There are a lot more pieces of the project we expect to develop, but we’ve got a pretty good start. Here is an invitation and review of what we’re doing, as found on the “Join Us” page — http://collaborativealliance.us/join.cfm

The Collaborative Alliance is a gathering — a gathering of insights, people, experiences, skills, techniques, tools, visions, hopes — and magic…

This project began as a survey, as we undertook to discover what is going on in the world of community organizing. We started by developing a series of detailed questions, intended to illuminate what is happening in the field today, and to reveal ways that we can more effectively work together.

Now, only a couple of weeks later, the project is emerging on its own web site, in a different sort of framework — but many elements of this site continue to retain the original spirit of inquiry and discovery.

We are asking…

What are you doing? Who are you working with? What do you hope to do? What is your dream or vision? What tools are you using? What principles and purposes guide your work? What are you learning? What works for you?

These are things we want to know. We are building this project because we are hoping you will tell us — and because we want to connect you with others interested in partnering with you.

We’re identifying commonalities, surveying existing tools and methods, locating potential partners and projects, and building a big picture of social change activism at local and global scales. And we’re working together to develop solutions to some of the most challenging problems in the world today.

If you are working in these areas and want to collaborate, or if you are simply interested in what is emerging and want to contribute in some way, you belong here.

We might simply say — that we are “building a community of community-builders” — and we want to start by finding out who you are and what you’re doing. We think our “matrix” framework will help connect people working in common areas — that we can learn from each other, that we can explore solutions to common problems, that we can all become stronger, at all levels, local, regional, global….

Many thanks,
– Bruce Schuman, Santa Barbara CA USA

Hi Kendra-

I do believe it was meant to be public for a purposeful community – and you are exactly the type of person to join! Glad you did and look forward to more.

I am not sure if the Collaborative Alliance is public. I have been engaged with Amy’s discussion here, so I joined the Alliance to continue the exploration and excitement. If your project was meant to be private, let me know. It is wonderful that you created a gathering ground for the ideas to come alive. Kudos for taking the time and initiative to create the Collaborative Alliance. Exciting!

I have put more time into that framework — it’s starting to have something (??) like a coherent design and style, and there’s a java “flyout” menu in there now for signed-in people that should open lots of possibilities for complex navigation through a tidy interface.

This site really is an attempt to combine a kind of broad “survey” of community/neighborhood organizing (asking lots of questions) with a suite of collaboration possibilities that are created when people click similar kinds of responses. So, the site is partly “research” into what is going on — and partly a format to “apply” the connections that emerge.

The “Join Us” feature does work now, as does most everything else. There’s a lot of growing to do, however — I want to keep pulling in more relevant issues and concepts and questions and categories — while trying to keep the whole thing neat and easy on the eye…

Thanks for your response, Amy. If you have the time and the inclination, your thoughts and suggestions on this new project would be most welcome and valuable. That goes for anyone else here, as well.

http://collaborativealliance.us

– Bruce Schuman, Santa Barbara CA USA

Thanks for sharing the links and some context about “Collaborative Alliance” Bruce! I’m reading through it now. I see blog posts about a very diverse topic set – is there a specific direction for the space yet?

This is quite exciting for sure. Looking forward to it building momentum and seeing what other readers think!

Thanks again

This is all so exciting, and kind of amazing.

But keeping this simple — I think the message I posted here, and to which you responded, just kind of led to the next step — which was imagineering a new domain domain, and getting that domain, and putting a new project into that framework…

So — let me just say — that we have a start on something.

I haven’t even formally announced this project to the group that conceived it — so, you can see how fast this is all moving. But the project exists, it has a framework — and the pieces are starting to work.

The “Join Us” feature does not work yet — but there is a behind-the-scenes password that will get you in. Maybe you and I can connect privately. I have felt since I saw what you were doing that you are a “natural” for this space. I think you could bring a lot to what we are doing…

So

This new project — less than One day old as I write this — is http://collaborativealliance.us

Collaborative Alliance for Neighborhoods and Community

I probably would have got the .net extension, but it was not available. “.us” — might mean “USA” — but I want it to mean “us” — as in “we” — the collective…

Take a look at that place for a minute. It’s just a raw beginning — but once you get signed in — there are a lot of things that do work — and it will grow to contain just about everything people can bring to it.

It’s exciting, and I hope to see you there.

http://collaborativealliance.us

With appreciation —

Bruce Schuman, Santa Barbara CA USA

Hi Bruce-

Thanks for continuing the conversation here!

I’m really interested in the collaboration project you mention and wonder if you can give any details about where/how/who – and also how other readers interested in learning more can do so, or get involved.

I think that your sense that the community at large is looking for something that pulls resources and people together is underlying my post and everyone else’s comments here – we are ready for something, now we just need that “something” 🙂

Thanks so much for responding, Amy. I do continue to feel that this is a very timely topic. So much in the air — so many things that need a web of enthusiastic and idealistic programmers and designers and integrators looking for ways to get the pieces to work together better…

Just kind of shooting from the hip — I just feel like mentioning — that a few of us have been working on some kind of programming/organizer collaboration — not exactly clear what it is about yet, because we see the possibilities in many different ways — but there is something about pulling all these fantastic options into one integrated framework — so at least we begin to get a sense of the larger picture…

I got the feeling — that we are actually going to build this kind of framework. Maybe a little raw — but it might be a way to gather up a whole bunch of stuff. What I would like to do, or see happen — would be the emergence of a network of activists and developers working on “community” kinds of projects — non-profit agencies, anybody working on building better connections in society — plus a big network of coders and programmers and computer-people, who have their fingers on some hot or interesting new aspect or piece of the puzzle.

There is such a hunger among people for better ways to work together. The possibilities seem fantastic. But we are still somewhat trapped in the programming Tower of Babel — too many systems and languages that don’t talk to each other (very well) — and as Sarah suggested above, too often confined in the rigid categories of some pre-fabricated corporate-controlled framework.

“If it doesn’t sell to a big market, why build it???”

Here’s a little quote from James Calder (above), that illustrates one of my ignorant questions about open source…

The most common problem I have when using open source tools is that, for lack of a more precise explanation, they often “almost” work. For example, its not necessarily that I’m always looking for plugins that don’t exist, but instead I spend a fair amount of time getting plugins to work properly, display exactly how I want them to, have the proper configuration for my site, etc.

I can’t speak directly from experience — but as a system builder, it often seems to me that “system integrity” is simply essential. Tiny inconsistencies in definition or connectivity between parts — just cause the system to fail. So, I have tended to suppose that complex systems need a demanding kind of architectural supervision to maintain this integrity. I am just guessing — but I tend to suspect that a series of even the most well-intended and skillful programming elements developed independently — might be pretty difficult to pull together. Open source, too, seems to have its “Babel” issues.

My little thought for this afternoon is — maybe a simple but broadly conceived kind of “gathering” process could begin to pull many of these critical elements together — while forging and refining an underlying “philosophy of community” that can guide the entire project, and attract skilled and excited people from everywhere.

I’m just sensing a hunger for this — and maybe the capacity to help it emerge…

Hi Bruce-

First off – sorry to have missed your message; though, I searched in my email and don’t see anything from you (can you resend?).

Serendipity is quite cool! Thanks so much for following down the rabbit hole and joining the conversation here.

I really appreciate you sharing your experience and personal approach to the issue; especially your list at the end of your comment of key elements that should be part of/guide how we work together. I’ve said before that I don’t necessarily think we need to do away with everything that isn’t open source, and I recognize the limits that open source has inherently for people with less access/resources/knowledge/experience – but I do think, along the same lines as you, that there are some core elements to creating better, more sustainable, more community-focused tools that will help us achieve what we want to without investing in tools that disappear, wasting time on platforms we can’t control, and so on.

I hear you that this is a big can of worms and I’m looking forward to having more of the conversation with you.

Thanks again for joining in