[Imc-alternatives] NAMES: alternatives/solutions/change

[strypey at riseup.net]

Kia ora koutou

My 5 cents worth on the naming debate.

I think 'Alternatives' has been an excellent container for bringing us together 
  to fine tune and implement this vision, because those of us already working 
within countercultural institutions like Indymedia share a belief that most, if 
not all, of the world's problem are caused by the dominant system (which I 
habitually refer to as the state-corporate system), and already implement 
alternatives to that system wherever possible in our everyday lives. In the 
context of our mission statement 'alternatives to corporate globalization', it 
makes perfect sense, and I really support having that mission statement 
displayed prominently in our banner.

However, someone made an excellent point: the choice between the two potential 
names is not about what they imply to us, but what they apply to the ordinary 
people that Indymedia doesn't currently speak to. I can't speak for the rest of 
the network, but Aotearoa IMC functions mainly as a soap box and flame forum for 
various factions of the hard left (mainly anarchists and a few marxists) and a 
few very thick-skinned social democrats and libertarians. I hope and pray that 
the site we are designing will appeal beyond these activist ghettos - in the 
same way that initiatives like the Transitions Towns seem to be - and will be 
useful to average janes with extraordinary aspirations.

When I think about what alternative means to the general public in this country, 
I think mainly of 'alternative lifestyles' (stereotypes of shaggy hippies in 
loudly painted old buses cruising from festival to festival) or 'alternative 
music' (images of superficial rebellion being recuperated to hock CDs, concert 
tickets, t-shirts etc). Such stereotypes are often unfair, bigoted, and miss the 
genuinely innovative ideas encapsulated within these experimental packagings. 
However, the fact remains, to most people 'the alternative' refers to a 
nonconformist social layer that lives off the surplus generated by the 
mainstream state-corporate system, not a movement that offers practical, 
workable replacements for each of the components of that system, thus forming a 
new and fundamentally different type of system.

I actually think 'solutions' still begs the same question as 'alternatives' 
("solutions to what?"), and has the same problem of vagueness Sheri identified 
for 'change' ("solutions for the benefit of who?"), but at least it steps clear 
of this 'flaky hippy'/ 'snarling punk' countercultural baggage.

Somebody suggested 'our.solutions'. I understand the sentiment, that the 'our' 
is inclusive of both users and maintainers of the site. But I think that really 
is easy to mistake for OUR solutions (those prescribed by the site maintainers). 
If anything, 'your.solutions' might be better?

Besides, I want to support Josef's challenge to the idea that that 'solutions' 
implies a vanguard imposing their own solution. Sure, calling a site 
'TheSolution' would have that implication, even 'solution' could. But solutionS 
- with the 's' - to me includes a multiplicity of solutions (one no, many 
yeses). With the exception of the 'final solution' (and again, I think the word 
final, and lack of an 's', strongly distinguish this from 'solutionS'), the word 
is not part of the historical jargon of authoritarian tendancies, who tend to 
prefer managerial terms like 'program', 'policy' etc With the exception of 
talking about socialism as the ultimate solution (again, without the 's') to 
capitalism, vanguardists don't talk much about real world solutions, and in fact 
tend to rhetorically attack them as compromises with the ruling class.

Does the name Sourceforge imply that they are the source of all the source? 
(geek pun hehe) If so, it certainly doesn't seem to put its target audience off. 
When I threw the term 'socialforge' around in the early days of this list, I 
liked the way it spoke of a *shared workspace* (a forge) which is *open to 
everyone* (social). 'Forge' works for open source software because hackers see 
themselves as working in the engineering tradition, which extends back to the 
ancient blacksmiths and further. The 'source forge' provides the heat (energy) 
and tools to collaboratively hammer new software into existence.

Is there another word that conjures similarly powerful images of the 
constructive tradition we see ourselves as working in? What is our 'forge' as 
advocates of social justice and sustainability? For us, Indymedia is our forge. 
Thus, solutionS.indymedia.org clearly explains to us what kind of solutions we 
are talking about, but does it communicate to the lay public that we want, nay 
*need* them to participate in our solutions-forging? Sadly I doubt it. So what 
might? The village? The town meeting? The salon? The workshop? The circle? The 
lab? Crucially, what might ordinary people intuitively see as a shared workspace 
which includes them?

Just to really throw a spanner in the forge, what about taking the approach of 
the Participatory Culture Foundation, and looking for a non-English word as the 
project name? They changed the named of their open source net tv from 'Democracy 
Player' to 'Miro. Maybe we could give some kudos to the incredible large-scale 
alternatives/ solutions experiments going on in South America by using a Spanish 
or Portuguese word? Perhaps this could be a way to synthesize the elements we 
like about both 'alternatives' and 'solutions', as well as overcoming our own 
anglocentrism? (How much of the discussions on this list have been translated 
from English? How much discussion space have we given to internationalization?)

Ultimately I don't get the feeling anyone is going to feel marginalized in the 
group whichever way we go. There will reach a point where the name is the only 
decision left to be made before the working test site goes live. At that point 
Mr Liberal is right, pick a name and let's go see who's working to change the 
world with alternative solutions!

He mihi mahana ki a koutou
Warm greetings to you all
Strypes

BTW I really like Alternity - as Amy says, combining alternatives and eternity 
(sustainability) - this would make a great name for something?