Ahhhh… Synchronicity.
I came home to ZSpace not 2-4 hours before I received Michael and Chris wrote us with updates, thanks and a query – ¿Qué Pasa?. I have been around ZOnline since it was ZBBS ( or close to that spelling anyway) And I’m always a transient dial-up (go Quick Edit!) returner but since ZSpace – and my initial pilot uploads – I’m discovering that I’ve got great cause to hang out (i.e. get busy) and contribute.
Some great reasons:
-Oooh, la, la. The great Mutual Aid section. Such promise. I’d looooove to see these also located a under local/area (town-city/county/metro) forum organization. Speaking of, what’s the easiest way I can find fellow and sister Michiganders?
-The upload activity/donation space. I’ve really got to develop it more, especially with my children in mind.
-The ZSpace page is very dynamic.
-Blogging, forums and our very own pages now make it that much more vital and possible to interconnect.
So what are some ideas and questions I can bandy about regarding contributing?:
-Where can I wiki? Where can we in our groups/communities/networks/issues make our own instructionals or reading lists or ZWikipaedias? (A Michigan-Aajigaaning ZGroup/Network with this stuff for instance. Or perhaps a really dynamic Labor page with exploits-history-actions that’ll have me droolin’ for the lessons of our ancestors and living comrades (with a beautiful subsection devoted to the anarchist collectives of the Spanish revolution ;))
-Some more good bells and whistles. A wikisite I’ve remained breathlessly excited about – www.boardgamegeek.com allows you to submit files, photos and stuff like ZSpace and let’s people comment, but also give thumbs up to those posts. I can also see what my "geekbuddies" are also posting. I can create my own tags and hit those to bring varied and, perhaps, disparate posts and images and other submissions together.
-Start a group. I know you can, but I can’t find anywhere that gets me info on how to. Oh, what I’d give to see ‘Start a Group/Network’ button.
-Manipulate it/Organize it/Display it/Crunch Data. (q.v. Item #1 in this list) This might be Phase XIX further on down that already, but can we crunch numbers? Can we change our graphical representations of the information. Can we outdo or mix and match the best of Lexus/Nexus (never had full access to it) or Wikipedia (hell, yes!) or whatever blogsites people on our forums or blogs are ravin’ about? I can, at least, volunteer (and do) to learn and help where I can.
-Could we ever end up with some webspace ? An over-the-top request, perhaps, in terms of current scope, energies and plans, but I got to dream and I want my lair here! And if it’s not actual webspace, well, I can certainly say it’s already on the way having stuff I need on my webspace. I just don’t want prospective employers knowing everything on it. ; )
-And dial-up won’t always be around I imagine, but I’m still unavoidably on it. We especially can’t afford it now with recent and increasing underemployment – I’m talking walkin’ the line of unemployment here – but we are stuck in this odd donut-hole of no access to affordable broadband (DSL) because we are told we’re 10,000 feet from the nearest available access. And that’s in suburban Grand Rapids, Michigan. This is all to underscore my appreciation that I can still relatively easy get to everywhere but video tutorials on my Z Space. I’d like to request text tutorials, too. I’ll help type ’em up, too.
-Oooh, what if we could take excerpts/quotes from our favorite speechs/articles/data and, complete with autocitation – mold them into our personal instructionals/database – with the aforementioned tag system (item #2 of this list)?
-Hmm… and maybe we could use an -Other- or -General- category for bloggin’, too.
So, that’s my take on it. I wish I had the advanced html/css/and other web-related acronyms know-how to volunteer that way more actively to help, but all I’ve got in that regard is the excitement and some passion. Thanks for all the efforts, I’ve had the great scope of fifteen years where to see CyberZ has come, gone and is going and it’s working better and better all the time.
Viva La OLS! (the ol’ Organization for a Liberated Society)
p.s. I really have to recommend looking closely at your personal ZSpace -Edit Your ZSpace- option. It really has lots to offer!
I’ll cc: this by way of e-mail too.
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