[-empyre-] Free Cooperation

[Trebor Scholz <treborscholz@earthlink.net>]

Hi Alan,

> politics-as-usual. This might be almost instinctual among humans, who
> jockey for territory in almost any situation. 

In the open source movement there is the recent idea of a tit-for-tat strategy: exchanges of effort, one gives a bit-- receives a bit (of code). Comparably in Jazz and Dance Improvisation actors look for the moves of the others and then sensibly introduce their contributions, leads are taken in turns and in a non-rivalous manner. Is competition really inevitably at the root of each collaboration? I have not really experienced it like that in the Discordia development and editors team or in this collaboration with Geert organizing "networks, art, & collaboration." At best collaborations are a playful sparking of each other. 

How do collaborations differ from the cooking pot of the Internet to face-to-face situations? Online and off there is the risk of involuntary altruism caused by the possibility of free-riders in the collective process. 

Online and off we should demand relationships in which we are free instead of forced or enslaved, situations in which we are independent and can negotiate and re-negotiate the rules. And if our "haggling" does not work out, we withdraw our effort or eventually withdraw from the collaboration.  Collaborations need to have incentives, not just risks.

Online and off, it needs a glue of collective action, a commonality of values, joint intention or goals that hold the group together. In both contexts all participants need to be responsible to the goal of the collaboration. 

And, I wonder how to best pass on to children that we don't have to be Robinson Crusoes.

Best, 
Trebor