We-magazine@picnic

hi, everybody!

www.we-magazine.net

We dedicated we to the empowerment of many given to us by the internet.

> we observes and leads the way into a partcipatory future. > we means emergent net culture. > we is positively disruptive. > we is an attitude. > we means sharing. > we means collaboration. > we believes in collective intelligence. > we means holistic and network thinking. > we is smart because of the network of “Yous” WE is more than you & I. > we means responsibility. > we doesn’t mean control. > we means a real change in power. > we doesn’t mean copyright but creative commons. > we is diversity and harmony. > we means partnership. > we connects people, ideas and thoughts around the globe. > we is authentic, humane, creative. > we believes in the freedom of speech and ideas. > we means openness and transparency. > we points to potential uses of social media. > we detects trends. > we reflects and discusses the experiences, related to social media. > we describes the transformative nature of social media in economy, society and culture. > we is open to authors around the globe. > we engages into the current and future developments driven by social media. > we embraces cultural diversity. > we reflects and discusses the experiences, related to social media. > we describes the transformative nature of social media in economy, society and culture. > we is open to authors around the globe.

we_manifesto – www.we-magazine.net

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 Questions & Answers for a better understanding of WE? > What is the idea behind WE? > Where did the inspiration come from? > What is the goal for WE? Who is the audience? Why a quarterly magazine? Why in english? The ”holy grail“ – Where does the money come from? > Are there any web publications from which WE drew inspiration? > Who are the competitors? > How will WE decide if this endeavour has been a success?

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_What is the idea behind WE?

We dedicated WE to the empowerment of many given to us by the Internet. We think that the rise of the Internet has changed and will change our idea of WE. WE in culture, WE in society, WE in business, WE in religion, WE in education ... in many, many fields. WE will be more important than ever before.

_Where did the inspiration come from?

I got my first idea about ‘we-magazine’ in February, , at the DIY Video Summit in Los Angeles which Henry Jenkins was also attending. He called his blog post on the Summit “From youtube to wetube”. During those two eventful days it gradually dawned on me what enormous power the Internet has for shaping our understanding of “we.” I realised what “we” are capable of: Moving and shaking in the age of the World Wide Web. A range of opportunities come into sight only matched in scale by the challenges they bring with them.

_What is the goal for WE?

We are convinced that the Internet has the power to democratize the world – or should I better say to make the world a better place! We have the ability to connect to each other, to hear each other and to listen to each other. All these little ”WEs“ can grow and become a bigger and more powerful WE – if we care! We never had this chance before! So we are really at a hinge of global history! But we are only at the begining of this process and we need all we can muster to manage safe passage. So we defined the goal of WE to provide our audience with examples, projects, ideas and cases which make the world a better place!

_Who is the audience?

Our audience lives mostly in the digital world. Its international and based all over the globe. WE focuses on those people who are using the internet as a ”natural tool“ and who already got a glue of its potential. Its potential in the way how we are working together, how we are communicating and collaborating, how we share, how we are getting heard, how we spread content we want to be published, how we innovate and create meaningful projects. No matter if they are working in NGOs, universities, for profit organization or if they are self-employed.

_ WE has reached into  countries in September 

_Why a quarterly magazine?

We simply doesn’t has the manpower and the money running a monthly magazine. A quarterly gives us enough time to find new projects, to speak to new people, reflect on the feedback we receive and gives us the freedom to let the idea grow more slowly. We regulary update our blog.

_Why in english?

All three of us are German. So why do we publish in english? If you want to be international you can’t publish in German! So in the first step we published in english. Our goal is definitely to have translations in spanish, chinese and arabic as well!

_The ”holy grail“ ∂ Where does the money come from?

We do believe that people are NOT willing to pay for content on the internet. Content for free is the overall motto. So we built our business model on advertising. The more the readers the higher the price. So we are using the viral effects the Internet gives us. We provide all the content as HTML for free plus we offer a free PDF download (with Vol. ). Only the print on demand version on lulu.com is for sale. Advertising is available in the PDF and in the on demand print version. There is no advertising on the web! We is a cross-media effort from the very outset. We think that this kind of approach comes closest to the we-idea and the spirit of the Internet. And we share our revenue with our authors! Meaning if WE makes money, the authors will make money. We don’t pay them for writing the article, we let them participate on the success.

_Are there any web publications from which WE drew inspiration?

There is one magazine – jpeg magazine in San Francisco – which drew my attention. Their business model is quite unique and their concept of user generated concept seems to work. jpeg magazine is a very good example that little companies can create value and revenue over the internet with a magazine – if you understand well enough its shallows.

_Who are the competitors?

Two years ago I was traveling with Marvin Minsky in Italy and Germany. I asked him for the motto of his live and he answered: ”Don’t compete! Don’t do anything anyone else can do!“ It took me a while to understand the dimension of his statement, but following the milestones in his live you definitely could see he was following his track: whenever he found somebody who was working in the same field as he – he switched! Doing something what somebody else could do – Minsky considered it as a waste of time! Having experienced this, I would say: WE don’t compete, WE simply does something nobody else can do. Only WE can! Yes WE can!

_How will WE decide if this endeavour has been a success?

Success can be measured in many ways – not only money wise, even though money is important. I would consider WE being successful if > our authors receive feedback for their articles > the magazine is linked all over the internet > the magazine is spread all over the internet > people read it > articles start a fruitful discourse e.g. in the comment section of our blog > people ask us how they can support WE WE simply becomes a WE!

Examples of WEs

Ethan Zuckerman

The World is Talking. We is Listening! Global Voices Online Photo by Joi Ito · http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/./deed.de

Well, I think the first thing we have to do is recognize that the conversation has to happen. I think one of the problems we have is a lot of the tools that we are building on the Internet are very good at similarity. So for instance, what has become very popular in recent years are sort of recommendation engines that try to find content based on other content that you’ve liked. But these engines, if you are not careful, end up giving you recommendations from the same group of people all the time. I think once you’ve recognized that one of the dangers of the Internet is that you keep hearing from similar people over and over and over again, then you can try to take steps to change who you are listening to and paying attention to. Projects like the one that I have been running for the last three years or so, Global Voices, try to give you access to voices that you unlikely hear. Most people in North America don’t hear many voices coming out of China. We hear a lot about China. But we don’t hear a lot of Chinese voices. So by taking people in China who are writing online, translating that content into English and putting in online, we are giving you an opportunity to hear some different voices. But there is a real problem here. Less and less it’s not a supply problem anymore, it’s a demand problem. Historically, content from people in other countries was in very short supply. You had to get it through television news. You had to wait for the local newspaper to publish it. Now we have more than a hundred million people publishing online on a daily basis. The question is: Do you pay attention to it? And it becomes a very personal challenge. Who do you want to be part of that ”We“ that you’re talking about? If you want ”We“ to be people who share the same sentiments as you, share the same background as you, the Internet makes that very easy right now. If you want that ”We“ to be broader, the Internet makes that possible but you have to take the effort to broaden the ”We“.

I think one of the interesting things that’s happening at this moment in time is that we have the ability to be part of many different tribes at the same time.

www.ethanzuckerman.com

Line Hadsbjerg

We care: Corporate Social Responsibilty

www.betterplace.org

Our growing, global interconnectedness via the internet is a great opportunity, both for corporations, their employees and the public. ”WE“ can make a difference. ”WE“ can change the world to the better. Understandably, corporate giving is deeply linked to communication. The cynics will say that CSR initiatives are nothing more than misleading presentations, like the pretty green flower logo outside BP petrol stations. Milton Friedman, grandfather of monetarism, and his famous ’s article in The New York Times Magazine, ”The Social Responsibility of Business is to increase Profits“, wrote that ‘the one and only social responsibility of business, is to increase profits for shareholders’.

We can help create a win-win-situation when it comes to Corporate Social Respondibility that really makes a difference.

www.betterplace.org

Stephen Downes

Ten Futures

Photo by moqub · http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/./deed.de

There will, of course, be a large-scale industry in the psychology of cyborgs. Can a person be a ship and not become insane? How do we keep such a person occupied? Several of the technologies outlined above – like holoselves, for example, will be crucial. Metaphor will become reality – and it will become a major ethical issue – and a human right – to know one’s actual situation.

The global mind will to a large degree be inscrutable.

Joichi Ito

You Don’t Have to Ask we for Permission – Creative Commons Photo by DNSF David Newman · http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/./deed.de

The way that copyright is used today is used to reserve all rights. So the typically undercopyright law if you scribble something on a piece of paper, you automatically have a copyright to that. But on the web, when you want to be very quick and you don’t want each person asking permission, what you need to do is to mark your work with the permissions you’re granting, which doesn’t have to be all permissions. So with Creative Commons there are certain licenses that don’t allow derivative works, some don’t allow commercial use, and so forth. But the idea is that you want to make it very clear what copyrights you have. The bigger part is that it’s better for society if you share because you’re creating a commons. Like educational resources, many people should share them and people should work together because it helps education globally. And so we are pushing educators not to use restrictive licenses but to share as much as possible.

The open Internet not only is an important business thing, I think it’s the pillar for democracy. Or I should better say the pillar for an open society in the st century.

http://joi.ito.com/

Jonathan Imme

we – DIGITAL_NATIVES

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Photo by Sim Sullen · http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/./deed.de

We Digital Natives thus expect to be given the opportunity and a platform to express our opinions and recommendations, not just by our teachers and professors, but also by our city councilors, by our religious communities, by our politicians, by our bosses and our team leaders. And, at the same time, we need to be assured that this dialog is being taken seriously. Then again, if these platforms and feedback channels are not granted us by the respective persons or institutions themselves, then we will make use of third-party platforms – or, where necessary, we will set up our own.

We digital natives expect to receive information and know-how at near-Google speeds in the workplace, both from our co-workers and from the company’s own information systems.

http://twitter.com/derjonathan

Contact:

whois verlag Faehrweg   Neckarhausen phone +     fax +     [email protected] www.we-magazine.net