Loomio
Tue 27 Feb 2018 2:47PM

Advice for setting up a local meet-up group

NS Nick S Public Seen by 127

Hi all -

A few of us were planning to start a P2PF/Commons Transition meet-up in Edinburgh. I was wondering if anyone had done this before elsewhere and/or had any advice to offer? So far it hasn't really been announced, and is in very early stages of planning. I got so far as creating a Loomio group P2P Scotland and a proposed initial date.

Beyond that I simply wanted to announce it and seek the general blessings from P2P people here - for example, is it OK to use the P2P logos and the name, etc? Is there any general support you can offer to local groups?

Note, I say Edinburgh, but it might be branded as more of a Scotland-wide affair, since the few people interested so far are distributed outside Edinburgh (Glasgow and Falkirk/Edinburgh I believe). This larger catchment area obviously means there may be more people who might register their interest, but then poses problems as the physical meet-ups need to be in one place or another.

Cheers!

Nick

MB

Michel Bauwens Tue 27 Feb 2018 3:23PM

dear Nick,

great initiative

I copy jose and darren from the commons transition coalition in melbourne, to share their own experience,

Michel

NS

Nick S Tue 27 Feb 2018 8:58PM

Thanks!

ST

Stacco Troncoso Tue 27 Feb 2018 3:24PM

Hi @wulee that sounds great, so happy to see this! The guidelines for establishing local P2PF/CT "branded" chapters and the support we can currently give are explained in this link. Give that a read and contact us whenever you feel.

We consider that anyone advancing the Commons, no matter under what name, a positive development and we're happy to report on it and give it diffusion through our web resources. There are specific P2PF related initiatives in France, Australia and Korea for example, but also other examples which we're close to, including various chambers and assemblies of the Commons, the European Commons Assembly or the Alliance of the Commons which don't use our name or, specifically, our material.

We also wrote a "how-to" article aimed at individuals interested in the Commons Transition but which is, as you'd expect, very much focused on get together with other people!, you can find that here: How can I take part in the Commons Transition?

NS

Nick S Tue 27 Feb 2018 9:34PM

Thanks for these starting points. Indeed I am currently focused on "finding the others!"

SG

Simon Grant Tue 27 Feb 2018 3:56PM

Sounds like an interesting idea, Nick @wulee

I think also of my position in the north of England (personally near Lancaster), not a million miles away. I'm loosely involved in several groups in this kind of area: I've done a fair bit for P2PF wiki; I've participated in some Digital Life Collective discussions; I went to the last EdgeRyders meeting in Brussels, and the partnership I belong to (Cetis LLP) is a member of Cooperative Technologists as well as DLC. I aspire to be in some kind of membership with Enspiral, but I haven't managed to convince Rich (who I've talked with extensively) or anyone yet, as I haven't been to a retreat in New Zealand.

These groups have much in common. I don't really want to be going to so many different meetings under different names meeting most of the same people and a few different ones. I'd rather we built the network through direct peer-to-peer links of getting to know each other and respect each other's work and ideas, then consider together which platform any work can best be done with; which people would be most aligned to our personal, local, embodied needs and aspirations. If we had a co-badged event, with several of these groups represented, I'd be very tempted to come across the border to join in! I'm closer in miles and in spirit to Edinburgh than London.

And, my personal mission / project is to help build a system that can indeed help people to find each other, exactly to get together with some kind of shared agenda.

Any ideas?

NS

Nick S Tue 27 Feb 2018 9:57PM

Sounds like we have similar aspirations, except you're way ahead of me, Simon!

I don't think I have any specific proposals I could make currently, nor any idea yet of how many others I will find locally. I'm sure they exist, but as you say, spread out over a group of loosely connected overlapping communities. I was quite surprised by Stacco's links how many commons-related institutions there are besides the P2PF. (Indeed I assumed the Commons Transition was a project of the P2PF but maybe not.)

Saying that - one idea I have, which is totally off the cuff, was just inspired by the observation that it's often difficult finding meeting places to support events and people in these aforementioned communities. If such a space existed it would be a commons which would very directly facilitate people with shared agendas finding each other. It could be run by a local organisation, but I suppose it could also be a federation or a national organisation. Something to think about...

D

Darren Wed 7 Mar 2018 1:24AM

A couple of years back, the only time I've been to Scotland, I visited http://www.monimail.org near Edinburgh.
I think that there would be space there for a meetup and members of the resident intentional community, I think, may like the idea - one member was super into FLOSS software - others were involved in community growing projects.

NS

Nick S Wed 7 Mar 2018 10:55AM

I've never heard of that. The site seems fairly quiet. Maybe I'll send them a link, anyway.

LM

Liam Murphy Tue 27 Feb 2018 11:35PM

Hi Nick,

I have proposed something similar in the east of England and am consulting on subject matter etc - very happy to collaborate if it might help ?

Liam Murphy

T: @culturebanks

NS

Nick S Wed 28 Feb 2018 12:14AM

Interested, can you tell me more? (I will read your article here, tomorrow https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/culturebanked-our-digital-cultural-commons/2018/02/13)

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