Sharing L.A. '99 See how the angels are going their own ways, as if they didn't see each other. That's how we are in Los Angeles. We need a better coordination. You can help. See "From our Press Kit" below.  Sharing L.A. '99 is the name of our campaign to organize a collective voice for Los Angeles by 1999. We are still in early stages, though some of our strategies are already in place,and we do have a couple of ideas how we might use our Recommender technology.  How shall we best organize this campaign? Our goal does not seem out of reach. We are looking for 1000 persons from all parts of Los Angeles County to participate. That's quite a few people, but not that many! We'll need to upgrade our web site, but the expense seems supportable -- a few thousands, only. What is our best approach? If you have ideas, please share them with us.

From our Press Kit:

Sharing LA '99 is a project of Collective Communication, Inc., a California non-profit.

Our aim is to create an effective community voice on the Web for L.A. County by 1999, building it up neighborhood by neighborhood.  Los Angeles is not one community, but many, with a mix of styles.  To succeed we will have to overcome misunderstandings and bitter divisions.

We have pinned our hopes on our InterMix Community Software for the Web.  InterMix is BBS/List-serve/Catalog software designed to promote unity in a "collective communication" framework that also supports diversity.  The first version of InterMix is now in alpha demo.

You can help.
 

A Season for Nonviolence

Collective Communication, Inc. (CCI) is pleased to co-sponsor the 1998 A Season for Nonviolence along with scores of Los Angeles community organizations, including the Urban League, the Simon Weisenthal Center, the AFL-CIO and LA County Health Services.  Other notable sponsors include Amnesty International, Fellowhsip of Reconciliation and UNESCO.

A Season for Nonviolence is a 64-day educational, media and grassroots campaign to promote nonviolence in our lives and our communities.  This campaign honors the 50th and 30th memorial anniversaries of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  It will take place from January 30 to April 4, across the country and internationally.  Los Angeles is one of the main centers of the campaign.  For more information call A Season for Nonviolence at (310) 815-0222.

CCI will provide a forum on the web for grassroots participants to coordinate plans and exchange experiences during the campaign.  Our "event" for the Season will be an April 4th kickoff for the Sharing LA hub.  Sharing LA will build on the spirit of the campaign to create a voice for Los Angeles and a continuing forum for the nonviolent community here.
 

A Season for Nonviolence - particulars

The CCI Season for Nonviolence “hub” can be accessed directly on the web at http://intermix.org/cgi-win/mixstub.exe?hublogin=001.  You are invited to login there and join the exchange.  See also the web page at http://www.gandhiking.com.

To promote the Season hub members of the CCI Board will contact public and private high school newspaper staffs in L.A. County.  We will be asking that each newspaper publish an editorial about the Season and post it on the Season hub. News staff from all the high schools will rate posted editorials using the InterMix rating system.  At the end of the Season, there will be a prize for the most highly rated article -- Season tee shirts for the staff.  We will arrange, if possible, to have the winning article reprinted by L.A. Youth (www.layouth.com) or another Los Angeles paper.  If time allows, we will also bring in college newspapers.

By the end of the Season, we will have built a network for L.A. County high school newspapers.  It makes good sense that this network should continue on the Sharing LA hub.  Sharing LA will start off, then, with a solid countywide constituency.  If we haven’t already brought in the college papers, we do so at this point.  Then we go to the business and non-profit community, saying if the kids can do it, so can you!  That is our game plan.
 

A Database of Neighborhood Resources

Our non-profit mission is to create an intelligent and believable community voice on the web for LA County.  We expect to have a thousand active members by 1999.  At that time we will spin off a membership based non-profit with an elected board to administer the Sharing LA program.

A web based community voice will provide valuable guidance for all Los Angeles from the neighborhood up.  At the local level, online volunteers will build a detailed database of neighborhood resources.  For the City of L.A., Charter reform input and a dialogue with Mayor Riordan are on the agenda.  Countywide, we hope that business, labor and the non-profits will find the common footing they need to coordinate their strategies.

Our larger goal is to build a collective voice for humanity.  L.A., with its size and diversity, makes an excellent model for the world.  Success here will give us the credibility and contacts we need to go global.
 
 
What is Collective Communication?

Collective communication is a form of electronic democracy.  Anyone may propose "legislation" and everyone can vote.  There is no set form for a proposal, so a poem or story might easily carry the day over the lawyerly paragraph.  All the world appreciates wit and good feeling, and that's what we expect to find in messages from the community voice of Los Angeles.  When people realize that they can wholeheartedly subscribe to their community voice, they will experience a welcome revolution in their feelings for their fellow citizens.

In a divided world, support for the common ground can mean betrayal of one's own group.  If you cooperate instead of going for the win, others may take advantage of you.  Collective communication eases this dilemma by guaranteeing a voice to every major subdivision of society.  A single communication framework supports both the common and the separate group sub-identities.  Within this framework, separatist energy is turned around and enlisted in the service of the larger community.

For example, the San Fernando Valley is a part of L.A. that feels used -- taxes flow out, it seems, and they don't flow back.  A community voice of its own will confirm the Valley's separate identity and help set Valley priorities.  At the same time, Valley residents will want to participate city and countywide, lest they lose influence in these wider venues.  They will find, though, that messages expressing a purely Valley perspective do not get very far when the entire city or county is voting.  To make an impression, they will have to adopt a more cooperative spirit.  Before they know it, they will be looking for the policy that works both locally and regionally at the same time.  Gone will be that "us vs them" attitude they began with.
 
 
Principles

Our principles are to be open, democratic, radically inclusive, tolerant and non-violent. Democracy and openness are required if we are to create a believable voice for the city. Inclusiveness, tolerance and non-violence are precautions against unleashing destructive energy.  All these principles are congruent with our desire to bring people together in a way that respects their differences.

Open.  This means no secrets. All our processes are open -- our books and meetings.  There is no hidden inner club, no esoteric initiation for the cognoscenti.  It also means that we have signed on to the concept of the "Open Society" -- tolerance, human freedom, the preservation of human potential in a society that does not adopt any one particular point of view as its own.

Democratic.  In what may be our most controversial position, we have decided to weight the "votes" so that each zip code has an influence on the communication process according to its population.  The wealthier parts of the county are more represented on the internet, so weights are needed to redress the balance.

Radically inclusive and tolerant.   The phrase "radically inclusive" emphasizes our desire to include every kind of person.  Unity must be all inclusive or it will fall apart debating where the lines should be drawn.  Also, the wider the spread of views coming into the electronic process, the better the chance of an intelligent result.  The down side of our policy is not as bad as it might seem.  Uncivil and intolerant persons who come in under our "radically inclusive" policy will not be highly visible, because they won't get much support for their messages.

Non-violent.  Non-violence is in part a precaution against stirring up communal trouble.  Group dynamics are powerful and dangerous, so we must be very careful.  Moreover, change of any sort can seem threatening, so non-violence is also a practical measure to disarm our critics before they assemble against us.  We want our little revolution to proceed without provoking a backlash.  World unity cannot be forced.
 
 
Online Volunteers are Wanted

InterMix & the Recommender.  Everything depends on our InterMix BBS software for the Web.  InterMix is designed to promote our communication goals.  The Recommender is a catalog form generator for InterMix, due by Spring 1998.  The Recommender will make it possible to build shared catalogs on the net for music, videos, recipes, etc, all of it rated so it is easy to find the good stuff.  The Recommender will be fun, and should prove attractive.  Our first demo version of InterMix is now up and running on our website at http://intermix.org.  Visitors are welcome.

Neighborhood by neighborhood forums.  The neighborhoods are our building blocks. We hope to involve high school community service groups.  Students will be recruited to help build our online neighborhood resource database.  Arrangements will be made to speak locally, sparking participation from neighborhood committees.  Our slogan: "Los Angeles Needs Coordination."

A Women's Voice.  We have decided to have a parallel campaign for the women of Los Angeles.  This means a separate community voice for the women of the County by 1999.  We see numerous benefits to this strategy, including a better balance between the sexes on the Sharing LA project, a stronger base for our non-violent principles, better PR, and generally an infusion of energy.

The "First Hundred".  L.A. is so huge we need only one person in ten thousand to make our target of a thousand active members by 1999.  Still, it is not going to be easy.  We are a small all volunteer non-profit with barely enough funds to do a mailing.  All our money goes to support our InterMix programmer.  We can't afford to hire a PR firm.  We can't afford to advertise.  Fact is, we are relying on the bandwagon effect which participation in the "collective communication" process is expected to have.  A hundred active members online should be enough to see it kick in, so that will be our first goal.
 
 
Exactly What you can Do

Help by testing our InterMix Community Software for the Web.  Visit us on the web at http://intermix.org and take the "Join" link at the top of the first page.  Please leave a message!

Online volunteers are needed to spread the word throughout the web that a fabulous new piece of software is now on debut.  Beta distribution will begin mid October, 1997.  Help get us linked everywhere.  This is the level of help that is most valuable right now.

Opportunities to speak in L.A. before small groups are wanted.  Please contact Roger Eaton at (310) 450-7071.

Connections to the non-violent community are particularly sought.  Please call.

Media contacts are needed, too.  We are about to embark on a PR campaign in support of our Sharing L.A. project.  If you know a reporter on an L.A. paper, or the editor of a suitable newsletter, please put us in touch.

Money is always in short supply - of course.  We are a 501(c)(3) California non-profit.  Donations are tax deductible for U.S. and California income tax purposes.  Please give to a worthy cause!

Ideas for the Recommender

• L.A. Community Resources Database
• Best of L.A. Sermons and Lectures

Policy Decision

• The overall voice of Los Angeles will be more balanced between the sexes. Without a separate women's voice, the voice of Los Angeles is likely to be dominated by the men of Los Angeles.
• A women's voice will demonstrate how every important subdivision of the city can share in setting the overall city agenda.
• We expect the women's "Share" will be an ally in our stress on non-violence.
• People may find it easier to understand the notion of a collective voice when they see it particularized. The idea of a common voice is hard to grasp at first.
• Public relations might be easier because the women's voice would give the media an angle to play up.
• The women who become involved for the sake of the women's voice will also energize the overall project.

Not Irrelevant

Transcendence. "It seems to me that one of the most basic human experiences, one that is genuinely universal and unites - or, more precisely, could unite - all of humanity, is the experience of transcendence in the broadest sense of the word." --Vaclav Havel, President of the Czech Republic.
 
 

last changed December 14, 1997