[Ubuntu-eg] Community of communities

Thu Aug 1 09:16:25 UTC 2013

Very interesting, professor, just to make sure I understand...

So, what you want is putting standards for communities, "if you want to be
accredited by us, follow our standards",
then for each type of community, there is its own standard so as not to
allow just about anyone.

I hint at the faulty technicians/hobbyists that are dooming our web and
technological infrastructure with their messy and misleading titles/work, I
personally witnessed a technician who barely made it through a computer
maintenance diploma giving out his "business card" as a computer engineer
who *fixes* computers.

I have read "The Cathedral and the bazaar" previously, it is a good read
but I would rather read your personal comments on the matter.

A few questions on the matter if I may, What are the extents of such a
society? Does it round-up fake-cardholders? Does it include physical shops
(maintenance etc.)? What other communities have you contacted? (just to
have a sense of the type of communities involved) What about communities
that have their own societies like IEEE communities and branches?

Finally, how can we start something as such? Contact the ministry? Spread
the word? Apply for a position there? Build a website? Survey the idea?
Contact the heads of the communities?

On Tue, Jul 30, 2013 at 3:12 PM, Sherif El-Kassas <sherif at aucegypt.edu>wrote:

> Here is a view I wrote some time ago in a related context (the Internet
> society of Egypt).. Hope it's useful and sorry for long post..
> Sherif
> PS the short version is start with projects and spacial interests and a
> society will emerge.
> -----------------8<---------------------------------------------
> [...]
>
> IMHO, there are 2 opposite models that seem to compete
> often. They are commonly known as oligarchy (rule of the
> few mostly via a control hierarchy
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligarchy) and anarchy
> (stateless society
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism). Both are extreme
> ideas, but worth studying, and indeed have been in many
> political works. In our tech context, however, I would
> suggest reading the "The Anarchist in the Library," and
> the "The Cathedral and the Bazaar"
> (http://catb.org/~esr/writings/homesteading/) for a much
> better treatment than mine.
>
> Basically, we can either have a society that is run like
> an enterprise or a society that is run like a bazaar
> (khan-el-khaleely like).
>
> The Enterprise is typically a good Oligarchy (the board ->
> CEO -> C*Os -> workers -> etc), but it assumes that people
> at the top know and dictate what the rest of company
> should do or aim at.
>
> Khan-el-khaleely and other bazaars, on the other hand,
> don't make such assumptions. Technically they are a form
> of distributed systems or controlled anarchy. Basically,
> each shop owner has access to common bazaar facilities,
> and they interact, collaborate, compete with each other;
> they are all free to do what they want provided they honor
> the khan rules. The same applies to other bazaar dwellers
> and visitors: move freely, do what you will, but respect
> the khan rules.
>
> That's what I suggest we should be aiming at for our
> society: aim at making it possible for all to become
> effective Internet dwellers. Whether they own shops or not,
> all should be able benefit from and affect how the
> Internet is used and evolves.
>
> Of course, the real Khan-el-khaleely is much simpler to
> explain and utilize; it's well understood and has been
> there for a long time. The Internet, on the other hand,
> has become more than a "network of networks," it is hard
> to explain and sometimes even contradicts what we take for
> granted in "real life".
>
> I suggest we start building ISOC-Masr shops
> (committees/interest groups) and encourage others to do
> the same. Useful shops will thrive; others will die out.
> Shops that stay might find commonalities or contradictions
> and start working on setting policy to serve their
> interests.
>
> I think what we need now is to create a framework and
> mechanisms to manage and support this process.
>
> [...]
>
> Thanks for reading and sorry for the long post..
>
> All the best,
> Sherif
> -----------------8<---------------------------------------------
>
> On 07/27/2013 01:40 PM, Processing Qbits wrote:
> > There is a huge difference between "List of Communities" for people to
> > choose from, know more about and join...
> > And a "Community of communities"...which is just a community supporting
> > other communities/people in other communities....and I can only think of
> > one such thing "Ministry of Communication" :D...even a society like IEEE
> > has sub-societies like IEEE Communication/Computer society but these are
> > under one title, share one magazine, a group of journals etc.
> >
> > If by "Community of Communities" you mean "we want to make a society"
> > then that is a completely different note, you're attempting to recreate
> > something as powerful (and competing) with IEEE or ACM etc.
> >
> > On Wed, Jul 24, 2013 at 8:29 PM, Ahmed Shams <ashams at ubuntu.com
> > <mailto:ashams at ubuntu.com>> wrote:
> >
> >     What is "Community of Communities"? it's already a thing of things
> >     state that we have, and each piece works for its good and persons
> >     set themselves where they think most appropriate for them. how can
> >     it become a single community if everyone is going in a diff
> >     direction/objectives with different capabilities!
> >     Fork is power, it's a community not an enterprise! IMHO
> >     Can't get the idea too
> >
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