[Noisebridge-discuss] Community, FTP, & Problem Solving

[bfb]

Here, here to Garrett for starting this thread and to others who have 
chimed in, I concur with many of the thoughts you've articulated. 
Reiterations of points of agreement below..

But first, my two cents. A mediators group would be a very good thing. 
Mediators are not judges, thus do not pass judgment. Mediations exists 
outside of the sphere of punitive justice. My perceived value of 
mediation is social harmony, the criterion being how much empathy do we 
share. The mediators role is to facilitate empathy among those seeking 
mediation.

I am very weary of an over-engineered solution(s).

In my experience, the most difficult task (the actual work) of the 
mediator is to get all concerned parties to sit down together. 
Organizing, juggling schedules, convincing folks to trust you as the 
mediator, that the mediation will be productive, etc... is hard. I find 
that if this very difficult step can be accomplished, the empathy 
follows naturally, like a Vulcan mindmeld.

However, we have a special situation at Noisebridge. Where there is a 
valued commodity to lose if one does not pursue mediation; access to the 
physical space and community. It follows that folks who have been asked 
to leave until a mediation has happened have much incentive to do so. It 
also follows that the person/people asking somebody(ies) to leave also 
have the responsibility of following through with a mediation (redshirts 
included).

There is also the case where the person/people calling for the mediation 
prefer to remain anon, and request an advocate on their behalf, that's 
totally appropriate in some cases, abuse and humiliation come to mind 
readily.. Instances of great violence are outside of the scope of 
mediation that I'm discussing.

Thank you all for helping me to crystallize my thoughts.

I propose a new mailing list for a mediators collective. We could share 
thoughts, strategies, and the burden of mediating the many conflicts of 
Noisebridge. It could also be a digital space where folks come to 
request mediation, whereby somebody(ies) rises to take on the task of 
organizing and facilitating the meeting. Names anybody? WTFDrama? 
HeartBridge? Or maybe EarBridge is more to the point for good listening...

If others are into it, let's put a request in to rack, get a list going, 
and meet-up to figure on what the mediation collective looks like.

Con suerte,
Kevin

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Seeking local consensus-based, doocratic solutions to current human 
problems.

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I believe it's helpful for anyone who wants to demonstrate that they 
retain some humanity to engage with the issue.  I also believe that 
anyone who is interested in the problem is qualified to engage with it, 
and in fact the entire thrust of hackering is that you don't need 
anyone's permission, or to reach an educational benchmark, to begin working.

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I'm interested in this topic, but I ignore most of discuss.  If there's 
a new list / venue / group forming, I'd appreciate an invitation.  
"human problems" is quite broad, and I welcome the broadness of the term.

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