Fwd: daffodil four (1 sept 01)

[Frederic Madre]

>X-Sender: softopia at pop3.demon.co.uk
>Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2001 23:59:10 +0100
>To: jcj at softopia.demon.co.uk
>From: john chris jones <jcj at softopia.demon.co.uk>
>Subject: daffodil four (1 sept 01)
>
>
>
>(length to scroll: about 1800 words  or 10  screenfulls)
>
>croeso! welcome!
>
>
>/////////////////////////
>
>d a f f o d i l   f o u r
>
>
>occasional news of softopia http://www.softopia.demon.co.uk
>
>an experiment in public writing
>
>
>september 2001
>
>
>
>
>////////////////
>
>c o n t e n t s
>
>
>1.  purpose (extended)
>
>
>2.  news of softopia during july and august 2001
>
>     2.1 new entries to the digital diary
>
>     2.2  other new links
>
>     2.3  Deon's review
>
>     2.4  web counters and such
>
>
>3.  bookmarks and favourites (as before)
>
>
>4.  subscribe/unsubscribe (as before)
>
>
>5.  conditions for republication (as before)
>
>
>
>///////////////////////////////////////
>
>1.  p u r p o s e   ( e x t e n d e d )
>
>
>Though  reluctant to accept fixed aims I admit that in sending this newsletter I have several (the fourth aim being new):
>
>
>1.1. to inform those who may like to know of changes to my website
>
>1.2. to celebrate and to enjoy the new freedom to write publicly on a website (without commercial, political or editorial limitations)
>
>1.3. to explore the possibility of a new culture appropriate to the presence of the internet and other 'soft technologies'
>
>1.4. to publish reviews of softopia by fictional and actual subscribers
>
>
>and so, having found words for these aims, I will try to live to them for a time and see what happens...
>
>
>
>what happened?
>
>six months later, surprised by the sixty or so entries to the digital diary, and by the variety and range of what gets into them, the writer looks round for precedents:
>
>'will it cohere?'
>asks the voice of Ezra Pound (re his lifework, the hundred or so Cantos)
>
>'only connect!'
>says the voice of E M Forster
>
>'no need to worry'
>says Deon, the spirit of old order and demonic goodness, whose review of softopia began yesterday... 'just trust the invisibles!'
>
>
>
>
>//////////////////////////////////////////////////////
>
>2.  n e w s   o f   s o f t o p i a
>
>d u r i n g   j u l y   a n d    a u g u s t   2 0 0 1
>
>
>
>softopia homepage: http://www.softopia.demon.co.uk
>
>
>
>most of the new items are in the
>
>d i g i t a l   d i a r y
>
>http://www.softopia.demon.co.uk/2.2/digital_diary_dates.html
>
>
>
>Here are the dates and titles of the entries that have appeared since daffodil three:
>
>
>The first four are late arrivals from my April backlog:
>
>
>7 april 01 what notes to write here, in public?
>
>9 april 01 visiting cave art by internet
>
>11 april 01 all things are equally important
>
>23 april 01 is christianity divisive?
>
>
>The others are grouped in fives because that is an optimal number for easy place-finding by eye (says the ergonomist and perpetual teacher!):
>
>
>1 july 01 it's as if I'd been invited to Italy
>
>2 july 01 the wind is confused
>
>3 july 01 one thing at a time
>
>4 july 01 the anniversary of my resignation
>
>5 july 01 the city is in a grey haze (but I'm not)...
>
>
>10 july 01 between the railway and the sky
>
>15 july 01 the old and the new
>
>16 july 01 within new limits
>
>17 july 01 education for modern life
>
>21 july 01 heaven earth and green parrot
>
>
>22 july 01 good examples
>
>23 july 01 kinetic art
>
>25 july 01 zero
>
>27 july 01 a wider existence?
>
>28 july 01 life as it is
>
>
>29 july 01 waiting for everyone (version 2)
>
>5 aug 01 'rectify the names'
>
>6 aug 01 these moments
>
>9 aug 01 'what religions are good for'
>
>11 aug 01 in the light of progress
>
>
>14 aug 01 new paragraph
>
>15 aug 01 despecialisation
>
>16 aug 01 living connectively
>
>17 aug 01 a city forest
>
>18 aug 01the future of nature
>
>
>19 aug 01 to live good lives BANG!
>
>20 aug 01 peace after disturbance
>
>21 aug 01 oak tree as camera
>
>28 aug 01 how to connect?
>
>
>
>
>2.2   o t h e r   n e w   l i n k s :
>
>
>
>i n   t h e   l i g h t   o f   n e w   m e d i a
>
>a link is to the digital diary entry of 2 june - in which I bring together the positive uses of new media that are described in 'the internet and everyone'.
>http://www.softopia.demon.co.uk/2.2/digital_diary_2jun01.html
>this piece, together with the dd next entry 'a connective manifesto', is my answer to the question 'what is softopia?'. it follows my annoyance or disappointment at the public neglect of ideas such as traffic automation. The various fictions on this website are my attempts to do something constructive about the absence, as yet, of public interest in conscious redesign of the whole mechanised dystopia that we inherit!
>
>
>r e v i e w s   ( o f   i & e )
>
>a provisional list of the reviews so far of 'the internet and everyone'. most of them are online reviews, only a few in print as yet.
>http://www.softopia.demon.co.uk/2.2/reviews.html
>soon I expect to add links to the texts of the online reviews
>
>
>i m p o r t a n c e
>
>a visual poem - and the origin and etymology of Deon
>http://www.softopia.demon.co.uk/2.2/importance.html
>appearing soon in an 'art coach' on the Piccaddily Line (an underground train in London) in place of advertisements
>
>
>w o r d s
>
>a visual poem against labelling (slightly changed)
>http://www.softopia.demon.co.uk/2.2/words.html
>also appearing in the 'art coach'
>
>
>u n c l e   e v a n ' s   p r e c i s
>
>of 'the internet and everyone'
>and a brief description of his life
>http://www.softopia.demon.co.uk/2.2/evan.html
>(with a small addition since the last issue)
>
>
>a   n e w   e p i g r a p h
>the quotation from Goethe is replaced by one from Laurence Lampert and his reinterpretation Leo Strauss's interpretation of Nietzsche as being in favour of a 'higher nature' of religion... sounds impossibly abstract but when I read it I feel 'this is it!'.
>
>
>
>2.3   d e o n ' s    r e v i e w   o f    s o f t o p i a
>
>Deon is the spirit of old order and demonic goodness
>he is trying to discover or invent a modern ethic
>http://www.softopia.demon.co.uk/2.2/deon.html
>his origin is at http://www.softopia.demon.co.uk/2.2/importance.html
>
>
>
>2.4   w e b   c o u n t e r s   a n d   s u c h
>
>I've installed a counter (from web-stat.com) for a trial period. Unfortunately it gives out cookies in order to gather statistics - my apologies for this. I trust these cookies are harmless.
>
>So far there have been 1 to 3 visitors a day (apart from myself testing digital diary entries etc). They have come from about a dozen countries - and most of them seem to arrive via my bibliography.
>
>I've just realised (thanks to Daniel Brozak) that, with the counter set on the topmost homepage, it may be missing visits directly to other pages. So I am now going to put a second counter on page 2.2 and perhaps a third one on the page called 'digital diary dates'. When the results arrive I will post them near to the counters.
>
>There are now just over 100 subscribers to daffodil. Half of these remain from the 100 or so I sent out initially to people I know. The other half are new subscribers, most of whom I have not met. Whenever possible I send each a note of welcome to which most reply warmly and sometimes at length. I like the way that email seems to provoke or permit more friendly communications than do formal letters. I hope to publish some of these responses when I get round to asking for their writer's permission.
>
>I continue to make it necessary for people who want to receive daffodil to follow the instructions below re 'subscribe' (it is free). However I can see that quite a number intend to subscribe but forget to do so, or assume that it will arrive unsolicited. I have as yet no automatic process to receive subscriptions as I prefer to reply to them myself.
>
>
>
>///////////////////////////////////////////////////
>
>3.  b o o k m a r k s   a n d   f a v o u r i t e s
>
>
>If you bookmark the softopia website please include the fixed homepage http://www.softopia.demon.co.uk
>so that you can navigate from there to any part of the website if the file hierarchy changes.
>
>If you bookmark other parts of the site please remember that their URL's may alter from day to day or week to week as I add new files and regroup some of them in folders. But I will keep the above URL of the homepage constant.
>
>
>
>///////////////////////////////////////////////
>
>4.  s u b s c r i b e  /  u n s u b s c r i b e
>
>
>If you wish to subscribe to daffodil please send me an email with the word 'subscribe' in the subject line (unless you have already done so).
>
>
>If, having subscribed, you want to stop receiving daffodils, please send me an email with the word 'unsubscribe' in the subject line (remembering if possible to inform me of the email address you had when you subscribed - not always an easy thing to discover - so keep a note of it now!).
>
>As yet I am dealing with subscriptions manually - not via an automatic program... please inform me of mistakes!
>
>
>
>//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
>
>5.  c o n d i t i o n s   f o r   r e p u b l i c a t i o n  :
>
>I am trying to respect both traditional copyright and the newer principle of 'copyleft' in this newsletter and website. Which leads me to ask you to observe the following conditions:
>
>You may transmit this text to anyone for any non-commercial purpose if you include the copyright line and this notice and if you respect the copyright of quotations.
>
>(c) 2001 john chris jones
>
>If you wish to reproduce any of this commercially please send me a copyright permission request.
>
>
>//////////////
>(diwedd - end)