a paul wheaton community

Max Tanner wrote:Paul,
why so close to the airport? 30 min or even 1 hr, seem so close for so many reasons.

That is the only thing I do not understand in this thread and land search issues. For me, my thinking this is just too close to the airport and just too close to other so called civilization types. They tend to build up around the airports, thus leaving you in time to the mercy of the local authorities. Farms especially non-traditional farms do not do well in those situations.

paul wheaton wrote:I have a property picked out, but am struggling to get the paperwork done. Currently in the owner's court to sign the buy/sell.

Victor Cosby wrote:Blessings y'all,

Some intentional communities, transition towns, and cooperative leaning organizations implementing social permaculture are adopting Sociocracy, aka Dynamic Governance or DSG (Dynamic Self Governance), guided by values like Transparency, Consent, and Equal Value (with different roles), and the practice of "Paramount Objection". I'm looking for workshops in this approach because it ties into a film project on democracy I've been planning, so if anyone has recommendations, please hit me with 'em.

For me, it may have to be with a smaller group on a smaller plot of land to begin with. Then once we build something we tweak together and come up with something can be proud of and want to share, we would open it up to others to help us continue and evolve the community. After all, from my limited but growing understanding, this is how Mother Nature tends to work (species and individuals that overshoot eventually get slapped down hard)... and She's done a pretty good job so far. In the end I think I want to follow Her and the land's intention.

Larger systems (like the honey bee and ants?) seem to require some form of tyranny and totalitarianism (overt, managed or inverted -- see Sheldon Wolin's "Democracy, INC.") but the queen will always be replaced by her workers and drones when she wears out, or new swarms will develop when things get out of hand.

Perhaps federating a larger community into smaller ones might be something to consider? I believe this is what Damanhur in Italy does. I think they call them nucleos, and they each have their own particular leanings, styles, and goals. I need to look into this further as a friend spent last summer there and has been blogging about his experience.
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We agree with you victor, a whole-systems approach is something that can be seen in communities such as Auroville, where some of us have lived. Its also true that while retaining individual perspectives, a common spiritual intention can certainly work wonders. As social beings, the magic element is 'love' that can actually bind lives and goals together, in time. Perhaps, this is the basis of real-sharing...being to being, just like paul says 'human'.
Certainly small nuclei groups work well like you said. However, in Italy Damnhur has several residents and '0' economy is not practiced as in Auroville. Large communities are able to achieve economic self-sufficiency more easily.
In any case, the bottom line is Paul must be a very 'loved' landlord to succeed! , in bocca lupo!, like we say in Italy ( wolf in your mouth )
Group

This is a situation where I am 100% in charge. You have no official vote. The only way you get to have things that you want is by persuading me. Yes, there's permaculture (what I call permaculture).

paul wheaton wrote:Here is a lame drawing of something in my head.

If I have exactly one main house with, say, eight people in it, then the reddish stuff is the house, the dark green is zone 1 and the light green is zone 2.

And if I have that same thing, but have a few eco building spread out, each with a person that manages that plot, then it looks more like the second drawing.

Some folks will be keen on the main house and some will be keen on the smaller houses.

looks perfect

paul wheaton wrote:This is sort of like a survey.

The question is:  Hey, I have a big gob of land, and I have room for you.  Wanna come be part of my community?  This is a situation where I am 100% in charge.  You have no official vote.  The only way you get to have things that you want is by persuading me.  Yes, there's permaculture (what I call permaculture).  You can rent a wofati.  you can build your own wofati.  You can rent a room in a community wofati.   You can build another eco style of eco building if you convince me to give the green light.

If your answer is "no", "hell no", "never", "probably not", etc. then leave no response.

For the rest of you I want you to pick a number from 1 to 10.  

The values of 0 to 0.99 are for all of the "no" responses.

The values of 1.00 to 10.00 are where 1.00 is "yeah, I could see that ... hypothetically ... probably ... I think that could work. I would want to get more details before comitting and I would have to think about it and sleep on it for a year or so ..."  and 10.0 is "give me the word and I'll be on a bus in an hour."

I suspect that for every response in the range of 1 to 10 there were a thousand people that would be in the range of 0.00 to 0.99.  

But I don't need to find a hundred thousand people that would suffer under my tyranny.  I want to make the point that there could be 10,000 different communities set up like this.  I would manage one.  And, yes, I would call it a community even though there is no consensus.  Some folks might like one of the other 9,999.  And I would just need a dozen or so that would groove on mine.  A dozen people that would think that being a peasant in my fiefdom has the potential of a life better than ... well ...  living conventionally ... or living in an consensus based IC ... or maybe whatever they are doing now.

So this is an experiment of sorts.  Is there one person?  Might there be a dozen people?

Wanna come be part of my community?

how would you go about selecting amongst people who show interest in this kind of thing

how do you deal with ownership? if someone builds a house on this property, do they own it?

would people have their own spaces (like yard areas for personal gardens?) and be able to have their own animal herds?

paul wheaton wrote:

I think there will be some people with their own gardens (expressing their artisanal visions in seed and soil). And there will be some people that prefer to be part of the greater garden vision. And there will be some people that aren't into gardening.

Julia Winter wrote:

Posting this should send out an email to most of the people who posted earlier, right?

paul wheaton wrote:This is sort of like a survey.

The question is:  Hey, I have a big gob of land, and I have room for you.  Wanna come be part of my community?  This is a situation where I am 100% in charge.  You have no official vote.  The only way you get to have things that you want is by persuading me.  Yes, there's permaculture (what I call permaculture).  You can rent a wofati.  you can build your own wofati.  You can rent a room in a community wofati.   You can build another eco style of eco building if you convince me to give the green light.

If your answer is "no", "hell no", "never", "probably not", etc. then leave no response.

For the rest of you I want you to pick a number from 1 to 10.  

The values of 0 to 0.99 are for all of the "no" responses.

The values of 1.00 to 10.00 are where 1.00 is "yeah, I could see that ... hypothetically ... probably ... I think that could work. I would want to get more details before comitting and I would have to think about it and sleep on it for a year or so ..."  and 10.0 is "give me the word and I'll be on a bus in an hour."

I suspect that for every response in the range of 1 to 10 there were a thousand people that would be in the range of 0.00 to 0.99.  

But I don't need to find a hundred thousand people that would suffer under my tyranny.  I want to make the point that there could be 10,000 different communities set up like this.  I would manage one.  And, yes, I would call it a community even though there is no consensus.  Some folks might like one of the other 9,999.  And I would just need a dozen or so that would groove on mine.  A dozen people that would think that being a peasant in my fiefdom has the potential of a life better than ... well ...  living conventionally ... or living in an consensus based IC ... or maybe whatever they are doing now.

So this is an experiment of sorts.  Is there one person?  Might there be a dozen people?

Wanna come be part of my community?