Here are some of our related papers:

• Social Infrastructure for Virtual Flash Mobs
• Social Hacking: The Need for an Ethics

General principles

I expect this infrastructure to be eclectic, open, multi-channel, decentralized, unfolding as we go, primarily public domain, immediate returns.

Priority for Functionality

Let's write what we need to be able to use, and organize that by priority.

We should get more information about what matters to each of our participants in our OpenPeople? network. Chats/Interviews? would be great to flesh this out. I'd like to know from each of us, what are ways that our network can help, especially with our virtual flash mobs.

We should use Wiki pages to organize information about our wishes for help, and to schedule and organize our virtual flash mobs. I'll be making use of a wiki that Floyd has set up for us at his NetBSD? server: http://people.wiki.bin.org/

We should map out our endeavors, and reference a map of the various online hot spots, and their endeavors. What are ways that we can organize that information?

I'd like us to be able to monitor our activity. So I've set up a Python script to monitor changes in web pages. I'm testing it at: http://www.ms.lt/zz/test/testrawfeed.html to track changes at: http://www2.iro.umontreal.ca/paquetse/cgi-bin/om.cgi?Virtual_Flash_Mobs/Infrastructure which it does at every 5 minutes. You're welcome to try it out by making a change or addition to the latter (Wiki) page. Basically, the script keeps a cache of that page, and then looks for lines in the new copy that weren't in the old copy, and records and shows those lines. It will need to be tweaked in special cases to deal with trivial nonhuman page changes. We're all welcome to play around with the code and improve it. Also, I could use a list of pages to monitor. (And perhaps a spider for our participating sites.) And enhancements to the layout, functionality, etc. or simply feedback. Especially to know what functionality would be most immediately useful.

Our hosting service http://www.elnet.lt has set up the address post@primarilypublicdomain[email protected] to which we're invited to post (and archive) material that is "Public Domain except as noted otherwise in the materials". I've learned that there are Python modules poplib and imaplib that make it pretty easy to access the messages on the mail server, and copy and delete them, and then in Python there are all manner of ways to store, process and present them. So we can start CC'ing [email protected] any correspondence, or content, that we'd like to emphasize is in the "Public Domain except as noted". (Also, for our lab's discussion groups, and others in the Primarily Public Domain, I'll sign up [email protected] and they'll go there directly.) Anybody who would like to code this, or play around with the code, please let us know.

I'd like to be able to monitor RSS feeds, and also generate them.

Let participants add URLs that they would like us to monitor.

Be able to monitor variously by author, project, etc.

Have an economy for indicating how we've helped each other. [Andrius Kulikauskas]?

I want to be able to publish RSS feeds with such materials, for example, an RSS feed for each participant.[Andrius Kulikauskas]?

Be able to point to kind words on the web, providing excerpts. [Andrius Kulikauskas]?

Be able to point to thank yous.

Be able to point to activity that our network and virtual flash mobs are stirring. [Andrius Kulikauskas]?

Include materials about our interests, such as chats with us.

Have a map of our interests.

I'd like to collect answers to John Caswell's questions in his Business Equation.

Have a map of online hotspots, organized by interest. And also listed with the OpenPeople? who participate there, as a form of network data. The streams of content that the OpenPeople? generate there.

Have an online form for sending content to an online group (that you don't belong to) by having it go first to an OpenPeople? who is active there, so they can forward all or excerpts.

I want to be able to download an entire discussion group and put it into a Brain friendly XML format. [Andrius Kulikauskas]?

Have a knowledge radio, where you can get the channel you want at the volume you desire. [Andrius Kulikauskas]?

A couple of letters I wrote:

David Tannenbaum wrote:

> Dear Andrius, > > Thank you so much for your note, and for sharing my letter! Your project > looks very exciting--I'm especially interested in the "virtual falsh > mobs" application. Can you tell me a little bit more about how it will > work? > > Yours, > David > > P.S. I'm sorry for the delayed response--I've been snowed under trying > to get our website in order. I should be better in the future.

Hi David!

Thank you for your letter.

I'll be asking for a scholarship to the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference, so I hope I might go there. Will you be there?

Our "virtual flash mobs" serve to mobilize ourselves to help each other, as needed, bring energy and momentum to a project, such as seeding a Wiki, thrashing out an ideas on a discussion list, or sharing an idea with a wider audience.

I've realized that it's most productive to focus our organizing efforts on natural leaders. Who are they? They are the people who dedicate the content to the "Public Domain except as noted otherwise" http://www.primarilypublicdomain.org for the locations they indicate. This means that they are generating, by default, lots of content into the Public Domain. It means that they also encourage sharing, and not asking for permissions. So they are natural leaders for "working in parallel" which is what we need to do if we're to be effective at working openly.

These people become members of our OpenPeople? network http://www.voght.com/cgi-bin/pywiki?OpenPeopleand then we can focus on investing ourselves in each other, and organize ourselves to help each other. Of course, we're working openly, so others are attracted to help, and get involved.

One of the consequences of this network is that we're finding ways for the groups we lead to work together, and also, to help each other win resources.

I write below about an open system that I'm architecting. My letter is to Joy Tang of OneVillage?.Biz, a member of our OpenPeople? network. She is a social entrepreneur who is responding to the HIV/AIDS crisis and opportunity in Africa by developing holistic approaches for thriving villages.

David, please consider if and how we might work with the Union for the Public Domain to develop and promote a system for active use of Public Domain content. What might be your interest in such a system? Who else might be interested?

Andrius [email protected] http://www.ms.lt

Joy,

Hi from Lithuania! Thank you for your letter and impulse, and likewise Thank you, Jeff and Mark. Ilya, good to learn of your work and passion.

I have thoughts on how I'd like us to work together. I've given quite a lot of thought on how to create an infrastructure for effective social networking. It's pretty much what we've started with the OpenPeople? network, and the virtual flash mobs. I'd like to pursue this further with your participation.

We have contact with several initiatives that would benefit from such an infrastructure, including OneVillage?.Biz, Minciu Sodas, Bloggers Parliament, ERDE, SourceOpen?, and I imagine there are many more. If we can accomodate the needs of several groups, then we know that our system is well founded, and we can also help each other according to our strengths.

In particular, I see the strengths of OneVillage?.Biz in reaching into Africa, connecting with funders in the wealthier countries, and offering deep, tangible, immediate purpose in responding to the HIV/AIDS challenge.

I am slowly but surely architecting such a system. Your participation is a great help. A first step is to agree on some basic principles for our infrastructure. Here are some that I myself feel are crucial:

- The system is designed for working openly. - As much content as possible is generated in the Public Domain, so that we are encouraged to share without asking for permission. - We focus our system on serving those who are generating content in the Public Domain. They are our natural leaders. - The system is distributed amongst our sites and brands. - The system is primarily a protocol for easy interchange. - We develop and deploy functionality rapidly, one step at a time, with each step bringing immediate results. - The system is eclectic, making use of all manner of technology, and welcoming and showcasing all manner of contribution by developers that adds real functionality. - The system is anti-fancy, using the simplest and typically the crudest possible solution. - The system is focused on individuals, helping them connect and advance their own projects. - The system serves to reach out to others.

Are those OK? Or should they be changed? Any more to add?

We have a server that we are dedicating for these efforts. Here is some functionality that I wish to create right away.

- I'd like us to be able to CC our emails (such as your letters) to an address, such as [email protected], so that they could be publicly archived. This would help us all be aware of various conversations going on that we could monitor, share, and respond to. And encourage us to work publicly as much as possible. - I want to monitor key web pages of our participants, archiving them and looking for changes, which we would show on a single page (like a news feed) so that everybody could easily follow what we're all variously up to.

I've also set up wiki pages for scheduling Virtual flash mobs: http://www2.iro.umontreal.ca/paquetse/cgi-bin/om.cgi?Virtual_Flash_Mobs_Schedule and for thinking through our infrastructure for them: http://www2.iro.umontreal.ca/paquetse/cgi-bin/om.cgi?Virtual_Flash_Mobs_Infrastructure

What other functionality is most important to us now? We could certainly make it possible to post stories. As with our other materials, I would like them to be "Public Domain except as noted" in order to facilitate working together. What is the immediate purpose of posting stories?

Are the principles that I've written suitable for you? If so, then this is a great project that we might start on together. Then we could map out how we would like it to evolve. And then we could all look for different sources of funding for various parts. And also for unrelated work. Your efforts here would surely be a great help for all of us. We could keep expanding our functionality to address the needs and interests of our participants and partners.

I hope we might find a great way to work together, both OneVillage?.Biz and Minciu Sodas, and also many other groups.

Thank you for your energy!

Andrius

Andrius Kulikauskas Minciu Sodas http://www.ms.lt [email protected] +370 52645950 Vilnius, Lithuania