[drn-discuss] Musings on an open knowledge movement

Thu Jun 2 08:57:21 PDT 2005

Tom Chance wrote:
> Ahoy,
> 
> After various discussions, culminating in a really good chat with Rufus last 
> night, I've put together a collection of thoughts on an "open knowledge 
> movement".
> 
> Have a read, distribute and comment away:
> http://tom.acrewoods.net/node/92

First off a big thank you for producing such a coherent and 
comprehensive analysis. There had been some discussion of similar issues 
back in February after the first Copyfighters event (I've just posted a 
long email i wrote during that discussion here: 
http://www.okfn.org/drn/node/57) but that thread never resolved on a 
plan of action. There's also the OKFN governance document that lays out 
a formal structure quite similar to what you suggest:

   http://www.okfn.org/governance.html

Like you I strongly believe that to make progress we can't simply wait 
for some well-funded central group to spring into existence to 
coordinate the current disparate activities (and this isn't the case in 
the US either for that matter: look at freeculture or downhillbattle). 
It is also important to preserve the autonomy and freedom of individual 
groups (at least those who want to remain that way).

At the same time, like you, I think it is *essential* that there be some 
kind of central system of coordination. An executive would also be 
useful though might be more controversial.

I think it is really interesting to see that this kind of setup has 
already been successfully done in the environmental movement in groups 
such as People and Planet. Thus there's no reason it can't be done here.

Regards,

Rufus