GreenNet Australia is run by a group of volunteers and we have provided, so far, about 60 organisations with various free Internet services. We offer many grants to 'acm' groups in a wide
range of internet and related resources.
You
do not have to have a computer, or even access, to have your organisation in
touch with kin groups, resources and relevant information. With a personal
placement page and an email connection service, you can have instant local,
regional, national and worldwide communication.
People who work in with this group have been around in the field since
the birth of the internet in Australia.
One of the major internal and external criticisms of the 'acm', is
that we are disparate. This is not _necessarily_ a problem. We could be
autonomous groups purely grouping disparitly through preference, with good
cause! After all we are all different - and it takes different types to do
different things. But where we can or are working on the same things it
seems crazy to repeat 'the wheel' - where we are so small in number,
in need of more time, and where combining of efforts will give a far
reaching voice.
The obvious advantages of the Internet are it's
communication facilities, it's information resources and it's ability to group
minorities together over vast distance, perhaps not so obvious is how it can
hold space open for autonomy - as it's actions are based on choice. You
choose how you represent yourself, what you share, how you interact, where
you go and what you see. We can choose where we are one voice, and with geography as no barrier, get together easily to develop or protest issues. If top-down structure fits people to moulds,
internet space - like our database - allows and thrives on free choice - a place
for autonomous interaction where
no-one needs to dominate, a space where no-one can see alone, that can produce an
emergent system of it's own with every energy part of it's power.
So maybe disparity between groups, shows strength and
autonomy - and the opportunity to work together in a more cohesive manner is now possible on a larger scale.
By interacting this way we could drastically reduce
unnecessary time wasting 'niggle' sessions on what people/groups will and wont do together,
and at the same time increase our productivity, support each other more
where we can and choose, and expand awarness and education for ourselves
and the broader community. This hopefully makes the focus of this place what we
_CAN_ do together, not what we can't.
The details of this arm, at present, are being run out of 'various places', a place among other things where votunteer interaction brings it's wish fullfillment on an
educational and emotional level. People help out in in exchange for training
and fun, and come out self-employable and satisfied.
