A Better Means of Organizing

[wizardwatson]

Well, Google Wave died. I had, a while back, posted a thread about whether or not it could be a good candidate as an organizational tool. However, Google Wave has been dropped by Google and it didn't "really" do what I wanted anyway.

There's another tool out there now that may have a lot of potential in the area of "actually organizing". The tool is at:

www.bettermeans.com

I read the primary documents:

The Open Enterprise Manifesto: http://bettermeans.org/front/learn-more/open-enterprise-manifesto/

The Open Enterprise Governance Model: https://secure.bettermeans.com/front/open_enterprise_governance_model.html

...and started a "Liberty Coalition" workstream:

https://secure.bettermeans.com/projects/1231

Synopsis: Basically its a tool that would allow you to run your organization in a decentralized fashion complete with project management, wiki tools, document storage, voting, motioning, financial management, volunteer management, idea submission, and other features. Also allows non-company members to vote, participate and contribute without being full fledged "members".

The reason I think this tool deserves attention around here is that there have been a few "projects" that people have tried to launched/tried to launch.... i.e. Gunny's website idea , Operation Catherder as well as some thread ideas I posted.....that I think could be greatly helped by this tool. More to the point though, is that this model could compete, or ideally (key word "ideally" as in won't happen in real world), be adopted by CFL.

So what do you guys think? Any questions from those who didn't/don't want to read the (quite long) documents? I read them and could answer probably.

EDIT: Started a workstream to act as a kind of information hub for liberty related workstreams. Below is from post#31 on this thread.


I've started a project workstream called "Liberty Coalition".

https://secure.bettermeans.com/projects/1231

Plan is to get a few other people who are online consistently to be admins/members/core team. Admins can invite the initial members directly (no need for nomination/voting intially). Initially I think a core team of say 4 admins, 6 core team members and maybe 15 to 20 standard members. The admins have to invite people initially as there is no way to vote/nominate contributors to membership status since there are no members to vote.

I say people who are online "consistently" because we need people at the very least to visit the site a couple times a day and vote on stuff. If everyone gets signed up as a member directly but they're online rarely won't do anyone any good. So initially we need people who are not necessarily "overly enthusiastic" just people who are interested enough to help get plans inputted or at the very least vote on others ideas/plans.

I'm online consistently from 8:30 to 5:30 so I can invite people as members if you want to actually work on "work items". Anyone can enter items, but only members can "start" an item and put it into the "in progress" status so that regular contributors can join that work item and help with it.

Once we've outlined a mission statement (we can do that work within the system itself along with everything else, and we don't "have" to start with this, get in there and vote if you want to do something else, that's the beauty) and got our core structures in place (who's on the board, who are permanent admins, who the core team and initial members will be, and have a nice list of say 50 "work items" that people can contribute to, then we do some marketing to other "liberty" based organizations to see if they want to join our workstream, or start their own and the "Liberty Coalition" can wiki all the other liberty related streams. We don't want the main stream to get cluttered with everyone's varied ideas. For instance we may want substreams for things like "video editing projects". Or separate streams entirely for organizations/collaborations that are already relatively large.

Also, if anyone wants to message me directly you can PM directly here at RPF, or you can GChat me. I'm wizardwatson on GChat and in GMail.

Where to start with this?

1. Start "discussion" (forum posts @ the site) items if you have general questions or if you want an invite.
2. Enter work items (ideas plans) that you think need to be done to help advance liberty.
3. Learn the system and read the core documents (Open Enterprise Manifesto and Open Enterprise Governance Model) the learning curve is kind of steep (imo) and knowledgeable users is what we need at the beginning.

[hazek]

Wow!

People check this out because it's just pure awesomeness! This is exactly what we need for a successful bottom up campaign!

[hazek]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAlnMWlvw9g

[hazek]

I already set up an account :cool:

[dntrpltt]

Bump

[wizardwatson]

I already set up an account :cool:

Yeah, me too. I think its rad that the company itself is ran via the online system, and you can join in and comment on items that the staff at Better Means are working on. How's that for transparency! One of the obstacles to people running with something like this is the learning curve. It's a little steep. But the tools they've put together leave little to be desired. I like it so far.

[BuddyRey]

Nice!

Tweeted to all my RP/liberty friends. In 2008, Meetup.com bumped the campaign up to the next level of grassroots efficiency. Now a lot of folks are using that, so we need to stay ahead of the curve. ;-)

[amy31416]

That's a pretty interesting platform. Thanks WizardWatson.

[Matt Collins]

After watching that video I'm sold on it!
This of course assumes that their platform is indeed stable and reliable.


I could see this replacing the Meetups, but I think the Campaign would have to link to it from their page in order for it to work.


The only problem is that it's expensive. It would be nearly $100k to run it for the entire campaign where almost every state would get one. On the other hand the Ron Paul campaign gave Meetup a ton of attention back in 2008 so perhaps BetterMeans would be willing to give deep discounts to the Ron Paul campaign this time around.

[hazek]

It's free unless you want your business to be private.

[Ethek]

I've made a couple of workstreams, one for the liberty non-profit I am on the board of and a personal interest stream for knowledge management.

[Travlyr]

Nice Find!

[UtahApocalypse]

***drool***

WOW!! This look incredible!! I got an account so if anyone starts any public workstreams post them here. We should get the word out about this tool

[Deborah K]

I believe this is the answer we needed for Liberty Victory Plan 2012!

[nayjevin]

made one: https://secure.bettermeans.com/projects/1223

[BuddyRey]

We'll all have our fingers on the button when Ron Paul announces, and I can't wait to see all the spontaneous net-organizing innovations in the coming months.

[hazek]

bumb

[wizardwatson]

After watching that video I'm sold on it!
This of course assumes that their platform is indeed stable and reliable.


I could see this replacing the Meetups, but I think the Campaign would have to link to it from their page in order for it to work.


The only problem is that it's expensive. It would be nearly $100k to run it for the entire campaign where almost every state would get one. On the other hand the Ron Paul campaign gave Meetup a ton of attention back in 2008 so perhaps BetterMeans would be willing to give deep discounts to the Ron Paul campaign this time around.


It's free unless you want your business to be private.

Collins, yeah I was going to say, unless you need private workstreams you don't have to pay anything at the moment anyway.

[wizardwatson]

I've made a couple of workstreams, one for the liberty non-profit I am on the board of and a personal interest stream for knowledge management.


made one: https://secure.bettermeans.com/projects/1223

woh woh woh people... lol

You're all way ahead of me. Shouldn't we have like an exploratory few people to dive in and test it, say 5 to 10 people. Try it out see how it works. Play around with some test workstreams, and then after we've have understood it, we create a bunch of work items under the primary workstream and 'then' tell everyone to come join. We don't want 1000 people flocking to it unless there's work items inputted for them to do. First test, then create work items, then divide up the labor between the core team and initial members. When the core team and members know what 'they' are doing then we market to outside liberty groups en masse.

What do you think?

For instance there's a substream feature, and I'm thinking that would be great for the 50 states. But I'm still investigating.

[Travlyr]

What do you think?

Lulz... are you trying to herd a bunch of cats? ;)

[wizardwatson]

Lulz... are you trying to herd a bunch of cats? ;)

I'm just trying to reason with them, as one cat to another.

[Travlyr]

I'm just trying to reason with them, as one cat to another.

I agree with you. If we can get focused, then we'll accomplish more. Keep us posted on the progress.

[hazek]

then divide up the labor between the core team and initial members.

What do you think?

I think you miss the entire point of this platform which is voluntary participation! There is no dividing of work it's voluntary. Anyone can do anything they want. Why prohibit that?

[hazek]

Look wizardwatson. If the website is good and if it's a reliable platform that will serve our needs the market will decided. If it is will people will flock to it and if it isn't people wont.

And as people flock to it which IMO they will because IMO it's a great platform from the first feel they can start workstreams and people vote again which will be done and which wont so there's no danger of too many people coming in too fast.

[Travlyr]

I think you miss the entire point of this platform which is voluntary participation! There is no dividing of work it's voluntary. Anyone can do anything they want. Why prohibit that?

Focus! Liberty has a common enemy. If we would all focus, "Focus Like A Laser Beam" on ending the central bank's control over us, then we would all be able to swiftly move toward a peaceful, prosperous, free society without the chains of a master. Keep us posted on the progress of those using this platform.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoHMJC3KflM&feature=player_embedded#

[Matt Collins]

Collins, yeah I was going to say, unless you need private workstreams you don't have to pay anything at the moment anyway.
Yeah this stuff needs to be private. We don't want the opposition knowing what the hell we are up to.

[hazek]

Yeah this stuff needs to be private. We don't want the opposition knowing what the hell we are up to.

Were any of the things in 2007/08 that were grassroots organized private? I mean I don't know of any.

[jmdrake]

Yeah this stuff needs to be private. We don't want the opposition knowing what the hell we are up to.

1) Not everything needs to be private. If you recall the Anita Andrews training, she said folks like us often get what needs to be private backwards. We put the strategy out in public and hide the details. The strategy is what needs to be private. The details should be public. We aren't hurt, for example, if our "opposition" knows that we have 20 gun shows lined up. We're hurt if our own supporters DON'T know that. However we don't need the opposition knowing what I overall strategy is to reach gun owners (or fill-in-the-blank constituency).

2) There are other (free) means for securely communicating privately. Here's one written by a RPF member.

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?271303-Decentralized-Social-Network


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRLUVbkrqB8

[jmdrake]

Wizardwatson, I thank you for being innovative. Here is some irony for you. There is another tool created by a RPF member to do free secure private collaboration (the part that you have to pay for at BetterWay). I looked at his thread and saw he was seeking funding to really get this thing off the ground.

See: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?271303-Decentralized-Social-Network

That got me thinking about ripplepay. I had forgotten that you were the one who introduced me to the concept.

(For others see: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?256615-Is-there-a-strategy-that-can-move-us-forward&p=2849322&viewfull=1#post2849322 )

So I guess good ideas go full circle. :)


Well, Google Wave died. I had, a while back, posted a thread about whether or not it could be a good candidate as an organizational tool. However, Google Wave has been dropped by Google and it didn't "really" do what I wanted anyway.

There's another tool out there now that may have a lot of potential in the area of "actually organizing". The tool is at:

www.bettermeans.com

I read the primary documents:

The Open Enterprise Manifesto: http://bettermeans.org/front/learn-more/open-enterprise-manifesto/

The Open Enterprise Governance Model: https://secure.bettermeans.com/front/open_enterprise_governance_model.html

Synopsis: Basically its a tool that would allow you to run your organization in a decentralized fashion complete with project management, wiki tools, document storage, voting, motioning, financial management, volunteer management, idea submission, and other features. Also allows non-company members to vote, participate and contribute without being full fledged "members".

The reason I think this tool deserves attention around here is that there have been a few "projects" that people have tried to launched/tried to launch.... i.e. Gunny's website idea , Operation Catherder as well as some thread ideas I posted.....that I think could be greatly helped by this tool. More to the point though, is that this model could compete, or ideally (key word "ideally" as in won't happen in real world), be adopted by CFL.

So what do you guys think? Any questions from those who didn't/don't want to read the (quite long) documents? I read them and could answer probably.

[Deborah K]

Focus! Liberty has a common enemy. If we would all focus, "Focus Like A Laser Beam" on ending the central bank's control over us, then we would all be able to swiftly move toward a peaceful, prosperous, free society without the chains of a master. Keep us posted on the progress of those using this platform.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoHMJC3KflM&feature=player_embedded#

I miss Aaron so much. http://i42.tinypic.com/2zxsh1v.jpg

[wizardwatson]

I've started a project workstream called "Liberty Coalition".

https://secure.bettermeans.com/projects/1231

Plan is to get a few other people who are online consistently to be admins/members/core team. Admins can invite the initial members directly (no need for nomination/voting intially). Initially I think a core team of say 4 admins, 6 core team members and maybe 15 to 20 standard members. The admins have to invite people initially as there is no way to vote/nominate contributors to membership status since there are no members to vote.

I say people who are online "consistently" because we need people at the very least to visit the site a couple times a day and vote on stuff. If everyone gets signed up as a member directly but they're online rarely won't do anyone any good. So initially we need people who are not necessarily "overly enthusiastic" just people who are interested enough to help get plans inputted or at the very least vote on others ideas/plans.

I'm online consistently from 8:30 to 5:30 so I can invite people as members if you want to actually work on "work items". Anyone can enter items, but only members can "start" an item and put it into the "in progress" status so that regular contributors can join that work item and help with it.

Once we've outlined a mission statement (we can do that work within the system itself along with everything else, and we don't "have" to start with this, get in there and vote if you want to do something else, that's the beauty) and got our core structures in place (who's on the board, who are permanent admins, who the core team and initial members will be, and have a nice list of say 50 "work items" that people can contribute to, then we do some marketing to other "liberty" based organizations to see if they want to join our workstream, or start their own and the "Liberty Coalition" can wiki all the other liberty related streams. We don't want the main stream to get cluttered with everyone's varied ideas. For instance we may want substreams for things like "video editing projects". Or separate streams entirely for organizations/collaborations that are already relatively large.

Also, if anyone wants to message me directly you can PM directly here at RPF, or you can GChat me. I'm wizardwatson on GChat and in GMail.

Where to start with this?

1. Start "discussion" (forum posts @ the site) items if you have general questions or if you want an invite.
2. Enter work items (ideas plans) that you think need to be done to help advance liberty.
3. Learn the system and read the core documents (Open Enterprise Manifesto and Open Enterprise Governance Model) the learning curve is kind of steep (imo) and knowledgeable users is what we need at the beginning.

[wizardwatson]

Wizardwatson, I thank you for being innovative. Here is some irony for you. There is another tool created by a RPF member to do free secure private collaboration (the part that you have to pay for at BetterWay). I looked at his thread and saw he was seeking funding to really get this thing off the ground.

See: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?271303-Decentralized-Social-Network

That got me thinking about ripplepay. I had forgotten that you were the one who introduced me to the concept.

(For others see: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?256615-Is-there-a-strategy-that-can-move-us-forward&p=2849322&viewfull=1#post2849322 )

So I guess good ideas go full circle. :)

Thanks, yeah, RipplePay was mentioned by me, and also Google Wave. The original thread on google wave has 76 members now, but I don't think but maybe a few are actively posting to the wave. Hopefully interest for this Better Means thing grows even more, as its much more polished than Google Wave. Something like it (and currently it is the only thing I've seen like it) has the potential to be a cornerstone technology of the movement, imo.

My main gripe is there's no internal messaging. So you'd have to convo in their not so great discussion forum in place of messaging. It'd be nice if everyone (I'll motion when there's enough people) to use GChat or at least share emails. At least the core team and admins anyway. We'll see though, need more people convinced and willing to put time in this first.

[wizardwatson]

Another great feature of this site is the use of janrains login functionality. You don't need to create a new identity to be a member. You can log in with facebook, google, twitter, yahoo, openid, windows live.

And they use gravatar for your avatar.

[wizardwatson]

I think you miss the entire point of this platform which is voluntary participation! There is no dividing of work it's voluntary. Anyone can do anything they want. Why prohibit that?


Look wizardwatson. If the website is good and if it's a reliable platform that will serve our needs the market will decided. If it is will people will flock to it and if it isn't people wont.

And as people flock to it which IMO they will because IMO it's a great platform from the first feel they can start workstreams and people vote again which will be done and which wont so there's no danger of too many people coming in too fast.

Yeah, but you need the core structures in place first (read the Open Enterprise Governance Model document and the Open Enterprise Manifesto). The independent way in which people can contribute "is" the point I agree, but you need some core team members, perhaps a mission statement and some things for people to work on. You can't bootstrap an organization in this model right from the outset. Apart from the fact that its not recommended, without a core team and members you have no one who can "start" work items.

For instance, if I start a workstream myself, I'm the only one who has binding votes, so I'm the only one who can start work or even move items from the "new" to "open" queue. That's why I'm saying you need some members and a core team to start with, and perhaps a mission statement that outlines the scope of what the workstream is trying to accomplish. Without this people may "flock" to it, but you'll have multiple half-baked streams and nothing that ties them together.

So yeah, I grok the potential. I'm not trying to "control" anyone. Having an "order" to things doesn't imply control. I just think it'd be nice if we had a tidy functional workstream that people can volunteer in so that when they flock to it, they don't see 50 liberty related streams with an average of 3 users each and no activity.

[wizardwatson]

We'll all have our fingers on the button when Ron Paul announces, and I can't wait to see all the spontaneous net-organizing innovations in the coming months.

Well, hopefully, if he doesn't announce until April or something, people will check this platform out before that. I think if around 5 or 6 people learned this platform and were committed to using it everyday, it could grow into something extremely useful.

Really this platform is more than just a sophisticated task manager. It's really an organizational model in a box. The real product that Better Means is offering is their Open Enterprise Governance Model, which is under Creative Commons by the way. The grass roots movement could adopt this model and exist within the platform as separate work teams (Open Enterprises), where volunteers could help out any team they wished. What's even more mind-blowing to me is that if you want to improve the model, the Better Means company itself is just a collection of workstreams, so if you don't like something, or wish the platform had something more, you can suggest it, vote on it and join in on doing the work, and potentially get paid! Pretty cool.


I urge anyone really interested in this to read these two documents:

Open Enterprise Manifesto
http://bettermeans.org/front/learn-more/open-enterprise-manifesto/
Open Enterprise Governance Model
http://bettermeans.com/front/open_enterprise_governance_model.html

...as well as check out the how it works and features links from the top link bar on the website.

Good stuff people, good stuff...

[Travlyr]

Well, hopefully, if he doesn't announce until April or something, people will check this platform out before that. I think if around 5 or 6 people learned this platform and were committed to using it everyday, it could grow into something extremely useful.

Really this platform is more than just a sophisticated task manager. It's really an organizational model in a box. The real product that Better Means is offering is their Open Enterprise Governance Model, which is under Creative Commons by the way. The grass roots movement could adopt this model and exist within the platform as separate work teams (Open Enterprises), where volunteers could help out any team they wished. What's even more mind-blowing to me is that if you want to improve the model, the Better Means company itself is just a collection of workstreams, so if you don't like something, or wish the platform had something more, you can suggest it, vote on it and join in on doing the work, and potentially get paid! Pretty cool.


I urge anyone really interested in this to read these two documents:

Open Enterprise Manifesto
http://bettermeans.org/front/learn-more/open-enterprise-manifesto/
Open Enterprise Governance Model
http://bettermeans.com/front/open_enterprise_governance_model.html

...as well as check out the how it works and features links from the top link bar on the website.

Good stuff people, good stuff...

Do you see this tool as more of a way to "End The Fed", or to elect liberty oriented candidates to office?

[UtahApocalypse]

Do you see this tool as more of a way to "End The Fed", or to elect liberty oriented candidates to office?

It can be a tool to accomplish any grassroots project.

[Travlyr]

Cool. Has someone already started an "End The Fed" platform?

[wizardwatson]

Do you see this tool as more of a way to "End The Fed", or to elect liberty oriented candidates to office?

Well, that's the thing. It allows volunteers to get together and prioritize ideas and plans to achieve both those goals. It's not a panacea but I think this tool with its division of roles and responsibilities, its task management functionality, its voting/motioning functionality, and other features, fills an important need in the movement. It provides a means (its web-based platform) for an organization to exist online and actually get things done and decided on. It's order with minimal control. Rather than what we have now which is no control, but no order either.

[wizardwatson]

Cool. Has someone already started an "End The Fed" platform?

"End the Fed" could be its own substream under the Liberty Coalition stream I created. But right now I'm only putting in simple tasks and ideas in order to road test it. But feel free to add and contribute however you like.

[Travlyr]

"End the Fed" could be its own substream under the Liberty Coalition stream I created. But right now I'm only putting in simple tasks and ideas in order to road test it. But feel free to add and contribute however you like.

Okay, I'll see if I can figure out how to use it. After reading "End The Fed", "The Mystery of Banking", The Secret of the Federal Reserve", "Gold, Peace, and Prosperity", and "A Cross of Gold", I am convinced that people are enslaved by the debt monetary system, and we can earn much of our basic liberties back by simply using honest sound money. I plan on spending my free time working to accomplish that task first.

[wizardwatson]

Update: We currently have 8 people who have contributed, and have created 8 different issues. There has also been a motion to promote Aravoth to the core team which is likely to pass. People have also contributed to the wiki and discussion threads. Feel free to join if you want to help us road test it.

[newbitech]

Ok, I see two workstreams I am interested in. How do I join them? That should be one of the items on the list of things to do. That is, need to create a document explaining to people how to join and participate.

[wizardwatson]

Ok, I see two workstreams I am interested in. How do I join them? That should be one of the items on the list of things to do. That is, need to create a document explaining to people how to join and participate.

All you have to do to be a contributor is to log in and start creating work items and voting on work items. You can also post to discussion boards/wiki as well as "join" work items started by members. If you want to be a member on the Liberty Coalition workstream just let me know on the "Need an invite?" thread indicating as much and I'll promote you to member status which allows you to have binding votes as well as generate "motions", and also to "start" work items that are open rather than just joining already in progress items.

So just log in and create a "Document how to join a workstream" work item, then people can vote/comment on it.

EDIT: You might like it even more newbitech as its geared towards collaborative coding more than anything. And I remember you posted something about "open project collaboration model" or something like that in one of gunny's threads.

[JVParkour]

Hey, I just signed up and asked for member status! Looks very cool.

[PermanentSleep]

Just saw this and I love it. I plan on looking more into it this weekend. Helluva find.

[pookzta]

thank you for sharing this :)