flickr screenshot upload by inju

Yes, I happen to be Wiccan and I do write about that quite a bit here, but I also keep an eye on what’s going on in the world outside my subculture – because it very much impacts it. I would say that neopagans as a group are absolute early adopters and absolute late adopters. It all comes from a strange medley of “Age of Aquarius” thinking combined with imagining a “good old days” that precedes indoor toilets. The end result is the plugged in and the tuned out. Consequently a lot of our “old school” subculture ideas about collaborative community and self-directed creative living are starting to happen right now, and I suspect that it’s getting missed.

So I give you this collection of  links from various news/writing blogs I read, because the Internet, it’s a-changin’ once again:

Digital Sunlight: Publish 2′s platform for digital journalism.
“Our goal for Digital Sunlight is to enable the largest collaborative reporting effort in history, and to demonstrate that collaboration is essential to the future of journalism.” This allows the sources to be part of directing the story – truly a revolutionary approach, when done right. But I suspect that there may be an initiation phase for this project.

How Google stole control over content distribution.
This raises a question – is there any other search engine that people really bother using these days? I haven’t even looked at Alta Vista since discovering Google a decade ago.

Why releasing copyright will be the smartest thing you do.

Not directly related, but this gives me so much hope: Kid keeping library of banned books in locker.

MacRaven has a pointed quote up about copyfraud – say, those irritating spam blogs that ping you when they’ve linked to/stolen your content? Please note: when I promote collaboration, collaboration implies that you have something of your own to genuinely ad to the content.

Recent J-School grad cries to Salon columnist. This amused me, because of how out of touch it was on both sides. After struggling post grad-school, having parents help me in any way and making a little here and there for a freelance gig is pretty darned good immediately post-college.

And another impressively disturbing bit of news from MacRaven: Judge thinks linking to copyrighted material should be illegal.

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Back in January I went to a lecture where LOLCats was pointed to as the next phase in artistic creation. Copyright-free images of cats are paired with text that some other Internet smartass can concoct, and many lulz are had. It’s funny, it’s trivial…it’s one of the most popular sites on the Internet at the moment, and it does something that the Internet has been intended to do for a very long time: facilitate collaboration.

I’m a Scorpio, so I’ve learned to accept the fact that I prefer to do my work and projects alone. It’s why I work for myself whenever I have a choice in the matter, or why I choose jobs that require as little supervision as possible. Everything gets done, it just has to be on my schedule or I get all stressed out and miserable.

I’m going to have to work on that – because for me to get anywhere in the type of books I want to write, interviews and collaboration are a huge part of that. In Urban Wicca, I’m running a series of worksheets for assessing major cities and I’ll need to trust residents in those cities to fill those out and get them back to me. I also have to get some cooperation and collaboration to do interviews for the divorce and Wicca book, and any interaction with the neopagan community has to have a collaborative approach.

So, just as much for myself as for anyone working with me, here are my guidelines to collaboration:

1)Be clear. It’s worth the extra long conversations to make sure everyone knows what they want out of the process. But also be patient – some people are visionary and can project a future, choosing a specific symbol or action to represent the culmination of a project. Others can’t see past the paperwork.

2)Play to everyone’s strengths. I’m good at organizing, hitting deadlines and figuring out the small tasks along the way. Someone else might be better at chatting people up and networking – you get the idea.

3)Accept that not everything will be ideal. If it isn’t perfect or exactly how you pictured it, it’s OK. As long as it serves the function it was intended to – and delivers the message it was intended to – you’re OK.

4)Let go of your expectations a little. Sometimes the message or final product will change, and that can be a good thing. Be willing to see how things work even if it’s not as you had envisioned them.

5)Have an end point. There’s a certain point where everyone needs to go off and do their own thing, permanently or temporarily. Having a date or a “when this happens” will help.

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