Re: newsletter

On Wed, Sep 15, 2010 at 4:26 PM, Scott Mintz <scott.w.mintz@gmail.com> wrote:

I'm about to head out and expect to be back before our 7:30PM EST meeting. If you guys would indulge me by taking a look at the following revision of Barrett's newsletter, it would be greatly appreciated. I've written this with the hope to maintain as much of Barrett's true experience while restructuring those experiences in a way that, in my humble and solo opinion, would be effective in relaying its message. Kindly let me know what you think. Also, I emailed about this earlier, but should Tim (dynamicuno) be included in these discussions? TIA, Scott

I argue that it is ridiculous to think that the unprecedented increases in communicational possibilities, which have come about by way of the Internet, cannot be improved upon to reduce the influence of mainstream commentators who have done nothing to merit the great influence they possess. To some degree, these commentators are at fault for some of the problems the nation has concocted for itself over the years due their damage of national understanding.

In the course of writing my next book as well as a series of articles on the same general subject, I spent months reading over the works of people, such as Thomas Friedman and Charles Krauthammer. It occurred to me that many of our most influential commentators have gained influence despite a demonstrable and consistent tendency towards making predictions that did not come true, as well as a history of deploying self-contradictory arguments, accidentally misrepresenting important and verifiable facts, and otherwise conducting their work in such a way as to damage public understanding. Meanwhile, there exist other pundits whose confidence and honesty are easily identifiable but who nonetheless have not been granted anything close to the influential reach of their more incompetent counterparts at places such as The New York Times and Washington Post.

The problem, it seems, is that those who would shift their attention to other, better pundits if they knew about these failures have in fact not managed to learn of them, not being consumers of those information outlets which are in the business of pointing out such failures. A portion of the blogosphere has proven itself effective in pointing out these deficits to a considerable audience, which has consequently abandoned those pundits who have been shown to exhibit them. However, the reach is relatively small compared to national commentators.

Project PM was originated to serve a narrow, single purpose. That is to lessen the influence of those whose influence ought to be reduced. This was to be done by way of a very simple schematic whereby a significant number of participating bloggers would be persuaded to bring up the deficits of some particular commentator all at once and in tandem, thereby prompting attention on the part of those editors and producers working for the various mainstream outlets, who in turn would be hard-pressed not to address an issue being widely and suddenly discussed by a large array of bloggers with a high level of collective notability. In this way, Project PM spreads the general message that the commentators on whom they are depending for information are incompetent and ought to be abandoned.

To this end, I began contacting some of the better bloggers (including traditional journalists who work in part through online media) and explaining that shit be all fucked up and that maybe we could unfuck it to some extent if we all got together and did our things as described above, or words to that effect. Having recruited a couple of dozen such folks possessed of combined notoriety more than sufficient to prompt the necessary reaction, and having designed a simple schematic by which this would all be carried out, it occurred to me that a similar schematic, backed by simple software, could be used to greatly improve the means by which bloggers communicate with one another.

Meanwhile, we had managed to recruit an even greater number of non-bloggers possessed of various skill sets - many with extraordinarily impressive backgrounds - and it occurred to us that such people could not only be of assistance in helping to develop this particular project, but could in fact be organized in such a way as to come up with solutions to any number of related problems, particularly if our schematic could be adapted for their use. Included below are examples of these sub-projects.

Ive been working with many of our participants in an effort to finalize and implement both the blogger project and the associated sub-projects. This has involved an overlapping tangle of makeshift experiments in online collaboration, the launching of various discussion groups, research on emergent internet dynamics and related items of inquiry, recruitment of additional participants capable of filling in any remaining expertise gaps, determinations of legal framework and other arrangements, and a great deal of pacing back and forth and mumbling. Having developed a more specific idea of what we want to do and why and how, we have finally gotten to the matter of when and decided that now would probably work. As such, I invite you to join one or more of the following working groups by contacting me with your interest. Let me know if you have any relevant expertise or experience.

The Science/Journalism Improvement Project, which seeks to match freelance writers with scientists in order to encourage the production of more accurate science journalism.

The Africa Project, which is concerned with producing self-perpetuating solutions by which to improve education and standard of living in the context of Sub-Sahara

The Software Project, members of which will hammer out details regarding the proposed software for the Project PM blogger network.

Wed also like to bring a select number people into our weekly online meetings, during which time we plot and scheme and process paperwork in an effort to get Project PM established on its route to collective administration of the sort that will no longer require us to hold weekly meetings. Those who might be interested in joining us in this drudgery are invited to apply by e-mailing me.

Finally, thank you to everyone for having expressed some degree of interest Project PM, particularly those who have been kind enough to share with us their time and expertise as we go about bringing this all to fruition.