Dear Friends,
I would like to seek the collective wisdom and counsel of our group for the
following.
Back in 1993 we here at The Commons initiated a series of work discussions
on the Net which eventually led to a series of events (conferences, skull
sessions, public discussions, media coverage, Web site) and a published and
widely read (5000 print copies, plus who knows how many electronic)
thinkpiece with the European Commission entitled, Rethinking Work: New Ways
to Work in an Information Society. More recently all this activity has
morphed into an entirely redrawn WWW site which you will find at @Work on
the Web', www.ecoplan.org/new-work.
What I would now like to explore with any and all here are ways in which we
might creatively link, somehow, these two streams of activity, in a way
which reinforces and extends the reach of each. These two new work projects
appear to me to have a common basic thrust - mainly real dissatisfaction
with present work related arrangements and a feeling that something can
indeed be done about them - but go about their self assigned tasks in very
different ways. Since you are familiar with this list, I guess you might
have to go over to @Work to get a feeling for our angle on all this.
Our approach over there is pretty structured. And while we offer quite a
rich pallet of communications tools (including group voice conferences which
work pretty well if you have a decent modem and a bit of patience, and some
rather handy use of available stuff on the Web for rough cut translations),
it has been our decision NOT to try to do the job which this forum does so
well - that is provide a lively, focused space for open exchanges on our
topic. Quite frankly, I do not know how you manage it. By and large I find
the sheer quality of what goes on here at just about the highest level I
have ever observed on the Web or any of its predecessors - and the level of
mutual respect and relevance of what is posted here is to my mind exemplary.
We on the other hand have opted for what I call "thin communications" in our
mail room, as much as anything else because I just quite frankly do not know
how to do as good a job in all this as you do here.
Here is what I would like to have your views about this morning if you will:
1. How might we provide anyone who comes to us in a search for new ideas and
inspiration on our troubled world of work with handy "one-click" access to
your exchanges, historical and present?
2. Ideally, all this would also be one-click searchable. E.g., call up for
me all mentions of "Lester Brown", "population", "Sally Lerner", etc. And
various combinations and permutations of whatever might be our key words.
3. We think that this is very important in a situation such as you have here
where there is really quite a lot of useful material, thoughtfulness and
references - which should not be lost or hidden away. FW has of course all
those great archives, but do you think we might do something together to
open them up a bit? Of at least encourage someone to do so?
4. And perhaps our communications frame and various utilities might be
useful from time to time for some of you.
In closing let me apologize for taking your time with something that is of
course a bit off the main track that brings us here, and perhaps I should
have just written in private to the organizers to put this before them. But
I figured that with all you smart and dedicated people out there, why not
ask you. I am sure that the final results, whatever it might be, would be
an awful lot better than anything that we might have thought up in a corner.
With all good wishes,
Eric Britton
P.S. I am sure that most of you know about the ILO on-line conference on
Organized Labour In The 21st Century that is about to begin, but if not all
you have to do is click the ILO Conference link on @Work and you will be
taken directly to it. (And perhaps I might mention that if you read through
the introductory statements of the several hundred people who have already
signed on, you are likely to find them, as I ceratinly do, quite a
remarkable and admirable group of people. A bit of a change from the usual
tame professional conference types.)
The Commons ___ technology, economy, society ___
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