NING and other OST sites

Artur Silva arturfsilva at yahoo.com
Wed Nov 18 21:27:16 PST 2009


Dear Harrison:
 
Your personal invitation to visit our new home - that is also your home - is already in the mail... You will find a lot of friends - and some photos of yourself, as it is normal in familly houses.
 
We hope to see you there.
 
Warm regards
 
Artur
 
-------------

--- On Wed, 11/18/09, Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net> wrote:


From: Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [OSLIST] NING and other OST sites
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 5:53 PM


Hi Folks! Great discussion!! --- And I don't NING, HIfive, PLaxo, Facebook, whatever ... but if you care, I'll be there, or should I say here wherever here is??
ON good old OSLIST. Must be the old curmudgeon in me. Or else just plain lazy. Both?

Harrison




Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Dr
Potomac, MD 20854
USA
Phone 301-365-2093
(summer) 207-763-3261

www.openspaceworld.com

Nov 18, 2009 06:11:24 PM, OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU wrote:

===========================================



Hi friends:

I saw that there were a lot of messages answering to our announcement - and even discussions among people - but I only had time to read some of them (I will try to read all of them next Sunday, as I will not have any free time before that). So, I prefer to "answer" to our (Lisa’s) first message to make some complements and comments (including to some comments from others).

As we (Lisa, Shufang and myself) are 3 different people, from different cultures and continents, with different ages and personalities, each one speak for oneself, except when we have the time to agree on a text, like the one Lisa sent. 

For me (and for us 3, as we have discussed this) the OSLIST is the main point for addressing the main questions regarding OST. We suspect and hope that it will remain so. OSLIST is, at one time, the main circle where topics (mainly in English) can be posted, and also space for breakout sessions (the different threats), also mainly in English.

On the other hand, we have no intention of replacing any existing resources, and we have honored some of them (in our links) and anyone else can include other links.

So what is the point of adding a different resource? What follows is my opinion only.

1st - before OSonOS in Berlin, in 1990, the only presence of OST in the web, was - as far as I could find - in (US) English. Even the openspaceworld.com site was in English only. After my pressure and Michael Herman making available a Wiki, sites in Portuguese/Spanish, Sweden, French, etc. have also been included. But the main discussions where still in English - and they will continue. Attempts to have discussions in different languages in the OSLIST have been made, but that was confusing and soon stopped. I suspect that other lists and blogs for other languages exist, but I rarely know about them, even when I understand the language and culture and could be interested in the discussions, or are interested in the region. 

So, for me, the first great advantage of the NING is that any nation/language/region group can be created and dialogues in different languages can take place in a common environment.

2nd - One thing I dislike in the OSLIST is that I can´t see the faces of people I dialog with. In some cases I even doubted, sometimes, if a given name was a person, or was a character… Seeing the faces, even if it is only a photo, is really important for me. In some cases from the name one cannot conclude about the gender, the age, and sometimes not even the place from where one speaks. Speaking only for myself - probably as I am a Latin person - those things are important and constrain my communication. So, for me, the second advantage I see in the NING is that I can see the photos of everyone that uploads a photo - and, frankly, I love butterflies, but I prefer to see their looking. So if those of you that have not done that yet, will upload a photo I would be grateful. 

3rd - a third characteristic is that anyone can upload one's address for a map (the "Member map" under “Members”) and be located in it, where we can zoom (+ sign) and see the position of everyone. And if one gives the full address, the other can even see the street where one lives or works, like in a Google map. (It is true that you will have to zoom at least 6 times to see that that are now 3 people - and not only one person - around Lisbon, but that is the point we are, at least for now). 

4th - and all this is in a free platform, and I have the idea that if OST is free, no charged certifications  or charged services are acceptable between members of the community - except if, and when, the community decides so. (that is also the reason why we still have Google adds - it doesn't cost a fortune to get free of that, but this must be (or not) a decision communally taken. Not something we 3 impose, obliging us to ask for a fee or including a donation button - that probably will be included in the future, if and when there is a common agreement to do that.

I prefer to discuss the "open source question" in another time and in a different post, even if some of you know that I am in favor of Open Source, as some (very) old posts in the Archives can prove. But I am in favor of Open Source Software, as in favor of non copyrighted material, in a generally, and non fundamentalist, way.

Let me also thank Holger for his support and interesting contributions. Some app that would summarize OSLIST post in the NING (and also, translate to English, and post to the OSLIST, discussions in different languages held in the NING) would be interesting features to add in the future.

Now some number:

We have in this moment 98 members at the NING, and 16 groups. From those 16 rgoups, 6 have a language purpose (Portuguese, Swedish, German, Netherlands, Spanish and Greek), 5 have regional spanning (Taiwan, UK, Canada, South East Asia, and California) and the others are thematic groups, one of which "Caring for this online Community", is probably the correct place to post some matters that are in discussion here.

Warm regards to all of you

Artur 

-------------------- --- On Mon, 11/16/09, Lisa Heft <lisaheft at openingspace.net> wrote:
Artur Silva (Portugal), Shufang Tsai (Taiwan) and Lisa Heft (USA)welcome you to join us at the:
Open Space World Community Ning siteA gathering place for sharing, learning, resources and community.
-- create and host or join a regional group in your own language-- see the photos of members - including your wonderful OSLIST colleagues-- post links to photos, videos, tweets or blogs-- create calendar listings for your events-- post and share resources-- create or join a theme-based group about whatever you would like!-- engage in live chat.
This co-created Ning web portal for all things Open Space is a compliment to the rich and welcoming dialogue of OSLIST and all our web-based resources such as openspaceworld.org    It is free.Come and co-create.The seedling has sprouted - let us grow this lovely learning tree.Jump right on - sign in - create your own page and begin.

(It is new...in its Beta stage...we are still trying out design and functions...come visit us there, enjoy using it, share any ideas for improvement you may recommend...there is even a 'Caring for this Online Community' Group you can join...and if anything does not work smoothly we will all learn and share how to fix it...)

Do join us in this nutritious and diverse community meeting place.
http://openspaceworld.ning.com
We will continue our rich and vibrant dialogues here on OSLIST, and we will see you also in the Open Space World Community Ning site...
Artur, Shufang and Lisa






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