[Noisebridge-discuss] Noisebridge has a (potentially) newcommunication medium: The Noisebridge ning network!

[Ariel Waldman]

Trying to be constructive with my thoughts on this and offer advice.

I honestly think you're a viral marketer (it takes one to know one - I
used to work at an ad agency for 8 years, during which the idea of
viral marketing hit a peak). You conceal your identity and never
confirm or deny association with the client. All of your behaviors and
responses fit right in line with it: do the research, infiltrate a
community and make an effort to appear human/caring. I don't doubt
that you've been to Noisebridge a couple times, but that doesn't vouch
for your occupation.

What person would want Noisebridge to use Ning so bad that they
created a Gmail user account of "noisebridgening" just for that
purpose? I think many of us respect and understand the need for
anonymity in situations, but in a small community built on trust, at
least having pseudonymity is important so that you can be vouched for.
Additionally, if you want to preach about Ning, you could have (or
still can) suggest leading an in-person event/workshop about it, which
would help build more trust than suspicion. And, if, in fact, Ning is
a client of yours, transparency of your involvement would go a longer
way than than your current approach.

Maybe this advice won't change how you interact with this community,
but hopefully it will for any future mailing list communities you're
setting up gmail accounts for.

Ariel Waldman | digital anthropologist

[ http://arielwaldman.com | http://spacehack.org ]


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[Noisebridge-discuss] Noisebridge has a (potentially) newcommunication
medium: The Noisebridge ning network!
Noise Bridge noisebridgening at gmail.com
Sun Dec 20 01:58:12 PST 2009

Ok so here are the concerns so far:

google ads: i kinda covered this at the end of the long spiel on the ning
site itself (
http://noisebridge.ning.com/forum/topics/the-noisebridge-nings-purpose ).
the ads are automatic. i don't get any money. ning does. you actually have
to pay a premium ($24.95/mo) if you wanna take the ads off. i know, it
sucks, but that's probably why the site is free to use in the first place

source code: free doesn't always mean open source unfortunately. There are
tools to do advanced layout/widget tweaking within the site but i donno if
you can get the base code or whatever. honestly i couldn't code my way out
of a paper bag so I'm basically sticking to the preset stuff unless someone
wants to take a stab at it (there are various 'rank' options that let you
add people to fiddle with different aspects of the site, one of many is
appearance). as much as I'm sure all of you would like open source it's not
something i could do even if i had it (see: can't code worth shit). also
generally any open source stuff is very hard do-it-yourself and generally
(though maybe I'm wrong) isn't hosted for free.

censorship concerns: i just read the article. it seems to have a problem
with the vagueness between 'sexual awareness/educational content' and
'pornographic content'. unless you guys are going to form a dildo molding
workshop or a BDSM how-to i don't think this will be too much of a problem.
yes, it's a problem, but not one i see noisebridge touching onto too much.

Why the ning? because I'm familiar with it. I've had close to 2 years
interacting with others on a few of these networks and i know it to be a
conducive environment for sharing ideas and organizing events and projects
(hell, Improv Everywhere has a ning, as well as 'chocolate rain' Tay Zonday
if you can believe it.) and i spent a few months of those years with basic
moderator controls. during those years a wide range of topics were
discussed, some not exactly legal, and we've NEVER had a problem with ning
stepping in and saying' whoa whoa you can't do that'. in fact a few of our
members of that network were in contact with many of the developers while we
were working out the kinks and features of the platform. I'm sure i could
manage to pull those contact strings if anything were to happen. It's easy,
it's free, it's familiar and I'm a simple internetter with no money who
doesn't know a whole hell of a lot about setting up a personally hosted open
source forum. if this is a do-ocracy, and you find something better, than
please, by all means, open up that medium for use. I'm just trying to
provide the best i can on my abilities and hope people are able to use it.

now about my identity. well i donno how that fits in really. in any system
there's always going to be a small number or people (sometimes just one) who
stands as a cornerstone on which the system remains available. this goes for
youtube, bing, facebook, etc. the only difference between those systems and
this one is that though i could give the creator account password to someone
else it'd raise the risk of that password being given to a 3rd party for
which i have no knowledge and putting the entire system at risk. I
understand the concerns about having a faceless entity running the show but
please try to trust that i wouldn't put the effort into something like this,
present it to you, and defend it, if i was just going to pull it out from
under your feet once people started using it. Concerning my 'tenure' at
Noisebridge I've been there a number of times. I'm not there every day but i
was there before it moved to the current space and i'm planning on working
on some projects there as soon as i find the time. If it matters at all I'm
fairly well acquainted with a number of 'regulars'.

But in the end this isn't about me. I'm just the one putting initiative to
get this thing working (do-ocracy and all that). the rest is up to you. if
you want someone who you know and trust with controls then, like i said in
the link above, I'm fully willing to grant full admin powers to one of the
'board of directors' or anyone else you deem worthy enough via popular
demand to have such powers. the only additional power i have is the ability
to grant and withdraw other admin's and to delete the site as a whole (and
to pay for premium additions to the site if it comes to it).

so what do i hope to achieve with this? collaboration. sharing. quick, easy,
interaction between people online where they can share their ideas and work
on problems together. it's merely an additional medium along side the
mailing list, the IRC channel, and the Wiki. It's not a replacement to any
of them, it's an enhancement to the whole. The more ways we can share the
better. don't like the ning platform? don't use it. or even better, find
something superior and put the effort into making that flourish. don't trust
me or the kind of power my account holds? allow me to create positions of
power only a smaller notch below mine to run the show. hell I'd be glad to
simply contribute and leave the internal tinkering to those more capable.
wanna know what the platform is capable of instead of taking my word for it?
make your own and see for yourself.

the way i figure it: you have a lot to gain if you contribute and very
little to lose. please a least give it a try.

On Sun, Dec 20, 2009 at 12:53 AM, Lee Sonko <lee at lee.org> wrote:

>  I would have a very hard time putting effort into using a medium that's
> controlled by an anonymous, unaccountable party. It puts the medium on very
> shakey ground.
>
> Lee
>
>