[Sigia-l] The Menace (exotic rant mix)

[javier velasco]

Hi there:

I know what Derek is talking about, in fact one of my all time favorite
songs talks about the same issue, peter grabriel presents in in his live
album by explaining: "
It's to do with groups of people who make
themselves into smaller groups of people in order to feel strong by
excluding others. This is for those people on the outside and it's
called Not One Of Us."

-slight deviation-
this might seem completely unrelated or even off-topic. But since our
job involves careful use of labels...

Declaring that "I am American" is a strong example of this segregation,
let me explain

In rigorous terms, America is a huge continent, and by calling your
country 'America' you are systematically ingoring and excluding more
than 30 countries and cultures (most of which are more valuable than the
consumer culture). Imagine that the Germans started calling their
country Europe, or China asked to be called Asia, simple as that.

Anyone thought about that?
-out goes my David (vs Goliath) suit -

However, i don't think AIfIA is another case of this kind of
segregation.

I have joined them because I think that we all can grow by participating
in these organizations. At least I have. I know building them costs lots
of sweat and sacrifice in personal life.

Regarding the desire to create an official entity, I think it's a valid
point. In my country the web market has not yet acknowledged the need
and value of our role as IAs, yet my local colleagues (less than a
handfull) and I are playing with the same idea as a way to help this
blind market realize why their websites fail systematically.

If you're still reading, let me play Sherlock Holmes for a minute... 

Lou dived deep into the details into evolt.org a bit more than a year
ago, and got excited with the idea of a community organized by
hierarchical levels defined by participation. Then his colleagues read
the case study he later published in the book, they also turned the same
bulb on.

Then they got together and they all got crazy with the plan and started
doing things as quick as possible. Once they had a certain base - after
some months - they called for more people and invited to help shape the
new group. 

I was personally puzzled when I read the lead to the join form that
declared that by joining before the end of the year, I would become a
'charter member'. I channeled my doubts in the AIfIA contact form "how
am I supposed to be a charter member since you've already been working
on the project for longs months and have already defined the
objectives?", and got a reply from Christina that I did have a good
point (it's something that we could discuss on the AIfIA list)

In the subscribers list they have continually asked for active
participation, to help shape the thing, and you can feel that many
things are not clearly settled yet - it has also been stated that such
list is only for community organization exclusively and not a
replacement of this one.

So my opinion is that they could have made a mistake by starting the
thing as a closed group and not starting it with the people who joined
after an open invitation (as evolt.org was started). On the other hand,
I know that smaller groups are more efficient, and with a larger group
it's much harder to achieve some key steps like obtaining an official
NFP status. But I won't accuse foul intentions beforehand.

So Derek (and others as well), so if you don't like the way things are
being run, change them from the inside. If you work hard enough you will
gain peer support and will be able to push for changes - even win an
eventual election - you can call me naive but I'm not stupid, and if
things end up in the way you anticipate I will be there to give the
fight, and not let abuse prevail. If I still loose, I will leave and
take charge to spread the word of how obscure they are, but right now I
have faith in the effort and want to help turn it into a great
collaborative effort. Time will tell is this "sea-asylum" is really an
open place or another case of 'not one of us': 

"you may look like we do, talk like we do. 
But you know how it is: you're not one of us"

Those are my 2 chilean pesos
javier velasco