The P2P Foundation is growing. Not only do more people believe in the theory of Michel Bauwens, but more people involve actively in the foundation. Last Monday we had a dinner with a group of the Dutch believers. We had a great dinner in the old center of Amsterdam. It was the first time meeting for the most people to meet in person. Coincidentally (or not?) we had dinner at a Thai restaurant.
Who are these Dutch members of the P2P Foundation there were present? First there was James Burke. Not from Dutch origin, but living in Amsterdam for quite some time he speaks almost fluent Dutch (he disagrees on that), and member of the P2P Foundation for a long time. The most of you will know who he is. Then we have Marijn van der Pas who works for a press agency as a journalist (ANP). Like James, he lives in Amsterdam. New on the team is Martien van Steenbergen. He is a strong evangelist for an Utopian world, and an ideal city. From his point of view it would be 5000km2 and would have space for about 75,000 people and some other characteristics. Martien took his wife and two daughters with him to the dinner. Then there was me, member of the foundation as of April 2006.
We had a great dinner, and it was a great first meeting. We got the chance to meet each other in person, and discuss subjects like why we are a member of the foundation, what our future plans are, what we do for a living, and the like. For a review (in Dutch) I refer to the blog of Martien. The plans are to have a next meet up in December, when Michel is in Amsterdam for a few days. To be continued!
Hi Bas, this is of course great news and music to my ears. Of course, I would rather de-personalize it (though I’m of course quite happy with my own work on that topic) and you make it sound like a belief. However, in some ways, as an advocacy project, it does rely on some type, not of belief, as it is based on open research procedures and always open for discussion, but on ‘faith’, i.e. on a profound conviction that if we set up our minds and efforts to our goals, we can achieve human progress and emancipation. In this sense, it certainly goes against the contemporary forms of cynicism that are so popular amongst academics,
Michel
I enjoyed the fact that Martien brought his whole family. Unexpected! He happily interrogated us and this led to an interesting discussion.
Belief is maybe somewhat strongly put, but we all find ourselves thinking in similar ways. And it seams that more people along the way think alike, albeit from different perspectives and backgrounds. That makes discussions more interesting.