Re: Project PM, getting you involved
Subject: Re: Project PM, getting you involved
From: Clark Robinson <robinsonchicago@gmail.com>
Date: 5/23/10, 19:33
To: A <wrench.wench@yahoo.com>
CC: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>, Scott Mintz <scott.w.mintz@gmail.com>

Hi Annie,

Thanks for the rapid reply. We will be grateful and humbly so if you can spend a couple of hours occasionally and indeed that is what I expect to hear from most folks who express interest.

Like yourself, I became interested in Project PM because I was intrigued by Barrett's network concepts. To the best of my knowledge, nobody is doing what he proposes; I don't think it is hyperbole when he uses words like revolutionary.

Barrett believes we should operate opportunistically and, sure enough, what you learned about writing a business plan may be needed soon.  In the last day or two, Scott Mintz, Barrett and I have been talking about applying for pro bono legal services and applying for a small grant from a foundation interested in novel internet journalism activity.  So I would not be surprised if we are asked for a business plan.

So, I am going to put you down for "help with business plan," which does not mean we will call on you to write it, but rather advise us how to get started when the time comes, and collaborate on it as we go along.

By the way, in the Africa Development Project Google document, there is a newly-added list of links to many of Barrett's articles and posts related to Project PM, which may give you insight into his concepts and, being Barrett, are lively reading.

In separate messages, I will "share" the documents with you.  I apologize if this is redundant.

Contact me with questions anytime.

Clark Robinson
Chicago
217-722-8680

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On Sat, May 22, 2010 at 6:58 PM, A <wrench.wench@yahoo.com> wrote:
Hi Clark,

The time I can devote to this would be in the single digits of hours per week.  I have not seen the documents yet.  I have only the vaguest idea of how I can help.  The "blogger/journalist network" ideas are what caught my attention, but everything else you and Barrett have mentioned is also interesting.

I'm a very good bicycle mechanic, but no kind of engineer.  My business experience is of the seat-of-the-pants type, but I did spend an inordinate amount of time writing a business plan (with the help of a book from Nolo Press called "How to Write a Business Plan").

Thanks for your time.

Annie

--- On Sat, 5/22/10, Clark Robinson <robinsonchicago@gmail.com> wrote:

From: Clark Robinson <robinsonchicago@gmail.com>
Subject: Project PM, getting you involved
To: wrench.wench@yahoo.com
Cc: "Barrett Brown" <barriticus@gmail.com>, "Scott Mintz" <scott.w.mintz@gmail.com>
Date: Saturday, May 22, 2010, 6:27 AM


Hi, Wrenchwench-

I am Clark Robinson. My role in Project PM and the integral Africa Development Project is to inquire about your interests, skills and available time, then match you to some work that is interesting to you and moves the project forward.

Right now we are:
Setting up a charity, and
Getting ready to start a blogger/journalist network.

The blogger network will be driven by new forms of internet collaboration; we also want to develop the best ways of working together online for the charity and for governing our activities. What we learn in setting up the charity will be applied to media network.

On an immediate basis we need help in:
Developing network collaboration tools for the charity,
Collecting and implementing the best ideas to create a flexible charity that raises funds efficiently, and rapidly identifies projects of interest,
Working through our start-up tasks (organizing/incorporating), and
Documenting what we do (do well or do poorly) as we go, for our own learning.

You have business management experience at a practical level, something I do not have. I enjoyed browsing through some of your interactions at LGF and noted that you had contributed some tips, so I suspect you like to read, write and (I like this) make things happen.

Scott Mintz and I are working our way through the business aspects of starting up a non profit charitable corporation; I hope you're interested in helping us with that.

Also, I would like to hear your ideas about making our collaborative documents more interesting and getting members more engaged. As you can see, we are moving from discussion to proposed actions in the legal/financial document, but the "main" charity document has collected some ideas, but is not progressing.

I also endorse Barrett's statements about application of your mechanical technology knowledge to potential Africa initiatives. We want to be opportunistic and take advantage of resources as we find them.

You may write in the documents or send e-mail to me (which I may later share or paste into the documents). Or both. As you will see, we are considering switching from Google docs to a wiki.

I can make your tasks more specific when you tell me what you think after looking at the documents.

If you can describe your time available to work on the project, that would be helpful to me (though I know it may change).

Clark Robinson
217-722-8680