Serve first
What is the Greenspace Group? WHY is a Greenspace Group primarily technological?
Greenspace.Group is about making better use of land … our group’s strategy for accomplishing that is primarily technological. Of course, we love to spend time outdoors, but the emphasis of this particular group is on things like GIS software, CAD tools for landscape architecture utlizing photogrammetry for measuring sites and accurately discussing alternatives with augmented reality so that we can more efficiently implement consensus design. We are also very interested in developing various tools for microscopically exploring soil and living ecoystems open source development meta-organization that is strictly virtual and primarily lives in the discussions of issues on Github or perhaps Google Workspace Documents/Chat.
The whole POINT of the Github organization and Discord server are about SERVING the larger community of people interested in local greenspaces in their local area.
Greenspaces themselves are fundamentally NOT political; they are just open natural spaces that are for spending time outdoors, walking/hiking/exercising … possibly alone and possibly with other people. GreenspaceGroup is aggresssively NOT a political organization … but since we are primarily engaged in technology, we will have a bit of measurement-driven, scientific perspective as an advocasy organization.
We do recognize the INTENSELY political nature of city councils, zoning commissions, homeowners associations … but interest is about optimizing land use for all and especially doing that for people who will be around long after we are gone. We can afford to be extremely patient … and just focus on developing nifty open source technology that will help people to make better shared decisions as they come up with better ways to use land.
Advocating for a indefinitely sustainable LAND ETHIC is fundamentally about the preservation of the roles for private citizens, small landholders and unaffiliated groups of citizens … our objective is to develop the technologies that make the goals realizable by bathing the entire process in more precise, more accurate information.
Political Economics and the NEW Logic of Collective Action.
Local voluntarism is about the NEW logic of collective action … we see that technology can play a role in helping communities make far better decisions.
It’s not about rent-seeking like the OLD logic was … or current logic still is. The NEW logic of collective action is about how we bathe the process in more precise, more accurate information.
Building communities that will sustain and improve new greenspaces is going to involve a ridiculously tough campaign … it might feel like a bit of a fight or a war at times, because this campaign will be about changing the selfish, mindless habits of who we are. It will take an effort from each one of us … and it will definitely be a CAMPAIGN. The DATA on campaigns is kind of stuff that economists and political economists and historians want to study … but’s that not where the work happens.
Organizing a campaign and designing a VLSI circuit share similarities
That’s true in very general sense in terms of the planning and optimization involved … but campaigns, because they are about human beings and the logic of collective action, far more complex.
Designing a campaign to serve a consituency of voters is SOMEWHAT like designing a very large-scale integrated (VLSI) logic circuit. Nobody who designs new microprocessors or logic circuits starts from scratch – it’s all about reusing intellectual property for extremely large scale information processing tasks that have been THOROUGHLY proven in generations before. Organizing a campaign and designing a VLSI circuit share SOME similarities in terms of the planning and optimization involved. It is obviously necessary to recognize that political campaigns are far more complex than mere microprocessors, but . Here are some ways in which they are similar:
- Both involve dividing a large entity into smaller parts: In voter organization, a constituency is divided into smaller precincts or districts for better management. Similarly, in VLSI design, a large circuit is divided into smaller blocks or modules for easier design and optimization … and then, successively more intensive refactoring, re-design and more intense optimization … and, as time elapses and lessons are learned, the optimization of the planning continues iteratively.
- Both require careful planning and placement: In voter organization, precincts are planned and placed to ensure efficient voting processes and maximum voter turnout. In VLSI design, components are placed on the chip to minimize distance and optimize signal integrity.
- Both involve managing interconnections: In voter organization, precincts are connected to each other through voting systems and networks. In VLSI design, components are connected through wires and buses to enable communication and data transfer.
- Both require optimization for performance and efficiency: In voter organization, the goal is to maximize voter turnout and minimize wait times. In VLSI design, the goal is to minimize power consumption, reduce latency, and optimize performance.
- Both involve testing and verification: In voter organization, precincts are tested and verified to ensure accurate vote counting and security. In VLSI design, the circuit is tested and verified to ensure proper functioning and reliability.
Of course, it should be blatantly obvious to recognize that voter organization and VLSI design are fundamentally different in terms of their purpose and scope. Voter organization is focused on ensuring more fair, more efficient elections with a better-informed electorate while VLSI design is only about a simpler, more narrowly scoped task of creating complex electronic systems for various applications. This analogy is only a model for thinking about the overall roadmap of how the process needs to unfold.