and helped to realize the existence of mysterious nature, spirit, their world and laws.
2. New Civilization Zones are visualized as democratic local communities of spontaneous growth born out of the need of time and gradually spreading all over the world. From their very birth, these communities are seen motivated by the spirit of rebellion against the organized immoral force of multinational business corporations operating in tandem with nation-states, which adversely affect individuals’ spiritual well-being and communities’ social harmony. These communities are seen pursuing in different countries vastly different localized objectives of their initiative but still they are seen globally a single force united in certain common and well defined basic principles.
3. One of the most important hallmarks of these communities is that they do not require an outside initiative by an external force for their birth and growth. They do not need the support of some conspiratorial organizational planning at national or international level.
In their birth they are seen spontaneous despite being geographically located in scattered manner in different places. In their growth they are seen multiplying in their location, number and power.
4. Also, it is seen as a slow social process taking place over decades, which may run into centuries to overpower the present civilization. This process is seen fuelled by today’s deep discontent of human spirit and her disapproval of inefficient and wasteful institutions of our civilization. This rejection on the part of mankind seems the sheer historical necessity of our times in the evolutionary march of mankind. The force of human spirit fuels NCZs. What is important is the power of the fuelling force that will propel mankind towards this change. Spirit of human being is caged, bonded, strangulated and humiliated today by our world - this brute civilization - not because this world has no means to allow her to express fully - a joyous living - but because it does not care to listen her voice. It has no value for the human spirit and her wailings for real freedom, which she badly needs to go further and which this world - our civilization - has the means to afford. The force of human spirit is undefeated one; the New Civilization would be ushered in by Time; New Civilization Zones would be brought into existence by this rebellious human spirit. It is only a matter of time. This civilization - the totally dishonest one in its pretentions of providing liberty to human beings - is not immortal; it has no inner strength; it is glittering outside and hollow within.
5. The smallest New Civilization Zone may consist of a few individuals but to survive it must grow further into a community. This Zone is seen as an embryo of a sovereign habitation of human beings governed by its own laws and far superior in quality of its institutions with reference to human-wellbeing in comparison to our present world’s political, economic and cultural institutions. They must grow out of their miniscule size of a few individuals to a status of democratically elected and self-controlling governments of villages, cities and eventually the whole nation. The key to their defense against the strangulation by the old world lies in their superiority of quality of life, of number of people living in these Zones and of their capability in knowledge and technology.
II. The basic principles of New Civilization Zones:
1. NCZ, a community empowered by knowledge:
The community puts the highest premium on knowledge and assigns a grading to different branches of knowledge according to their relative importance to human life. The top slot goes to the human spirit. In these zones individuals are guaranteed the peace of one’s inner life against encroachments by uncalled for economic and political intrusion. In these zones, persons leading their peaceful inner spiritual life are regarded a valuable social asset, as being the fountain of social morality and good of fellow human beings and in return of this valuable contribution by them they are guaranteed means of sustenance without any further demand by molesting them with economic and political pressures. The second grade of knowledge in importance is Science. Out of the best available stuff of community, which has no inclination to pursue spirit’s demand, would be deployed to study science and uncover the mysteries of Nature. Next to the first slot, the highest respect of the community goes to scientists. The fruits of their labor are not available for sale, inside NCZs or outside to the old world. The contribution in the form of edge-technology made by the scientists is exclusively community’s asset, which would be a closely guarded community’s secret (and would be an important element in defending the community against coercion by the outside – old – world). In return for this valuable social contribution, these people would be guaranteed the best of the available means of life’s sustenance. The third slot in importance goes to commercial activities. These activities may be planned by the scientists so as to sub serve the best interests (mind the grading here) of people and would include elements of planned production, distribution and consumption. The rest of the community that is not able to come up to the first three grading would be a valuable human resource to be deployed that may be needed by the community in pursuit of its first three goals.
2. NCZ, a community of more freedom:
The zones are able to provide more economic freedom to individuals by eliminating the immoral element of cornering profits by those who plan and control economic engine in the old world. This is done by planning the three basic elements of economy: production; distribution; and consumption. The consumption element is guided by informed incentive; distribution element is controlled by community; and production element is planned to meet consumption- needs by scientific combination of human and natural resources for optimum output (no wastage of human-energy in the form of unemployment etc. finds place in these NCZs). In NCZs production is a creative enjoyment. These communities are also able to provide more political freedom by employing the information-technology in constantly expressing the will of people in the matter of self-governance. These zones would be transparently self-governed by the available technology and zealously guard themselves against manipulation by money-power (which power would be under social scan and control). Also, these zones would transcend archaic monoliths of religions into the modern day systematic inquiry into things spiritual and thereby provide more cultural freedom.
3. NCZ, a community of fewer needs:
While the dissemination of information of whatsoever nature would be the backbone of these communities, advertisements to psychologically lure people to unnecessary needs would face non-cooperation and boycott of the community. Such activities would be starved of public's response and thus rendered meaningless for generating funds by promoting blind sales of articles of human use.
4. NCZ, a community ensuring its defense by expanding into and absorption of the
old world:
This growth and expansion are the sine qua non for the survival of these zones against the hostile old world. There is a plain truth expressed in these columns, which is long and consistently recognized by leaders of mankind in different ages. It is the force of this truth that would surely find resonance within secret chambers of hearts of billions of ordinary people throughout the world and get amplified over a period of time in the form of a compelling global demand by them for an alternative civilization. NCZs are nothing but this alternative civilization.
5. NCZ, a community owing allegiance to an alternative world and civilization:
By their very definition, NCZs are rival to today’s sovereign nation states. They aspire to absorb and eliminate the modern day nation states (which establish their hegemony by deceitful, immoral and brute force of violence and money, and suppress a justified human spirit’s aspiration for real freedom). These zones rely on the power of people as against that of state. They promote decentralized localism as against centralized multinational-ism. They assert the rights of individual over community, of community over nation and of nation over the globe that is united to usurp individual’s freedom. These Zones make their own political constitutions and laws to govern them as islands amid the ocean of this old world. They print their own local money to give them financial freedom, security and stability. They recruit their own social-volunteers to enforce their laws.
For reading more articles like this one, visit IPC website here More >
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 18 Sep 2005 @ 12:45, by silviamar. Networking
When you first join NCN you are like a traveler landing on a new place, carrying your own expectations & doubts, and seeing lot of things around that you may not understand well... Imagine that there is somebody at the airport waiting for you to welcome you and show you the place. Don't you think that it would be much easier for you if such a friendly person were there? You would feel better and more confident to make your first steps in that new land. With these thoughts in mind, I've started the Landing group. We can set up a warm atmosphere for those who join, to encourage them to do their first steps here. More >
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 25 Jan 2004 @ 08:13, by ming. Networking
Orkut is a new online social network. And I need another one of those like I need a flowerpot stuck on my head. It is getting a little irritating to go through the same ritual every time, of looking for people you know and inviting others you think might be interested. That should really be automatic.
Most recently I had joined OpenBC, which I like. Has some features I like better than Ryze and not a lot of annoying "You'd actually see the results of this search if you were a GOLD member" messages. And a predominantly European focus. Got some very good contacts out of that already.
And then Orkut is announced Thursday. Interesting phenomenon about how quickly things happen, and how somehow that network happened to right away seem more compelling, even though the features are not all that different from the other ones. For one thing, it is affiliated with Google, done by one of their employees, supposedly in his spare time, so it got a lot of exposure. And then it is by invitation only, which somehow makes it seem a slight bit more attractive, and might make it more likely that one feels obligated to invite all one's friends, so they aren't left out. I got the first invitation at 2AM. And didn't realize right away that the network had started the same day. But now, two days later, *everybody* seems to have joined it already, and it is buzzing with discussion groups and so forth. Well, *everybody* who normally is active in that kind of network. Which is a large group, but still largely the same faces.
In 1995 my vision was to make a network of networks. Social network servers, where people could join the node that they were most attracted to, and there would be a way of linking them all together, so you could find each other even if you didn't join in exactly the same place. Well, I didn't quite figure out how to do that technically, so it became "just" one server with a particular social network. But now that it is a mainstream idea, embraced by a lot of techies, somebody really ought to figure out a way that they'll all interact with each other.
Network connections should be more like a commodity. Like e-mail addresses and accounts. You'll choose a server and a client that has the features you like, but you should really be able to link to people on other servers as easily as on your local server. It should be controlled more by my local address book and preferences than by a particular server. I should be able to find people across all servers, and be able to find the special interest groups they've set up. That'll take adherance to standards. And some new ones are needed for the people networking thing. FOAF seems to be one of the more promising attempts in that direction. We need a set of Open Network standards that all these networks would have a competitive advantage in adhering to. More >
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