world undomination (for geeks)

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Welcome! My name is John Abbe, and my work/play is shifting cultures toward more power-with ways of seeing, doing and being. One way i do this is by inviting self-awareness of the entire movement of Process Arts, connecting its various networks, communities, perspectives and fields: facilitators, geeks, and many others engaged in particular processes and this general culture shift anywhere in the world. I also learn and share Nonviolent Communication (NVC), one of the best processes i know supporting this shift within and between individuals.

Current and ongoing projects & activities

Supporting harvesting - learnings, multi-media creations, and more - from the Story Field Conference (see top right), and getting it into or linked from the conference wiki. Also working with the leadership team of the next conference as they get started.

Organizing at least one gathering, the first likely in January 2007 in Eugene, on the larger-scale aspects of the above-mentioned shift. I'm inviting the people i would most enjoy talking about it with - people who are already deeply engaged with it, and who have the ability to share their own passion in a way that still holds space for others.

Joined Grass Commons quarter-time in January 2007, offering software design and marketing of their innovative wiki software Wagn. It's about supporting people to evolve structured data together - "Wiki is to word processing as Wagn is to database." Also offering cultural and technical support for groups using it.

Writing (about the culture shift and the Process Arts).

Developing a Process Arts wiki (using Wagn of course!), drawing in part on the old wiki of the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation.

Board member of the Co-Intelligence Institute. I'm excited about the Story Field Conference we just organized, and looking forward to the evolutionary consciousness movement-building we're likely to dive into next.

Supporting Nonviolent Communication in Eugene, by getting to know people in the area & supporting relationships, and offering occasional workshops. Would like to work with a local organization or group that is committed to learning and using NVC.

Getting enough money flowing in (preferably by gift economy) so that i can stress less about saving a few hundred dollars here and there for things like health & easeful travel expenses, and have enough extra to gift the people and projects i want to support.

I'm a board member of the Co-Intelligence Institute.

I am and have been involved in many efforts which intersect computer culture/technology and process movements - the Process Arts wiki mentioned above, some possibilities that came out of Nexus for Change, the evolutionary salon movement, an upcoming Evolutionary Spirituality wiki, and for Nonviolent Communication, the NVC Geeks mailing list and NVC Wiki. There's also RecentChangesCamp (one sequel - RoCoCo - will be in Montreal in May 2007). I don't see how to remain active on all of these without making them into one project. And of course there's the Collective Wisdom Initiative - which i'm not involved with, but might like to be.

Visit to Sri Lanka (and perhaps also India and Nepal) in 2008 to support the spread of Nonviolent Communication, working with the Sandhi Institute and others.

Ongoing member of the Center for Nonviolent Communication's NVC USA Project

Member of the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology Policy Task Force - helping with their process, and advocating that they support and coordinate others' conversations about the hazards of nanotechnology

Recent projects & activities

2007

Played/worked in the facilitation, technical infrastructure, and spirit of the Story Field Conference at the end of August in Colorado. We planted a viable seed of a self-aware Story Field movement. Harvesting continues and there will be a lot of material (text, audio, video. etc.) available soon on the conference wiki.

Attended Circles of Hope in Sonoma, California in July. Most of the participants were into Nonviolent Communication, but the focus was much broader, about new ways of living together, including experimenting with a restorative justice process developed in Brazil.

I was in Europe in April, visiting and working with old and new friends. First Estonia - i was at The Art of Living Together, then Sweden - mostly working/playing with Liv & Kay, and finally Germany - leading a five day workshop on NVC and group decision-making for Mindfulness and Understanding, an organization starting a living/learning center in a house in a larger intentional community (Lebensgarten).

Attended Nexus for Change in Ohio, inviting people to expand their framing of the field, in informal conversations and by offering sessions on Geeks' Process Culture; NVC and Whole Systems Change; and Law, Economics and Whole Systems Change.

I'm close enough to having cash flow in equalling/exceeding cash flow out to check that off my list of things to do. My income is a mix of paid work at Grass Commons, and gift economy & expense reimbursement around my NVC work. Now i have new income goals.

Offered a series of NVC workshops in March in Eugene.

Assisted at the February Heart of Now.

Helped with RecentChangesCamp 2007 in Portland, again in particular with online collaboration tools.

2006

Put together a map of free wifi spots in Eugene and Springfield, Oregon (where i live now).

As part of the NVC USA Project, helped organize our first conference, in July: Compassion In Action - Networking and Community Building for Nonviolent Communication in the United States (including work on the conference website)

Attended Heart of Now training in April, assisted in May.

Invited people to, participated in, and supported remote participants at RecentChangesCamp, an Open Space gathering on WikiWiki. It encouraged my sense of the value of bringing together geek and Process Arts worlds. A group met on SisterSites and coders got five wiki packages writing and reading a simple format to put links to sister sites on their pages!

Joined Walnut St. Co-op

Participated in the January Evolutionary Salon. Didn't get enough sleep, but otherwise took care of myself much better than i usually do at such events.

Reached out to experienced Nonviolent Communication (NVC) folks to help teach at the January 5-12 Communication For Change retreat in Nagpur, India. Raised funds to enable more to come, and for four Sri Lankan students of nonviolence to come. Supported/coordinated people sharing NVC, counselled individuals and offered my own sessions.