Here's a great quote from George Mokray on Electric
Minds which gives some insight as to what they're
going through right now:
Topic 6: History of the Electric Minds Community
��� #342 of 342: gmoke (gmoke) Wed 11 Jun '97 (02:17 PM)
Here's an article I published in my weekly
listserv/webpage this week.� It will be up at
http://world.std.com/~gmoke/AList.html until Sunday
and then archived at
http://world.std.com/~gmoke/AList.June697.html
for the next few months.�
I hope what it shows is that there are many other
examples of online/offline/cyberandmeatspace attempts
at community.� And all of them need help.� "The only
war is the war against imagination."� Diane Di Prima
from "Rant"
I've also posted this in the gift economies topic in
the Wealth of Networks conference.� It has been more
than interesting watching this dispersed diverse group
of people try to support their meeting place. It has
been just as interesting watching the volunteers of
Virtually Wired try to support their labor of love and
access.� You get back what you put in, sometimes
ten-fold, sometimes not at all.� You put in out of the
goodness of your heart and the reflection of your
interests.� That's how you build one kind of
community.�
Howard and his business partners have to decide what
kind of help and support they can use from the group of
people who are committed to using EMinds.� We of EMinds
have to decide what kind of support we can give.
Here's what I wrote in my own venue:�
The Begging Bowl
I've been participating in Howard Rheingold's Electric
Minds (
http://www.minds.com), a virtual community
webconferencing system, since it began around the
beginning of the year. One of the conversations I've
enjoyed the most is the one in the Wealth of Networks
conference on the topic of gift economies. Anna Percy
from Waitakere NZ, who I know from the Ecocity Listserv
(
ECOCITY@SEGATE.SUNET.SE) that UN University in Tokyo
publishes, also takes part in the Electric Minds
discussion. It is exciting to be working on the same
problems - systemic
ecological/economic/sociopolitical/personal delusions
of restorative possibility - internationally
networked, city by city, neighborhood by neighborhood,
together. How strange to recognize someone from the
other side of the world this way and trade words and
ideas so easily.
Within the last few weeks, Electric Minds has lost
most of its initial investors and stopped paying hosts
and for new articles. EMinds is still keeping its
conferencing system going. Is half a year a long enough
time to build an international Web community? Is it an
example of a gift economy since it doesn't charge a fee
to join? Will it survive?
Here in Boston, Virtually Wired (
http://www.vw.org)
faces a cash-flow crisis and necessary restructuring
after two years of affordable public Internet access
and training. We take in about $2000 per month from
that and on average over $600 per month from contract
job-training projects. However, it takes 30-90 days
to receive payment some of these contracts and we
don't have enough operating capital to make up the
balance in the interim. VW also faces the uncertainties
of a new landlord. In response to these difficulties,
the volunteers are refocusing our services and systems.
VW, like EMinds, can use all the help it can get. Will
Virtually Wired survive?
I've been doing "A List..." since November 1994. There
are about 250 subscribers to the listserv, grown from
the original 150 or so. I have never bothered to find
out exactly how many hits my page is getting. I ask
this world-wide self-selected interest group for
contributions in the Begging Bowl section each week:
"A List..." is a freeware/shareware publication. If
the information is of any value to you, please
contribute - money, information, encouragement, prayers
and good wishes are all valid currencies for feedback
and will be gratefully appreciated..."
First year I received $448 from 12 people. Just paid
for my Net service ($440 annually). Second year the
budget was $630 from 15 people. This year so far I've
received $407 from 13 people.� Circulation has grown
from 150 to 250. About 5% of the people who receive "A
List..." are contributing monetarily. Maybe another
5% send me information and acknowledged support. Thank
you all for reading. Will "A List..." survive?
Will these ventures ever become "profitable?" Or have
they been profitable from their first moments as
thought experiments?
Thanks George for letting us reprint this!