Re: ~e; need for a particular kind of program

[brian carroll <human@electronetwork.org>]

  thanks Jeremy for suggesting drupal. I went to the website
  and downloaded the software to take a further look. a main
  curiosity for me is how it may be integrated or re-establish
  a website around a different organization, group participation,
  and what that might be and entail. ideally, I prefer to open-up
  the website to a group of developers so those who are more
  facile can implement these systems after some basic planning
  about what the ideal outcomes would be. should it consist of
  a group blog, a P2P data-sharing of files and papers on EM
  (the icon reminds me of napster, btw, so thought of this). one
  assumption I have is that before major changes take place a
  commitment from a core group is needed to move things on,
  as my resources and energies are at their limit, thus I could
  devote time to content develop solely and not things others
  are much better at, including website development but also
  how to approach and relate what is going on in various places
  with one another. one preference I have is to keep things very
  simple until then, that is, outside of php/mySQL structures so
  that any migrations of content can be done and efforts will be
  focused. the domain itself will gladly be made public-domain,
  and my e-mail account can move off the domain to another
  or be one of dozens of those who work on the site's content.
  it is envisioning what may work and what the goals may be
  that are central questions at this point. basically, also, what
  is becoming clearer is data-formats and web-archives are
  in need of some uniformity of 'readability' beyond their stays
  online. thus, my post was trying to reference what may be a
  stop-gap from using php/mySQL with today's systems until
  a unified, archivable, indexed, and retrievable database-like
  system exists for both offline/PC development and the online
  content, that one can burn a CD and everything is able to be
  accessed again.... I do not know how to better explain this
  idea without graphic-diagrams yet it seems that future OS'
  are going to be database-driven so it may be that this could
  influence how online/offline data is shared/archived/created.

  some ideas that interest me are:

  x group blog
  x links in sectors/academic disciplines and subjects
  x P2P exchange of papers, .pdfs,
  x educational area for learning, compiling tutorials and
  x arts section which brings together digital, net, computer, others
  x articles from existing magazines
  x contacts of people doing the work, to facilitate collaboration and
  opportunities for grants and research
  x a listing of institutions with programs that go deeper into the
  various subject matters, like computer museums, collections,
  industrial artifacts (old linear accelerators to visit on a tour)
  x analyses from various perspectives of a given event,
  yet with focus on the electromagnetic foundation or relation
  or questioning of it or debunking it or whatnot, in disciplines.
  x schools that support interdisciplinary EM research & development
  x public information, no copyright or creative commons to copyright-
  fair-use yet cross-pollination of materials from many sectors, to
  relate diverse content and ideas
  x documentation of what is going on today that otherwise
  is undocumented or undocumentable in relation to EM-
  meaning, it is not conceived as such, as of yet.
  x wiki for electromagnetism (cultural)

  these are just some ideas, yet they are also beyond my
  individual skill level and may or may not interest others.
  what is important to me is to learn of what may interest
  others, what is missing (a lot) now and how it may be
  built, and how to assemble a group of people to do so,
  though with a network of relations, no central board of
  control and even autonomous sectors that could be in
  some way linked from the main site, into subdomains.
  this would require resources and new approaches to
  using existing software to transform the project, yet it
  also will take additional people and a redefinition of
  the site for a networked group of individuals who are
  researching and developing the ideas. one part could
  be developed by students within a class, as a module,
  and then is evergreen content (not changing) whereas
  others may be more dynamic, either software based
  (as a contacts database) or based on communications
  (blogs, criticism, sharing of ideas, papers). much of it
  already exists in a decentralized state today, it seems.
  yet to bring it together would require cooperation and
  a small group of people willing to experiment with it,
  even if it is not perfect, nor fits into existing structures
  always easily, or if the imperfections are liabilities and
  need to be addressed first. all of this is open to change
  and there are many many amazing transformations
  now going on that are missing this electromagnetic
  context, and it is believe that placing diverse events
  in relation to one another may offer a perspective to
  go beyond current (disciplinary) limitations, to share
  ideas, and make some wilderness for self-learning
  and sharing and trying to keep a publicness online,
  in terms of ideas. a pre-requisite as I see it is to get
  away from the idea of one person who runs a site,
  and open up the domain as a place for developing
  ideas, divergent yet in a common context. without
  one person (views/skills/time) limiting possibilities.

  ideally, then, if electronetwork.org was a page of
  modules to various approaches that are contained
  in an autonomous network, and linked on or off-
  site (like the webring idea with more consistent
  navigation and basic graphics) - a network of ideas
  may be shared without the burdens of the private
  web (and issues of resources, ownership). until a
  change happens much will remain the way it is in
  terms of design and increased content. with more
  participation, I would love to be creating content,
  writing about a recent exhibit in terms of research
  and what was gleaned about a complex situation
  many have written of before and to contribute ideas
  from an electromagnetic perspective on these, to
  document via photographs deconstructing many
  electronic devices as a tutorial in learning more
  about how things work and electronics, though
  priorities now are mainly private and the public
  nature or aims or goals of the project will need
  to find a way to get more people involved in the
  long-term development, and opening it up to a
  shared space, long-term and medium-term plans
  so that some structure can begin a transformation
  from what exists to a much more inclusive place.
  brian


jeremy hunsinger wrote:

> I suggest drupal, www.drupal.org, it does nearly everything you 
> describe, uses php/mysql and does many interesting things with 
> knowledge investigating.

  the electromagnetic internetwork-list
  electromagnetism / infrastructure / civilization
  archives.openflows.org/electronetwork-l
  http://www.electronetwork.org/list/