I had an inspiring talk with Brian tonight. I think that it may have gotten me motivated to post more often. We will see how much of it sticks. To be completely honest I think I have oversold this blog to myself. When I sit down at the blank text box I am staring up like a little kid, immobilized by debilitating awe. I have so many wonderful ideas about what could be that there is a concept in my mind, so massive that I fear my posts will never do it justice. Sometimes I don’t even log in at all because a misplaced post would mar the image that I have.
The whole point of starting community pies was to see what developed, so no more excuses and no more judging myself. I have realized that my fantastical image of community pies is a bit overgrown. I love it, I am very excited to pursue this project, and it doesn’t have to be ground breaking in order to be worthy of my efforts. I realized that the real goal (initially at least) of community pies is to help me understand community. I want to understand different aspects of community. I want to see different versions of community. I want to grow my grasp on the essential elements of a community and how it can ultimately improve the way people live together.
While I haven’t posting lately, I have still had community pies on the brain. I recently updated my Operating System and I grabbed the newest version of Ubuntu. I forgot that Ubuntu has a pretty cool meaning. I pulled this off of their ‘about’ page.
ubuntu |oǒ’boǒntoō|
Ubuntu is an ancient African word meaning ‘humanity to others’. It also means ‘I am what I am because of who we all are’. The Ubuntu operating system brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the world of computers.
No wonder I fell in love with it. “Humanity to Others” sounds like a pretty essential element of community to me. I am beginning to realize that the Ubuntu team has had a more direct impact on me than I knew. Their philosophy, as well as the philosophies of many other open source projects, has reinforced the idea that we have a moral obligation to each other. I don’t mean for this to be some absolute manifesto, but I also don’t mean for it to be taken lightly and dismissed easily. Expect to see more on this later.
– Brandon







