Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: The Future of Cohousing-L mailing list

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

One of the things about Cohousing-L (C-L) (and other mailing lists and
online discussions) is that you get responses with points of view you
had not anticipated. Sort of "crowd sourcing of knowledge" to borrow a
current buzz word.

I did not anticipate the responses to my statement:
> I and a number of people feel strongly that Cohousing-L
> should continue to be independent of Coho/US.
( http://lists.cohousing.org/archives/cohousing-l/msg38371.html )

Let me hasten to add that I feel nothing adversarial between
C-L and Coho/US. I have long said as I did on the page
'History of Cohousing-L' http://l.cohousing.org/c-l-hist.htm :
> Cohousing-L is independent of but cooperates closely with
> The Cohousing Association of the United States (Coho/US)

I agree with Alice that C-L and Coho/US are both part of the
"the *community* of cohousing"  (tho I would have said
of the "cohousing movement" )

One off list response to me to this thread asked:
> Isn't this mailing list much older than the CoHousing Association?

Yes, C-L had been officially around for five years longer but ...

Neither sprang into being without a history. C-L and Coho/US have a
long and tangled relationship.

C-L started  Jan 1993 (software was set up Oct 1992).
Coho/US was formed at the Conference in 1997 but grew out of other
organizations and activities.

For a bit history of Coho/US see this in C-L archives:
"press release for new Coho Netwk"    24 Sep 1997
http://lists.cohousing.org/archives/cohousing-l/msg07222.html

One detail in it I did not remember:

> ...organization [activities] will include: a website
> (www.cohousing.org), a subscriber-only e-mail list serve (cohousing-l)

And then there is the cohousing.org domain and web site.
I registered the domain for cohousing-L to have a permanent email address.
in the name of the now defunct Twin Cities Cohousing-Network.
I still "own" cohousing.org and we share use of it. Coho/US
maintains www.cohousing.org and directory.cohousing.org and I maintain
a few small subdomains including fholson.cohousing.org.
Stuart Staniford, an early C-L participant, started the web site
www.cohousing.org.

Recently someone with Coho/US said something like 'our mailing list'
referring to C-L.  I let it slide.

I'm still pondering the future relationship of C-L and Coho/US.

I'd be reluctant to see C-L become "a wholely owned subsidiary" of
Coho/US but clearly it would be good to formalize our relationship. I
think the analogy of the ideal of editorial independence at newspapers
might be useful.  Tho maybe some association agreement (words I just
made up) but maybe they convey something.

Keep posting and come to the conference and the session on C-L -- if
you can a problem with the conference is that there are too many
useful sessions happening at the same time for one person to attend
them all. So get another person (or two) to come with you and devide
and conquer.

Fred

--
Fred H. Olson  Minneapolis,MN 55411  USA        (near north Mpls)
     Email:        fholson at cohousing.org      612-588-9532
My Link Pg: http://fholson.cohousing.org         My org:
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