permaculture

[mIEKAL aND <dtv@mwt.net>]

This is a fascinating discussion, one that has happened endless times 
here at Dreamtime Village over the years & resulted in us not producing 
& hosting any further full length design courses.  Guessing that the 
average income of folks that come thru here is somewhere between 
$2000-$4000 a year it got to the point that no one from our scene could 
afford to attend, & you can't very well bring in nationally known 
teachers if everyone is on a scholarship or work exchange.  & our 
interest in producing courses was to bring the technology & skills into 
the rural area rather than produce a course where yuppies from the city 
who could shell out this amount would come from afar to attend the 
course.  But rather than condemn the existing system or the fact that 
select folks have chosen to make their living from teaching 
permaculture (which in itself seems like a noble but frustrating 
cause), maybe the wrong question is being asked.

What would it take to set up a free peer to peer open source system of 
permaculture training, knowledge base, & access to resources?

The electronic information component of this is well on its way to 
being established, especially because of the efforts of a number of 
people on this list.  But the information in itself is so much static 
unless it can be connected directly to real hands-on-training, 
education & skill-sharing.  Right now the only groups in the US that I 
know that are actively promoting free access to classes tend to be the 
various infoshop collectives that have been setup by young urban 
anarchists, often times in squatted spaces that are temporary at best, 
but nonetheless reaching out to young folks who have boundless energy & 
spirit for taking action.  I'd love to hear of others attempts at open 
access.

mIEKAL



On Friday, September 10, 2004, at 08:55 AM, Toby Hemenway wrote:

> On 9/9/04 5:16 PM, "GlobalCirclenet" <webmaster@globalcircle.net> 
> wrote:
>
> > I rather imagine that people
> > getting $700 a pop don't advertise all the free PC information out 
> > there.
> > But if they can rake in that kind of money, no concern to me, I can't
> > afford it.
>
>
> Actually, we hand out a multi-page list of websites and other free 
> resources
> at every course, along with about 40 other pages of info.
>
> I understand not being able to afford $700 or $1000. But is this 
> anonymous
> poster thick or just unable to read? I pointed out that our wages for 
> the
> course amount to about $10/hour, and that we offer work trades and 
> grants
> for those who cannot afford it. I guess some people just have an 
> unshakeable
> prejudice that anyone charging money for their labor and services is 
> an evil
> bastard, no matter what the facts are.
>
> Toby
> www.patternliteracy.com