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]]> cimurai Mon, 02 Jan 2006 21:44:23 +0100 http://open.coop/tiki-view_blog_post.php?blogId=10&postId=45

climate change talks
]]> Tom Salfield Sat, 10 Dec 2005 23:46:50 +0100 http://open.coop/tiki-view_blog_post.php?blogId=9&postId=39
I'm a guy that stumbled upon Open Co-Op not long ago. This is my second blog in the blogosphere. Let's see if I can make it a pleasant one.

I am quite new to the whole blogging idea, I sort of started blogging making a random photo blog at StumbleUpon last January, which was, and still is a success among the fellow stumblers. I made many friends and noticed quite quickly the possibilities in that kind of `social networking' environment.

In StumbleUpon, the users have a nifty little tool, a Firefox extension that integrates into the users StumbleUpon account, and helps to quickly rate sites either `thumbs up' or `thumbs down'. You can also create reviews on the sites you like / don't like, so that other stumblers visiting on your blog know what you really think about the site reviewed. The system also allows a channel surfing environment for likeminded people networking. It creates profiles for the users, and by comparing the stumblers reviews, it offers pages that most likely would suit a particular users review profile. So whenever a user wants to find something new, (s)he presses the Stumble-button on the browsers toolbar, which depending by the users likes and dislikes sends the user right away to the next `randomly' selected web page.

...page...
The SU system is funded both by sponsored stumbles and paid useraccounts with extra functionality.

The benefits of such system are obvious, people find likeminded soulmates and home pages of people and organizations they would have not found by traditional search engines. The system is bringing people together in ways that revolutionate the way people interact.

Anyway, I happen to think that the SU system lacks some key ingredients that would easily make it a killer app of this decade. One of these is the fact that isn't really a blogging system. It hasn't got a possibility to comment on someones reviews, or to build a discussion around a review. It however has discussion groups and forums for those who are interested. Secondly, it lacks a working content management, where one could search and edit older comments in a fluent fashion. It also lacks an archive for older reviews and messages. Whenever a user sends another one a message, the older messages strangely disappear from the cue. You also can not edit your message history efficiently.

...page...
I will also have to make the notion that StumbleUpon is a proprietary system, with no sources available, it doesn't have the same evolutionary aspect that Free Software and OS software have. Noone can tacle these issues but the guys behind the system. And as far as I know they are not going to open up StumbleUpon. I don't blame them, though, it is generating them a good revenue, more power to them. But I still think we need an open solution, preferably a distributed p2p system that lacks any central point of defect, and that can evolve according to the developers and users needs. A system that was like a distributed wiki, perhaps (?).

This was my first entry to the Open Co-Op blog, Voice of Ambience. I apologise for any mistakes in my text as I am from Finland with ESL.
]]> Ambience Mon, 18 Apr 2005 22:44:27 +0100 http://open.coop/tiki-view_blog_post.php?blogId=2&postId=37
1. This morning I met with Nick Saltmarsh, who works for East Anglia Food Link and Eostre Organics and is in close touch with other local food initiatives such as Eat Anglia and Big Barn.

Our discussion had a lot of similarities to my earlier discussions with Jon Walker and Angela Espinosa, (who I told him about) about the practicalities of starting local food co-ops. There are clearly many initiatives around now promoting local food and organic food. What we would add is the community dimension: bring the consumers into the organisation so that they are more than just customers. Another important dimension that both Nick and Jon highlight is the need for an effective local distribution system. Diss, or perhaps more widely, East Anglia (including Cambridge) is looking very promising as a starting point for this because of all the organisations already here.

We talked about, as a starting point, getting an online discussion going with all the relevant people and organisations (which includes many of you) so that the organisational structure(?) we go for emerges from the people concerned. (See Food Co-op Proposal as a kick-off point for this discussion.) Initially we will build on what already exists rather than set up new systems.

We will put together a funding proposal for people to act as organisers/co-ordinators and to pay developers. One good prospect is the Esmee Fairburn foundation.

2. Software development: As the basis for the initial group development there are several good prospects. I have asked Jamie to help set up GroupServer on the Baldrick server at the OU, and we should soon have our new improved Tikiwiki set up on Damian's server. I am really hoping that both of these will be ready when I return from Portugal! Longer term there is the possibility of collaboration with Tav on Kollab and Plex.

As to the specific support for the local food trading and distribution, Richard Page is nearing completion of his software. I have had several good discussions with him about this. I am hoping that once we have our local food discussion group up and running we can examine his software and see how it could fit in.

3. Organisational development: I had a good meeting with James Moore and Rahul Handy last week in London. They have agreed to help me set up a financial control system and a temporary LLP agreement, while we wait for Chris Cook to develop a more innovative version that suits our needs better.
]]> garyalex Thu, 31 Mar 2005 14:49:28 +0100 http://open.coop/tiki-view_blog_post.php?blogId=7&postId=35
This group is a very good prospect for one of our first pioneer groups. We can try out some of our prototype software, work with them on their needs and interests.

They may be the centre of a funding bid for us. We would ask for funds for a co-ordinator of their group, plus some for development and hosting of the tools.

There was also good talk by a local brewer followed by a tasting session.
]]> garyalex Mon, 14 Mar 2005 12:16:26 +0100 http://open.coop/tiki-view_blog_post.php?blogId=1&postId=32
We need to sort our wiki out with a month+ of damo development. We want to start using automagic tiki projects stuff, open money code and rateable trackers. We also need to fix bugs and improve design.

I think we should prob have latest blog entries

Co-ordinating Group membership requirements.

1. Read our purpose and principles, and if you agree
2. Register on http://open.coop
3. Configure preferences and add basic info to My Open
4. Click on
]]> Josef Davies-Coates Sun, 20 Feb 2005 14:37:15 +0100 http://open.coop/tiki-view_blog_post.php?blogId=2&postId=31
There are several NEF projects that we might collaborate on: Time Banks, BizzFizz, Local Alchemy for starters. It now looks like we need a set of existing groups that have a need for better communications tools, of the sort we could provide. These projects might provide them.

I'll be going back to NEF for one of their internal seminars on 24th Feb. to talk to David Boyle, and others to see if we can take this further.
]]> garyalex Mon, 31 Jan 2005 16:04:56 +0100 http://open.coop/tiki-view_blog_post.php?blogId=2&postId=30
Our first visit was to Co-ops UK. We were scheduled to see Graham Mitchell, their marketing and communications man, but he was illl at the last minute and couldn't see us. Instead we saw John Butler, the Deputy Secretary: much higher up, but not so relevant. Still, we seemed to make a good impression, telling him about Open Source software. We must still see Graham Mitchell sometime, but it was a good opening.

Next we went to the Phone Co-op, to see Shaun Femsom, who heads their Internet division. It was very informal. We spent a couple of hours with him at a local pub. He is very bright and sharp, asked lots of difficult, penetrating questions, but listened carefully and sympathetically. He is an old hand, having started Poptel and was very much in tune with us.

He suggested that he would listen sympathetically to a proposal from us for jointly hosting the Open Groups on their server. I don't think we could have asked for more!

We had quite a good discussion on the train on the way back too. Someone (not me) suggested that the Open Groups concentrate more on offering blogs and wikis than on email and maillists. The more I think about that, the more I like it. Firstly, it sets us apart from the crowd of social networking software providers. Secondly, there is a lot of 'low hanging fruit' (to use Mamading's expression) there for the picking.

We can offer groups a blog for the whole group, and also for members or sub-groups. They can set up RSS links between them, and also for other similar groups, as well as the whole of the RSS world. Thus we have the start to a decentralised community.

We can offer wikis set up with a set of template pages they may use if they wish. These can include vision pages, working group pages, meeting support pages, etc. So with a trivial amount of development work, we can offer a basic organisational support system.

All of this needs to be supplemented with very good user guides, which will build into induction courses. We can also set up cross-group support discussions, to help link groups with each other and give them backup.

So, all looking very promising. Next stop, the New Economics Foundation on Thursday.
]]> garyalex Mon, 24 Jan 2005 15:09:37 +0100 http://open.coop/tiki-view_blog_post.php?blogId=1&postId=28 ]]> Josef Davies-Coates Fri, 14 Jan 2005 11:24:27 +0100 http://open.coop/tiki-view_blog_post.php?blogId=1&postId=27 ]]> Josef Davies-Coates Fri, 14 Jan 2005 11:22:09 +0100