Re: Informal steering question

On Thu, May 20, 2010 at 3:56 PM, Clark Robinson <robinsonchicago@gmail.com> wrote:

"a couple of people have voiced bewilderment that a media reform organization has kicked off with a program to aid African villages"

Yeah, I had that reaction, too, but I had read what you had written in Skeptical Inquirer and VF and after some thought I concluded that the media effort and this initiative both flowed from the same concept, and of course I talked to you which confirmed it

But more importantly, you are correct, this proving to be a really useful learning experience before the blogger legislative network comes into being, since we have yet found effective online collaborative discussion tools.

I will be glad to move to this role when the time comes ----------> "Caleb . . . is currently in charge of our unassigned participants - a job I see as akin to a vice-president in relation to the House as well as a sort of House whip who also gives one tasks - but he's going to be too busy I think to do much with them, so when we can put someone else in for you on Africa, I'd like to have you take on that role if you'd be interested, basically giving out tasks as required by whatever we are pursuing within our sub-projects like Africa, as well as giving out any other tasks that happen to occur to you."

On Thu, May 20, 2010 at 10:49 AM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:

Oh, sorry, gotcha. Incidentally, Sapienza is particularly competent and enthusiastic; been running related pieces in the columns I've resumed doing for his site since moving back to Bushwick. Aside from running that, he also works for Antiwar.com, which is run by Justin Raimondo who himself is kind of a nut. I guess we'll set up some functionally executive-level offices soon and put him in charge of something. Caleb Pritchard, my old friend who took a job as a news producer for an NBC affiliate, is currently in charge of our unassigned participants - a job I see as akin to a vice-president in relation to the House as well as a sort of House whip who also gives one tasks - but he's going to be too busy I think to do much with them, so when we can put someone else in for you on Africa, I'd like to have you take on that role if you'd be interested, basically giving out tasks as required by whatever we are pursuing within our sub-projects like Africa, as well as giving out any other tasks that happen to occur to you.

Speaking of which, there's a particular dynamic that we ought to follow when deciding upon what other tasks to pursue, which is to act much like a corporation does in a developing country and branch out opportunistically, to take advantage of whatever happens to be the most viable course of action rather than determining these in advance or choosing them based on some explicit connection to what we've already done. Such corporations tend to expand into seemingly random new sectors but are actually just under greater pressure to seek profits in whatever people are most willing to pay for.

For instance, a couple of people have voiced bewilderment that a media reform organization has kicked off with a program to aid African villages. As you're aware, we're doing this because we needed something to do (insomuch as that we needed to calibrate in terms of what we're actually able to do) and this happened to be something we could do easily and which would be worth doing in the view of our participants in addition to us. If we approach expansion with that mentality, we'll see better results than do those entities that define their parameters of action too narrowly and without any good reason to do so.

On Thu, May 20, 2010 at 11:17 AM, Clark Robinson <robinsonchicago@gmail.com> wrote:

make sure they have access to the financial document, nothing more, leave it totally up to them whether the look at it oreve contribute anything to the document
ay

On Thu, May 20, 2010 at 10:15 AM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:

Sorry, suggest them for which role?

On Thu, May 20, 2010 at 11:14 AM, Clark Robinson <robinsonchicago@gmail.com> wrote:

I would suggest Charles Johnson- his bio makes me think he may be a veteran of this kind of activity, and also Jeremy Sapienza; since it looks as if BushwickBK takes in advertising revenue, so he may be familiar with the business aspects of online activity. I recognize they may both be too busy, I defer to your judgment on that.

On Thu, May 20, 2010 at 10:00 AM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:
I agree with you on remaining hands-off at this point for those reasons so we will continue that approach; we'll relegate our control to simply applying organizational strategies and that sort of thing.

I just invited Felipe Farley to the financial document; let me know if there's anyone else I'm missing.

On Wed, May 19, 2010 at 10:15 AM, Clark Robinson <robinsonchicago@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey, Barrett,

You asked me this question which I never really answered: "I was thinking of putting someone in charge of each such sub-program until the governing network can take over. Being "in charge" in this case would basically involve identifying questions that need to answered, delegating tasks (at least by way of noting what tasks need to be completed and asking for participants with relevant skills to volunteer for them), and otherwise just making sure that everything goes smoothly. Do you think that's the best approach at this point, perhaps if we keep the leadership largely hands-off and make such a role basically involved steering the agenda without causing undue red tape or otherwise stifling the flow of collaboration?"

My thoughts: In this early stage, with new people coming aboard daily, I think a good approach is to be hands-off/informal, to engage with people who contribute voluntarily in hopes that they will keep on doing stuff, and thus identify people to tap for leadership and administration when PPM goes more formal.

I suspect there is probably a limit to spontaneous participation and by the end of summer we will have to define responsibilities and commit to functional descriptive titles, which means in turn that we need to be thinking about what the entirely non-monetary rewards are for participation in the governing networks of the Project and sub-Projects and make sure we deliver them.

Clark Robinson
217-722-8680

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Regards,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302

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Regards,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302

--
Regards,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302