SHE goes MAD

SHE goes MAD is a proposed conference to take place in Berlin towards the end of November 2009. The aim of the conference is to connect people whose intention is to set up a network of nomadic spaces, spaces where nomads feel at home. It is essentially also a conference on our shared nomadic culture.

SHE
She stands for Sustainable Hospitality Exchange. SHE was also a conference that took place in Amsterdam, june 2008. SHE goes MAD is the proposed title for the conference in Berlin. MAD stands for nomadic but MAD in itself is just too cool to not use.

Schedule

 * 20.11.2009 - 27.11.2009 Work meetings
 * 27.11.2009 - 30.11.2009 Main conference
 * Opening Session on the 27th late afternoon.

Open Space
The format of the conference will be an open space format. There is no fixed agenda and participants themselves will set up topics once the conference starts. We will share our intentions of why we come together, and feed our common agenda based on the main questions we have. We will group these questions around specific categories of type of meetings we want to have. This is an ongoing process.

This also means that separate topics could be discussed in different spaces at the same time. At the same time, people could be discussing technical stuff, while other people meet to discuss the culture of a nomadbase. Participants vote with their feet: you go where you feel at place - where you feel/ think you can learn or contribute.

Basically, whenever two people are together discussing a related topic, a meeting has started. Topics can also change during the conference, depending on how things move along.

Spaces would for example include:
 * Meeting space A, B and C (need naming)
 * Social space (for 'off-topic')
 * Skill-share space A and B

Online Presence
We also intend to have interaction with people who are unable to attend the conference. During the conference, notes will be taken and put online on a wiki. We also will invite the non-attending participants to start discussions. We will try to stream specific meetings, and set up a tele/videoconference.

I will be there online at least a bit

for streaming I recommend Bambuser

Topics
A common way of starting a gathering like this is to first do an introduction rounds in a big group or even smaller groups, to share our intentions and questions.

It is important for people to feel comfortable with each other, so they feel free to exchange their knowledge and their thoughts without reservations. It is sometimes better to have multiple smaller meetings, than one big meeting for this. What also works well is to have a box where people can write down their main questions for what they want to learn/ get out of the meeting, before making some form of (dynamic) agenda. Or to have a huge board/ white sheet where people can add their topics and/or proposed meetings.

As a reference, we can already start sharing our ideas for topics or questions here below. Please add yours, or simply edit the existing ones.

Topics/ Questions
 * Nomadbases
 * -Current nomadbases, origins and culture
 * -Shared practices & common mistakes
 * -Cultures of living together
 * -How to set up more nomad-bases
 * -Build/ draw your favorite house
 * -Workshop with tools in nomad bases
 * -Learning communities and self-education
 * -Problems of project builder leaving & continuing the 'process'
 * -Constructing 'nomad bases' in countries with little networks, contacts and philosophy of this process and then building from the ground up.


 * Real social networks, nomadbase.org
 * -How to connect the nomads and bases online
 * -Existing proposals and platforms we can use
 * -Relation with existing hospitality exchange networks
 * -Wished-for functionalities ('mad oriented')
 * -Newsletters and updates on progress
 * -Members Bill of Rights


 * Personal Social relations
 * -Sustaining a family as a nomad
 * -How to collaborate on long term projects as a nomad
 * -How to build social recognition as a nomad
 * -How to build up recognition of our role towards society
 * -How to communicate with others who do not experience multiple shifting realities
 * -Keeping presence when faced to other peoples fears
 * -Experience of Representation Vs Experience of being
 * -How to have stable intimate relationships as a nomad
 * -How to create ( our own ) reference points as a nomad
 * -Shared values, behaviours, challenges & yearnings
 * -How to keep the underground close to the surface, to not withdraw ourselves from all other 'realities'


 * Different funding models
 * -Legal issues
 * -Parallel currency systems Ripple


 * Traveling school of life/ Skillsharing
 * -Permanent workshops in nomad bases
 * -Bike repair shops
 * -Urban gardening
 * -Fabrication labs in nomad bases with reprap and/or other production tools
 * -Teach, Learn, Share
 * -Nomad University
 * -Use personal skills where they are needed (ie. fix a bike for the one that can't, fix a meal for the one that can't, fix a computer, fix a roof, fix fears, fix television... wait... don't fix televisions!)
 * -Consensus, decision-making & OpenSpace Technology


 * Economics of a nomad
 * -Actual economic needs for a nomad
 * -Different ways for a nomad to sustain himself
 * -Best countries to officially register your residence
 * -Nomad base type economic projects
 * -Hacking artificial scarcity
 * -Building up peer production infrastructures
 * -How to collaborate and receive support from mainstream institutions as a nomad


 * High/Low tech Nomadism
 * -DIY Primitivists Vs Minimalist DIY Technologists ?
 * -Hackable Nomad Gear ?


 * Nomadic Projects
 * -Lightfoot Sustainable Post
 * -Wiki: hitchwiki, trashwiki, couchwiki, sharewiki, nomadwiki, healthywiki, etc.
 * - Pastamadre: http://www.pastamadre.org/


 * add yours


 * Need to be categorized:
 * -Beyond Collectivism ? Beyond Individualism ? Beyond Self-Actualization
 * -Stigmergic Tools
 * -Festivalism
 * -Metaphysics of the Hitch Hiker
 * -Usership of Private Spaces ?
 * -Sustainable Non-Reciprocal Exchange and Units of Measurment ?
 * -Hyperlocal Nomadism

Skillsharing-sessions that are likely to start whenever it starts
 * Poi/ play with fire
 * Bread-making
 * Meditation
 * Intuitive Traveling
 * Free Software
 * Drupal Basics
 * Go (Bring a game board)
 * add yours
 * Someone bring a chess board
 * Languages

Further ideas
 * add yours

Proposed Schedule
The schedule is made as we go. There are two parts of the (un)conference; the actual conference takes place in the last weekend of November and takes an open space format. Hence there is no fixed agenda, just location and maybe a rough time-schedule Before and possibly even after the conference sponteneous meetings take place.

Please add suggestions for the agenda, we will add these also here: http://nomadbase.org/calendar where (if we would like to enable this) you can also sign up if you're coming.

It seemed logical to start with more defining nomad-oriented activities as they are preparatory to more NomadBase-oriented discussions.


 * Friday 20th
 * Meet for dinner - NEED to determine a place (PV not an option) - Time must be flexible because many people arrive hitchhiking on Friday
 * Facilitator?
 * add event


 * Saturday 21st
 * 13h - Sharing session - Welcome to NoMad's-Land
 * This sharing session aims at trying to find elements of culture (concepts, symbols, practices, values...) that are shared within the neo-nomad's sub-culture in order to understand better the challenges we face and the ways we can support each other in overcoming them (potentially by sharing resources, or through NomadBases, etc).

This session does not aim at defining what a nomad is and what it is not (and therefore exclude anyone).
 * Around 16h - Dumpster diving / Turkish Market
 * Dinner Time and Place?


 * Sunday 22nd
 * Brunch (at one of the squats? can anyone put more info?)
 * 17h - Sharing session - Nomads get personal
 * This is a moment to get deeper within neo-nomadic culture and discuss everything listed in the Personal/Social relations section of the Topics: Interaction between ourselves and more "fixed" people, intimate relationships and family, creating and maintaining stable reference points, our role in society, how we are perceived, social recognition, participation in long-term projects, etc. By understanding more our reality and its challenges, we are better able to name our needs and pool our resources in wider projects.


 * Monday 23rd
 * add event


 * Tuesday 24rd
 * 12h - Brainstorm session - Models of Nomadic Co-Living
 * A brainstorm on mapping different models of different types of nomadbases. From collective housing where nomads can life, to single-households, squats, eco-villages and other forms of communities.
 * add event


 * Wednesday 25th
 * add event


 * Thursday 26th
 * add event


 * Friday 27th
 * Opening Session, introduction and sharing intentions.
 * add event


 * Saturday 28th
 * add event


 * Sunday 29th
 * add event


 * Monday 30th
 * add event

Work and learn
The intention of the conference is not only to share ideas, but also to get things done, build networks and extend our community. A proposal is to come together in the weeks before and after the conference to implement and work on things such as coding, website and communication.

Things to accomplish
Results that you would like to achieve
 * Exchange of experiences, empowering ourselves;
 * Call for bases;
 * Manifesto (nomadology?);
 * add another

Projects that you would like to see going:
 * Formalise a network;
 * Establish Framework;
 * Interaction Guidelines;
 * Lightfoot promotion;
 * add another

Participants
Please sign up through crabgrass.


 * Please enable OpenID on crabgrass :)

Invitation
An invitation is made and can be send through the familiar networks. Please send to the right people:
 * Nomadic travelers and nomadic workers
 * Full-time Hospitality Hosts
 * People interested in long term hospitality
 * People interested in nomad culture
 * People interested in Open Space
 * People interested setting up Real Social Networks
 * People who live in larger shared houses

Location
There are several options for a location for the main conference. Discussion goes through grabgrass

In the week before the conference we would like to use different spaces for specific meetings. Spaces include:
 * Tsolife office
 * Project volunteering (It would be good to contact them before using their space)
 * The Tea house, 105 Rigaer Str.

Food

 * Trashwiki

Berlin Berlin

Accommodation

 * Ben's flatshare: 2 w/o sleeping gear, infinite with sleeping bag + ground mat
 * Anja's flatshare: 3-4 people, sleeping gear needed? (TBC)
 * WIP, please contact Ben (atopia) through telepathy / email / BeWelcome / riseup / this wiki
 * Jurgen in central Berlin (Kreuzberg) could host a few people. (Contact through usual networks.)
 * Other resource - Anick-Marie can help you find hosts in Berlin. Just email/shout louder. Below is the list of people that responded. Please remove them from the list if they confirm you that they won't host more people.
 * Daphnee can host up to 3 people 26-30 Nov (have to leave at 9am on the 30th), near S-Zehlendorf, 20 min walk from or 6 stops by bus.

Needs
There is a bunch of things we need:
 * Shared laptops
 * Switch (Robin) & wireless router?
 * Large sheets of paper & pens (colors!)
 * Add an item

Stay connected
To stay connected, please watch this wiki-space, check nomadbase.org or please sign up through grabgrass