Hi Sally and Arthur, Yes, congratulations on keeping the FW ship afloat during the last six years since the launch.
Futureworker subscribers are a varied and intelligent group and we've had a variety of views -- expressed with varying degrees of courtesy. Some express themselves carefully to try and work through to solutions; some, who already know the answers, confine themselves to the easy path of always criticising others and never putting up a case of their own because it might be criticised in turn; some have agendas that are quite different from the aims of this list; and some fall into the trap of labelling others with this emotive name or that to save themselves the bother of having to think. There's also another category of subscriber -- the lurkers. There's nothing wrong with lurking, of course. Maybe -- who knows? -- it's an education for some. Nevertheless, for those of us who write fairly regularly on FW, it's hard to know sometimes whether what one is writing is actually being read by lurkers, or whether it's vanishing into the ether. I know that at least one or two FWers simply delete a message whenever they see my name. But, to be honest, I do the same. Or, rather, I used to. We don't seem to have some of the single-issue subscribers, not really interested in employment, whom we had in the early days. I deeply value the views of several FW writers and, overall, this list has been quite an important part of my daily life for most of the last six years since you invited me. It gives me reason to think most days of the week. At the time I joined, I'd recently started "The Job Society" in England in order to create a pressure group for jobs. But that didn't work out. I had little support from the various politicians I'd got to know during previous years. Then, some years ago, I unsubscribed from FW list for about 18 months when I told myself to shut up talking about jobs and get on with creating a few for others in real life instead. Also, I wanted to try out the Internet as a medium for a business. Which is what I did. The business hasn't been a spectacular success in the sense that I'm now a millionnaire (which I'm not!) but, unlike 95% of dot-com businesses in the last couple of years, my firm has at least survived. I'm proud that five young people out of my team of eight colleagues are now earning a reasonable income in a central European ex-communist country (prosperous prior to WWII) which continues to spiral downwards in misery, corruption, drug-taking and AIDS among something like 25% of their young people in the cities. But I am increasingly delegating my work in that business and am retiring for the third time in my life. So, unless Sally and Arthur decide to stop FW list, or unless I'm told to go for making a nuisance of myself, I'll remain now and will hopefully continue to write most days of the week while I am drinking my first morning pot of tea. To those of you who think I'm an old reactionary -- hard cheese! You'll be one yourself when you're my age. Keith At 16:27 21/12/01 +0100, you wrote: >On December 20, 1994 we inaugurated the Futurework List by sending the >following message: > >"WELCOME TO FUTUREWORK > >Redesigning Work, Income Distribution and Education > >As the coordinators of the list, we want to welcome you and express the >hope that you will find the discussion here stimulating. We see this as a >list for addressing new realities from a problem-solving perspective, and >we look forward to your input. > >Basic changes are occurring in the nature of work in all industrialized >countries. Information technology has hastened the advent of the global >economic village. Jobs that workers at all skills levels in developed >countries once held are now done by smart machines and/or in low-wage >countries. > >Contemporary rhetoric proclaims the need for ever-escalating competition, >'leaner and meaner' ways of doing business, a totally 'flexible workforce. >jobless growth. What a large permanent reduction in the number of secure, >adequately-waged jobs might mean for communities, families and individuals >is not being adequately discussed, nor are the implications for income >distribution and education. Our objective is to involve you in re-designing >for the new realities rather than debating their existence. We hope that >this list will help to move these issues to a prominent place on public and >political agendas worldwide. > >FUTUREWORK is hosted by Communications for a Sustainable Future (CSF) >located at the University of Colorado at Boulder. FUTUREWORK is an >unmoderated and open list, so all messages posted to the list >([EMAIL PROTECTED]) will automatically be redistributed around >the world. Be sure to check that you wish your message to be widely read >before you send it and please try to limit each post to no more than 3 >screens. Should you wish to unsubscribe from FUTUREWORK, send the two-word >message: unsub futurework >to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >We look forward to receiving your suggestions and comments. Please do not >hesitate to contact either of us if you need help with the list. > >Sally Lerner Arthur Cordell >University of Waterloo Industry Canada >Waterloo, Ontario, Canada Ottawa, Ontario, Canada >[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]" > >NOTE: The info above is historical - no longer current except for Sally's >address. > >The next few days and weeks were immensely exciting, as the FW list began >to self-organize! Posts came flying in; people introduced themselves, >offered opinions, revved up conversations. (The CSF group was especially >helpful in those early days.) A variety of themes began to emerge on the >list (see below) and it seemed that identifiers would be needed to keep all >these threads straight (though free-spirited FWers never really took to the >identifier idea.) > >Between now and the end of the year, look for some vintage FW posts, as we >celebrate seven years of the Futurework experiment. Maybe we can re-kindle >some of those early debates! > >Best wishes to all FWers for a safe and happy holiday season. > >Futurework List - Emerging Themes, with Identifiers (Dec. 1994) > >FW: Futurework - general discussion, overview, new realities, period of >basic shifts, changes > >ACCTS: Accounting, e.g. social/env'l costs of actions >C: Competition, competitiveness >COMM: Community >CORP: Corporate activities, incl. transnat'l, multinat'l >ECONDEV: Economic development, e.g. local, regional >ED+T: Education, including job training >ENV: Environmental concerns, considerations, limitations >ETHICS: Ethical considerations, concerns >GCI/BI: Guaranteed basic/citizen's income via various programs >GRPS: Age, gender, race, immigrant, etc. aspects of FW >HIST: Historical questions, perspectives >INFML: Informal economy, incl. unpaid work, underground >INST: Institutional considerations, needed changes >IT: Information technologies, e.g. uses of, pos/neg impacts of >LFSTYL: Lifestyle aspects, e.g. live simply, less consumption >LINK: Linkages needed among various aspects of FW >PARTI: Participatory considerations, e.g.in politics, work >POL: Politics, power >POLAR: Polarization of skills, income, access to various goods >POLOPT: Policy options for dealing with FW realities >POV: Poverty, welfare system >PROD: Productivity >(RE)DISTR:(Re)distribution of income,wealth; economic justice >SOCMOV: Social movement(s) >TAX: Various ideas, e.g. bit tax, tax speculation, tax 'bads' >3rdW: "Third World" issues, aspects >UNEMPL: Unemployment, underemployment >UNION: Labor union aspects, issues, challenges >WKOWN: Worker ownership, co-ops, etc. >WKSHR: Work sharing, work week, overtime issues >WKCND: Working conditions > > > > > > > __________________________________________________________ �Writers used to write because they had something to say; now they write in order to discover if they have something to say.� John D. Barrow _________________________________________________ Keith Hudson, Bath, England; e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________
