Berlin, 17.02.21
Updating this README file with a commented index of the folder contents.
The exploratory process undertaken in this repository produced a text called A spiral of openness, reposted here and there.
Folder contents:
- Non-linear notetaking.
- Does a spiral have a centre?
- Decolonize openness.
- In the Berlinning...
- Science?
- Open science in Ubatuba, Brazil
Berlin, 20.10.20
My first note: I lost track of how many projects I have started with a couple loose paragraphs posted in the open and later heavily edited by myself and others. This very file may become another one of those. I start it after being through a training module on Internet Health and Open Leadership offered by the Mozilla Foundation as part of my (and of my colleagues) PhD at Northumbria University.
Now, I am one of those annoying guys always picking up on details that may appear very small to others, but which do none the less put me off. I am writing right now in a device that does not have a truly open Operating System. And I'm documenting it on GitHub, which is of course based on git and offers a strong support for free/open communities worldwide. But it belongs to a company that spent a lot of effort trying to discredit the very same free/open communities for some decades, which raises honest doubts. Can I trust them?
Trust. It is one of the central tenets (am I using this word correctly? no spellchecking on this editor) of the OpenDoTT project. Trusted things, trust. So much to discuss around trust, technology, organisations, collaboration and our own project.
As I tried to sort through the copious notes I made during the training last week, I realised it would be hard to react with a single, coherent text. In fact, it feels somehow the same as it did as we met to discuss the course materials and everytime I decided to participate I did not know even where to start. So I decided I would not react with a single-thread text. I can not do that, and that's indeed part of my critique. I hope I can get somewhere with this.
After the second day of the course I got my phone to record my impression in video, in Portuguese. I ended up with two videos, more than 40 minutes altogether, of redundancy and malformed explanations. The next day a friend asked me to watch them and I sent them to youtube, then left home to a Capoeira class (my first in Berlin, and sadly the last before the 'soft' lockdown). Ah, sorry to be wasting your time - I always find opportunities to sneak personal stories into everything I write. Anyway, when I was coming back home I received an SMS from my (new) mobile provider saying - auf Deutsch - that I had used up more than 80% of my monthly 3GB allowance. The videos! I would have imagined that youtube does not keep uploading once my phone changes from wifi to mobile, but I'd be wrong. Once I arrived home I noticed that not only it did use up my quota, but the whole thing failed at some point and there was no video online. I took it as a sign and decided not to share them anyway. Yes, I do "believe in signs". Not a fan of Paulo Coelho, though. Not as a writer, at least. Nor anything else, to be honest. I'm not sure I am a fan of anyone. Except Gilberto Gil, of course.
Stream of consciousness? Not quite. I'm not going on a single direction. Perhaps a thick, deep underground stream as those of the Amazon basin rivers. But no, if anyone has the patience to read, I will attempt to experiment with different takes on openness. If I am successful, it will be hard to follow and comprehend. And that's intentional. If I'm not successful, it's still part of the game.
I'll do some hopscotch here. And instead of countering linear thinking with mere circular shapes, I'm bringing something I learnt from a spiritual guide: the world always comes back, but in a different shape. It spirals up and your challenges grow accordingly [#1].
Hence, spirals. Look everyone, there's a name! Spirals of openness? Open spirals? We'll see.
- Between Scarcity and Excess, course by Luiza Prado.
- Rayuela (Hopscotch), by Julio Cortazar
[#1] Some days after writing this sentence I watched someone else expressing the same idea - you'll find it somewhere else in this repository.