Sunday, January 27, 2008

More Quaker Politics

I realized in my meeting with Gordon today, at Jim and Patty's for coffee and tea, that I don't need to disturb the peace among Quakers just because I think I'm some kind of futurist (and hey, so does The Oregonian -- with two articles in back issues, featuring me predicting "hypertext kiosks" in one, more global grid action in the other).

There's a whole spectrum to accommodate and if the goal is to be free of encumbering and unnecessary bling, then there should be a flavor of Quakerism that fits.

In a kind of Sims 2 cartoon, I think of our own Kathy Hyzy in the MMM library, talking about diversity among Friends. We treasure diversity, even as a relatively small liberal group, which makes us all that much more impressive. My Quakers on YouTube distillation, which I shared with Gordon by iPod, gives some sense of our multifaceted shape.

On the other hand, I think the AFSC, the action arm of Friends, should be more willing to embrace the future, in the name of staying effective, using the available tools. Lots of non-Qs in AFSC, by design, so making AFSC higher tech does not necessarily imply Qs are all on the same page, with regard to technology (lots of diversity, lots of experimental approaches -- our F&P not set in stone, even within just NPYM).

My thanks to Gordon, another geek, and others I've been in dialog with recently, for helping me get more clarity on my potential role. Also, having met with AFSC a few times recently, I'm not too worried. Staff was teaching me stuff about Facebook I didn't know, not vice versa. Where AFSC is concerned, I'm on the receiving end of a lot of good teachings and I kind of like it that way (humbling). Keep up the good work ya'll.

Speaking of The Oregonian: Opus quite funny today (high tech a concern), Dilbert too.