[Ubuntu-eg] Community of communities

[Sherif El-Kassas]

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.
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[...]

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
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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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