tech, ethics and consciousness...for all life
ParTecK (Participatory tech-knowledg-y) is a multi-disciplinary community of technology, arts, ethics, environment, and consciousness experts and enthusiasts who explore ways to build a holistic society that serves the life world.
We come together to have complex conversations and in doing so, often ignite new imaginative collaborations that explore ways we can create, use, apply, think about tech that is in greater service to life.
Each year, we have an annual gathering to explore, learn from each other, and create shared experiences so we can meet our times with more depth of understanding and insight.
This is a free, by-donation optional event, open to people interested in this topic.
What is the reality we want to create together? This is a call for our times, to go beyond the trajectories in front of us of tech power, control and economies, to imagine and explore another possibility.
If not now, when? This is the work of minds and hearts, of shared spaces of intention and action, of co-sensing, co-creating, and transcending of the old towards the emergence of the new.
As sometimes can happen, a theme emerges even as we are creating an event. This year, the theme landed at the 11th hour. Given it seems big chunks of the world order, like glaciers in Antarctica, are collapsing into the sea of history, it’s a rare opportunity we have now to surf the waves of collapse, and surf them well, with style even. Within these waves are the smaller arcs of a new world emerging. . . what a froth!
We're in the storm, and sense of unknown is great. So, what do people do in a time of collapse? Amidst the tensions, the discomfort of change, it’s more precious than ever to ride the currents of grace and joy together when they come - to gather, to dance, sing, to express the life we are, and in this we learn together. Many cultures have kept this spark of human capacity to not just weather, but strengthen in times of upheaval and constraint. Now is our time to not just paddle hard, or drift, but also to surf this infinite, unstoppable moment.
Happily, ParTecK is designed this year to support us in this intention of 'surfing the collapse well’. We're also following a similar DNA structure to past events, this time carefully spread over several weeks. We begin with populating the space with crazy cool ideas and insights.
Zak Stein will open with a dive into his latest thinking on Sept 28, followed by a host of ParTeck community presentations on Oct 5. The next movement on the ride of Parteck is to come together to metabolize, explore, share, and shape new idea-scapes in the Community conversation space on Oct 12, which will deepen in Geoff’s co-sensing session on Oct 19. For those interested in TheoryU, you could say that by Oct 19 we will be deep in the bottom of the U. The final two sessions are all about developing your project ideas – what we can, should and will do for grants will be decided for the first time this year by our community!
As you can see there is a flow, and each event will build upon the next. For this reason, it is recommended (though not required) that you sign up for all of the events - simply put Tuesday at noon Pacific in your calendar. The end, which feels near now, will lean towards a fitting, festive celebration - more soon on that closer to the time!
Tuesdays at noon, Sept 28 - Nov 2 + Sept 22
September 22, 5:30pm - Opening Ceremony with Elder Kelly White in Vancouver, recordings to be shared, RSVP if interested
September 28, 12pm - Conversation with Zak Stein, on planetary scale computation and measurement, and how these link with the dynamics of information warfare, as well as considerations about certain very dangerous near future scenarios that are likely to play out within open societies. Listen to Recording
October 5, 12 pm - Community-hosted presentations on concurrent tracks, recorded (see full descriptions here)
October 12, 12pm - Conversation about what interests you - Open Space. Facilitated by Rochelle Fairfield
October 19, 12pm - Co-sensing and Co-presencing - offered by Geoff Fitch
October 26, 12pm - ParTecK Grants - Collective Intelligence Process...hosted by Derrick Yoder
November 2, 12pm - ParTecK Grants Process completion and Closing
Where possible, we use open-source technology ie Big Blue Button, NextCloud, Hylo. All participants will receive a dedicated NextCloud account that they can use as they wish, including multiple embedded functions (Big Blue Button, calendar, shared docs, and more).
Hylo is our space for connecting before, during and after ParTecK21. Sign up so you can be receive updates, participate in the conversation and more! https://www.hylo.com/groups/parteck/join/Uy5Rcg8tEJ
Feel free to invite your friends! Please note you will also be added to our email list - you can unsubscribe at any time. Through this list you will receive updates over the course of the 6 weeks.
This year, ParTecK is bringing the community into the process of awarding its 2021-22 grants by voting on aspects related to projects using SayDAO, a project funded by the 2020-21 grants.
DAOs, short for Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, are software that runs on a blockchain and allows people to coordinate based on pre-programmed rules. SayDAO is a DAO that encourages participation in small groups by awarding more influence, or “Say”, to people who actively take part. This means that people who regularly participate in a group will have more decision-making power than people who just joined a group or rarely take part.
If you provide your email to ParTecK organizers, either by signing up on Eventbrite or on the Compendium, you will be sent a registration link that allows you to sign up for SayDAO. Your attendance will be recorded at each of the official events that make up ParTecK 2021. Each week we will have sample polls that let you try out SayDAO to see how the voting system works, and at the end of the seven weeks we will open a poll to help decide what projects will be funded for the 2021-22 round of grants.
We look forward to seeing SayDAO in action and getting your feedback on this new form of community participation! If you have questions, you can contact Greg or Alberto on the Hylo community boards - - https://www.hylo.com/groups/parteck (scroll to find "SayDAO" in the Stream).
Our online Wiki is an experiment to support ideating for the ParTecK Grants process. Once you download the Wiki onto your computer, you will be able to add content to pages collaboratively, create new pages and cross-link content.
Instructions for downloading the wiki and for a video introduction from Travis Hinton.
We are grateful to be able to offer this event by donation once again this year. If you would like to make a donation, you may do so in Bitcoin or with Paypal here: https://humandatacommons.org/donate/