Llegando a la casa de Julieta // Arriving in Julieta‘s house…

Julieta y Ernesto me hospedaron generosamente durante mi estadia en Buenos Aires. // Julieta and Ernesto generously hosted me during my stay in Buenos Aires.

Tuve compañeros de cuarto en el hostel temporario en la sala de Julieta. // I had roommates in the temporary hostel in Julieta's apartment.

La 2nda Conferencia Internacional de Software Libre // The 2nd International Libre Software Conference…

Álvaro Tapia del equipo técnico de Curicopedia, una enciclopedia local de Curicó, Chile. // Álvaro Tapia of the technical crew of Curicopedia, an encyclopedia of local knowledge in Curicó, Chile.

Enlace: Curicopedia. // Link: Curicopedia.

Florencia Reznik y su ayudante Camilo filmaron mi primera entrevista de Vivir Libre como parte de su proyecto Cooperativa de Información Colectiva. Florencia redactó el video, y aquí se ve el resultado, en cual explico algo de mi sueño de una computadora totalmente biodegradable. Verlo con subtitulos en este enlace, o sín subtitulos abajo. // Florencia Reznik and her assistant Camilo filmed my first Vivir Libre interview as part of their project Collective Information Cooperative. Florencia edited the video, and here you can see the result, in which I explain a bit about my dream of a completely biodegradable computer. View with subtitles at this link, or without subtitles below.

Enlace: De la cuna a la cuna. // Link: Cradle-to-cradle design.

Laura Marotias y Ariel Vercelli en la charla de licenciamiento de software. Reuní con Ariel después y estamos organizando una charla de Vivir Libre en el CONICET. // Laura Mariotas and Ariel Vercelli in the session about licensing software. Ariel and I met up later and now we're organizing a Vivir Libre conversation in CONICET (National Scientific and Technical Research Council).

Enlaces: Ariel Vercelli, CONICET. // Links: Ariel Vercelli, CONICET (National Scientific and Technical Research Council).

Richard M. Stallman, fundador del movimiento de software libre en 1983, dió la última charla. Sobre la charla de Richard: resumen, y reflexión. // Richard M. Stallman, founder of the libre software movement in 1983, gave the keynote lecture.

Enlaces: sobre su charla (reflexión), Fundación de Software Libre de América Latina, y la página personal de Richard Stallman. // Links: Free Software Foundation (and the Latina America chapter), and Richard Stallman’s personal site.

Yo esuchando a Richard M. Stallman. Uno dias antes de la conferencia, le contacté por email para consejo sobre el proyecto Vivir Libre -- daré más detalles otro día. // Me listening to Richard M. Stallman. A few days before the conference, I emailed him asking for feedback about the vivir Libre project -- I'll give more details in a later post.

El Encuentro de permacultura en Velatropa // Permaculture gathering at Velatropa…

Pablo Perret, Julieta Salvi, y yo conducimos al grupo de apx. 70 personas usando las practicas de Pensar y Escuchar y de Espacio Abierto para crear y coordinar el programa en vivo con los participantes. // Pablo Perret, Julieta Salvi and I coordinated the group of about 70 people using Think and Listens and Open Space to create and coordinate the schedule on the spot with the participants.

Enlaces: Espacio Abierto, Julieta Salvi EcoYoga y Tierra Natural Viajes Concientes. // Links: Open Space, Think and Listen, Julieta Salvi EcoYoga and Sustainable Tourism service Tierra Natural Conscious Travel.

Pablo Perret y Emilce Quiñónez del Jardín de los Presentes. // Pablo Perret and another member of The Garden of the Present.

Enlace: El Jardín de los Presentes (Capilla del Monte, Córdoba). // Link: Garden of the Present (in Spanish).

Organizando el programa. // Organizing the schedule.

Pablo lideró un taller "de la imaginación al poder" en la cual dibujamos nuestras visiones para 5 años al futuro y las charlamos. // Pablo led a session "from imagination to power" in which we drew our 5-year visions and discussed them.

Charlando sobre las visiones. // Conversation about our visions.

Yo, Ernesto, y Pablo, unos de los coordinadores del evento. // Me, Ernesto, and Pablo, some of the event organizers.

Dando vuelta al compost de Velatropa. Después entrevisté Yanina (camisa violeta) sobre su experiencia trabajando en una fábrica de teléfonos celulares en Tierra del Fuego. // Turning Velatropa

Flores de primavera nos saludaban desde los árboles frutales en Velatropa. // Spring blossoms greeted us in the fruit trees at Velatropa.

La huerta, con la luz de la calle y el pabellón de la facultad en el fondo como señas de una intención pasada de esta lugar -- hubiera sido otro pabellón. // Velatropa's vegetable garden, with the street light and, in the background, the university building, as signs of the past intentions for this place -- it was to become another huge university building.

Enlace: fotos aéreas del lugar. // Link: aerial photos of the site.

Flores de la huerta. // Flowers in the garden.

La compañera del Jardín de los Presentes conversando con visitantes. // A member of The Garden of the Present chatting with participants.

Una vista del hogar comunitario de Velatropa, hecho de adobe y materias recicladas. // A view of the central building of Velatropa, made of adobe and recycled materials.

El auditorio-cine de Velatropa -- por la noche miramos una pelicula sobre el nacimiento libre. // Velatropa's theater, where we watched a film about home births.

Enlace: ciclo de cine-debate sobre el nacimiento libre / parto humanizado. // Link (in Spanish): movie-dialogue series about homebirthing and natural birthing.

Ernesto organizando el almacén de materias de construcción. // Ernesto organizing the recycled construction materials.

Tuni, con la barba, nos recito un poesía muy linda al lado de la fogata a la noche. // Tuni, the bearded one, recited beautiful poerty from memory at fireside later that night.

Otros Momentos // Other Moments…

Una reunión del colectivo de colectivos en la huerta comunitaria en Saavedra. Nota el árbol en el centro del círculo. // A meeting of the collective of collectives in the Saavedra community garden. Note the tree in a pot in the center of the circle.

Enlace: La Huerta de Saavedra y el Espacio CuCoCo. // Links (in Spanish): Saavedra Garden and Espacio CuCoCo.

Una estufa rusa en la casa de Gabriel. La chimenea hace zigzag entre los ladrillos para difundir el calor de manera más efectiva. // A "russian fireplace" at Gabriel's house. The chimeny winds back and forth through the bricks to diffuse heat more effectively.

Enlace: Estufa Rusa en la página de tecnologías apropiadas del GRR. // Link: Russian Stove (in Spanish) on the appropriate technology page of the GRR.

Jorge Rulli y Gabriel Cigna en el programa de radio Lo Nuestro Nuestro en 1170 AM. // Jorge Rulli and Gabriel Cigna in the radio show Lo Nuestro Nuestro on 1170 AM.

Gabriel y Jorge me entrevistaron sobre mis perspectivas y el Equipo de Construcción de la Aldea Global. Se puede escuchar la entrevista. // Gabriel and Jorge interviewed me about my perspectives and the Global Village Construction Set. You can listen to a recording of the interview in Spanish. (I welcome help with transcription and translation.)

Enlaces: Escuchar la entrevista, y leer sobre el Equipo de Construcción de la Aldea Global. // Links: Listen to the interview (in Spanish, transcription and translation to come, sooner if someone contributes effort or money), and read about the Global Village Construction Set.

También salí en el programa de radio Oveja Electronica — se puede escuchar la entrevista aquí. // I was also interviewed on the radio show Oveja Electrónica (Electric Sheep) — the interview can be heard here.

Transplantando lechuga con Miguel en la huerta familia de los Rulli en Marcos Paz. // Transplanting lettuce with Miguel in the Rulli family garden in Marcos Paz.

Durante mi visita a la casa de los Rulli en Marcos Paz, Jorge Rulli y Bernardo Elffman (de MarcosPaz.com.ar) me entrevistaron por video sobre el Equipo de Construcción de la Aldea Global, software libre, y los cambios culturales que podrían acontecer con el Equipo de Construcción. El video, de 20 minutos, se puede ver con subtitulos en este enlace, y sín subtitulos abajo. // During my visit to the Rulli’s house in Marcos Paz, Jorge Rulli and Bernardo Elffman (of MarcosPaz.com.ar) interviewed me on video about the Global Village Construction Set, libre software, and the cultural changes that could accompany the Construction Set. The 20-minute video can be viewed at this link with subtitles, and below without subtitles.

Una reunión semanal del Grupo de Reflexión Rural. Participé tres veces, enfocando mis aportes en el Equipo de Construción de la Aldea Global. // A weekly meeting of the Rural Reflection Group. I participated in three meetings, focusing my contributions on the Global Village Construction Set.

Enlace: El Grupo de Reflexión Rural. // Link (in Spanish): Rural Reflection Group.

Julio Lagos y Daniel "Pipi" Piazzola (nieto de Astor Piazzola) en el programa de radio Sábado a la Noche. // Julio Lagos and Daniel "Pipi" Piazzola (grandson of famous tango musician Astor Piazzola) on the radio show Satruday Night.

Enlace: Astor Piazzolla. // Link: Astor Piazzolla.

Una vista del studio de Sábado a la Noche. // The Satuday Night studio in action.

Ernesto en el studio de Sábado por la Noche. // Ernesto in the Satruday Night studio.

Conversando con Julio Lagos sobre el Equipo de Construcción de la Aldea Global y mis experiencias en Argentina. // Chatting with Julio Lagos about the Global Village Construction Set and my experiences in Argentina.

Visitando el delta Paraná // Visit to the Paraná delta…

Tres de las cosas más comunes del delta: agua, árboles, y lanchas. // Three of the most common things in the delta: water, trees, and boats.

Un mapa de la parte del delta que visitamos. // A map of the part of the delta we visited.

Enlace: Delta del Paraná. // Link: Paraná Delta.

Hay arroyitos o canaletas en la isla, y los habitantes humanos hacen puentes simples de madera para moverse a pie. // There are streams and river inlets criss-crossing the islands, and the human inhabitats make simple wooden bridges so they can walk around the islands.

Unos de los puentes son más altos. Aquí se ve Rafa para comparar la altura del puente. // Some of the bridges are taller than others. Rafa gives a reference for the size of this bridge.

Rafa, yo, y Clara conversando sobre la vida en el delta. // Rafa, me, and Clara chatting about life in the delta.

Clara disfruta su vida en el delta, conviviendo con sus gatos y gallinas y otros animales y plantas. // Clara enjoys her life in the delta, living with her cats, chickens, and other animals and plants.

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El perro secretario de Clara ayuda a mantener el órden del lugar. // Clara's secretary dog helps keep the place orderly.

Clara alimenta los peces con pan viejo cada tarde. // Clara feeds the fish old bread each afternoon.

Rafa, Clara, y yo despidiendonos. // Rafa, Clara, and I say goodbye.

Universidad Tecnológica Nacional // National Technological University

La Universidad Tecnológica Nacional tiene un papél importante en la capacitación industrial del país. // The National Technological University plays an important role in developing the industrial capacity of the country.

Enlace: Facultad Regional de Buenos Aires de la UTN, Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. // Link: National Technological University.

A través de un conocido, hablé sobre el Equipo de Construcción de la Aldea Global con un doctór en la Subsecretaria Legal y Técnica de la UTN. // By way of an acquaintance, I spoke about the Global Village Construction Set with a doctor (JD, legal doctorate) in the Legal and Technical Subsecretary of the university.

Una placa conmemorativa de los desaparecidos de la UTN durante la dictadura de 1976-1983. // A commemorative plaque, which reads: In memory of those of the UTN detained-disappeared during the last military dictatorship (1976-1983). Do not forget, so that it NEVER AGAIN happens. A people that forget are condemned to repeat their history.

Enlace: Terrorismo de Estado en Argentina en las décadas de 1970 y 1980. // Link: Dirty War(state-sponsored terrorism in Argentina in 1976-1983)

La Juanita, Lafererre, La Matanza

Visité la Cooperativa La Juanita, en Laferrere, La Matanza, Buenos Aires, con Ernesto, Julieta, y otros del ONG Amartya. Desde que ví el documental "Trabajo, Dignidad, y Cambio Social" sobre el Movimiento de Trabajadores Desempleados, quise visitar una de sus cooperativas. Me gustó mucho ver como son participantes proactivos en el bienestar de su barrio. // I visited La Juanita Cooperative, in Laferrere, La Matanza, Buenos Aires, with Ernesto, Julieta, and others from the NGO Amartya. Ever since I saw the documentary "Work, Dignity, and Social Change," about the Unemployed Workers Movement, I wanted to visit one of their cooperatives. I felt glad to see how they're proactive participants in the wellbeing of their neighborhood.

Enlaces: Cooperativa Barrio La Juanita (formulario de transparencia, con datos sobre el manejo del grupo), documental Trabajao, Dignidad, y Cambio Social, ONG Amartya. // Links: Cooperativa Barrio La Juanita (Transparency Form with financial and legal details about the group, in Spanish) (info in English) , documental Trabajao, Dignidad, y Cambio Social, ONG Amartya

In Argentina, I find myself in a country where the very concept of a country raises different memories, feelings, and strategies than in the United States of America. My understanding of how some people relate to the State here has deepened in the past week.

Last Wednesday I enjoyed a new dive into Argentine history when I went to the “Community and Public Good Communications” course that my host-cousin Daniela Silvestre co-teaches at the University of Business and Social Sciences (UCES) (links: English, Spanish).

Class with the students and professor at the UCES. Missing one professor.

The lesson of the evening focused on the emergence of “civil society” in recent decades in Argentina and the social and State structures that satisfied public needs throughout Argentina’s history — this is precisely the history that helps me understand my context here and design and implement a the Vivir Libre campaign more effectively.

My second pulse of Argentine history came in a film today — first, the meeting that led to the film:

Yesterday evening (Sunday), I got together with Rafaela Libre, a loose group of folks who enjoy discussions about software libre and organized an event together sometime in the past year. I brought a few props:

• the space shuttle model that David O. printed for me with ABS plastic on a MakerBot (member of Creator Space in Clear Lake, Texas),
• fliers showcasing the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS),
• my Canon A495 camera that I run with CHDK firmware libre for book scanning.

The conversation was lively, with a group of seven of us in a café sort of place (a “kiosko-bar”). I told the stories of the projects that, together, move us towards a fully libre web of production and communication (such as GVCS and The Free Network Foundation). Our brief notes of the meeting are visible in the listserve archive, as is my invitation to our next meeting.

Afterwards, Armando invited me to continue our conversation at his house, where I learned more about current Argentine politics (and I showed Armando how to access LeakyMails.com — which contains leaked emails of government officials — via the Internet Archive, since the site was blocked, allegedly by SIDE, the national intelligence agency… let’s hope I don’t have any interactions with them for posting this), we watched the first half of the film Home (Armando brought it up immediately when I explained Gaia Theory), and Armando gave me a DVD of the film Argentina Latente, by Pino Solanas. A fruitful, inspiring evening connecting with a new acquaintance.

Tonight, at my host-dad’s suggestion, we watched Argentina Latente after dinner… Wow! The stories of industrial production and creativity give me immense inspiration that I’ve come to a prime place for development of the Global Village Construction Set and libre tools in general — not just Argentina as a whole, but the city of Córdoba, which I can reach with a 5 hour bus ride west from here. The city of Córdoba houses the industrial hub of Argentina, including the currently dormant National Airplane Factory. I feel very excited to continue the Vivir Libre campaign here, where perhaps some of the scientists and professors who used the phrase “we reject mental colonialism” recognize that libre licenses — and the commons as a concept — can play important roles in sovereignty and autonomy.

I look forward to connecting the technical high school in Rafaela, the National Technological University in Santa Fe, software libre groups in Santa Fe and Córdoba (via USLA), the projects in Capilla del Monte and Buenos Aires that Ernesto S. works on with the NGO Amartya, farmers in Santa Fe (Naturaleza Viva farm) and Misiones provinces, and whomever else I have the pleasure of meeting.

Traveling, printing fliers, building websites, buying food, and otherwise propelling this project is easier with money, so if you want to strengthen Vivir Libre with some of your financial power, I welcome you to contribute via credit joinedcard or PayPal (for checks, precious metals, BitCoin and other types of contribution, email me). Gathering $800 over the next month would make a big difference for this trip. You can also tell your friends about my work, and hire me to collaborate / consult on your projects (details in my Dreamfish profile).

I aim to spark understanding and participation in each person I cross paths with, including you, so if something here inspires you or piques your curiosity, I’d love to hear from you in the comments below! If you want to receive emails when I write more articles, use the email subscription form at the top of the right column of this page.

Thanks for your attention, and thanks again to my supporters thus far.

chau ~ Patrick

I found this survey quite helpful for understanding my Gaia University portfolio. Part of the map looks at how other institutions are using portfolios.

The full-size map is available in .PDF format (96 kb), .PNG format (5.9 mb) and .VUE format (60 kb) — the .VUE has more information in it since many of the concept nodes have notes and hyplerlinks attached to them. To get VUE (free/libre/open software) for Linux, Mac, or Windows (or Java source code), go to the VUE website.

A few concepts that stand out to me:

• “assessment for learning” instead of “assessment of learning” (here),
• matrix thinking (crossing criteria with creations, explained here),
• three types of portfolios: personal representation, teaching and learning, assessment and accreditation (here), and
• organizations can have portfolios too (Wikipedia article).

I decided to post this map now because I think it might inform the conversation going on in the Open Governance and Learning course at Peer-to-Peer University.

to:
Brian Bankston — Keyline Cowboy
Cliff Davis — Spiral Ridge Permaculture

subject:
course ideas

Brian and Cliff,

Here’s some thinking about what we might offer in a course. It’s a bit wild-dream-flavored at the moment, and the shape of the course is sort of geared towards launching a social movement, so some parts of this might be out of our reach at the moment or beyond the scope of this course. Anyhow, use whatever makes sense, this is a conversation.

yay! ~ Patrick

Cooperative Farming
Cooperate with the place you inhabit, including humans and the rest of the community of life.

How can a person cooperate with a place? Why would a person want to cooperate with a place? What’s a place?
Life happens in places, and those places are alive. Each human is part of the place they inhabit, and their primary relations are in that place. Each place is alive: birds, plants, water, humans, air, soil, sunlight, rodents, and more interact with each other to perform the cycles of life in a place.

Cooperate With Whom? Your Place, including:

Humans:
- Self
- Family + Colleagues
- Friends + Neighbors
- Suppliers
- Clients
- Other Farms (coopetitors)
- Social Movements (Via Campesina, Real Food Challenge, Re-Mineralize the Earth, Transition Network, Sarvodaya Shramadana, Campesino a Campesino, permaculture, peer-to-peer, bioregionalism)
- Institutions, Corporations, Governments

The Rest of Life:
- The 4 ecosystem processes of Holistic Management:
- mineral cycle
- water cycle
- energy flow
- community dynamics
- the great spirit / god / the spirit in all life / the spirit of each life

Cooperate How? By…:
- anchoring in place, with bioregional worldview
- applying permaculture principles
- using Holistic Management
- composting!
- wise use of a Yeoman’s Plow with compost tea injection, following keyline design
- communicating compassionately
- engaging in flows (gifts and trades)
- sharing what I know about farming in this place:
- knowledge about how to farm, software, data about each farm, data about cash flow and business models, forms and procedures, etc.
- other folks who are sharing: CRAFT Farm Profiles; Open Source Ecology / Factor e Farm; Apios Institute forest garden wiki; Earth Action Mentor.
- continuing to work for liberation of all life — this means that cultural healing is necessary

Remember:
- farmer is a role, I am a human (and some say I’m a spirit having a human experience… at any rate, right now I’m a human, I think).
- the universe is a single multiform event
- farming is an act of cooperation
- share like I mean it: accessibility for deaf, blind, illiterate, multi-lingual (not just English)

Other titles to consider:
- Freedom Farming / Liberty Farming: farming that respects the freedom of all life and encourages self-expression of all life.
- Ag-Libre / Open Farming: free/libre agriculture, this borrows ideals from the free/libre/open-source software movement — everything that can be shared is shared (knowledge about how to farm, software, data about each farm, data about cash flow and business models, forms and procedures, etc.)
- Compassionate Farming
- Multi-Farming: practice agriculture for many reasons, with many benefits. Instead of the conventional focus on maximum dollars, multi-farming produces a balance of materials and experiences that satisfy human needs by focusing on the health of the entire environment, the whole place.
- Integrative Farming: farming that integrates people into the place they inhabit.
- Farm Here Now: taking inspiration from Buddhist teachings, practice farming as a deep meditation and communion with the soil, the plants, the insects, and yourself.
- Place-based Farming: pay attention to where you are, and the place will guide you towards farming in a way that makes sense with that particular place its unique flow of life.
- Influence Farming: this comes from Dennis Limon’s Influence Gardening — farm by relating respectfully to the influences/spirits of the plants, the soil, the place. Listen to those influences for guidance in how to farm.
- Peer-to-Peer Farming: treat everyone and all life as peers, working with the commons, co-producing with my peers.

Flow of the Course

1. Establish a frame to show how life is cooperation.
   1. show where competition, parasites, symbiosis, co-evolution fit into the picture.
   2. show film, “The Universe in 40 Leaps”.
2. Show that life happens in place, and each place is alive.
   1. show that places relate with each other via cooperation.
3. Life-dance is autopoiesis.
   1. help each holon express itself, become more itself.
   2. Joel Salatin: help the pig express its pigness.
   3. Navajo / Diné: may all beings live according to their nature.
4. Responsibility rather than ownership.

Agreements of the Teachers / Facilitators

• Welcome the phrase “I don’t know.” Do not pretend to know things we don’t.
• Now: share our experiences.
  • Future: share this experience with others.
    • This means we talk about you (students), share stories of this place (your farms, where we do the course), and stay in touch. This means folks might start visiting you, wanting to learn from you.
    • Maybe we ask that you help teach another group, maybe teach a course, or mentor a course (inspired by Transition Network, Sarvodaya Shramadana, Campesino a Campesino)

Wild Dreams that this Course could embody

• mutual aid learning network
• community-supported research
• PermaLibre
• ecosystem investing
  • bioregion-to-bioregion investing
• A New Shared Economy for Appalachia, by John Todd
  
• match-maker network for multi-generational people-project-place enterprises (like Couch Surfing or WWOOF-ing). The goal here is to help enthusiastic new comers hook up with folks who already have a project going and want helpers/learners/cooperators.
  

• We open our personal libraries to neighbors / members.
• Each owner sets their own rules.
• Catalog is available online, by phone, and maybe in print at a nearby social hub (a store or a school).

Those are the basics. Possible names for this arrangement peer-to-peer lending, co-library, book trust network.

One idea: in a neighborhood with a community budget, that budget could buy books about community governance. Then the question is: Where does the book live? Who gets to keep what the community purchased? Idea: put it in the co-library catalogue with a note that group funds paid for the book, so it has particular lending rules.

I think there are other peer-lending sites, but I don’t know of any focused on books. Someday it could even hook into WorldCat, so I can see books available wherever I go. This could save money and build social relationships — instead of building a new building to house books, just leave them in our houses, and invite our neighbors to check them out.

Do you know of any instances of this already in action? What synergies could this enable? What ideas awaken in you as you read this?

What transformation does the Real Learning Movement seek?
A shift in the ways we design systems to foster learning, and a shift in our conception of learning and the world (a shift in our worldview).

What is Real Learning?
Learning which truly nourishes learners, communities, and the earth.
Learning which truly nourishes learners and their communities, including the earth.

Why Real Learning?
Academia is urban. Academia has high barriers to entry, and low returns to the immediate community. Education is one of the most effective points of leverage in our society (get Amartya Sen source, maybe Development as Freedom). However, the “brain drain” has emptied rural communities in the US and around the world of their young people by drawing them to urban universities in the US and Western Europe, where many of them stay after dropping out or getting a degree.

Taking Back Learning, Taking Back Knowledge:
The Real Learning Movement is taking back the terrain of learning and the terrain of knowledge. We are creating systems for learning-where-people-are (learning-in-place), rather than removing learners from their context and their community.

Renewing the Purpose of Learning:
Transformative action is a primary goal of real learning, and is blatantly absent from the hours of drab classes and dry, impersonal papers of most of the current academy. As I live, I change, and my community changes, and I can be a catalyst of that change — our quality of self-creation is quite fantastic!

What’s subsidiarity and what can it contribute to these thoughts?
Subsidiarity is the principle of placing decision-making power as locally as possible to the effects of the decision. Subsidiarity applied to learning: promote learning that focuses on and changes situations as close as possible to the learner… encourage the flows of knowledge as high up as possible in the knowledge-shed.

A learning system designed with subsidiarity as a principle designs learning as close as possible to the situated learner (a situated learner is a person in community, in context, rather than a person removed from community, perhaps drawn into an age-homogenous university in a town more than walking distance from the person’s home). I write “design learning as close as possible,” but that’s not quite it. Real learning is learning that flows from passion-initiated and community-initiated actions. I design certain practices that enhance the ability of individuals and communities to document their experiences and draw reflections from themselves and each other and thus learn from their experiences. (So what is learning? I will answer that another time). In looking the system this way, I recognize valuable knowledge as locally as possible (rather than claiming that all valuable knowledge is held within the walls of academia). This is the subsidiarity of learning.

Recognizing the value of knowledge gained from experience.

Subsidiarity is sometimes seen as a principle for designing democratic systems [refer to some field of thought as a source]. Perhaps this means that systems of learning built from subsidiarity of…

Ah ha! The decision that is positioned as far upstream as possible in the knowledge-shed is the decision about “What sources shall I draw learning from? How will I decide the value of knowledge from different sources?” Perhaps this is the heart of democratic learning.

Sheds? What’s a knowledge-shed?
I have never heard anyone else use the term “knowledge-shed.” I begin my explanation with an description of “watershed” and “foodshed” since those are the concepts I build from to distinguish a “knowledge-shed.”

A watershed is a geographical area delineated by the flows of water through that area (watersheds are also called “water drainage basins”). High points in a landscape are “water divide lines,” and they are boundaries between watersheds. A foodshed is an area in which food flows from seed to field to table to compost (or to landfill) to field to fruit to mouth, and so on. To map my foodshed, I find out where my food was grown and where it went before it got to my mouth. An elaborate foodshed map might illustrate how food is distributed, who has access to food, what sources of fertilizer are used to grow food and where they come from, and who controls the finances of the food system at each step from seed to mouth.

A knowledge-shed map shows where knowledge is created, where it is acted on, and how it flows from creator to actor. In a vibrant knowledge-shed, the map shows much communication between creators and users of knowledge — even to the level of each person as a maker and user of knowledge. (For more on the self-creative quality of humans, see the book The ABCs of Political Economy. For more on maker/user distinctions, see the book The Whale and the Reactor: A Search for Limits in an Age of High Technology).

Mapping flows (sheds) to define bioregions/ecoregions:
When I map my foodshed and watershed and knowledge-shed and I lay those maps over each other, I begin to see patterns. With those patterns I can distinguish bioregions, also known as ecoregions.

We seem to have wondered from our initial topic…
No, we have not wandered away from the Real Learning Movement. When we reconceptualize learning as an activity of self-creation and transformation, we step towards our future of living consciously and intentionally as integrated members of the community of life (instead of the self-exile from that community that the dominator culture is founded on). Reintegration into the communities of life is a goal of the Real Learning Movement.

About PermaLibre: The first version of the concept, design, and implementation came as a gift from Patrick Gibbs. Patrick realized that he wanted different work and he knew that he wanted to change the way that knowledge is produced, distributed, used, and re-produced. Why pay for books when the Internet exists?

Growing the Commons: When someone is commissioned by their community to create something, and the creator is paid, and the creation is released, we can get smarter together much faster. Why? The creator knows that they’ll be paid, so that’s calmer, and the community gets a creation that respects their freedom to use it and build new creations with it.

PermaLibre mindmap, 2010-11-30 draft

This seems done, and has been for a few years, by Tinderbox (Eastgate, Mark Bernstein), and explained in The Tinderbox Way. I haven’t used Tinderbox or read the book — I have read parts of the user manual and watched some of the demo videos, and it seems pretty powerful. And Eastgate (maybe it’s just Mark) have two other products that seem relevant that I haven’t investigated much: Storyspace (“a hypertext writing environment”) and Twig (“lightweight tool for capturing and cultivating your ideas”) — oh how I wish those were software libre.

Since I don’t have those apps, I’m thinking about the pieces I might use to build something similar:
- Darcs for a distributed version control system = this is where files go.
- GraphViz and/or VUE for vizualization = both seem lacking, maybe Exhibit would work better? Or Processing (perhaps via Processing.js).
- something that automatically generates a revision every time I edit (like TiddlyWiki)

What I’m aiming for is partly a distributed semantic wiki sort of a thing with Darcs-style revision control.
- Distributed (i.e. peer-to-peer, holographic, locally-stored) because I use my computer offline more than online. And I want something that runs gracefully on my laptop, and I think Concerto (the P2P-extended XWiki) might work or might be too resource intensive (and seems tricky to access).
- Semantic wiki because I want structured data that’s easy to restructure on the fly.
- A more graceful interface than Swooki — I do like the Dido interface in the 2 minutes I’ve looked at it. In this area and others, MindRaider may be the most promising single app I’ve found today — definitely worth looking at.
- For ongoing processing of data, something like Yahoo Pipes or DERI Pipes would be nice. They get at event-based triggers that are helpful in a personal knowledge management scheme.

Another way to look at it is to move beyond an app to my entire desktop (since that is the everything bucket by default), specifically a semantic desktop with well-done interface and easy visualization of data, so Nepomuk helps for the semantic part of that (what about the interface and data visualization?). Bouillon could be wonderfully useful if there were easily-accessible source code and a developer community. Maybe TiddlyWiki5 holds promise — it’ll be all HTML.

P.S.: I’d like this in a resource-efficient programming language, so that probably means low-level rather than Java or Ruby. Why? Because I think it’s possible to do most of what I need on a 10-year old computer, if the code is efficient. I’ll use high-level in the meantime, until I or someone else creates this as a bash script or writes it in assembly or some such.

Me building a one-rock-high dam in a stream bed.

Dry stream bed with rock dam and sticks I tossed in. (5 ft. tape measure)

From the junction of the primary valley and the main valley, it’s about 450 feet upstream to the head of the main valley, which seems to be formed by the junction of two primary valleys (though I didn’t walk up them to find out if they really are primary valleys).

What I did:
I walked along the banks, about 30 feet on both side from the center. In my first pass I tossed rocks into the valley. Then I made non-buried one-rock check dams about every 15 feet. Then I made a second pass along the banks and tossed in sticks and logs ranging in diameter from 1/3 inch to 6 inches (that was the biggest present on these banks). I tossed the sticks and logs in at many angles, not just straight across the valley. There are leaf dams accumulated around sticks that are not perpendicular to the valley, so I figured the angle isn’t too important.

I took photos, with a tape measure in each photo.

I measured Steve’s house to get the square footage of his roof: 40 x 40 = 1600 sq ft footprint. With that and the appropriate formula, I could calculate the volume of water that the roof sheds per inch of rainfall. The primary valley starts about 20 feet from the house, and he has the gutter pipes aimed right at the middle of the valley, which is the most erosive position.

Steve's house, 40 ft by 40 ft roof = 1600 sq ft footprint.

Gutter draining into pipe.

Gutter pipe draining at head of primary valley. (tape measure 12 inches)

Head of the primary valley.

What I might do differently:

• Halfway bury the first line of rocks in a check dam, as instructed by Kirk Gadzia in the Holistic Management session of the 2009 Carbon Farming Course. Intention: these would be more flood-resistant than loosely piled rocks.
• Cut bamboo stakes 2 feet long, with a flat end and an angled end, and pound them into the valley in lines perpendicular to the valley every 15 feet. Intention: these would be more flood-resistant than loosely piled sticks, so could anchor debris and make dams. These might be more useful in the main valleys where erosion is much worse. These would be easiest to pound in when the ground is wet (it last rained about a week ago, so the ground is dry right now).
• Carry paper and pen to note the location of each photo and the length of the tape measure in each photo.

Why I did this:
To stop erosion. To plant water, to plant soil. To decrease downstream water turbidity. To exercise outside in the morning, which I enjoy and makes the rest of my day more pleasant.

Eroded bank in the main valley -- about a 7-foot vertical erosion face. (tape measure 7 feet)

Erosion at the head of the main valley -- a 44-inch deep bowl braced by tree roots. (tape measure 44 inches = 3 ft 8 in.)

How we might do this Farm-wide:
Organize by neighborhood. Have one or two Farm-wide leaders, and a leader in each neighborhood. Each neighborhood signs up for a time (either do one week per neighborhood, or one day of the week per neighborhood). The Farm-wide leader is responsible for: investigating, developing, and sharing the technique and related knowledge; and documenting the work with photos and measurements. One knowledge spreading method is to have field days in each neighborhood: the residents of those valleys give a tour and answer questions from folks from other valleys (and the Farm-wide leader). We could do 90 minute work sessions, with 15 minutes prep and 15 minutes wrap up, for a total of 2 hours of attention. Do it in the morning or evening — probably fewer biting insects in the morning.

Bring in someone to speak about stream ecology, stream classification, geology, hydrology, and stream remediation. Perhaps there are State employees who offer such presentations without charge. Perhaps Wade would know, or Cynthia Rohrbach. Have a community dinner: screen “The Man Who Planted Trees” or “The Upward Spiral“, then do dinner (do not try to work through dinner), then a walk-around-to-different-info-and-creation-stations time (an after-dinner activity that’s not sitting still), then a presentation by the main speaker, then a conversation time.

Evidence that something similar works without immediate human action:

One branch can effectively brace a leaf dam that slows water, and thus helps the soil stay in place instead of washing away and causing turbidity downstream.

The branch (in photo above) that braces leaves is in turn braced by a small rock that's partially buried.

Following the example of how the forest heals itself, we can effectively speed that healing. Perhaps this is a step towards what my friend Connor Stedman means when he says humans might live as keystone species.

For more inspiration, see these two films, available online:

• The Upward Spiral, by Paul Krafel
• The Man Who Planted Trees, by Jean Giono