2002-12-13

Reading the Net War book by John Arquila and David Ronfeldt (editors), see MeatBall:NetWar. Note that both Bruce Sterling and David Brin are in the ackneledgements... I like the article about the Battle of Seattle by Paul de Armond, untertitled “Netwar In The Emerald City: WTO Protest Strategy And Tactics”. Important points they raise are how to organize in a decentralized way. This also comes up in the political work at Wilhelm Tux (where we are not doing that well) and in FreeSoftware development (where we need to attract and keep good developpers without being able to pay them). The key point is that you must give each and everyone the freedom to step in if they like, and you must make sure that the people with similar ideas and objectives hear you. Then, by sheer numbers, there will always be enough volunteers to do this or do that. And since you have similar ideas and objectives, many people will just do the right thing without being told. It is a kind of PreOrganization skill that you need: To communicate the goals and ideas so effectively, that you attract the right people who know what to do without being told – because *they* want to do just as much as anybody else. Been watching “In The Mood For Love” by Wong Kar-Wai, too. Wonderful movie.

MeatBall:NetWar

FreeSoftware