Notes milieu1 group

- Milieu
Milieu 1:  vocabulary + other agencies
how is creation organised
- What agreements, terms of conditions (words?) if whe think of authorship as instigation/mobilisation
- commitments? is there more agency? obligation? -- subordination? response-ability?
 to owe. engagement. guideline = proposition.

 Terminology is one problem

Organize & structure, to create a safe space for collective creation is another.
What kind of agreements do we need to be together / be on the same page ? 

Conditions of a milieu
we agree to participate to create a collaborative project and agree to keep it open or not

Do we need an exit mechanism? How to exit a safe space or community? What do you take with you?

-- can an agreement being set up by a group be legally binding? Can it replace the need of using a license?
Legal response: ...

Is a license a legal object?
EU Courts: In Europe we think of a license as a permission-contract. It only works if the user consents to a contract.
(This opposed to the US, where it is perceived as a one-way-license, decided upon by the author. The open source license is seen as a declaration of will. )
Example of a free software license, where you are not allowed to complain. This only works in a contract setup.
How do you consent with a contract/license? 
At the moment of buying an apple in a supermarket, you "sign" a contract. The supermarket gives consent to sell the apple.

Multiple energies are at stake in a situation: legal documents, normative mechanisms (situations that actively shape)
If we call it a license or contract, it has a legal weight/concequences.

    license / contract : would have a binding effect, the difference for contract being that it requires a mutual consent. The license is an expression of will by the author and does not require users' consent
    But other agreement about rules giverning collective practices would have a normative effect and would bind us (specially if we say it explicitly in the preamble)

consent (interesting to look at feminist interpretations of 'consent' ?)
mutual consent
commitment to the conditions / commit the time
different types of commitements more or less binding?

conditions: feels hostile. who dictates the conditions? how to decide on them? or change them, adjust them over time.
agreements: 
conversation
enforcement mechmism:
contract
license

Code of conduct: very normative how to behave. Imposed on you.
Pact:
Standards:
Protocols: How things are done here. 
methods
tools
memorandum of understanding: mutual understanding, what is the reach of this document? what about a temporal reach? more-than-individual reach? more-than-group reach?

Document that represent the group not individuals
Where can we attach the document to? Can we attach it to something outisde the individuals that make the group?

proposition: no enforcement, no obligation
guidelines: no enforcement, no obligation, "orientation guidelines"
recomendation: no enforcement mechanism, "we recommend that we all ...."

Is an agreement needed when doing collective work?
Very case sensitive. Sometimes a sub-group already shares a history an implicit agreements.

So many things are implicit. Collective writing of an "agreement" documents.

Step up / Step up 
How to deal with expectations of availability? Of different intensities of involvement?
Are these questions too much tied to thinkin about individuals?

Modularity and licensing? To adapt it for different situations. Which makes us think about the creative commons icons.
Is this a strategy to be able to introduce a "license" in moments where there is not a lot of time to discuss a collective "agreement"?
A licence or agreement as a menu wfrom which you could choose different ingridients and make your own 'meal' :) ?
But then the menu shlould be very very big... :/ and not static

Creative commons introduced some modularity but it simplified also the diverse landescape and made open licences more accesible and clearly visible to many more people.
GPL dominated the field of open source licenses, by design. (Because of the share-a-like.)

Do we stay within the frame of the license?
If we don't care about the future of a work, then we don't need to care of a license.

milieu
conditions of the milieu
how to inhabit the milieu
what is inhabiting the milieu?
How do you enter a mileu?

how to belong to a milieu?

milieu
habitat
ecosystem

"milieu" of the university
creating "milieu's" within self-organized collectives
milieu can relate to "class"
Milieu implies sustainability, it needs to be preserved, it needs to be cultivated. (Opposed to property, which can break). It is generative.

The example of the common field with sheep, needs to be taken care of to protect it from exhaustion.
A contrary example is open source software, where it's different, as it does exhaust the community when it is used a lot.

inhabitate a mileu means to consent in respect, preserve and generate, something that people could agree with?

XXX Concrete Example:
Relearn, Collective summerschool, teacher student roles are cjallanged. Based in free software: how do we want to do education? 
Hierarchy, Motivation for people to join to take over.

how to hand it over to somebody else?
protecting, fixing it.

Example of Feminist Pedagogy triggered invitations for presentations. A shared email was a tool. 
A representation question, who gets the opportunity to present the project.

Exit point:

Relearn has a fluffyness which is generative,

Rounding-up

Flexibility and modularity.
Document  or Conversation ?
Document as means

What are the ingredients of this conversation to have?
- should this conversation, agreements be optional, mandatory
- Degree of opneness, safeness, secrecy
- Entrance and exit mechanism, more-than-in-and-out, a more "porous" shape
- decide on the conditions/extent of use of the knowledge/practices generated
- safe space policies/but also allow for disagrements
- working conditions 
- antii racist policies
- mutual understanding checks (intentionally fluffy)
- space to be vulnerable
- you can have disagreemnets
- agree on  time comitment / availability
- who represents the collective in public appearances/ occasions....

Next time we want to do anecdotes!

References:
Michael Heller & Hanoch Dagan: Liberal Commons
If property is a liberal philosophyl creation, it is to protect the autonomy of  the individual subejct. So, it should be easy to exit for example, as it's better for the individual.

"Sarah Vanuxem, La propriété de la terre: Chose milieu"