Re: <nettime> Naive Things

["Desde América, con amor" <desdeamerica@yahoo.com>]

The keys of sustainability are possibly behind
multiple choices. I don't think it's a matter of
'temporary projects work, long term projects don't
work'. It's reasonable to think that we can get to
principles that work in most (many?) cases such as
'temporary projects work if you do A, B, C and you
avoid X, Y, Z; long term projects work when you do D,
E, F and you avoid U, V, W'.

We have lots of things to learn about the economy of
our own projects, considering that zero budget
projects also have an 'economy' and considering that
the economy of standard budget projects with cash  is
not only based in money. 

There is an analitical work to do. There are
experiences to share. We have successful cases and we
have failing cases. We have seen moments of hype and
we have seen moments of hysteria. Plus we love to
discuss, we love our projects and we would love to
live thanks to them without massoquism or remorse.

It is impossible to find the perfect keys to achieve
sustainability - leave magic wands to Harry Potter's
friends. It is not very complex to start discussing.
It is not so complex to know better the economical
insights of our projects.

Open source and collaborative dynamics are fantastic,
aren't they. Well, why don't we start applying them to
improve the economical models of our projects. 


At the very end the equations are not so complex:

- Elements: people, equipment, infrastructures,
resources, networks...

- Actions: work, meet, discuss, promote, buy, sell,
travel, eat, sleep...

- Interactors: team, colleagues, users, organizations,
competitors, partners, friends, family...

- Management of resources: cooperation, exchange,
savings, funds, loans, incomes, expenses,
combustion...


The rest more or less is based on the management of
time and the appropriate sorting of steps to do (and
await). Like chess.  :)


Where is a discussion about all this? You find it in
business and corporate environments. But these
discussions are not always useful:

- Because they don't look for sustainability but
profitability, which leads to quite different
approaches and strategies.

- Because they care more about their money than their
projects, which is the opposite than us, which leads
to quite different approaches and strategies.

- Because they care more about business and power than
culture and counter-powers, which is the opposite than
us, which leads to quite different approaches and
strategies.

- Because size matters, and most of our projects are
equivalent to 0,01% the size of the average
we-mean-business projects.

- Because they also fail. As we've seen, we see and
we'll see.


What is not normal is that after 7 years of *mature*
independent projects in the Internet the most reliable
source is possibly (and still) Sun Tzu's 'Art of War'
(no joking).

Quim




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