Mon 2010/Jul/26
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The bad news is that I am not attending GUADEC this year. I miss you, people! This is the first GUADEC in which I fail to be a fixture of the conference.
The good news is that I have a good reason for not attending. I will be at the inaugural event for the Talleres Libres de Artes y Tecnologías, or Free Workshops for Arts and Technologies.
There are several ideas behind the Free Workshops:
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Resurrect traditional techniques for agriculture, woodworking, metalworking, permaculture, textiles — all the arts and crafts that no one longer knows how to do because everyone buys everything pre-made.
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Publish that knowledge in online form, under a Creative Commons license.
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Create physical workshops with the tools and knowledge for those arts and technologies. You need a space to make stuff; we make it happen.
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Form an internal economy based on import-replacement. It's better if I use soap that my friend Joaquín makes, than to buy soap at the supermarket. I can make the wooden molds that he needs for his soap, or I can trade it for some vegetables that I grow.
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Work to improve the quality of life of each workshop's local community. Are people filling their house's water tank from a truck? Help them build a rainwater-harvesting system. Are people going to the supermarket to buy bread? Start a bakery with a hand-built oven.
Think of it as a 21st-century, networked, distributed, copyleft hippie/maker commune.
My starting contribution to the Free Workshops is knowledge in woodworking and building techniques, and space in our backyard orchard and woodworking shop.
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Syndicated 2010-07-26 15:12:00 from Federico Mena-Quintero - Activity Log