themselves in more than one field. (See Appendix 5).
(WORC'N), a Boston-area group of democratic workplaces of which I am a part through
my job at Ownership Associates. Received feedback and encouragement.
activist and philosophy professor at the University of Connecticut. Received feedback
and engaged in discussion regarding open, wiki-style entries and choice of categories.
board members on Directory. Discussed ways of making Directory welcoming and
attracting people's attention to the Directory, Cooperative Life oversight capacity, ways
to view entries that would be more useful, and importance of the Announcement
function--in particular, got some more examples of what kinds of uses the announcement
function could be put to.
Fitzpatrick updated the team on changes since last time (new logo, new title--Cooperative
Directory instead of Coop Directory or Coopy, ability to make changes to entries,
moderator lists associated with directory entries, ability to log-in if you're making lots of
changes). Received feedback and suggestions for several cosmetic changes and a few
added features. Tasked with working with Lynn Benander to formulate categories for the
Announcements function, based on survey results. Next meeting will be 12/14. Target is
to have something ready to demonstrate to the membership at the online annual meeting
12/16.
purchasing and trade among cooperatives. Saw that networking is also popular. (See
Appendix 2.) Sent draft list of categories to Lynn Benander for review and feedback.
Also spoke with CDI staffperson about getting a usable database with all-important sector
information in time to use for presentation at 12/16 annual meeting.
showing the 10 closest entries, and mapping results of a search. This function is in testing
and refinement stage. It holds great promise of added value for Directory. The
Announcements function has been reconceptualized as having two key features: topic and
geographic scope. This means that announcers can target messages by topic and
geographic area (of any size), and browsers can find messages by topic and geographic
area. This concept needs to be developed further, but may provide a very different and
enhanced tool to the development of local economic networks.